The School Assembly Turn

I suffered the typical surface scraping of an evening radio football talk show. This time putting to right the fact that no English manager has won the EPL, and there seems an absence of any likely to come through and take the game by storm. Newspaper columnists, administrators, coaching badge holders and ex-pro ‘personalities’ lined up to say as much as possible whilst saying nothing of substance.

Key themes included that fêted English players don’t want to go abroad, cannot learn a language, turn their noses up at young-age levels coaching and prefer the lazy route of easy pundit cash.

One scribe suggested that as a player you have so much time off you should surely use this to embrace coaching development. Just like he did at uni or later as a grad in his field, I bet.

It was all rather a deflating listen.

One reminiscent of an occasional conversation I’ve had with leaders of sales teams.

The paradox being that a rep may well want to work on skills that further their career, yet this seems impossible to do without adversely affecting the day job which jeopardises reaching (smashing) your target.

One way I’ve suggested (and made happen myself) remembers the school assembly turn.

From reception class to post-grad seminar and all stops in between, pupils often get to run a spot in front of their peers. Predominantly in a subject (or at least a slant) of your choosing. Happy to do the extra homework to make a decent stab of it.

This can transfer readily into the sales meeting.

In the same way individual footballers could be encouraged to prepare for and take an element of a training session, salespeople could take turns to tackle a specific area for a half-hour stint as team trainer.

Counter an emerging competitive threat, handle a stubborn objection, pitch the key nuance of a new offer.

Engage the chief exec, the single most important demo trick, uncover critical pain.

A winning graphic, shaping the timeline, recruiting a champ.

There’s plenty of choice.

I have seen one topic regularly chosen for such treatment. The celebratory regaling of a big win.

There must be a health warning attached to this one though. Without disciplined framing, they often descend into a stand-up-comic-stroke-big-I-am waste of time.

You might be surprised at how many (and who) of the rank-and-file volunteer too. Press-ganging made a thing of the past.

As my blogging aims to connect salespeople to the aspiration of becoming a fine ceo, here is a natural opportunity to see those who share in this ambition shine.