There are several major selling models that most organizations chose as their core selling approach including Consultative Selling, SPIN Selling, Strategic Selling, Challenger Selling, and Strategic Business Selling.  They all have many positive aspects and they all have detractors or limiters.

If you have embraced social selling, then you know everything is different.  The foundational laws of strategic business selling physics have changed and there will be three types of sales professionals in the world of 2017 and beyond; those who will cling to the “old ways”, those who have no clue what to do, and those who embrace all of the tools available to achieve dramatic success.

Consider for a moment, one of the most significant trends in the ecosystem of Talent Development:

• In 1990, the challenge to most Talent Development professionals was how to squeeze all of the stand-up content in five days of live training.
• By 1995, the challenge to most Talent Development professionals was how to squeeze all of the stand-up content in three days of live training.
• By 2000, when eLearning and “CBT” started to become mainstream, the challenge to most Talent Development professionals was how to blend eLearning with stand-up training to reduce the amount of time “away from the job” to two-days.
• In 2005, most Talent Development professionals started asking “what can you do in a day?”…
• In 2010, most Talent Development professionals started asking “what can you do in half-a day?”
• And now, in 2017, too many Talent development professionals are asking, “We’ve purchased this library of eLearning content, what can you do in a two hour workshop to supplement it?”

Despite the fact that the eLearning marketplace is contracting, the global spend of all eLearning training in 2017 will be over $45 billion.

At the same time this trend of eLearning vs. classroom vs. blended learning is evolving, so are the competencies business organizations are looking to develop.  Business Leadership skills such as developing team talent, coaching and feedback, understanding personality styles, leading change, leading innovation, etc. continue to be critical as they relates to the execution of business strategy through people.  Another “hot” competency is Business Acumen; the ability to understand how a company makes money and make the right business decisions to execute the strategy to achieve goals and objectives.

Unfortunately for many Executives, Vice Presidents, and Directors of the lines of business that are responsible for setting and executing strategy, Talent Development professionals are becoming more disconnected from the business and relying on eLearning to solve the talent development needs of employees because nobody has the time to learn effectively anymore.

It is important to recognize and understand that crappy, poorly developed, and poorly executed eLearning is ineffective and ultimately will hurt business results.

A case in point…

I was recently engaged by a client from the healthcare industry to perform an assessment of a Business Acumen library of eLearning.  The client is trying to leverage a multimillion investment in this library by creating a “curated playlist” of effective modules to cover basic concepts such as reading an Income Statement and Balance sheet.

I was shocked by the poor quality, ineffective instructional design, and lack of context to the application of the content.  The eLearning content teaches participants how to read an income statement for a small, independently owned bicycle shop outside of London, England.

Huh?  How in the world is a scientist of a major healthcare company in the US responsible for a $300 million budget – and who desperately needs real Business Acumen skills – going to learn anything from hearing a cartoon character explain how to understand financial data of a bicycle shop?

The problem is that when the participants are finished the modules, the Talent Development organization can sit back and give Business Acumen a big “checkmark” and cross that need right off of their to-do list.

But participants won’t be able to do anything different, won’t be able to make better business decisions, and could perhaps make a bad business decision!

When that happens, Executives will think even less of the Talent Development function, and in the future will either not rely on them for help or worse yet save the money for other things leaving the employees with less skills, capabilities, and abilities.

Business Leaders, Talent Development Professionals, and HR Business Partners, there are better ways!  Don’t take the easy way out. Invest the time and effort and look into alternative methods of virtual learning such live webinars, business simulations, artificial intelligence coaching, custom videos, and even good old fashioned books.

I urge you to consider some of these ideas before you wake up one day and wonder why your company is underperforming and close to being out of business.

 The Hidden Dangers of Strategic Success

Over the past several weeks, I have had the privilege of working with very successful business leaders at very successful, established organizations as part of my work developing Business Acumen skills.  Business Acumen is a critical competency in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous business world.  In every Business Acumen training workshop that I have conducted so far this year, we utilize sophisticated business simulation to develop and practice new skills.  As part of our debrief and review process, we analyze the data from the simulation exercises to identify trends for research, make our simulations better, and help our clients notice tendencies in behaviors that could lead to the addition of further skill development.

In reviewing the analytics from workshops delivered in 2017, I have noticed a statically relevant and interesting trend:

Established leaders at established companies spend more time focusing on sustainability of established brands than they do focusing on enhancing the value proposition of what got them to a leadership position in the first place.

In one of our core business simulation platforms, AGES™, participants take over a portfolio of established and new products.  They are able to choose a new value proposition to customers that creates differentiation and enables their simulated organizations to achieve various metrics of success.  More than 85% of the time, established leaders in established companies with established products continued to invest in Marketing, Sales, and service to support market share instead of investing in innovation and R&D to either launch new versions of existing products or bring new and enhanced products to market.

Think of it this way; instead of Apple launching the iPhone 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, they decided to stick with the iPhone 1 and try to convince customers of smartphones that the iPhone 1 was the best in the market through tons of marketing and salesmanship.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.  I then went back and took a look at the data from new leaders working in newer companies with newer products.  The result was almost the exact opposite.  They invested heavily in upgrading and launching new products and used marketing investment to create awareness, not just sustainability of the brand.  In some cases I can share that their decision making bordered on recklessness as they were bringing new products to market faster than their customers could absorb, but they were true to their strategy and focus.

So essentially, if you are an established leader at an established company with established products, you need some “strategy awareness” to make sure you aren’t becoming complacent.

Here are 3 key learnings for Business Acumen application:

Don’t forget your value proposition to your customers; being defensive will hurt you

No matter if you are the low cost play, the customer focus play, or the innovation play executing the right strategy to the right customer segment helped you achieve success.  Don’t stop and don’t forget what got you there.  Becoming defensive and trying to sustain share on yesterday’s value proposition will hurt you in the long run and possibly put you out of business.

Benchmark your competition and determine if they are being defensive or proactive

You have other competitors in your market and they also have a value proposition they are fighting to deliver against you.  Establish regular benchmark intervals to see how they are doing and the degree to which they are focusing on sustaining their brand vs. growing their brand.  In either case, it is a signal to you and your strategy on what to do.

Listen to your customers, they will tell you what to do

All too often large, established companies stop listening to their customers because they have all of the answers. Don’t let that be you.  If you are stuck between sustaining your brand and growing it, ask your customers because in this case, they will have the best answers.