Personnel Development in Sales: Further Education with the Triple-A-Matrix

Whether you call it the point of sales or, more poetically, the place of truth: the success of a company is decided in sales. If sales falter, this does not necessarily have to be due to sales. Find out here in which cases which Measures help.

Good companies sell even in bad times

Of course there are successful ones and less strong ones Seller and of course there are changing market conditions. But quite Honestly: Functioning companies sell an above-average number of products and services, even in bad times. But if the warehouses are full despite innovative products and highly qualified service employees or Adviser idly waiting for orders, many companies react reflexively. You start a training marathon for sales and redefine your reporting system in such a way that the salespeople hardly have any time left to... customers to drive, to talk to him on the phone or to calculate promising offers.

The result of these measures is not always sobering, but it is also not so rare. If you do the immense Costs taken into account, which are incurred for qualified training of a sales armada, the question rightly arises as to the real reasons for which success falls by the wayside. Sure, the picture of one Company as a harmonious and finely tuned organism may be worn out. But this one metaphor , fast clearthat it can become ill anywhere in the body if its viability is endangered. When an organ fails or behind its Performance remains, not only this organ is affected, but the whole body.

Willing, able, may

These three simple-sounding words represent three extremely important elements of operational efficiency and entrepreneurship Expertise:

• Want = willingness to perform
• Can = performance capability
• May be possible

The “wanting” lies entirely in the Hand of the employees who have to be highly motivated, highly committed and goal-oriented on the ball. Of course, the employer must ensure that the Motivation is not artificially impaired.

The “may” lies within the sphere of influence of the Executives and the company itself, for example in the form of job descriptions and organizational charts. Sales managers often set up high hierarchical hurdles and apply thumbscrews where a free hand is better Wahl were. When companies curtail the sales-active time through unnecessary bureaucracy - for example through oversized reporting or superfluous Meetings in the head office, which requires longer journeys for the field staff, they should not be surprised that more is written and discussed instead of being sold.

Responsibility for “ability” is shared mandatory both parties. For example, every employee must meet the requirements of his position and always be able to learn, competently and be reliable. Among other things, the manager must recognize these competencies, the right ones Tasks to control and an adequate Further Training to organize. The proportion of management tasks at the expense of action increases with each step up the career ladder.

Chefs do not work. They lead

Bosses who "do" too much and lead too little do not only perform their management tasks inadequately. They also demotivate their teams because they block and patronize themselves feel. Also, many executives allow themselves to be easy into action by allowing employees to delegate tasks back to them. If someone can't do something, you just go through it yourself instead of the ignorant Further Training to lead to the light. Who in the Guide joins or ranks should always take to heart that the proportions of technical and methodological competence on the one hand and social and personal competence on the other are changing. Measured in terms of time spent, managers are more socially and personally at work, while their employees act more professionally and implement methodical things. However, “more” and “more” do not mean exclusively here.

So if there is a traffic jam in sales, the first step is not just a precise analysis, but also an open acknowledgment of where the real bottleneck is. Today, experienced salespeople are so involved to the brim Reset filled that her fifth final training session is simply no longer of any use. Anyone who still believes that it is down to ability and wants to select the most suitable further training must know their people very well and should train individually rather than across the board. But as already indicated: Far more rarely it is due to the assets the employee than one would expect. Often, either wanting to do so is frustrated or being allowed to do so is unnecessarily restricted. Only a clear determination of position allows the best and most promising measures to be found unerringly.

The Triple-A Matrix

Up to this point, the terms "want, ability and must" are still quite empty. They have to be filled with life to get from theory to practice. However, this “life” does not simply mean to provide a description of the content that can hardly or only vaguely be qualified and quantified. So that the terms really come to life and shape the operational processes, a matrix is ​​helpful, which allows the greatest possible objectivity in the assessment. The three “A” of the triple A matrix stand for

• Wishing = ambition
• Ability = Ability
• May be = Accountability

What sounds quite simple at first glance is in reality a very complex mixture of managerial and employee tasks and the associated instruments and tools Methods. The best practice, i.e. the state where everything runs perfectly, is accompanied by tools that ideally help to maintain this state or to restore it in the case of reduced performance. A systematic approach along the matrix makes it possible to translate tasks that are often rather vaguely formulated into concretely formulated to-dos and their Solution to control. In this way, companies always know where they already are successfully are and where there is still a need to catch up.

The deficits to be diagnosed result along the best practices as their negative. But be careful: almost everyone does People If the self-image and the image of others are a bit apart, it could prove difficult to determine the deficit, especially in the case of executives. After all, nobody likes to admit that they are under construction – if they are even able to perceive them. This is where consulting an external and thus objective advisor can be useful.

WANT = AMBITION

Now we come to the first A of our matrix - the will. It should be emphasized that this unwillingness does not necessarily mean that employees refuse to work. If this is the case for some, you have to separate, of course. “Not wanting” means that one partner or both hangers are missing, which maximize the drive or, conversely, there are conditions that restrict the motivation. Sometimes this happens barely noticeably because, for example, employees still bring 100 percent in a bad working atmosphere - exactly the maximum that is possible in this atmosphere. If the mood were better, it would still be 100 percent, but then relative to the new circumstances. And so they perform 115 percent compared to the previous situation. Miesepeter bosses who believe that their employees should be just as good under their knout as with their philanthropic competitor are extremely wrong. Wanting is also about resources that cannot be tapped without certain measures.

WANT for executives:

If everything is perfect, executives are characterized by:

• the team spirit,
• communicate business objectives and visions,
• motivate their employees and prevent demotion,
• Success appropriate and transparent reward,
• Self-awareness,
• Radiating optimism,
• Make decisions quickly and enforce them
• and inspire the members of their team.

Is sand in gear, are the effective measures:

• Executive coaching,
• Leadership training,
• Motivation workshops,
• Team building events,
• optimized time management that separates “doing” and “leading”, as well
• the installation of regular target-finding discussions.

WANT for employees:

Strong employees:

• follow the goals set for them,
• work motivated and committed,
• feel recognized,
• act innovatively,
• are aware of their value and contribution,
• fit seamlessly into the team,
• enjoy the working environment and are
• always ready to change.

Absence of one or more properties are the appropriate measures:

• the establishment of a profit culture,
• a key figure-based monitoring of the employee's contribution to the company's success,
• the implementation of employee activations and
• the implementation of motivation systems and performance-oriented remuneration.

CAN = ABILITY

As mentioned in the introduction, ability is the lever that companies are most likely to use when the Geschäfte stalled. A combination that not only promises a lot and delivers little, but actually makes the situation worse, has a particularly fatal effect: expensive training on topics that everyone already knows, coupled with excessive training Control and excessive reporting. The first costs unnecessarily Money and the second motivation. The ability does not increase, but the will to do so decreases - and especially in sales, the sales-active time is additionally curtailed. However, if any deficits have been properly diagnosed, the following lists can help to find your way through the thicket of skills and development opportunities.

CAN for leaders

Ideally, executives have the ability:

• Competencies to recognize,
• to promote these competences accordingly,
• methodical feedback,
• Strengthen strengths and weaken weaknesses,
• Competence planning,
• Employees in processes and
• to ensure comprehensibility of the management action and its instruments.

If something is wrong, recommend to the executives:

• the creation of meaningful requirements profiles,
• the implementation of assessment centers and a profiling,
• targeted seminars, trainings and coachings,
• the development and a CIP of profile and evaluation systems,
• the creation of a standardized feedback system,
• a reset and higher level of recruiting policy and a
• Employer branding that attracts and ties strong executives.

CAN For Employees:

Outstanding employees, however:

• correspond to the required requirements profile,
• work at any time competently,
• have development opportunities,
• participate in the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP),
• know and master the daily business,
• are always up to date in their field and their industry,
• experience and prove to be capable of learning and
• have high social qualities.

The skills of the employees benefit from:

• individually tailored seminars, trainings and coachings,
• cyclical employee development,
• Audits and competence-enhancing Gap-to-close,
• Development needs determination,
• systematic personnel development and
• targeted application to qualification profiles

CAN = ACCOUNTABILITY

Experience has shown that owners, managing directors, heads of sales and department heads find it difficult to analyze clearly and to be open to correct analyzes when they are allowed to do so. Your employees struggle equally with this Problem. After all, many of the deficits that impair being allowed touch areas of the personality where one is reluctant to do so weaknesses would like to concede. In addition, the clear view of the contradicts Status quo often feels like "it's always been like this and has always worked". For these reasons, many of those responsible and affected stagnate in the insistence that what should not be cannot be. And because that is so human and emotionally understandable, there is often enormous potential hidden in this field that is normally denied. But if it is possible to develop these sources, the benefit for everyone is enormous.

MUST be for executives:

Successful, fully developed executives:

• delegate tasks professionally clever and comprehensible,
• pay attention to the areas of competence of employees and colleagues,
• show and prove confidence in their team,
• encourage to take over responsibility,
• tie their people into decisions,
• present responsibility,
• appreciate and reward constructive cooperation and
• provide generous and reasonable room for maneuver.

Suitable development measures for managers are:

• the proactive promotion of process, rather than silo and departmental thinking,
• a flexible allocation of responsibilities with a documentation system,
• a symbolic reward system for taking over responsibility and
• the visualization of career perspectives.

MUST be for employees:

Employees who are “allowed” and who are allowed to bring this life to life:

• enjoy, use and live their responsibilities,
• are looking forward to their trust
• reward this trust with reliability and performance,
• are flexible and accessible,
• acting project- and success-oriented,
• know and use escalation regardless of personal circumstances,
• prove themselves as co-architects rather than administrators,
• cultivate and extend their expert status on their own responsibility.

Employees develop and improve through:

• a flexibilisation of the organizational structure on processes,
• the clear definition of escalations,
• a high discussion culture of work processes,
• predominantly project - related competence allocation and the
• Standardization of dif- ference-free competencies.

As can easily be seen, the ones described so far apply circumstances, regularities and aids not only for sales and sales management, but throughout the company, in which, strictly speaking, all areas work for the point of sales. First of all, it is absolutely essential to have a clear view of the situation through a sometimes unsparing analysis of the status quo, not only if you want to overcome bottlenecks, but also if you want to implement a successful continuous improvement process (CIP). As the saying goes: “If you stop getting better, you stop being good.”

So, before a company pushes its salespeople through a marathon of motivational workshops and sales seminars, it should first examine through its paces exactly where the bottleneck or bottlenecks are that is causing bitterness in the place of truth. If this test is completed with clear results, the draft of a more successful one can be made Future be translated into target-oriented measures and made part of corporate reality.

The Triple-A-Matrix at a glance

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