Learning Enthusiast

I learnt about the latest education buzzword the other day. From an aspirant Asst Head no less.

At a recent conference, English school bosses were derided for coining the phrase ‘teachability‘. Its context; do teachers want to learn?

They also talked about wanting to promote ‘learning enthusiasts’.

Apparently, teachers in this camp exhibit three traits;

• constant discussion and sharing of best-practice
• working in all areas throughout the school, not just their own dept
• out-of-hours involvement

I instantly thought of Sales teams. How many reps show up in any, let alone all, of these three?

When it comes to best-practice improvements, can those performing be defined by two poles; the quiet lone wanderer or the gregarious altruist? With by far the largest group being the former? How many salespeople genuinely indulge in any two-way debate around best-practice?

What about the number of reps that communicate with departments where the typical person does not have an expense account?

And how much do they put in outside the nine-to-five?

A couple of years ago, I was running a brief session at a client’s sales conference. A time-filler really, but one aligned with a key initiative. I’m often asked to do this kind of spontaneous event.

At one point, I asked the assembled twitch of reps (anxious to head bar-wards no doubt) how many were currently reading a sales book.

Not a single soul put up their hands.

Any kind of businessy book then? Still nothing. One guy was wading through some well-known nonsense American self-help bible. That was it.

Where are all the sales learning enthusiasts? Surely if you are one, you will easily out-perform and out-earn your peers.