In days gone by, whenever anyone mentioned “knowledge,” there would be an immediate assumption that they were going to discuss “product knowledge” That is understandable; even today, 80 percent of all training budgets are spent (invested?) on teaching sales teams all there is to know about the “product range.”

The reality is that product knowledge is no longer a differentiator. It is a very basic requirement of all successful frontline sales professionals. In other words, it’s part of the entrance exam — not a higher qualification.

Today, knowledge really is power, and that means …..

• Industry knowledge
• Sector knowledge
• Competitive knowledge
• Company knowledge
• Business knowledge (acumen)

As the discussions and debates continue regarding the future of professional selling, one fact is very clear: The relevance of a salesperson in the “buying process” — yes, we have moved away from the “sales process” — is becoming increasingly diminished. This is quite simply because buyers - who are more self-educated than ever - are entering the cycle so much later.

Do You Speak the Customer’s Language? 
The realization that buyers are already “super-busy and frazzled” — as illustrated by Jill Konrath in her last book SNAP Selling – is obvious. But it is not the main reason why buyers will not entertain us as readily as they once did.

The fact is they simply don’t need to deal with us. That’s why Konrath argues that our interactions with buyers need to be wholly relevant.

“Wholly relevant” means using our knowledge — our complete knowledge — to justify our right to be part of a customer’s purchasing process.

As we move up the food chain, our ability to use different “languages” becomes increasingly important. We have to become commercially “multi-lingual” because C-level executives, for example, rarely use the same language as members of an information technology team. And both groups naturally have different sets of buying criteria.

In the very near future, having the right attitude, a broad range of sales skills, and familiarity with internal consultative sales processes will not guarantee our survival. The key will be the extent of our “commercial bandwidth” — and that means our knowledge.

News: Despite horrendous technical challenges (Paris is a beautiful city but in terms of technology it can feel very “Third World” sometimes) I managed to present the first module of Sales Academy yesterday - ”Making the Transition from Sales Manager to Sales Leader” If you weren’t able to be there, a recording will be available later this week.

Tomorrow (Thursday) Anthony Iannarino is presenting Module 2 – “Winning New Business: How to Create Compelling, Differentiated Value” which I am very much looking forward to. It is live at 1:00 pm Eastern (6:00 pm GMT) and of course it is FREE to register HERE

Leadership was once about hard skills, such as planning, finance and business analysis. When command and control ruled the corporate world, the leaders were heroic rationalists who moved people around like pawns and fought like stags. When they spoke, the company employees jumped.

Now, if the gurus and experts are right, leadership is increasingly concerned with soft skills – teamwork, communication and motivation. The trouble is that for many executives, the soft skills remain the hardest to understand, let alone master. After all, hard skills have traditionally been the ones which enabled you to climb to the top of the corporate ladder.

The entire career system in some organizations is based on using hard functional skills to progress. But when executives reach the top of the organization many different skills are required. Corporate leaders may find that, although they can do the financial analysis and the strategic planning, they are poor at communicating ideas to employees or colleagues, or have little insight into how to motivate people. The modern Chief Executive requires an array of skills.

Some suggest that we expect too much of leaders. Indeed “renaissance” men and women are rare. Leadership, in a modern organization, is highly complex and it is increasingly difficult – sometimes impossible – to find all the necessary traits in a single person. Among the most crucial skills is the ability to capture your audience – you will be competing with lots of other people for their attention.

Leaders of the future will also have to be emotionally efficient. They will promote variation, rather than promoting people in their own likeness. They will encourage experimentation and enable people to learn from failure. They will build and develop people.

Is it too much to expect of one person? I think it probably is. In the future, we will see leadership groups, rather than individual leaders. This change in emphasis from individuals towards groups has been charted by the leadership guru Warren Bennis. His latest work “Organizing Genius” concentrates on famous ground-breaking groups, rather than individual leaders. It focuses, for example, on the achievements of Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Centre, the group behind the 1992 Clinton campaign, and the Manhattan Project which delivered the atomic bomb. “None of us is as smart as all of us” says Professor Bennis.

“The Lone Ranger is dead. Instead of the individual problem-solver, we have a new model for creative achievement. People like Steve Jobs or Walt Disney headed groups and found their own greatness in them.” Professor Bennis provides a blueprint for the new model leader. “He or she is a pragmatic dreamer, a person with an original but attainable vision. Inevitably, the leader has to invent a style that suits the group. The standard models, especially command and control, simply don’t work. The heads of groups have to act decisively, but never arbitrarily. They have to make decisions without limiting the perceived autonomy of the other participants. Devising an atmosphere, in which others can put a dent in the universe, is the leader’s creative act.”

However, the role of the new model leader is ridden with contradictions. Robert Sharrock, of YSC, psychologists who cater to senior business personnel, says: “Paradox and uncertainty are increasingly at the heart of leading organisations. A lot of leaders don’t like ambiguity, so they try to shape the environment to resolve the ambiguity. This might involve collecting more data or narrowing things down. These may not be the best things to do. The most effective leaders are flexible, responsive to new situations. If they are adept at hard skills, they surround themselves with people who are proficient with soft skills. They strike a balance.”

While flexibility is important in this new leadership model, it should not be interpreted as weakness. The two most lauded corporate chiefs of the past decade, Percy Barnevik, of Asea Brown Boveri, and Jack Welch, of General Electric, dismantled bureaucratic structures using both soft and hard skills. They coach and cajole, as well as command and control.

The “leader as coach” is yet another phrase more often seen in business books than in the real world. Acting as a coach to a colleague is not something that comes easily to many executives. It is increasingly common for executives to need mentoring. They need to talk through decisions and to think through the impact of their behavior on others in the organization.

In the macho era, support was for failures, but now there is a growing realization that leaders are human after all, and that leadership is as much a human art as a rational science.

Today’s leaders don’t follow rigid role models, but prefer to nurture their own leadership style. They do not do people’s jobs for them, or put their faith in developing a personality cult. They regard leadership as drawing people and disparate parts of the organization together in ways that makes individuals and the organization more effective.

I am passionate about transforming managers into leaders and that is the subject of my Top Sales Academy presentation today – Tuesday – at 1:00 pm (Eastern) 6:00 pm (B.S.T) You can register for free here …

Management, and particularly sales management, operates on and obtains its results from the staff that are managed. This clearly puts emphasis on the behavioral skills required to promote good human relations and helpful attitudes.

These skills are developed mainly from:
• An interest in individual needs and points of view
• Readiness to direct time and thought to analyzing attitudes
• A sense of justice or fair dealing
• Respect for the personality of others

To enable the staff that are managed to develop their abilities profitably for themselves and their company – good human relations alone are not enough. The manager has to define tasks, set proper objectives and maintain firm control. The basic skills required to do these things are:

Analytical Ability
Information coming to Sales Managers is of all kinds – from verifiable facts to rumor. It is important to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff, to see the relevance of items of information to one another and to draw conclusions which seem to fit the facts. Again, when a problem arises, it is necessary to analyze it to seek its causes (is it a symptom of something wrong elsewhere?) and establish its true importance.

Judgment
All their decisions express the judgment of the manager on a situation or a person. Having analyzed the available information, they must then judicially weigh the evidence in order to decide on the best course of action.
Few decisions can be wholly right or wrong. Most involve a balance of advantages and disadvantages – “Trade Offs”

Communication
What is clear to them must be made clear to other people also. They should ask themselves what every individual needs to know, and why, what reaction they expect from them and how they will know whether it has occurred. Good communication is not only a matter of clear thinking and expression. Since it takes place between at least two people, the communicator should be able to see their communication through the recipient’s eyes.

However, these characteristics must be underpinned by the core competencies:

The Attainment of Targets
• Always attaining targets by the time deadlines
• Knowing what to do and doing it when performance deviates from plan

Ability to Get Things Done
• A good objective setter, planner and above all controller
• Always finishing what they start

Co-Operation
• The ability to work with others in a friendly co-operative manner, inspiring others to co-operate

Initiative
• Having both the desire and the ability to ornate and develop constructive ideas
• A self-starter able to work with minimum brief

Dependability
• Really dependable, thorough and accurate in everything they undertake

The Selection of People
• Ability to meet manpower quotas and surround themselves with good people
• Skilled at getting the facts and making good judgments

Delegation
• Produce results through others, as opposed to trying to doing everything themselves – i.e. delegate wisely

Planning and Organizing
• Have written down objectives and plan in detail how those objectives will be attained
• Anticipate problems and plan how they will be overcome

Vision
• Ability to look well ahead, be a good forecaster and consider the future, its opportunities and problems that will have to be overcome

Creativity
• Able to generate ideas frequently and always be working out ways and means of ‘doing it better?’

‘Selling’ Company Policies
• Absolutely loyal under all conditions and a ‘Company Man/Woman’
• Always ‘sell’ rather than ‘tell’

Human Relations
• Possess the desire to develop from a “Boss” to a Leader
• Ensuring that people enjoy working for them and being a good team builder

Developing Subordinates
• Always practicing what they preach
• Using all opportunities to show their people the benefits to them of reading, analyzing, practicing and improving

Problem Solving
• A positive thinker
• Able to quickly pinpoint problems, come up with solutions and get the action going

Technical Knowledge
• Have an exceptional understanding of their specialty area and continually striving to improve that knowledge and keep up-to-date
• Management Knowledge – Have a sound knowledge of modern management techniques applicable to their field and continually developing themselves in this area

Knowledge of Policies
• Have a complete understanding of company policies and procedures

Common-Sense
• Have a highly mature approach to most situations, have and exercise a great deal of commonsense

Enthusiasm
• Possess a zest for the job and always seen to be enthusiastic
• Smile easily and have a positive, eager and responsive attitude

Ability to Work Under Pressure
• Be able to maintain enthusiasm and good attitudes when the going is tough

Summary
A sales manager may or may not be an outstanding salesperson. The important thing is that he/she should be a good manager. This is their individual and unique contribution to their company.

Want to become a great sales manager? Then I suggest you register for the Top Sales World Sales Academy

It is FREE and it kicks-off tomorrow

RAIN Group have just released an excellent new research report: What Sales Winners Do Differently. 

They studied over 700 B2B sales to determine why the buyer chose one seller over another. The findings challenge some long-held selling orthodoxies and, as well, stand largely in contrast to The Challenger Sale.  

Here are some of their key findings:

•  The sellers who win sell radically differently than the sellers that came in second place.
•  Contrary to popular opinion, both solution sales and relationships in selling are not dead. They’re not the whole story (and never were), but sellers who ignore these concepts put their success at great risk.
• Their research came to starkly different conclusions than the greatest trends in selling, including the Challenger Sale, popularized in places like Harvard Business Review.
• Sellers who win do 3 specific things very well, and these sellers don’t just win, but they maximize loyalty and referrals as well.
• A few key areas that don’t get much attention in selling (e.g. reduction of risk, collaboration with buyers, idea education) now demand more attention.

You can download a copy of the report HERE

On several occasions quite recently I have found myself discussing the work of Merrill and Reid with good chums and colleagues, so it seemed like a good topic for a post today, because it really (still) is fascinating stuff, and I first discovered it almost twenty years ago.

According to Merrill and Reid there are four personality types or social styles – Analyticals, Drivers, Expressives and Amiables – and all four have their own unique approach to business, their own language and thought processes etc. As a consequence, the very best sales professionals have become adept at recognizing which personality they are dealing with and adapt their approach and communication style accordingly.

In every boardroom, you will always find three of the four personality types, occasionally, all four: I have discovered over the years which personality is likely to fill which position on the board but more on that later.

The Driver:

Let’s begin by looking at the characteristics of the Driver: Drivers are action and goal oriented, need to see results and have a quick reaction time. They are decisive, independent, disciplined, practical and efficient. They typically use facts and data, speak and act quickly, lean forward, point and make direct eye contact. Their body posture is often rigid and they have controlled facial expressions.

They rarely want to waste time on personal talk or preliminaries and can be perceived by other styles as dominating or harsh and severe in pursuit of a goal. They are comfortable in positions of power and control and they have businesslike offices with certificates and commendations on the wall. In times of stress, drivers may become autocratic.

The Analytical:

Analyticals are concerned with being organized, having all the facts and being careful before taking action. Their need is to be accurate, to be right. precise, orderly, methodical and conform to standard operating procedures, organisational rules and historical ways of doing things. They typically have a slow reaction time and work more slowly and carefully than Drivers. They are perceived as serious, industrious, persistent, and exacting.

Usually, they are task oriented, use facts and data, and tend to speak slowly. lean back and use their hands frequently. They do not make direct eye contact and control their facial expressions. Others may see them as stuffy, indecisive, critical, picky and moralistic. They are comfortable in positions in which they can check facts and figures and be sure they are right. They have neat, well organized offices and in times of stress, Analyticals tend to avoid conflict.

The Expressive:

Expressives enjoy involvement, excitement, and interpersonal action. They are sociable, stimulating, enthusiastic and are good at involving and motivating others. They are also ideas oriented. have little concern for routine, are future oriented and usually they have a quick reaction time. They need to be accepted by others, tend to be spontaneous, outgoing, energetic, friendly and focused on people rather than on tasks. Typically, they use opinions and stories rather than facts and data. They speak and act quickly; vary vocal inflection, lean forward, point and make direct eye contact.

They use their hands when talking; have a relaxed body posture and an animated expression. Their feelings often show in their faces and they are perceived by others as excitable, impulsive, undisciplined, dramatic, manipulative, ambitious, overly reactive and egotistical. They usually have disorganized offices and may have leisure equipment like golf clubs or tennis racquets. Under stressful conditions, Expressives tend to resort to personal attack.

And Finally – The Amiable:

Amiables need co-operation, personal security and acceptance. They are uncomfortable with and will avoid conflict at all costs. They value personal relationships, helping others and being liked. Some Amiables will sacrifice their own desires to win approval from others. They prefer to work with other people in a team effort, rather than individually and they have an unhurried reaction time and little concern with effecting change. Typically, they are friendly, supportive, respectful, willing, dependable and agreeable. They are also people-oriented.

They use opinions rather than facts and data, speak slowly and softly, use more vocal inflection than Drivers or Analyticals. They lean back while talking and do not make direct eye contact; they also have a casual posture and an animated expression. They are perceived by other styles as conforming, unsure, pliable, dependent and awkward. They have homely offices – family photographs, plants etc. An Amiable’s reaction to stress is to comply with others.

Most people’s first reaction after reading the four profiles is to believe that they fit into more than one category and this is absolutely right. However, everyone has a dominant style and no-one should believe that they fit into more than two because they don’t. Let me explain why:

The Social Styles Model

Note where each style is placed, because this is important. The people, with whom you probably find it most difficult to relate to naturally, are your diagonal opposites on the matrix. So you do need to study the characteristics of your diagonally opposite Social Style.

Now, what I can share with you is that the majority of professional salespeople are Expressives; so clearly, they are going to find it most difficult to relate to and communicate with Analyticals. That is a challenge in itself, because there will always be at least one Analytical within the formal DMU!

What is even more interesting is that Top 5% achievers (yes, a favorite term I know) are Drivers! So you see, they have no difficulty getting onto the same wavelength as Analyticals, because they are side by side and of course they have total synergy with other Drivers, plus, they relate well to Expressives. But, they have little in common with Amiables.

Why is that so significant? Well quite simply, the Social Style that you are least likely to find in a boardroom is…….. yes, it’s an Amiable.

So, which Social Style do the various residents of the boardroom typically have?

Managing Directors are typically Drivers, as you might expect.

Finance Directors are usually Analyticals

Sales Directors are nearly always Expressives

Marketing Directors are also Expressives

Technical Directors are almost always Analyticals

And finally, in sales …..

Level 3, Top 5% achievers are normally Drivers

Level 2, Sales professionals are typically Expressives

Level 1, Emerging salesmen and women are almost always Amiables

It is of course dangerous to generalize and there will always be exceptions, however based on my experience, I have very rarely been mistaken using this concept of personality identification.

So Much News: Where to begin? Well first up, two excellent new interviews: Gerhard Gschwandtner joins me to discuss his aspirations and objectives for the upcoming Sales 2.0 Conference in London, where I will be speaking so I do hope if you are UK based you will come along. The second interview is with Anthony Iannarino, and we are chatting about his forthcoming Top Sales Academy presentation “Winning New Business: How to Create Compelling Differentiated Value”

Then yesterday we announced last week’s Top Sales Blog Post – congratulations to Art Sobczak for the superb “Voice Mail: Enough of the Crap Already. Here’s the REAL Story” Plus we announced this week’s Top 10 Posts

Later today you will discover a whole host of new management resources posted in the Top Sales Management section

So many compliments coming in about this month’s Top Sales Magazine - particularly for the interview with Dan Pink. If you still haven’t downloaded your copy, it is FREE you know, and you can subscribe HERE - you will then regularly recive the latest edition 

This month’s bumper magazine is now published and it is bigger than ever. Here are some snippets ….

Moments of Truth – A conversation with Daniel Pink by Linda Richardson

Trust flows from one person to another. Can customers trust salespeople? Can salespeople trust customers? Can salespeople trust their sales manager? … And so on. Trust has never been harder to earn and never more critical to mobilizing customers to make a change.

Trust doesn’t stand alone but it can often overrule analytics.

Do You Know What Your Salespeople are Saying? By Barbara Giamanco

Today’s sales people have a variety of communication channels available to them to reach prospects. Email, phone, social networks, webinars and video presentations are just a few of them. As a result, how your sales people represent your company and themselves matters more than ever before.

The Three Core Principles of Sales Process Engineering by Todd Youngblood

There are countless ideas, principles, facts and nuances that alone and in combination contribute to a truly outstanding performance in sales or sales management. We read the books and articles, listen to the speeches and lectures and learn from our own experiences and mistakes.

JF Uncut: What Makes a Successful Sales Team? By Jonathan Farrington

I am often asked just what it is that makes a highly successful and effective sales team – what differentiates them from an average one?

3 Tips for Conversations That Win Sales and Build Relationships by Nancy Bleeke

Are conversations with buyers necessary anymore? Are conversations really necessary to win sales? After all, with all the investment in technology and social media strategy, buyers should be beating down our doors for our products and services, right?

Is it an Obstacle or an Opportunity? By Robert Terson

Things happen in life; we call them events. You can line up ten different people and ask for their take on a particular event, and you’re going to get ten different reactions, which proves that Shakespeare was right when he said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Top Sales Blog Post of April 2013: 3 Ways To Reach New Prospects Using Your LinkedIn Connections by Jill Konrath

Top Sales Article April 2013: Is Training Your Sales Team a Waste of Time and Money? Quite Possibly by Joanne Black

We also review Jeffrey Gitomer’s new book and highlight two conferences coming up in London.

If you are already registered you will have received your copy, if not you can sign-up for FREE here 

I have read extensively on the lives, characteristics and leadership styles of all the great leaders, including Alexander the Great, Montgomery, Elizabeth 1st, Churchill, Napoleon, Ghandi, Mandella, Luther-King et al (the list is pretty extensive). However, the one that earns my greatest respect and the one with whom I feel the greatest affinity is Shackleton, because I have learned so much from his style of leadership – characteristics that I have endeavoured to incorporate within my own management style.

Sir Ernest Shackleton has been called “the greatest leader that ever came on God’s earth bar none” for saving the lives of twenty-seven men stranded with him on an Antarctic ice floe for almost two years.

From 1914 to 1916, Shackleton and his men survived the wreck of their ship Endurance in the crushing Antarctic ice, stranded twelve hundred miles from civilization, with no means of communication and no hope of rescue. The temperatures were so low the men could hear the ice freeze. They subsisted on a diet of penguins, seals and ultimately… dogs.

When the ice began to break up, Shackleton set out to save them all on a heroic eight-hundred mile trip across the frigid South Atlantic – in little more than a rowboat.

Unlike most of the polar expeditions, every man survived – not only in good health, but also in good spirits – all due to the leadership skills of Shackleton.

So What Are The Leadership Lessons We Can Learn?

Here are just a few that I have worked hard to adopt: 

• Cultivate a sense of compassion and responsibility for others. As a leader, you have a bigger impact on the lives of those under you than you can imagine.
• Once a career decision has been made, commit to stick it out through the tough learning period. 
• Play your part in creating an upbeat environment – a positive and vibrant workplace is important to productivity. 
• Broaden your cultural and social horizon beyond your normal experiences. Learning to see life from different perspectives will give you greater flexibility when it comes to problem solving at work. 
• We live in a rapidly changing world, so be willing to venture in new directions to seize new opportunities and learn new skills. 
• Find ways in which to turn setbacks and failures to your advantage. This represents a good time to step forward on your own. 
• Be bold in vision and careful in planning. Dare to try something new, but be meticulous with your proposal so that your ideas have a good chance of succeeding. 
• Learn from your mistakes – yours and those made by others. Sometimes the best teachers are the worst bosses. 
• Never insist on achieving a goal or objective at any cost. It must be achieved at a reasonable expense, without undue hardship on your staff. 
• Don’t be drawn into public disputes with rivals – better to engage in respectful competition. Remember, you may need their co-operation someday (Due to my crusading spirit and refusal to lower my standards of what is fair and right, this is the one that I have had the most difficulty with!).

 If you are a genuine leader, you will have identified closely with all of these principles. 

If you are a follower, you will be considering how your leader would stand up to such a test?

News: Just in case you missed yesterday’s announcement, the 2013 Top Sales Academy is now FREE to attend: So that is four levels – Sales Management/Internal Sales/External Sales/Consultative Sales – all made up of 10 modules, running over five weeks each level, delivered by the most talented and experienced top sales experts on the planet  

Why is it now free? Because we have secured sufficient sponsorship to pay for the management costs. This was never intended to be a profit-making venture. Rather it is a significant gesture by 24 committed individuals – all at the top of their game – who are determined to give something back to the sales community, which in terms of the quality of sales skills, is in sharp decline.

The first level - Sales Management – kicks-off next week, and you can register on this page from tomorrow (at the moment, the Register button still takes you to a payment page)

I do hope you are going to take advantage of this extraordinary offer, and I look forward to welcoming you …

There is a saying which has been around for as long as I can remember – and that is a pretty long time – “People buy people first”

What that essentially means of course is before buyers thought about your solution, they needed to be sold on you personally.

So has that all changed now?

Well, yes and no.

Recently I suggested that “Unless you are selling commodities, when they first encounter you, buyers really don’t care about you, your company or your products. They care even less about your past successes, your awards or your client base. They only care about what you, your company and your products can do for THEM!” And I firmly believe this to be the case.

What has happened/is happening is that selling has become de-personalized.

As buyers enter the buying/selling cycle much further up the chain, they already know everything about your products/solutions/company. As a consequence sales success today demands a radical shift from the ‘peddler’ mentality of merely demonstrating products and expanding on their features. It requires treating the customer as a participant. More often than not, a ‘flashy’ sales presentation alone alienates, rather than persuades.

Outstanding sales results today depend on:

• The ability to think from the customer’s point of view

• Understanding the customer’s agenda, buying cycle and best interests

• Beyond a superficial reading of immediate customer needs, salespeople must gain a deeper understanding of both the buyer’s long-term goals and the overall business climate

• Today, the salesperson who clings to the product orientation of a decade ago can expect to become extinct within five years.

• As client companies branch into new markets and unfamiliar territories, they are demanding unique, flexible solutions from their vendors – customized to support specific goals

• Another myth which can be exploded is that customers value flexibility: In fact being too flexible (nice!) can undermine the sales relationship.

Now, the best salespeople have become “facilitators” They understand that unless they are bringing something unique to the table, they have no value. However, in most industries, differentiation is becoming far harder to prove – the playing fields are now very level in terms of price/performance/support etc.

So why are the top 10% of sales professionals going to survive and thrive? What do they do/have that differentiates them? In a word, “Knowledge”

They understand that personality is no longer relevant at the front-end of the sales cycle, but it is their superior knowledge of their industry/sector/company/products/self.

They have commercial acumen. They can read and interpret financial balance sheets.

One of the first questions they ask is “So, please tell me what your short/medium and long-term commercial objectives are” and they then quickly establish if their solutions can help the prospect achieve any of those objectives.

They have a reasonable intellectual capacity: For example, they understand what is happening with the economy, and how/why it is affecting their industry – this in turn helps them to see their prospect’s challenges through their prospect’s eyes.

So yes, people do still buy people first, but the rules of engagement have changed for ever!

What effect does this have on “relationship selling?” It means that you have to sell first – prove yourself first – before you can hope to develop a relationship.

Leading with the notion that you can build any sort of relationship from the outset is hopelessly out of touch – but that is precisely what around 90% of front-line sales professionals are still trying to do.

But be assured “relationship selling” is alive and well, and reports of its death have been wildy exaggerated.

News: 

If you are responsible for managing sales people, and you have not signed up for Wednesday’s TSW Sales Academy preview session, it can only be for one of three reasons:

a) You didn’t know about it – well you do now!

b) You are already committed, so you cannot make it – no problem, sign up and we’ll send you a recording

c) You already know everything there is to know about succeeding in a frontline sales management role, so it will be a complete waste of your time – well I have been managing salespeople for forty years, and I feel certain that I still have so much to learn, so I am guessing you do too.

Do please book your seat here and I look forward to welcoming you to this very unique event.

PS: It was our original intent to charge $99 for the entire level of 10 modules – not any more. We have secured adequate sponsorship so the Academy is now completely FREE

The key to managing well and being successful in business is an ability to communicate with other people, and without speaking a second language, you may find yourself severely restricted when trying to do this.

This article looks at why bilingualism is so important in management, and how you can improve your language skills. 

The importance of speaking a second language

As well as having a new skill to put on your CV, and improving your IQ by training your brain to do something new, learning a second language is important for many reasons.

If you are leading a team of multicultural people, you need to be able to communicate what you want effectively. By learning another popular language spoken across the globe, you will increase your chances of your team understanding you better. This means mistakes will be avoided and goals will be better understood.

By building a relationship through a new language you will also create better rapport in your working environment, creating solid friendships with those you trust to work with you.

The importance of language in business

Bilingualism is particularly important in business. For most people business is a global, not just a local, enterprise, and to be successful internationally, you need to be able to communicate well with the people you are pitching to and dealing with.

It shows respect to the person you are speaking to if you make the effort to converse in their language, instead of assuming they will speak English. Having cultural empathy is one of the top attributes among all the critical soft skills which make a great global leader, and you will be frustrated if you realise that you have lost out on a fantastic business opportunity because you could not communicate in different language.

Learning a second language is also proven to train the brain in ways which are beneficial to your management skills. It targets the brain’s executive function – a system that is in charge of the processes we use for planning, solving problems and performing mentally-demanding tasks.

These processes help us to stay focussed, to multi-task and to look to the future – all important attributes when managing a team.

How to learn a new language

There are many ways to learn a new language. You could take an internet course or pick up a language CD to listen to in your free time. You could take up a part-time or evening course which will fit in around your working schedule. But one of the most successful ways to learn a language is to learn abroad and immerse yourself in that culture.

For example, companies such as ESL Schools run sumer camps in a range of countries across Europe, designed to provide you with an intensive language-learning experience.m

ESL’s summer camps in Switzerland and other destinations across Europe also give you the advantage of being surrounded by others keen on learning the same language as you, which gives you great opportunities to practise outside school hours, which you wouldn’t get by doing an evening class in the UK.

The benefits of learning abroad

There are many reasons why learning abroad is one of the most successful ways to become bilingual. As we have already touched on, you are surrounded by other people speaking that language, forcing you to try out your conversational skills and giving you plenty of opportunity to practise the language.

You won’t just be learning bits and pieces here and there – you will be studying in an intensive way, learning not only the language, but the cultural practices and history behind the country you are studying in. In addition, you will have the chance to travel and open your mind to new experiences.

By studying abroad, you will gain a deep understanding of another country, giving you a much less biased perspective towards different cultures, and making you more respectful when conversing and dealing with people of other nationalities.

Learning another language is always a useful and sought-after skill, but it is particularly important in business, when you are managing and liaising with people of all different cultural backgrounds. By taking an intensive language course abroad you can greatly enhance your language-learning skills and increase your chances of becoming bilingual.

During one of my senior management coaching sessions last week, I posed the question: “So just what is it that makes a company successful?”

I had the group whiteboard the exercise and brain-storm around it with some interesting results. For example:

Unsurprisingly, the finance orientated managers talked about healthy cash flow; strong financial foundations; low debtor days; controlled stock levels and robust management reporting systems.

On the other hand, sales and marketing people highlighted strong customer relationships; reliable products; good people who were fully developed and understood their place in the grand scheme of things. And so on …

All, however, highlighted strong leadership as being the most obvious commonality when identifying consistently successful companies – and of course, they are right.

Success permeates downwards and whatever happens in the boardroom affects every single employee: As leaders we have to accept the huge responsibility that we have for our people – they have given us their trust; their loyalty; their commitment.

I believe that there are in fact five main drivers that determine our success, but first let’s consider some other fundamental facts:

Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.

The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organization are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.

The world’s leading organizations continuously seek to improve their performance. There may be unlimited potential for achieving accelerated improvement but if this potential is not being realised, good change agents must line up and mobilise all the forces (or drivers) for improvement.

So what are the five main drivers for improvement in organizations? They are quite simply:

• Strategy

• Lean operations

• Balanced culture

• Customer responsiveness

• Leadership

Strategy sets direction, and gives focus to improvement. It must however be deployed throughout the organization to be effective.

Processes need to be mapped and analyzed in a methodical way; projects must be managed; problem symptoms traced to root causes; data must be collected before decisions are taken; trends in customer preferences detached and fed back; improvement activity of any kind reported on and coordinated; improvement action measured. Just about everything should be done to a discipline.

A balanced culture means effective, creative management of people. Customers are served by people; processes are managed by people. Only people can deliver quality improvement. For them to work well they must be empowered, given direction, measured, and reviewed and success recognised.

Customer responsiveness keeps the organization focused on customer needs, reactions and changing requirements.

Finally, leadership ensures that everyone is enthused and supported to work on the strategy, improve processes, served customers and active team players.

How do your leaders shape up?

News: There is an excellent brand new sales tip today over at Top Sales World - “Success Comes Down to Great Sales Discovery” by Michael Nick and there is also a very interesting new article from Dave Kurlan – “10 Kurlan Sales Competencies That Are Key to Building a Sales Culture”

This week’s featured Top Sales Book is “People Buy You” by Jeb Blount and I provide the latest white paper -“How to Manage Your Key Accounts More Effectively”