‘Generation Y’,‘The Millennials’,‘Digital Natives’ –call them whatyou like, but thegeneration bornsince 1980 is

growing up and many of its membershave been taking their places in theworkforce in the last few years. Forthose of us of ‘Generation X’ (born1960-80) or the ‘Baby Boomers’ (1940-60), Generation Y poses aunique set of challenges, both asemployees and customers.

For a start, these young people havea different set ofvalues. While the restof us entered theworkforce when itwas a truly ‘commandand control’ type ofenvironment(‘beatings willcontinue until moraleimproves’) and where we wereconditioned to seek out ‘a good,steady job’, the millennials do notrespond favourably to ‘command andcontrol’ management styles – and theyhave little interest in such security.

In the latter half of the 20th centurythe world changed. Gen X faced theupheavals of recession, job cuts, therise of the Internet, free information,new technology and the death of ‘thejob for life’. We witnessed falls in the

prestige of politics, the professions,the media and the church. We, Gen X,were the first of the revolutionary age.

Where before it was the values ofcommand and control, security,hierarchy and position that mattered,the new values of collaboration,connectivity, creativity, mobility andnetworking have become the standardtoday. We are the last generation ofsales managers to have led ouremployees through instruction anddirection. We now need to leadthrough collaboration and persuasion.

We have to learn to ‘sell’ internallyto our team members and colleagues,

in much the sameway as we sell to ourbusiness clients. Wehave to learn how toconnect, involve andengage with them sothey focus their skillsand abilities on thebusiness challenges

we face. We have to learn how tobring them with us, rather thanexpecting that they will simply follow.

I was recently coaching a seniorbusiness development manager in abank and he talked about a challengethat he faced with one of his keypeople. This was an up-and-comingguy with good skills and excellent withthe clients. He was of real value to thebusiness, with a great future.

The manager, in his old-fashioned

style, directed this person to take onan important project – one that wouldhave a significant effect on revenuestreams, and on the future career ofthe person in charge of it.

The guy flatly refused. He felt hewas not consulted about the project(not connected). He was not given achance to air his views on the task(not involved) and, given theimpact he felt it would haveon his personal life, heturned it down (notengaged).

The managerwas at a loss.He had neverbeen faced withthis situationbefore and justdidn’t have theskills to cope with it.His first instinct wasto fire the guy, but herealised this would domore harm than good– no doubt driving anable employee into thearms of a competitor.

So what was thealternative? Throughcoaching, we decided ona very simple strategy.This involved taking theemployee out to lunch – at a neutral venue,where symbols of

28 Winning Edge

‘We are the lastgeneration of salesmanagers to have led our employeesthrough instructionand direction’

Talkin’‘bout their generationSeán Weafer explains how to lead the youth of today in the sales workplace

28-30 Generation Y:Nov 06 layout 27/8/08 12:23 Page 2

Winning Edge 29

corporate power and hierarchy wereabsent – and explaining the project inmore depth. Great emphasis was puton his input and ideas, to nurture hisinvolvement and collaboration. Hewas encouraged to make suggestionsabout how best he might deliver the

project – in effect, handing over‘ownership’ to him and creatingaccountability. By the end of thelunch, the young employee wasfully on board.

By learning to move from the old directive style and use a more consultative,collaborative and coaching-based approach, themanager was able to geta much better result.

To get the best out of

your Gen Y salespeople:

■ Develop a style that is

more collaborative

Key sales skills such asrapport, questioning, listeningand suggestion play a large part

in managing the new millennialrelationships. We have to

learn to sell ‘internally’ and notjust ‘externally’ to recruit

and retain the bestsales talent.

GENERATION Y

■ Boost training in sales skills

Until recently, sales has not beentough for some years. Key skills suchas prospecting, pitching and buildingrelationships with customers arelacking and need to be reinforced andembedded in the current generation.

■ Create a technology-friendly

environment

Some companies are against Internetaccess, game playing or othertechnology-based activities within the workplace. Wrong. This is thegeneration of digital natives – theyhave grown up with computers, theInternet and social networks.Technology is an extension ofthemselves and their lives. To removeaccess is going to reduce productivity,not increase it. Guidelines about itsuse can certainly be considered, but totry and remove it from the workplacewill only guarantee an exit of Gen Ytoo. And they’ll tell everyone why theyleft on their own social network page,so that getting staff in the future willbecome harder as your companybrand gets ‘dissed’ in cyberspace.

■ Train all managers in coaching

and mentoring skills

As managers need to move from‘telling’ to ‘selling’ in order to get thebest out of people, coaching andmentoring – being collaborative,consultative and seeking engagement– are the best ways to move to amodern leadership style. Coachingand mentoring are different:mentoring is about the transfer of skillsets and corporate-specific knowledge;coaching is meant to help releasegreater insight and understanding inmore senior people. But be careful inyour choice of training provider –there should be a process by whichthese skills are imparted. There is toomuch of the ‘cup of coffee and howare you feeling today’ approach incoaching today, which does nothingfor real productivity and performance.

■ Teach managers to ‘lead’,

not ‘manage’

A manager is a functionary – he or shetells other people to do what theyhave been told needs to be done. A leader (as my dad once told me) is

28-30 Generation Y:Nov 06 layout 27/8/08 12:23 Page 3

30 Winning Edge

“someone who is not prepared to asksomeone to do something they are notwilling to do themselves”. Leadersserve and inspire their people – theyare automatic collaborators. They takethe best from everyone and then make‘the call’. People will follow leaderswhen they will not follow managers.Gen Y demands leaders rather thanmanagers to get the best out of them.

■ Use technology to create a dialogue,

not a monologue

By a dialogue, I mean using thetechnology of today such as Twitter,blogging, e-zines, social networks and the virtual worlds such asSecondLife.com – to maintain constantcommunication with your people,especially if they are on the road. Most companies communicate onlyone way (a monologue) from us tothem. Shift the focus so that everyonegets to have a say and see how adialogue can increase productivity and commitment to the firm and itsmission. For example, why shouldn’tthe sales manager have a blog bywhich they inform their teammembers of successes and challengesand create a window for the team intothe wider organisation?

■ Bring laughter to work

Laughter has been frowned on in theworkspace. But laughter generatescreativity, loyalty and commitment.Laughter is also a powerful tool forrevolution. By seeing the funny side of things we often challenge acceptedways of doing things.

Generation Y has its strengths andits failings, but to get the best fromthese young people – and to thrive inthis new revolutionary age – we needto radically change our managementstyle and our workspaces.

I believe companies that employ

a substantial number of 18-30

year olds should tailor their

motivation communications to this

audience. The reality is that there is

a substantial difference between the

way that this age group

communicates and the older

generations. But there is a tendency

to opt for ‘tried and tested’

communications methods such as

newsletters, printed collateral and

presentations by managers. So how

do we get through to them?

They could be described as the

‘PlayStation generation’. They are

the first to have had mobile phones,

electronic games and the Internet at

the centre of their lives from a very

young age. They

communicate by

fully embracing

current and

unfolding technology

with frightening

comfort and speed.

Instant gratification is readily

available. Attention spans are

shorter than ever because there are

so many alternatives.

Games consoles, computers,

mobile phones and iPods, as

well as TV, shape the way they think

and communicate. Text English,

computer game jargon, street

culture and Internet-speak shape

their language. They adopt new

‘tools’, with PlayStation, Xbox,

Facebook, MySpace, YouTube,

Nintendo Wii, MMS and videocall all

part of their mental ‘Wiktionary’.

The difference with previous

generations is radical – and to

motivate them effectively,

communications must use their

language and media. Gaining

and holding people’s attention is

now harder than ever. Instant

gratification is key, which means the

motivation programme needs

to be based on real-time data and

feature interactive elements to gain

involvement and buy in.

For instance, with call centre staff,

we have effectively used SMS texts

with dot-coded messages. These

can be read on a special scanner

sited in the call centre to find out if

they have won a prize. We have set

up dedicated websites for

incentives, with content and

blogging areas (this one needs a

well-thought through ‘policing’

policy). We have structured online

interactive sales

incentives and

peer nomination

programmes using

a product called

Rewardbanking.com,

which allows

employees the freedom to choose

from a variety of rewards.

Clever motivation programmes

have adopted fun themes and ideas

that reflect youth culture. I’ve come

across schemes with popular

themes adopted from MTV and

reality TV. The language has ‘street

cred’ and rewards are structured to

suit this audience.

It works. We have results showing

performance improvements and

better staff retention.

John Sylvester is executive

director of P&MM, a specialist in

employee motivation and

incentive solutions.

John Sylvester sayscommunicationis the key tomotivating the‘PlayStationgeneration’

Seán Weafer is an expert on‘R-Evolutionary Business’ for salesand leadership performance. He is creator of social networkingconcepts ‘Rebel in a Business Suit’and www.RebelIsland.netFor more information visit:www.seanweafer.com

contributor

GENERATION Y

Speakingtheir

language

‘The differencewith previousgenerations is

radical’

28-30 Generation Y:Nov 06 layout 27/8/08 12:23 Page 4

theHRDIRECTORTHE ONLY INDEPENDENT HR STRATEGIC PUBLICATION IN THE UK NOVEMBER 07 ISSUE 41

DON’T MISS NEXT MONTH’S ISSUE WHERE WE LOOK AT: FORUM – ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE;RISK MANAGEMENT; EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS; H&S – ACCIDENTS AT WORK …AND MORE

Pictured: Dave Conder - UK HR director, KPMG

PLEASE NOTE:WE DO NOT ACCEPT ANY PAID FOR OR SPONSORED EDITORIAL

theHRDIRECTOR INTERVIEW:Dave Conder – UK HR director, KPMG

FORUM: OUTSOURCINGDefining – and measuring - the challenge

LEADERSHIP21st century style

CSRReaping benefits from ‘good neighbour’ policies

INFORMATION SECURITYTraining the troops for electronic warfare

CASE STUDIES THIS MONTHJohn Ainley - Group HR director, AvivaElaine Bird - Head of Resourcing, AbbeyEllie Bird - Superintendent, British Transport PoliceProf. Malcolm McIntosh - Director of the Applied Research Centre for Human Security, Coventry UniversityAdnamsCiscoDeloitteROK

34 theHRDIRECTOR – NOVEMBER 07

LEADERSHIP AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP www.thehrdirector.com

AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP -THE NEXT HR CHALLENGEA NEW GENERATION OF LEADERS IS EMERGING INTO THE CORPORATE WORLD AND THEY PRESENT A UNIQUE SET OF CHALLENGES FORORGANISATIONS AND RETENTION TODAY. SEAN WEAFER OF FIRST COACH, AN ORGANISATIONAL COACHING AND MENTORING SKILLSTRAINING COMPANY, LOOKS AT HOW THIS NEW PHENOMENON OF 'AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP', BASED ON THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW SET OFCORPORATE AND PERSONAL VALUES, IS CAUSING ORGANISATIONS TO LOSE SOME OF THEIR BEST PEOPLE AT THEIR MOST PRODUCTIVE TIME.

Leaders are increasingly rebelling against the old values withinorganisations and are opting out of the corporate world because it is nolonger in synch with their personal values. Leaving behind secure, well-paid, high–status jobs they are making choices which reflect their searchfor more meaning and purpose in the work that they do.

They are rebelling against the hierarchal ‘position is power’, old-agemasculine values of competition, profit at all cost, pressurised, macho(in before the boss – out after him) culture. Instead they are opting forroles that are more akin to the emerging, more feminine values ofconnectedness, nurture, collaboration, community and freedom.

The new ‘rebel in a business suit’™ is just as focused and just aseffective but is starting to re-make the world of work in their own image.They want more personal meaning, purpose, choice and control in whatthey commit themselves to. They want to work in roles that not onlycontribute to the bottom-line but do so in an ethical, fair, inclusive,corporately-responsible and ecological way. They won’t follow thetraditional corporate ‘way’ anymore.

The ‘rebels’ are leaving roles that no longer provide them with thesevalues, leaving vacuums that will become increasingly harder to fill asthe ‘revolution’ grows. Do you know of anyone who has left or is aboutto leave your organisation to do something completely different withtheir lives? This ‘movement’ is beginning to impact on everyone.

So why is this happening? To answer that, we must consider the kindof changes experienced by society and business in the last few decades. The Industrial-Age, a time when one’s position in the firm gave a personpower, where the traditional ‘command and control’ management stylewas applied and security was the highest value for workers, is fading.

“networks of influence through people”

Replaced by the Information-Age, power and influence is less aboutwhere you are in the hierarchy of the organisation and more about yournetworks of influence through people, where mobility rather thansecurity is more important for workers and collaborative models ofmanagement such as coaching and mentoring are becoming the norm.We have seen a significant shift of values within the organisation.

The values of society have also been changing. Certain dynamicshave caused that change: 1. The more impermanent nature of work 2. The willingness of firms to re-locate purely for profit without

apparent concern for the greater good 3. The increased demands being placed on executives and their families 4. The increasing degree of wealth in society 5. The fall of church, state and business through scandals

www.thehrdirector.com LEADERSHIP AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP

theHRDIRECTOR – NOVEMBER 07 35

6. The commercialisation of the world7. The cult of ‘entitlement’8. The lack of accountability9. The increasing realisation of the shrinking of the world10. The importance of our connectedness and interdependence

on each other and the planet11. The rise of the feminine in society.

These are but some of the new dynamics of the current age.

Today’s ‘rebel in a business suit™’ has lived through all thisand it has changed him/her. Now the rebels are emerging fromwhat I term the ‘bridging’ or ‘transitional’ generation – roughly inthe age range of 35-55 years.

They have faced the most extraordinary changes and speed ofchange than any other generation in history. They have witnessed thecoming of satellite television, Man’s ascent to the stars and theliberation of society. They have played a part in the rise of theInternet, yet they were born in a time when laptops and mobileswere just dreams – and the Google economy was still decades away.

They have borne witness to the death of the old age and thebeginning of the new. They are living longer and feeling younger(fifty is the new thirty anyone?). They are concerned for the futurethat their children will live in because they will be living more of itwith them. Never mind Generation X – they are ‘Generation Next’– and this is their time now.

Because of the failure of many of the old models of business andsociety, these new rebels have few external references for this newfuture and, as a result, are increasingly looking within themselves todiscover their future path.

They are starting to re-evaluate themselves and the world thatthey live in. They are working on becoming more self-aware, morespirit-centred, and in doing so, are realising how closely they areconnected to the world, their families and other people – and howimportant that connection is. They are increasingly unhappy withthe world as it is – both on a micro and a macro level.

They want to make change and they want the power andsupport to make it. By treading the path towards self-awarenessand self-understanding, they are discovering their passion andtheir passion is fuelling the revolution.

So how does this impact on our organisations? Organisationsthat refuse to recognise the ‘rise of the rebels’ will continue tohaemorrhage their best people.

Many of them are moving towards entrepreneurial orphilanthropic endeavours; taking control of their own lives andhelping to shape the lives of others.

“create a sense of real value in their work”

So the next HR challenge is how to keep them? How do webuild an environment that sustains and challenges them, fulfils thevalues that they have of purpose and meaning? How do we createa sense of real value in their work and create a grand and epicvision that inspires their souls?

How do we recognise the values of the new rebels and tiethose values into the organisation’s agenda. Are they compatible,or can they be? How do we engage with these ‘rebels’ and re-commit them to the goals of the organisation?

Perhaps part of the answer lies in the response RichardBranson gave to Lesley Everett of Walking TALL Internationalwhen interviewed - unlike traditional businesses, Branson’s focusinverts things. For him the business emphasis is first on staff, thenon customers and lastly, on stakeholders.

We can also look at another ‘rebel’ business for some of theanswers – Google. They may not always get it right – even theiroriginal name is a misspelling of ‘googol’ (the number 1 followedby a 100 zeros). But they do get a lot right.

Google is famed for doing things differently. Theyencourage creativity and fun in the workplace, they encouragethe formation of small and dynamic teams rather than largeproject groups. They have (largely) eschewed hierarchy andsupport connection, collaboration and communication. Theycreated and encouraged the concept of ‘20% time’ whereemployees can pursue projects of personal and passionateinterest to themselves.

“a place of growth and inspiration”

Even their recognition of a business working with a clearethos ‘Don’t Do Evil’ encouraged many to join the companyand remain.

From the start, Google was a business built on a passionthat the founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, clearlycommunicated to others – thereby recruiting the best of talentand creativity. They created a community with its own hub – the‘Googleplex’. Instead of a business they created a culture, a communityand a place of growth and inspiration – and changed the world.

If the new revolution is being based on people and theirpassion, purpose and meaning - on their authentic self - then thechallenge for HR professionals is to recognise their opportunity atthe heart of this revolution. HR departments need to make theirvoices heard, they need to herald the coming change and refuseto be silenced by traditional boardroom interests.

They need to join with the new ‘rebel in a business suit’™ tocreate a new organisational culture – one that is inspiring, epicand people-centred. It may be time for HR professionals to releasethe rebel in themselves and put their own passion back in whatthey do. Be Fearless, Be Free! Welcome to the revolution.

For further information:www.walkingtall.org

Sean WeaferFounder

www.firstcoach.com

he collapse in the global business markets in the ‘noughties’ was followed by a collapse in trust in business and the institutions of business. In fact the Chinese premier

Wen Jiabao at one point is credited with saying that now ‘trust is more valuable than gold’.

Trust is a powerful thing — nothing moves and no one acts without first having achieved some form of trust in a person or an undertaking. It is essential in business and what happens when trust is lost is that things spiral down to a stop and we face recession. Banks don’t lend, businesses don’t invest, jobs become insecure and consumers don’t spend. Nothing moves without trust.

Trust is a function of rapport — or what I define as ‘that state in human relations where there is an agreed, sometimes silent, recognition and acceptance of common issues’. Trust comes where there is first acceptance and where we have moved a business relationship way beyond simply communicating with a person to where we connect, involve and engage with them on a personal and compelling level. Where there is trust there is

acceptance and where there is acceptance there is influence – then change can happen and decisions can be made.

If there is to be trust in business again it will become the job of the foot soldiers — the salespeople and account managers — as well as entrepreneurs, in fact anyone who has a revenue responsibility, to get face time with

clients and rebuild it, one person at a time.However there is a problem in selling today. For

the last number of years selling has become transactional — that is — process focused. In good years people and businesses spend — they come looking for us to give us their cash. Budgets are not a problem — only spending them. Accountability is not as big an issue as it is when times are tougher.

Selling becomes a matter of taking orders and lots of people enter the marketplace all believing that they are excellent salespeople and account managers when in fact it’s the clients and customers who are doing the work.

Many of these sales and account management ‘professionals’ then get promoted to managers and directors and we find ourselves with business where sales managers and directors manage by spreadsheet and not through expertise, mentoring and high staff engagement.

Selling needs to return to being transformational — focused on people. Where selling becomes what it should be — not about the product or the service — but about the experience that the prospect or customer gets through having that product or service — and that experience starts with ‘first contact’. That’s the moment that we get in front of a prospect (maybe even before that — our literature, our telephone staff) — when the decisions that people make about their investments are made.

For me, first contact is more powerful when it is face to face than over the phone. A contact made when one has networked to meet them as opposed to cold calling them is significantly more user friendly and open to engagement. It’s not that I am against cold calling — it has its place — but in the business of high trust selling (and usually high-value selling) all barriers that get between us and the prospect must be minimised.

Here’s a question — how many businesses

T

Trust is a powerful thing – nothing moves and no one acts without first having achieved some form of trust

feature sales values

Don’T gamble

on TrusTSEán wEafEr sets out the agenda for rebuilding trust in tough times — and homes in on emotional rapport

32 | Winning Edge

34 | Winning Edge

Contributor Seán Weafer is an expert on creating high trust advisers, leaders and teams and is based in the City of London. Visit his blog at www.seanweafer.com

have absolute faith in the quality of that ‘first contact’ with prospects? How many managers or directors can — hand on heart — say that their people are consistently the best at creating compelling engagement with our prospects and our customers?

I’d say the honest answer is that we are back to ‘the vital few’ — Pareto’s people – where 20% are doing 80% of the business.

Selling for years has lived with being the poor relation of business. It is an accidental profession — people fall into it — nobody when they are seven years old wants to grow up to be a salesperson. Yet, when we experience the first thrill of the first sale – how many of us would choose to go back to something else?

We need to remind ourselves of the origin of selling. Selling evolved from the Scandinavian term ‘selje’ meaning ’to be of service’. How many of us do not believe we are in the business of being of service to our customers?

To do that well – really well – we have to be able to win the customer’s trust. Selling is an emotional

art — it is about the psychological and emotional dynamics of business – the EQ or ‘emotional quotient’. Once mastered it provides a skill that is transferable and usable throughout one’s life. The basis of selling is learning how to create compelling business relationships by creating and nurturing trust between us and the client.

To rebuild trust in business today may mean that we have to redefine our views and even our language about selling. We have to start walking in the client’s shoes and really start seeing things from their perspective and seeking to understand the values that drive the client’s decisions.

An example of this is our dependence on old terminology. Everybody is familiar with the term USP — unique selling point. In fact, everybody uses USPs. So many people use them in the same industries that they are no longer unique — they are generic selling points.

It’s because of this that I also believe that the idea of USPs is so last century. Today selling should be about what I call PCRs – points of compelling relevance’. A PCR is one that makes the prospect want to give us their left/right hand for whatever it is that we are offering them. It makes them want to sign up now and commit whatever they have for whatever it is that we are offering.

USPs tend to appeal to the intellect or the reasoning ability of a prospect — it speaks to the surface of the sale — the logical benefits available by considering the offering.

However a PCR speaks directly to the emotions or the feelings of the client where the benefit of the message is so relevant, so emotionally

compelling — that they buy now — the rationale is over-ridden in place of the emotion. That emotion can be trust, power, money, time profit, ambition, status, recognition, but it is a compelling emotional trigger. Of course, to create PCRs requires more thought and testing than simple USPs and they tend to be unique to a prospect or prospect group but the effect is immediate and unconditional.

With PCRs they do buy — and now. A case in point was when I was working with a bank recently — the retail technology section — which had been asked prior to a workshop to bring their USPs to the table. Their big USP was that their ‘credit card swiped twice as fast as any competitor’.

Amazing — there really was only one question one could ask about that: ‘So what?’ By working it through and given that their key accounts were major retailers, we identified that the PCR was that they could reduce queuing time for shop customers by 50%, improving the customer experience of the store and aiding customer retention. Now that resonated with the client.

High-trust selling is about focusing on the rapport that we establish with the prospect, the emotional bond that we create with them and most importantly, the experience that they have as a result of engaging with us.

Another element that heightens the prospect’s experience is how we align the values of what we offer to the values of the client or prospect. Values are global and abstract things — security, power, money, control, time, harmony — can all be defined as values. They can’t really be explained or broken down any further — they are what they are and they each have a unique prioritisation and resonance with each customer.

People do not share their values easily — and in some cases aren’t even sure what those values are. But by creating powerful rapport and trust with the prospect, having them willingly accept us and our connection with them and then guiding them through a series of questions — we can rapidly identify and prioritise their key buying values.

By aligning the prospect’s values with the values of the service or the product we offer we create a high trust, compelling sales environment — we truly become high trust advisers and close more business with satisfied and lifelong customers.

feature sales values

How many businesses have

absolute faith in the quality

of that ‘first contact’ with

prospects?

High Trust Selling

The collapse in the global business markets in the ‘noughties’ was followed by a collapse in trust in business and the institutions of business. In fact the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao at one point is credited with saying that now ‘trust is more valuable than gold’.

The Professional / 2

Trust is a powerful thing – nothing moves and

no-one acts without first having achieved some

form of trust in a person or an undertaking. It is

essential in business and what happens when

trust is lost is things spiral down to a stop and

we face recession. Banks don’t lend, businesses

don’t invest, jobs become insecure and

consumers don’t spend. In fact you could say that

nothing moves without trust.

Trust is a function of rapport – or what I define

as ‘that state in human relations where there is

an agreed, sometimes silent, recognition and

acceptance of common issues’. Trust comes

where there is first acceptance and where we

have moved a business relationship way beyond

simply communicating with a person to where

we connect, involve and engage with them on a

personal and compelling level.

Where there is trust there is acceptance and

where there is acceptance there is influence -

then change can happen and decisions can

be made.

If there is to be trust in business again it will

become the job of the foot soldiers – the sales

people, account managers, client relationship

directors, entrepreneurs, in fact anyone who has a

revenue responsibility by getting face to face with

prospects and clients – to re-build it, one person

at a time.

However there is a problem in selling today.

For the last number of years selling has become

transactional – that is – process focused. In good

years, people and businesses spend – they come

looking for us to give us their cash. Budgets are

not a problem – only the spending of them.

Accountability is not as big an issue as it is

when times are tougher.

Selling becomes a matter of taking orders

and lots of people enter the market place all

believing that they are excellent sales people and

account managers when in fact it’s the clients and

customers who are doing the work.

Many of these sales and account management

‘professionals’ then get promoted to managers

and directors and we find ourselves with business

where sales managers and directors manage by

spreadsheet and not through expertise, mentoring

and high staff engagement.

Selling needs to return to being

transformational – focused on people. Where

selling becomes what it should be – not about the

product or the service – but about the experience

that the prospect or customer gets through having

that product or service – and that experience

starts with ‘first contact’.

‘First contact’ is the moment that we get in

front of a prospect (maybe even before that

– our literature, our telephone staff) – when

the decisions that people make about their

investments are made.

For me – ‘first contact’ is more powerful when

it is face to face than over the phone. A contact

made when one has networked to meet them

as opposed to ‘cold calling’ them is significantly

more user friendly and open to engagement.

It’s not that I am against cold calling – it has its

place – but in the business of High Trust Selling

(and usually high-value selling) all barriers that get

between us and the prospect must be minimised.

Here’s a question – how many businesses

have absolute faith in the quality of that ‘first

contact’ with prospects? How many managers

or directors can, hand on heart, say that... “my

people are consistently the best at creating

compelling engagement with our prospects and

our customers?”

I’d say the honest answer is that we are back to

‘the vital few’ - Pareto’s People - where 20% are

doing 80% of the business.

Selling for years has lived with being the poor

step daughter of business. It is an accidental

profession – people fall into it – nobody when

they are seven years old wants to grow up to

be a sales person. Yet, when we experience the

first thrill of the first sale – how many of us would

choose to go back to something else?

We need to remind ourselves of the origin of

selling. Selling evolved from the Scandinavian

term ‘selje’ meaning ’to be of service’. Tell me now

– how many of us do not believe we are in the

business of being of service to our customers?

To do that well – really well – we have to be

able to win the customers trust.

Selling is an emotional art – it is about the

psychological and emotional dynamics of

business – the EQ or ‘emotional quotient’. Once

mastered it provides a skill that is transferable and

usable throughout one’s life. The basis of selling

is learning how to create compelling business

relationships by creating and nurturing trust

between us and the client.

Seán Weafer

Seán Weafer Consulting

www.seanweafer.com

Volume 13 Issue 3 July 2010 / 3

To re-build trust in business today may mean

that we have to re-define our views and even our

language about selling. We have to start walking

in the client’s shoes. Really start seeing things

from their perspective and seeking to understand

the values that drive the client’s decisions.

An example of this is our dependence on old

terminology.

Everybody is familiar with the terminology USPs

– Unique Selling Points. In fact, everybody uses

USPs. So many people use them in the same

industries that they are no longer Unique Selling

Points – they are Generic Selling Points.

It’s because of this that I also believe that the

idea of USPs is so last century.

Today selling should be about what I call PCRs.

For years in selling we’ve talked about USPs

or Unique Selling Points by which we could

differentiate our offerings and make ourselves

stand out to prospective customers from the

‘white noise’ of competition.

However I would submit that today it’s not

USPs but PCRs and by that I mean ‘Points of

Compelling Relevance’.

A Point of Compelling Relevance is one that

makes the prospect want to give us their left/

right hand for whatever it is that we are offering

them. It makes them want to sign up NOW and

commit whatever they have for whatever it is that

we are offering.

USPs tend to appeal to the intellect or the

reasoning ability of a prospect - it speaks to the

surface of the sale - the logical benefits available

by considering the offering.

However a PCR speaks directly to the emotions

or the feelings of the client where the benefit of the

message is so relevant, so emotionally compelling

- that they buy now - the rationale is over-ridden

in place of the emotion. That emotion can be

trust, power, money, time profit, ambition, status,

recognition but it is a compelling emotional trigger.

Of course, to create Points of Compelling

Relevance requires more thought and testing

than simple USPs and they tend to be unique to

a particular prospect or prospect group but the

effect is immediate and unconditional.

They buy. Now. A case in point was when I

was working with a bank recently – their retail

technology section - who had been asked prior

to the workshop to bring their USPs to the table.

Their big USP was that their ‘credit card swiped

twice as fast as any competitor’.

Amazing - there really was only one question

one could ask about that - ‘so what?’ By working

it through and given that their key accounts

were major retailers, we identified that the PCR

was that they could reduce queuing time for

shop customers by 50% therefore improving

the customer experience of the store and aiding

customer retention.

Do you think that resonated with the retail client?

High Trust selling is about focusing on the

rapport that we establish with the prospect, the

emotional bond that we create with them and

most importantly, the experience that they have as

a result of engaging with us.

Another element that is fundamental to the

idea of High Trust selling and which heightens

the prospects experience is how we align the

values of what we offer to the values of the

client or prospect.

Values are global and abstract things – security,

power, money, control, time, harmony – can all be

defined as values. They can’t really be explained

or broken down any further – they are what they

are and they each have a unique prioritisation and

resonance with each customer.

However people do not share their values

easily – and in some cases aren’t even sure

what those values are. But by creating powerful

rapport and trust with the prospect, having them

willingly accept us and our connection with

them and then guiding them through a series of

questions – we can rapidly identify and prioritise

their key buying values.

By aligning the prospects’ unique values with

the values of the service or the product that we

are offering – we create a high trust, compelling

sales environment – we truly become high trust

advisors and close more business with satisfied

and life-long customers.

High trust selling and high trust advisors are

what is required in today’s market. It requires a

review of our perspectives around selling, our

focus, our training and even our terminology –

and it will allow us to re-build the markets and

restore trust in global business today – one

person at a time.

Based in the City of London Seán Weafer is

an acknowledged expert on creating high trust

advisors, leaders and teams.

Visit his blog at www.seanweafer.com

The Professional / 4

There are two main ways that people are coached today: face to face with

their coaches or on the telephone. Some programmes rely wholly on one method or the other, and oth-ers have a mixture of the two.

Because I’m in London and my coach Sean Weafer is in Ireland, my programme is combining face-to-face sessions and telephone conversations. And having had one telephone session so far, I’m at a complete loss to understand how organisations think coaching over the phone can possibly work.

I can understand the why – it’s flexible and cuts out travelling – but the how is a bit suspect.

Coaching, like a lot of learning, depends to a great extent upon the relationship the coachee has with his coach. If the rapport isn’t there, achieving your goals is just so much harder; most people can remember a school teacher with whom they failed to click and the negative effect that lack of a sym-pathetic relationship had on their ability to learn in that class.

I suppose you can form a mean-ingful relationship over the phone but how is the coach meant to fully pick up on a coachee’s body lan-guage or attitude or state of mind – or even see what they’re doing – when they are on the phone? Likewise for the coachee; the coach could be doing Sudoku for all he knows, uhuh-ing whenever there’s a pause and quickly scanning a crib sheet of deeply-meaningful questions for something that looks vaguely appropriate.

After experiencing my telephone coaching session, I really do think that you need to be in the same room to coach and be coached properly, particularly in the first sessions when coach and coachee are getting to know each other.

Just like email is so easy to mis-interpret because you don’t have the visual cues helping you decide what someone is trying to say, phone conversations do suffer from a lack of that extra source of infor-mation. They also suffer because so many people dislike using them and feel ill at ease or constricted during a phone call in a way they wouldn’t during a face-to-face con-versation.

As a journalist I use the phone every day of the week, but I still feel at a slight disadvantage and prefer to talk to people in the

flesh. I always feel slightly nervous before picking up the phone and my phone coaching session was no exception.

Although I had met Weafer in person three times before the ses-sion, I still had the feeling that I was talking to someone I didn’t know, which was a bit off-putting and made it more difficult to concentrate. As did the fact that I was speaking to him from my desk, surrounding by colleagues who were no doubt ear-wigging like crazy to find out what I was talking about, rather than in the security of a meeting room.

I actually felt a bit silly saying my ultimate aim on the phone, in a way that I hadn’t in the face-to-face meetings which kind of took away a bit of its power for me.

We went through my work-sheets again and recapped on my ultimate goal and the steps I was taking to achieve it. I had managed to complete most of the action points since our last meeting, so I ticked them off – huzzah! Some of the points I hadn’t been able to achieve, because the people to whom I needed to talk had been away, so I rescheduled them for another date.

I found going through the work-book on the phone extremely dif-ficult. There are a few different sets of action points, goals etc and there were some very long pauses as I frantically scrabbled through my folder looking for the right ones, and then wrote in my new to-do lists. Silences on the phone aren’t easy to deal with – I always feel that time on the phone is for talk-ing and I feel uncomfortable if I’m not doing that; if I’m not hearing someone talking, I’m wondering what’s happened to them.

All in all, not a particularly posi-tive experience for me.

You can find out more about Sean Weafer at www.seanweafer.com

On being coachedIn the third installment of her coaching diary, Elizabeth Eyre finds a telephone coaching session hard going

COACHING FEATURE

58 TJ July 2008 www.trainingjournal.com

COACHING FEATURE

58 TJ August 2008 www.trainingjournal.com

You can find out more about Sean Weafer at www.seanweafer.com

On being coachedIn the fourth instalment of her coaching diary, Elizabeth Eyre goes from the ridiculous to the sublime

COACHING FEATURE

Wow, what a great session!

I came away from my last coaching session really fired up, enthusiastic and full of hope for the future – just like I did in my very first session – even though it was another of the dreaded telephone conversations.

In fact, the contrast with the previous telephone coaching session couldn’t have been starker. That session was marred by my unfortunate decision to stay at my desk, instead of finding a cosy corner in which to huddle. As I said in last month’s diary, the session was, for me, a bit of disaster – I felt quite exposed and ridiculous, which prevented me establishing the proper rapport with coach Sean.

Also, the nervousness inherent in using the phone – which still assails me after two decades of using it every day – befogged my mind even more and lessened the session’s impact even further.

This session was the exact opposite, largely due, I think, to the fact that I learned from my previous mistake. It really is all about location, location, location! This time, I managed to secure a meeting room (in itself a good omen as they are rarer than the proverbial round here) and had an excellent coaching experience as a result – it was almost as good as the face-to-face meetings, in fact.

As Sean so rightly pointed out when I told him how much better this session had been than the previous one, it really is vital to have coaching in a place away from prying eyes and ears – as a coachee you may be tempted to pooh-pooh the ritual of signing the privacy contract at the start of your programme as a bit of theatrical flim-flammery but you do quickly come to realise that privacy (physical and psychological), as represented by that ritual, is at the heart of successful coaching.

If I was asked to pass on one

bit of advice as a result of having experienced coaching, it would be never, EVER have a session in full view of colleagues; that’s just asking for trouble.

The session was slightly shorter than the others have been – just 35 minutes – but it was very focused and I came away with a list of actions that will take me quite a lot closer to my two main goals. Sean will, quite rightly, argue that he has always been very focused throughout the programme but the difference in my focus this time was marked and I felt I’d really achieved something in this session.

We immediately got down to a review of my action points from the last session, following the obligatory chanting of the goals mantra. I was able to tick quite a few off the list – woohoo! – although I hadn’t been able to complete a couple of tasks from the last session and had to carry them over to the next one. One of the tasks – identifying my key stakeholders – had already been held over from the session before that one so I have to really pull my finger out and get it done.

Three months in a row of not getting that goddamned list together would just be too humiliating to contemplate! Although I have some very good reasons (excuses?) for not completing the task – the dog hasn’t eaten my homework just yet – I still feel bad about not doing it.

It’s the classic gap between knowing that we should do some-thing in our own best interests and our actual behaviour. Coaches bridge that divide – they articulate what we already know in our hearts to be true – but what happens when that bridge is no longer available? Will I carry on walking the walk or will I revert to just talking the talk?

It will be interesting to find out!

OPINION

TEC

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14 TJ August 2008 www.trainingjournal.com

Sean Weafer predicts a r’evolution and how technology will help L&D practitioners take it to the boardroom

Sean Weafer is an executive coach and sales trainer who has developed the R’evolutionary Business Coaching System. He can be contacted on 00 353 87 257 9157 or via www.seanweafer.com and www.rebelisland.net

As a consultant and speaker in r’evolutionary business leadership, sales and communications (evolving

individuals and organisations through the power of ‘r’ or relationships), it continues to be frustrating to find that, after spending time developing a relationship with HR practitioners, they are often incapable of getting the same interventions that make radical change at a middle management level taken up at board level.

HR departments can be tremendous at developing change strategies, communications strategies, leadership strategies – strategies that can help make deep and meaningful change – and then fail to be heard by the people who need it most – the senior management team. It’s as if HR does not have a voice at the table of hard disciplines like finance, technology and sales.

But a change is coming. With the evolution of business values to more human values such as co-creation, communication, community, accountability and creativity, business leaders are starting to hear the message of change. This cor-responds with the rise of Generations X and Y and the continuing evolution of the Digital Age.

Leaders are starting to see that staff no longer respond to ‘command and control’ management – they are looking for more meaning and purpose in their work and have less interest in security than in personal mobility. Jobs are no longer jobs, they are contracts. The old ways of business lead-ership are changing and the leaders need help.

I predict that HR departments will have a greater say in business strategy in the future than they ever had in the past, because their contribu-tion will be critical to keeping the organisation together. But to do this we need ‘agents of the r’evolution’, men and women willing to take the messages to the boardroom and ensure that they are heard, understood and implemented.

Men and women who have the courage to demand that their message about a new way of interacting with workers is heard. That message is that the future is here and leaders need to radically up-skill themselves to be of relevance in this ‘new age’ of business.

HR and L&D professionals can become ‘agents of the r’evolution’ and help bring about a radical change in attitude about how we engage with today’s new generation of workers. But they can only do so if they get courageous enough to take risks about presenting radical new ways of working to senior management.

Playing it safe, using ‘tried and proven’ methods won’t cut it anymore. HR and L&D have to get radical, both in selling their message to senior management teams and in finding new ways of engaging and making themselves meaningful in the new world of work.

They must actively engage and promote the new technologies of the workplace. They should be creating company social networks and virtual worker or specialist communities, understanding how technologies like Twitter and virtual world simulations such as SecondLife.com can be used to recruit, retain and educate their new workers.

Instead of providing generic live trainings, they must become highly targeted in defining training needs and then, instead of employing outside consultants, use more effective, niche-targeted, blended learning methodologies such as DVD, MP3, the Internet and effective group and individual mentoring and coaching.

That means coaching and mentoring by properly trained staff, and not the usual ‘cup of coffee and a staring match’ approach but ones that are pragmatic and meaningful.

They must become ruthless with their resources, squeezing them for all they can get: using technology to the full; replacing basic train-ing with on-line role plays and simulations; encouraging not just a one-way communication with workers through the intranet but dialogue; encouraging workers to rate their services.

They should demand that senior management plays a role in getting face-to-face with this new generation of workers and sell them the message, the value, the quest that they have embarked upon by joining the firm.

Agents of the r’evolution need to be proactive in CSR matters because they, above all else, should understand the value of a successful social contribution policy in attracting and retaining the best and brightest in today’s market.

The r’evolution is here. A new generation of workers are with us, new management practices and styles of leadership are evolving and new values are driving the workplace of today. HR and L&D professionals, acting with courage and intention, can become the catalysts of this change and, by stepping forward, can take the lead in what is becoming a new world of work.