Sales training is one of the biggest focus areas of many talent development and sales enablement strategies. Sales training includes methodology, selling skills, process, sales management, tools, frameworks, and product knowledge. However, while these competencies are important, there's an emerging and critical need to prioritize Business Acumen training to the top of the list.

During the past year, Advantexe has designed, developed, and delivered major sales training engagements for some of the most renowned sales teams on the planet. All of our engagements include a significant component of Business Acumen for Sales Professionals that provides the foundational skills to understand their customers’ business better and to also understand how their own companies generate profitable revenue.

Every business simulation developed for our clients is designed with a set of learning objectives and outcomes in mind. For the most part, these objectives revolve around helping learners to better understand business acumen topics such as developing and executing business strategies, reading and applying financial statements, enhancing problem-solving and critical thinking abilities, and understanding cross-functional decision-making.

But should improved business acumen skills really be the objective of a simulation? It’s kind of crazy to think about, but should the outcome of a simulation-centric learning journey be something different? Could the true magic of business simulations be a learning environment that helps participants focus on how to be more collaborative and better team members when dealing with individuals with diverse backgrounds and personal goals?

Whether your new hire is a fresh graduate or someone with years of experience, understanding how your company makes money is essential for their – and your - success.

It’s essential the onboarding process provides new hires with the business skills and tools they need to impact your company’s bottom-line performance quickly and efficiently. For that to happen, new hires need to understand how your company makes money.

There are seven key areas of business acumen all new hires should be exposed to:

1. What is our strategy?
2. How do we generate revenue?
3. What drives our costs of goods sold?
4. What are our gross margins and what are we targeting?
5. What impact am I making on our operating expenses, in particular my function?
6. What is our profitability?
7. How is our cash flow?

It’s a hot August night…thoughts are unfocused as there is still a lot of summer left. But... there is a nagging feeling in the back of your mind that the fall, the end of Q3, the beginning of Q4, and the new year of 2024 are accelerating around the track faster than we want to think about.

So, as the weekend approaches, what a great time for some everyday reflections through the lens of Business Acumen to keep the mind entertained and refreshed for what will be coming in a few weeks…

• LinkedIn has an overall of 675 million users from all over the world. Of those, 310 million of them are monthly active users. 165 million users come from the United States while 206 million come from Europe. 62 million come from India, and 50 million come from China. And yet every day in our Strategic Business Selling programs that train sales professionals to build a business network, only 28% of the salespeople in our programs believe there is any value in long-term social selling.
• My local supermarket is charging for bags. It’s only .10$ a bag but when you think about it, it has a double impact on the financials of the store. They are generating revenues (top line) and eliminating expenses to increase profit (bottom line) simultaneously! Hmmm... 
• Auto telephone dialers for cold calling are the worst. Companies that use these systems need to rethink their strategy. You may get a few leads here and there, but unprepared telemarketers aimlessly calling the wrong markets and segments will kill your brand. And other brands as well!
• I spent over $7 for a 30-ounce bottle of Mayonnaise. I looked up the gross margin on Google and the research said the margins were around 14%. Not sure how that is possible. It goes to show you that if one element of the supply chain (eggs) goes out of whack it can hurt an entire product line and category.

The first half of the year is over! The results are in the books and it’s time for many businesses to turn their attention to the second half of the year and beyond including initial planning for 2024.

Most people in the United States are going to relax, have a barbecue, do some binge-watching of some great shows on their favorite streaming service, and maybe do a little preparation for returning to work next week.

For your reading pleasure and to help the continuous process of building and strengthening thebusiness acumen skills of our more than 10,000 subscribers, Advantexe is pleased to share some business impacts of the holiday through the lens of business acumen. Much like we teach in our business simulation-centric learning programs, we present perspectives around the business levers that can be pulled and then share insights into the impacts of those levers. Be safe and enjoy!