Elearning - Winter 2005 - (Page 15)

Hiring Trends: The smallest companies have the biggest plans In its Global Survey of Business Executives, November 2004, research firm McKinsey & Co. says that more than a third of its sample of executives — and nearly twothirds of those in software and I.T. services — expect to hire new employees during the next six months. Executives at the smallest companies and at companies in developing markets are the most disposed to hire, and they plan to hire more people than do their counterparts at other companies. In fact, the biggest companies are about as likely to lay off employees as to hire them. But C-level executives — CEOs, CFOs, and so forth — are far less likely than others to report that the size of their workforce will fall, a trend that may offer grounds for optimism about the economy’s prospects. Richardson Identifies Sales Obstacles through Skills Assessment Tests Most salespeople have difficulty positioning their own companies’ products against the competition – which frequently results in lost sales, according to a new study by Richardson, a sales training and consulting firm. Based on an analysis of aggregated Richardson eLearning assessment test scores from more than 50,000 sales professionals across multiple industries, Richardson identified four of the most common obstacles in sales and sales management: Salespeople scored lowest on their ability to position and KEY SALES FORCE OBSTACLES In the next six months, how do you expect your company’s workforce to change? % of respondents 4% Decrease 16% 43% Stay the same Increase 37% Don’t Know >> Positioning against the competition >> Need dialogue/questioning >> Resolving challenging objections KEY SALES MANAGER OBSTACLES >> Real time coaching differentiate their solutions from competitors, with only a 17 percent pass rate. “This score reveals how salespeople are struggling to differentiate their offerings and of course this has major implications for closing,” says Linda Richardson, President and CEO of Richardson. Identifying needs and resolving objections also pose serious obstacles for salespeople. Pass rates for these two areas were approximately 35 percent. “Each of these sales obstacles comes back to the ability of the salesperson to understand client needs. The skill of questioning, is at the heart of improving success in all of these areas. The importance of being able to question and drill down cannot be overstated,” explains Richardson. Managers scored only 29 percent in real time coaching. Richardson says, “The fact that real time coaching was identified as a major weakness is reflective of how busy managers are today and how many opportunities are being missed to develop people and improve performance. This score also indicates that many managers are not skilled and/or comfortable giving feedback which of course is vital to growth and development.” Richardson says it designed its assessment tests to simulate complex, real-life sales situations. Receiving a passing grade is determined by obtaining a score of 70% or higher. The company offers its QuickSkills curriculum, used in this study, to organizations worldwide. Further information is available from http://www.richardson.com/contactus/index.html. Increase By How Much? % of respondents 0-10% 11-25% 26-50% 6 More than 51% 2 71 21 DID YOU GET IT? Organizations that really get the link between learning and performance have stepped up to the plate with, if not increased investment, at least increased efforts to align learning with business goals, target learning resources at mission-critical competencies, and measure the effectiveness of learning and the efficiency of the learning organization in delivering improved performance objectives. Source: ASTD 2004 State of the Industry Report Elearning! Winter 2005 15 http://www.richardson.com/contactus/index.html http://www.richardson.com/contactus/index.html

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Elearning - Winter 2005

Elearning - Winter 2005 Contents Editor’s Note News & Analysis Witness Buys Blue Pumpkin Deals in the Making People on the Move Trendline Executives Rate Importance of Training Requirements for Support Put Pressure on Tech Companies Hiring Trends: Small Companies, Big Plans Measuring the Return on Your E-earning Investments Building Interactivity into E-learning Partnering with Colleges and Universities for E-learning Content Strategy VoIP Voice Over IP Case Study: LMS Content Development & Collaboration Tools Case Study: ePerformance Last Word

Elearning - Winter 2005

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