Selling to people who don’t want your services (but need them)

The reluctant customer

Compliance-driven sales

Most sales manuals, sales gurus, sales training courses and sales books talk about the idea of finding what your customer wants.  And then, of course, providing it. I’ve blogged before about finding your customer’s pain and making it go away.

Even if you are in B2B sales, this oft-times holds true. Sure, your customer might be buying your services because it is their job to, but what they personally want may be the recognition that comes with buying the best services, the satisfaction which comes from saving the company money… or even better, making the company money through increasing productivity or whatever the circumstance is. You are helping them succeed and this absolutely speaks to what they personally want.

But what happens when what you are selling is a product or service that no one wants to buy… but that they (sometimes resentfully) need?

I’ll give you an example that crops up a little with some of the people we provide waste management training for. Waste generators (their clients) sometimes resent having to use their services… they don’t want them, they need them in order to comply with environmental controls. (It must be said that most are totally on board… we are talking about a reluctant few.)

This resentment possibly stems from a lack of knowledge or understanding. Actually, this might just represent a huge opportunity to convert reluctant clients to loyal clients.

The key is education.

It may take baby steps, but consider these people a personal challenge. Bit-by-bit show them how you can, not just provide what they need, but help them deliver productivity gains or process efficiency to the company they work for. (Andy Thorp talked about this last week… using a waste management provider as a consultant and partner can find hidden savings.)

If you can move people along from resentment to respect, you will probably find you now have an advocate and fan. Have you ever experienced this? I’d love to hear how you addressed the issue.

Rubbish or resource?

Which one? Recycling and resource management can be confusing...

“Daaaaa-ad? Does this go in the recycling or the garbage?”

This from my son this morning, and I must admit I had to think hard about the item in question before I answered.

Hmmm, it’s had food in it, but it’s cardboard. It’s a tin but do I wash it? Is that organic? So much confusion… and we’re just talking about the waste from one household.

While that plays out in homes throughout Australia (indeed many parts of the world!) on a regular basis, many of the organisations we work with are coming up with new ways to engage and educate us all.

academy has a strong offering in waste management training, but we train the people who are actually in the business. In this post, I thought I would celebrate their efforts to train us… the consumers.

I’m going to single out local government here, as they are probably doing more than many of us are aware of – and I encourage you to use their educational resources.  I list just a few, and whether they are from your area or not, they are worth a look:

• Lismore Recycling and Recovery Centre arranges tours, workshops and has a great deal on offer to help educate all sorts of groups in a fun way.

• While this workshop has already been held, I am sure similar learning experiences will come up in different areas… what a great idea it is.  Teaching people how to actually fix things, instead of throwing them away and replacing them. Sponsored by the Metropolitan Waste Management Group of Victoria, this Fix It! Workshop was part of the 2012 Sustainable Living Festival.

• Resource GV is one of Victoria’s Regional Waste Management Groups. They have a responsibility of strategic waste management activities throughout the Goulburn Valley Region. They work in line with EPA Victoria, Department of Sustainability & Environment and Sustainability Victoria’s waste management guidelines, frameworks and strategies, with an eye on improving resource recovery and waste management for their member councils.
  
  
• Sydney’s Leichhardt Council organises Second Hand Saturdays, encouraging the passing on of perfectly usable goods from one person to another.
• And another Sydney council, Sutherland Shire Council, runs some excellent resource and recycling tours. One of our trainers has been on one and highly recommends them as educational and rather fun as well.

Next week, I hope to interview one of the waste educators at Sutherland Shire to learn more about how they are tackling public waste education. Does your council have an initiative you would like to recommend? Please let me know!

Training: When should you choose a RTO?

Not all RTOs are created equal

First, what is a RTO? (for those of you who don’t know)

A RTO is a registered training organisation, accredited to provide your people with nationally recognised qualifications… a qualification and skills they can take with them as they develop both professionally and personally. Because of this, a RTO can deliver a program that  is more than just a course; it is a career pathway.

Another big advantage of working with a RTO over a non-accredited training provider is that RTOs can often help you access Government funding for use training your people.

Given that academy is a RTO, you might assume I would say you should always choose to work with a RTO.  But that’s not the case.

Not many, but some, RTOs are very focused on the funding they can access on your behalf – and much less focused on your people. You might call these ‘tick and flick’ providers, companies that aren’t really doing it for the training.

My advice is always to find a training provider that fits your needs and values, a firm that will work with you to identify your skills gaps and really work on meeting your specific needs.

While RTOs have nationally-recognised courses and therefore a framework they need to follow, the best ones are flexible in how they present content and will work with you to tailor it for your company’s needs.

In short, you want to look for RTOs that:

• put people and training needs ahead of funding (but who can still help you access these in order to be cost efficient)
• work with you to understand the real issues you are training for
• customise content
• employ full-time trainers, committed people who know the course inside-out
• own their intellectual property, again showing a commitment to content

Training is a precious resource, for you and your teams. Like all precious resources it should be valued and enjoyed. It’s possible to get great training and funding if you partner with the right RTO.

If you have any questions at all about the difference between a RTO and a non-accredited training provider, please do get in touch. What do you look for when you are appointing a trainer?

5 things corporate trainers have in common with kindergarten teachers

Learning techniques

A guide to experiential learning for trainers, L&D and HR Managers

As adults, it is easy to slip into the feeling that you know what you are doing, you’ve done it before, it’s done in a certain way.

This makes sense. It comes from experience. But sometimes it is hugely valuable to look at something familiar through fresh eyes. Gaining a new perspective can give you new ideas, and reinforce the ideas that work.

So it is with teaching, or training. Sometimes us corporate types should look to other environments to see if there is something to learn.

Kindergarten teachers regularly use teaching techniques that many trainers – or indeed anyone leading or mentoring people – can remind themselves of.

Here’s my list of five things kindergarten teachers use to engage minds and encourage learning.

If you’re a trainer, challenge yourself to do more of these. If you manage learning and development for other people, check that the programs you deliver to staff are designed to be as experiential as possible (there’s some questions you should ask your RTO here and also at the end of the post).

1. Use visuals – Show and tell, anyone?

In the corporate world, make sure it is not all just graphs, not ClipArt in PowerPoint presentations, but truly engaging visuals.

For an excellent source of amazing Infographics to inspire you, check out the Infographic of the Day at Fast Company.

2. Mix it up – the same message in as many different formats as possible. Teachers guide children through a concept by using online resources, discussion, activities that demonstrate the idea, group work, painting, whatever opens minds (and different minds grasp an idea through different means).

At academy, we use case studies, business simulations, role-plays, debating, illustrative games and video, to name a few.

3. Make it fun – Wouldn’t you rather be playing than learning? It doesn’t matter how old you are, that sounds like a good use of your day! But playing leads to learning… and isn’t that a win, win.

4. Build stuff – There is nothing like getting hands on to encourage learning. Don’t just talk about it, do it, build it, experience it. Can you push your techniques even further to create a truly memorable learning experience?

5. Create routine – While the rest of these ideas make learning fun and surprising, you still need the grounding of routine for people to feel totally comfortable in their environment. Kindergarten teachers do this by having times of the day for certain things. Trainers need to outline schedule and expectations at the beginning of the program (or day, or both) and stick to it.

I don’t mean to be flippant. You know this stuff. But can you make even more of it? Please do feel free to add to the list. What else have you seen other types of teachers use that we should remind ourselves of?

Of course, corporate trainers use other techniques that are much better for ‘grown ups’ too. Great corporate training is highly customised – it relates to the changing business, industry, economy and marketplace.  Two students from the same firm doing the same course, but two years apart, will have a very different learning experience because of that contextualised customisation.

We call the academy experiential learning philosophy ‘3D learning’, as it challenges trainees in all dimensions. The take-out for L&D and HR managers is to make sure your training provider guides learning with techniques that engage all types of adult learners.

Questions to ask your training provider

To really get the most for your staff, make sure you ask these questions about your training:

1. Exactly what audio-visual resources will my staff experience in the program?

2. What games will they play and how will that add to their learning and workplace productivity?

3. How do you innovate and create truly experiential learning?

4. Are your trainers full time employees? (This means they know the program inside and out and can spend their time and energy tailoring it for your people.)

Learning at Virgin: An interview with Clint Scobie

Virgin Mobile's L&D Manager Clint Scobie

Around ten years ago, the iconic Virgin launched Virgin Mobile in Australia. Two months before that launch, Clint Scobie joined the company’s call centre and has been with them in a variety of roles ever since.

The Virgin veteran is now Learning & Development Manager, opting for a descriptive and slightly more traditional job title than many of his colleagues. (He tells me a colleague in recruitment is known as ‘Treasure Hunter’ on his business card and I once knew a Virgin Mobile ‘PR Princess’ and ‘Maestro of Fun’.)

Business cards aside, what keeps him there? And how does Clint manage learning and development in the fast-paced Virgin Mobile environment? We had a chat just before Christmas.

Can you tell me a little about your background?

I’ve been with Virgin Mobile the whole time it’s been in Australia. I joined two months before the launch as a customer service representative (CSR)… there was 50 of us at the time.

Before that I was an apprentice chef and with David Jones in customer service.

Why, or how, did you get into learning and development (L&D) as a career?

By accident. But a very lucky accident! I was asked to help train some of the new CSRs as they joined Virgin Mobile. I was in the first group of CSRs and ended up training the second group. I thoroughly enjoyed it and started to get a sense that this was what I wanted to do.

Twelve months later I was a trainer… I was a Training Officer for four or five years for call centre staff, then a L&D consultant for two years and I’ve now been an L&D Manager for around two years.

What exactly does that entail?

Well, it really means I do whatever I need to do at the time! I know that sounds a bit flip but that’s absolutely the Virgin culture. You do what needs to be done, whoever you are. We all do.

I just finished helping to organise the Christmas party for example… not traditionally an L&D job. But someone from the Marketing team floated the idea and I was up for it. It was great fun actually.

I do enjoy the fun bits and pieces at Virgin… bake offs, Christmas decoration competitions, the whole company culture.

A more functional ‘to do’ list would include conducting trainer needs analysis, helping people secure traineeships and sourcing external courses

What is your role at Virgin and the top priority?

I guess the top of the tops is to make sure the business training requirements are met. Or exceeded.

At the moment, we are going to the business and asking ‘what do you need?’.  Most managers know, some are not sure about gaps.

So we are also doing a very manual trainer needs analysis, looking at every single job description, matching skills, identifying gaps, making sure the people in jobs have the skills, finding courses or other ways to up skill them.

There are 300 job descriptions so it takes a little while.

Do you have any issues with buy in from the business?

At first, yes. But once people understand the big picture of what we are doing, they are encouraging and help as much as possible

How have the priorities changed as time goes on?

In the mobile world, everything changes all the time. So yes, the priorities change along with the business. The challenge is trying to forecast what those changes will be and anticipate them.  There are quite a few goalposts moving around at any one time!

We try to stay as flexible as possible, open to change and ready to adapt.

Personally, I am able to change, but it’s a struggle when a big project suddenly gets pulled because of new priorities. Nonetheless, that’s the nature of any technology-based consumer business.

I remember doing an exercise back when I first started about ‘what do you want a mobile to be?’. This was ten years ago and we dared to dream of colour screens! It was back when Nokia had just brought out a phone with one colour and we all thought it was wonderful. It’s hard to grasp the quantum leaps in function and features we’ve seen over that decade.

What is Virgin Mobile’s approach to learning and development?

Most importantly, you as a staff member have to want it. You need to be hungry to develop. Go out and get what you want, and it’s there for you.

What business outcomes does the organisation look for?

All the normal ones… improved performance. We measure to a point. In fact, ROI is a big focus for us this year.

How is learning and development different from human resources in general?

It’s a function of HR…, which after all, is all about people, and how to get the best for people and out of people. We have an HR team of nine and four of us are in L&D.

What kind of learning does Virgin Mobile use?

We match the best kind of learning to the situation, but there is a lot of face-to-face classroom style learning. We also use webinars. They are a necessity, as is all online options, as we now have offshore call centre staff in Manila and Fiji and we want them to be included in all learning opportunities too.

We also use coaching and mentoring for managers and senior executives where relevant and needed. We tend to source mentors internally… we have people here with diverse skill sets and backgrounds and they can be a wealth of knowledge for each other.

High performance, high potential people may sometimes have some outside coaching or mentoring.

How do you encourage the L&D of employees?

It’s built into the performance review system. Together a manager and employee devise a development plan and they have regular review discussions. It can be tracked and people can clearly see their own development, which is encouraging in itself. Success breeds success.

What do you do if someone is resistant?

I haven’t really come up against this. Most people are thrilled to learn. I guess if I did encounter it, I would try to understand why and explain the benefits of training.

What professional skill would you most like to learn?

I like to constantly develop in all areas. I keep an eye out for opportunities and I also get to sit in on a few courses to see how they would be for other employees.

At the moment I am doing the Frontline Management Certificate IV, which is hard work, but I am enjoying.

And how about recreational? What do you most want to learn outside of work?

Oh wow. Music I guess. I did the recorder as a child and I wish I had moved on to the saxophone and piano. Perhaps one day!

What do you do outside of work?

I love cooking. I was an apprentice chef and actually ended up hating it for years. But I have fallen in love with it again.

More on Vision Australia

Graham Estreich (R) accepts a certificate on behalf of work placement companies from Vision Australia's Deputy Chair, Owen van der Wall (L)

Last Wednesday was one of those days that keeps you energised and motivated for weeks to come. I’ve already written about it once but it’s still on my mind.

academy was lucky enough to partner with Vision Australia to set up a pro bono training program for their clients, including work experience in call centres run by major Australian companies. That’s a dry sentence… the outcome was anything but.

Ten people, people from diverse backgrounds and wide-ranging experience, found new confidence. And each other. Their graduation ceremony (from Customer Contact Certificate II) was joyous and full of hope.

The course participants are all blind or have low vision, and all want to work.  I’ve already used this stat, but I find it astounding, so will use it again. Did you know that 63% of low vision or blind people who want to work are not able to find a job?

Kudos to the graduates who all amazing, but also to the companies who took them on for work experience placements. These included 3M, IAG Group, Australian Power & Gas and ATEL. Plus TNT and Penrith Council have already expressed interest in placing people on the next course.

The icing on the cake was that a job offer was extended from one of these companies to a course graduate while we were still at the ceremony.

It was a great example of something we all strive for in our life, be in the personal or professional sphere… a moment where work ceased to be ‘work’ and became ‘life’.

* As an aside, did you know that companies who hire an employee who is blind or has low vision will be subsidised by the Federal Government to set up the workplace with appropriate software and so on? I am sure Vision Australia would love to talk with you about available assistance.

Open for business

A guide to help adults open up to learning

Open minds for learning

Some adults have shut up shop when it comes to learning. Perhaps not consciously, and for a wide variety of reasons.

There are the senior managers who are accustomed to leading and so used to being experts that it takes a big adjustment to learn from someone else. There are people who are about to change their life in some way, people who struggled in formal learning environments in the past, people who believe they are too busy at work and training is a waste of their valuable time.

And then there are people who are scared to learn, to not know, in front of their colleagues.

What does this mean for your training efforts? Sometimes it means you have someone who doesn’t get much out of a training program. Or worse, it can mean one participant’s negativity can bring others down.

But it certainly does not have to be that way.

HR Managers can help

If you know you are placing potentially reluctant people into a course, have a chat with your trainer about it ahead of time.

There are some great ways trainers can help turn people around, open their minds to the experience, and a discussion ahead of time can help them plan for this. Together, you may even decide that there is a better learning strategy for that person… one-on-one coaching perhaps, but in most cases, forewarned is forearmed.

Trainer strategies for reluctant learners

In a nutshell, the strategy depends on the person and the reason for their reluctance. One thing you must ensure is an experienced trainer.

Strategies used can be quite simple, but must be executed with skill. These are just a few:

1)    The opening words from the trainer set the tone for the whole session. They must establish their credibility, the reason they can guide others in their subject. However, an acknowledgement of the experience in the room goes a long way with experienced people – a ‘we can learn from each other’ message.

2)    Catering for the busy and deadline driven, a trainer should let participants know that there will be regular breaks for catching up with any urgent work issues. This seems to visibly relax some people

3)    A gentle reminder that participants’ managers have prioritised their training (signing off on their temporary absence) should also help some people realise that their full attention is the only way to maximise the value of their time on the program.

4)    Perhaps the simplest of all, one of our trainers says he always starts by finding out what each and every person wants to achieve from being there. Sure he might get a multitude of very different responses, but he knows exactly where he stands in helping each person meet their goals. After all, knowledge is power.

A ‘frank’ case study

Most reluctant learners are quietly reluctant but sometimes you get someone like (let’s call him) Frank.

Frank told one of our trainers in the first five minutes of session one, “I was made to come. I’m about to retire. If I hate you, don’t take it personally.”

Whoompa. What’s a trainer to do?

Well, actually he discovered that Frank loved mentoring the younger trainees, so made sure there was a peer-mentoring component to each session.

Frank blossomed and, instead of disrupting his colleagues with his attitude, actually helped them to learn.

At the end of the program he said, “You know I didn’t want to be here, but this wasn’t bad really.” His manager later told our trainers that this was a huge compliment from Frank.

Lifelong learning

Luckily, most trainees are excited to learn and share the academy philosophy that lifelong learning leads to a rewarding life and career, but should you encounter someone who does not; there are certainly ways to help them. I’d love to hear about any strategies you may have used (or seen used).

Change helps us soar

My goal in writing these blog posts is to provide you with food-for-thought, and maybe even help you in your busy workday. So, naturally, the posts are outward looking, focusing on broader training and organisational development topics.

Just this once I’d like to tell you about some of the exciting changes we are celebrating at academy. Hopefully some, or all, of these will achieve the same thing… helping you do a great job.

New brand, new expertise

First, we have a new brand – academy green – offering training in waste management, transport and logistics. Not only does this grow our stable of expertise, it also adds full-time staff and an office in Melbourne.

But the thing that excites us most about it…? We seek to engage in sustainable business.  The added bonus of our ‘academy green’ brand is that, in our own way, academy can make a difference as we educate people about sustainability and managing waste.

Do have a look at the academy green section of our website for more information – or, please, get in touch with any questions.

There’s no place like a home page

As we grow, it becomes even more important that there are a number of ways we can stay in touch with you. If it’s easy for you, we want to be there. If we can provide you with content that helps you with new ideas or ways of achieving your training and learning and development goals, we will. That’s why we are spending time and energy opening up as many lines of communication as possible:

• You can find our new home page at www.academy.edu.au – it features links to many of our services, enables you to find basic information with just one click and you can also sign up to stay in touch with us via whichever form of social media suits you best.
• We have started this blog for people who love learning. If you would like to contribute a post, please do let us know. It’s a great way to get your thoughts out there and we are all for guest bloggers!
• Similarly, we manage a LinkedIn group for anyone who wants to access articles on organisational development, training, education and so on – all in one easy place. If you haven’t already joined, please consider it. It’s here.
• You can follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/academyaus or join our Facebook page here.

We’d love to hear from you about content you’d like to see featured, any ways we can make these services more valuable and which type of communication best fits into your busy work day!

And the winner is…

We do a lot of work in the contact centre field and we were delighted to sponsor (what else?) the academy Awards on 6 August 2010 at Star City. The NSW ATA Contact Centre Awards of Excellence showcases individuals and teams who excel and we were proud to be part of the celebration of those achievements. You can see the winners on the ATA’s website here, plus we blogged here and here.

Well that’s it for our news and our changes at the moment. Please do get in touch to share any news or ideas of your own.

A farmer in the office

Are you an education 'farmer'?

And no, I’m not talking about the person sitting in the cubicle across the way sneaking in a game of FarmVille on Facebook.

I have just watched Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk titled ‘Bring on the learning revolution!’ and I was struck with his plea for complete educational transformation. Not evolution. Revolution.

Sir Ken is discussing the way we educate our children and I couldn’t agree more.  However, I think his points apply equally well to how we cultivate talent and creativity in adults too.

I heartily recommend you watch the video link posted below. Sir Ken is both elegant and eloquent as he makes his points. But for those of you in a rush, the guts of the argument is that we need to move from systems of industrial education (the manufacturing or industrial model) where we churn people in a linear progression from Kindergarten through to university – to an agricultural model.

Agriculture. It’s a funny word when applied to education. But Sir Ken argues that human flourishing is organic. We need to cultivate the conditions under which it thrives… just like a farmer.

If you are an HR professional, you are in a prime seat to help customise education and training for the people in your organisation. You can be the company farmer. (Like me, I’m sure you’ve been called a few things in your time, but ‘farmer’ is probably a first!)

Please have a look at, and listen to, Sir Ken’s talk. I’m sure you will get something out of it. For me, it’s realising that all our efforts to deliver customised and exciting training to our students are worth it. By harnessing and directing our own passion for learning, we can effect wonderful change in people’s lives.