I met with both a director of sales and the training coordinator at a major electronics company to develop bottom-line measurement. The company's business goals included increasing revenue by 20 percent and maintaining current levels of profitability. The business challenges included an over-reliance on demonstrations to sell products. In addition, the reps were getting trapped at the technical level and had limited influence with actual decision makers.
The company decided to implement a consultative selling skills program. Our team selected two leading and two lagging indicators from data available on the company's contact management system and accounting system.
The leading indicators included establishing three-by-three contacts (by calling people at executive, department, and user levels) and tracking how often an actual decision maker was present for system demonstrations. The vice president of sales lamented, "We have a tendency to demo for the janitor." More importantly, improvements in those areas would result in progress toward the revenue goal.
The lagging indicators included tracking increases (in dollars) in the size of the systems sold and changes in the ratio of product presentations to closed deals (win rate). Those measures were both manageable and highly strategic.
Objectives that sound like galvanizing, synergizing, and energizing are well-intentioned, but nearly impossible to measure. By tracking both causes and effects, we ensure that a measurement is grounded in the most tangible behaviors and outcomes.
Like running a marathon, meaningful measurement gives training and development staying power in an organization. The best approach is to simplify. Just one or two leading and lagging indicators of improved performance may be all that is needed to run the race and cross the finish line a winner.
ąDonald Kirkpatrick, an internationally recognized expert in the field of training program development and evaluation, introduced his four-level model of evaluating training in 1959. The levels, which are still used today, are 1 Reaction, 2 Learning, 3 Behavior, and 4 Results.
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