The Sales Job

During a meeting I was asked an interesting question - 'What will you do if you are immediately posted in a completely new geography, in a domain that you did not understand and given a stiff target to achieve in a limited time period?'. The first thought that came to me mind was 'Why will you do that to me?'. Somehow, I blurted out an answer about reading industry magazines, becoming a part of an industry association, calling personal friends in the indutry and using sites like Linked In to make some initial contacts and taking it forward from there. I was not totally convinced; neither was the guy who asked me. He asked me to ponder a little more on the question and also asked me to talk to the Sales pros within the organisation.

Although I did followup on his advice, I was more intrigued with my question. I have afterall been working in a particular domain for some time now and have a fair understanding of the internal capabilities as well as the market. Why will they want to put me elsewhere when there were opportunities in my domain?

At about the same time I got a call from a close friend who has recently joined a financial products company in a sales capacity. He wanted to discuss his current challenges on prospecting and creating a mind share for his company and products in the market. As we discussed, it became clear that although both of us were working in entirely different businesses, the sales thought process was quite uniform. We had to perform a similar set of actions to achive our end goal of winning more customers and keeping them.

We spoke about how to go about the different Sales phases like Generating Interest, Creating and developing Relationships, Showcasing the solution or product, Obtaining a commitment, Delivering well and Creating repeat business. As we kept discussing and exchanging ideas, it became clear that the sales process was universal.

Although the MBA taught us this, most of us internally believed that domain knowledge preceded the Sales acumen or to put it another way, Sales acumen was necessary but not sufficient. Now I am all but convinced that a good sales guy with the right attitude and process can succeed whereever he is put, in whatever industry or geography. Do you think other wise?

"The Square Root of Three"

The following poem is a good example of creativity out of something as mundane as an irrational number. I am still not sure about the author, but based on the internet, he's an MIT math grad and currently a computer science teacher.

I fear that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath a vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun,
As 1.7321

Such is my reality, a sad irrationality
When hark! For what is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly come waltzing by,
Together now we multiply

To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
And with a wave of magic wands
Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

- by David Feinberg

Learnings from the PMO (Part II of II)

80/20 Rules! (Pun intended)

80/20 is the single most important rule of the business world. Period. Here are some 80/20 rules that have worked for me –
1. To structure and solve most business problems, 80/20 works best when used in tandem with Mckinsey’s MECE approach
2. Don’t let your boss know this, but at any managerial level, 80% of your work can be delegated. Doing this helps you elevate yourself to take up 80% of your boss’s activities. He will be wondering where you get all the time from and done correctly, your reportee will also be thankful for the opportunity. Underline ‘Done Correctly’.
3. One of the most famous 80/20 rules is that 20% of your clients contribute to 80% of your revenues. Unfortunately due to the way businesses are structured, less than 20% of top management time goes into nurturing these businesses. They tend to spend maximum time on developing new clients. Although this is necessary for sustained growth, this will eventually backfire unless actively planned for.

There are a hundred other examples out there; just put on your 80/20 hats and hunt for 80/20 opportunities in every business situation and you will come up with interesting insights. In the business world, surely 80/20 rulez!

Third Time Lucky

Developing and implementing new work processes and improving existing ones is an important PMO activity. What I did learn is that while implementing change, the first time you communicate the process, there is luke warm response probably because people feel it is not serious. The second time you communicate, there are usually more questions and concerns raised about the new process and people let you know what all can go wrong. But, usually the third time around there is more compliance and from the fourth iteration the process becomes the norm. So if you are establishing processes, be patient.

People vs Resources (Employee view vs Management view)

Many people argue that organizations should not view employees as mere resources; they must view them as individuals and manage them accordingly. I was one of the proponents of this theory; that is until I took up my current job. I understood that the resource view or the helicopter view is very good for analysis, work distribution, resource management and in general running the business. But equally important is the people (individual) view when it comes to talent recognition, reward mechanisms, appraisal etc. The idea and challenge for the management is to understand and maintain the People view at the employee level, make them feel valued and personal while at the same time maintain a resource view for business needs. This dichotomy is because in the 21st Century company, people are the resources albeit special resources. They have the physical attributes of any other type of economic resource but also an emotional aspect of being human. So go ahead ye managers, take those economic/ business decisions, be objective but also develop empathy, respect for people and connect.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Well, the title says it all. These days we have so many tools for communication at our disposal - the email, the SMS, the cell-phone and what not, yet there is so little of communication. Yes, we do talk a lot, email and message a lot but are we able to pass on an idea in our head with the same intensity and precision to another head? Lack of proper communication according to me is the root cause of all problems political and other wise in today’s organizations. So do I have the answer, well for starters -
Speak it out - Bring your thoughts in the open and do not be afraid of being ridiculed. But, try to remain neutral and objective. Use the logic of elevator pitches during all business conversations.
Write better – Pithy emails are good as long as they communicate properly. Many a time most of the information we want to communicate is left in our head.

Communication – This is the cardinal word for success in the corporate world!

Learnings from the PMO (Part I of II)

It’s been one year after the MBA and one year of managing a PMO. For the uninitiated, the PMO or the Program Management Office is the nodal agency in a business unit that enables the unit to function as a single business with a common vision and direction. Ok, I came up with that on the fly and much better definitions are available on the web. But as you read more about PMO implementations it becomes clear that every single PMO implementation is different and adjusted to suit the need of that business.

The aim of this post is albeit not to discuss about PMO implementations but to give a glimpse of what I have learned in this business function in the last one year. So here are my Top 5 business lessons learnt -

1. Out of sight, Out of mind
2. Know where vs Nowhere
3. 80/20 Rules! (Pun intended)
4. Third time lucky
5. People vs Resources (Employee view vs Management view)
0. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Out of sight, Out of mind

Work that gets done by managers can be usually classified into three buckets; transactional, tactical and strategic based on the impact of these actions. The transactional are the daily activities, the hygiene factors. It is quite noticeable if you are not acting on them. Tactical or actions with medium term impact take up the remaining time. Strategic issues take up the least share of their time. Unfortunately these activities are the ones that will bring in maximum impact in the longer term. This again is one of the top reasons for organizations to act late or worse not act on disruptive ideas. Thus there is a compelling reason for organizations to keep regular track items of strategic importance and actively manage their future at every level. Because out of sight is out of mind!

Know where vs Nowhere

Achievement is a comparison of where you are to where you wanted to be. So in order to say that you have achieved something, usually you measure against preset goals. In business as in life having preset goals helps especially if they look seemingly impossible today. Goals give motivation and a sense of purpose. Setting goals right though is an art as it has to seem difficult to reach but also seem to be in the realm of the possible. This is where the rules of the experienced thumbs play their part. The best managers/ leaders are those who have mastered this art and are able to carry their flock towards their audacious looking goals. So set your goals right and set sail and you may well reach the moon and beyond! Bon voyage.

To be continued...