Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

For coaching to be effective, three things need to be true:

1. There must be a skills gap to coach
2. The coach must be willing and able to close that gap
3. The ‘coachee’ must accept there is a gap and be willing to accept you as a coach

If any one of these is absent the coaching will fail.

In the context of sales coaching:

1. You must be able to accurately define what is missing and the person you are coaching must agree it is missing. Moreover, it must be relevant to achieving the objectives of the job at the time. Role plays are not always popular with salespeople but managed properly they are the only way, besides field accompaniment, to coach sales skills. Keep them to 10 minutes with a tight brief that focusses on the behaviours you want to observe. Video them and review them objectively alongside the salesperson. Start with the positives and avoid judgemental comments that might make them defensive. Try and get them to spot what is happening rather than what is right, wrong, good or bad.

2. For many successful salespeople the next natural step is sales management. Whenever a salesperson approached me to join the management development programme my first question was always “why are you successful?”. If they were unable to dissect their own performance they were unlikely to be able to hold a mirror up to their staff and help them to be better salespeople. The usual answers were “I work hard” and “customers seem to like me”. I would even get “I don’t want to know, in case I jinx myself”. Selling is a learned skill, not an art and not what you might observe on ‘The Apprentice’. You must be able to identify exactly what is happening in any interaction and your main objective must be to make your salespeople better – not to show off your own expertise or close deals for them.

3. I don’t believe in constructive criticism. All criticism is judgemental and damaging to the coaching process. You must analyse what happened objectively and where necessary agree with the salesperson how they could have achieved a different outcome. You need to catch people doing things right because knowing your strengths is often more important than knowing your weaknesses. Unfortunately, some people are just not wired to work this way and your attempts to coach them will probably fail. You will not be able to develop a salesperson if they don’t respect you as a coach or if they are not able or willing to improve.

Last year Jola won the contract to supply our Broadsoft offering to a voice and data company, for them to resell to their customers. We were up against three other suppliers and the process took several months and many meetings. To sell the product he had hired two salespeople from a competitor.

I would guess they were earning around £25k basic plus £25k commission. The second one left last month, six months in, the first lasted only three. Total investment by our partner of around £50,000, plus agency fees.

He had spent months selecting the right supplier but only a couple of hours on the most expensive bit – the salespeople. So how can he prevent this from happening again? Here are a few ideas. 

1. Decide before you start recruiting what skills and experience you need. For example, if you will want them to sell a complex or evolving product then look for people who score high on ability to learn, or already sell the exact product. What behaviours are you testing for? Write them down and think of questions that would elicit positive or negative evidence of this behaviour. If you’re struggling, talk to your best salespeople and ask them what they do that makes them successful. Only the best salespeople will be able to articulate this. Most will say things like “I work hard” and “customers like me”. If they can more forensically describe their successful traits then think about involving them in the process. They might be your next sales manager.

2. You will find a lot of candidates just by mining your network, however if you do use an agency make sure you brief them thoroughly on the profile. Give them feedback on unsuitable candidates that get through and make sure they understand that if they keep doing it (I used to operate three strikes), you will stop using them. Recruiters can be cost effective if used properly, otherwise you might as well just trawl the online job sites yourself.

3. Have a defined process and understand what you are testing for at each stage. I would do the CV interview on the phone (or via the agency), followed by a behavioural interview. If they got through that they would come back and do a role play for which they would be given a brief in advance. The role play should last no more than 10 minutes - make sure they are briefed just to ask questions (no product dumping). This is a vital stage and you will need an assistant (MD, Sales Director, top salesman) to be the buyer, while you observe. You are looking for problem/criteria seeking questions and good testing understanding and active listening behaviour. If all they do is ask fact seeking questions they have underdeveloped sales skills. If you still hire them you are taking a risk that they can learn and your company will need to commit to coach them. The last stage is for them to present their ‘first 100 days’. This has the double benefit of validating their presentation skills and making sure they hit the ground running when they start. Candidates that reach this stage are normally 90% of the way to being offered a job.

4. In the behavioural interview, stick to example-based questions and avoid the hypothetical i.e. ‘give me a recent work example of when you…”, rather than ‘what would you do if…? People that are used to getting through interviews will have pat answers for all your hypothetical questions but the real evidence comes out when they talk about what actually happened. Explain before you start what you are going to do and keep dragging them back to real events. Probe their answers, “what did you say next…?”, “what was the outcome?”, ‘what was your actual role in the sale?”.

5. Talk to someone they have worked for in the past - before you hire them. Ask them for a boss (probably the job before their current one) and a telephone number. These days written references tell you very little and often arrive after the person has already started in the position. You may be surprised how much people will tell you on the phone if you ask the right question. I always found “what areas of coaching do you think I should focus on?’, worked quite well.

Advice given to me by a venture capitalist during my first start-up. If you really do have to raise money from business angels, banks, venture capital companies or private equity then do it long before you start to run out of money. The fundraising process will normally take at least six months so make sure you are not about to go bust just before you close the deal. People who lend money or buy equity in your venture are businesses too and if they see you are desperate you might find the terms of the deal changing – or they might see this as poor management and pull out altogether. Another mistake entrepreneurs make is over-egging the forecast upon which investors are basing their valuations. If you are not making your numbers during the fundraising process you will make your potential investors nervous. Again, they may pull out or change their offer. 

If you can avoid external funding completely I would recommend it or at least until you have a proven business that can stand on its own two feet. Then you are raising money for growth not survival and this puts you in the driving seat with potential investors. If you believe in your business then back it with your own money because if you’re right, anyone buying your equity right at the start is getting a real bargain. In my first start up we funded the business initially by selling equity to friends and family and re-mortgaging our houses. 

A final note on venture capital funds and private equity. Generally I don’t believe in the concept of clever-money. This is where a potential investor professes an expertise in your type of business or industry and attaches a premium to this by way of a lower valuation or monthly charge. Most are not great at running businesses or at least not yours. They are there to provide you with money and help with further fund-raising if needed. They have a seat on your board to protect their investment, so be careful about letting them meddle in your business. Check all the drags, tags, rights and restrictions in the contract and think carefully before you agree to pay any management fees. 

The hosted voice market has become extremely competitive but resellers can avoid joining the ‘race for the bottom’ on price by choosing a technology partner that helps them to differentiate. Very few suppliers understand the needs of both their channel partners and their end business customers.

More for less

A good example is handsets. With thousands of devices capable of being connected to cloud voice systems, businesses are looking for help to select models that exactly meet their requirements at the right price.

A Polycom VVX 600 costs around £100 more than the VVX 411 but if your staff need to use a headset it can work out cheaper. This is because the VVX 600 is Bluetooth enabled so compatible with hundreds of devices. A good quality monaural Bluetooth headset costs less than £20, compared to around £200 for a good quality wired headset. In addition, it has the benefit of not being tethered to the desk phone, giving users the freedom to roam around the office.

Of course our industry is awash with regulation so I have tried to focus on areas that are connected and help us think about the shape of our businesses in the future. In summary, the UK government and the EU are taking steps to increase internet speeds and reduce cost. This will accelerate the adoption of business cloud products and the Internet of Things (IoT).

1. Openreach to be legally separated from BT

Ok so this is probably not going to have much of an impact in 2017 but it is worthy of comment. Openreach has performed poorly in terms of service levels and network refresh and Ofcom have had enough. Although they have fallen short of insisting on a structural separation, this should at least see the UK’s local loop freed from the influence of its biggest customer. The best case for business and Openreach in the long term, is probably that Openreach move completely away from copper and roll-out fibre to the premises. This would enable them to sell off 80% of their property and most of their copper, funding the move to fibre. It would also result in fewer staff and a more reliable network.

2. UK government intervention with 5G and FTTP

Buried in the 2016 Autumn Statement was funding and tax holidays for companies competing with Openreach on fibre roll-out. Under pressure from the National Infrastructure Commission, the government has committed £1bn to 5G trials and is hinting at even more funding in the next budget. 4G has only been a partial success in the UK. Although it offers faster speeds and a more stable signal, it is expensive compared to a physical connection and the UK is only 54^th in the world in terms of coverage. 5G is expected to offer speeds of up to 300Mbs and the government's target is 2025 for full coverage. For further information click here. 

3. Abolition of mobile roaming charges in the EU

At present mobile operators can charge travellers to European member states up to 19 cents (14p) a minute for outgoing calls, five cents for incoming calls, six cents per text message, and 20 cents per megabyte of data downloaded, on top of their normal tariff. In April 2017 those costs will be reduced to five cents per minute, two cents per SMS and five cents per MB. Roaming charges will be completely removed by June 2017. This is a significant benefit to consumers in EU member states and is likely to lead to an acceleration in usage, particularly data usage, which is being used more and more to carry voice, video and texts. Companies with devices throughout the EU that need to be connected to the internet will no longer need to manage carriers in different countries.

Three technology trends that are likely to create opportunities in 2017

If you google this subject you will find everything from 3D printing to virtual reality. I shall focus on technological innovations that will bring business opportunities, particularly in the UK SME market and especially for the voice and data channel. In summary, as the reliability and speed of internet connections improve, so the adoption of business cloud applications will accelerate. As mobile data becomes affordable and manageable so more data SIMs will be embedded in all sorts of devices throughout the world.

The speed and cost of internet connectivity

The real cost per MB of data decreases every year and it is usually only inefficient markets and effective monopolies that keep prices high. Last year, Vodafone hit out at what it perceived as BT’s excessive profit-making from Openreach. Vodafone were able to produce figures purporting to show that BT made excess profits of £1bn from regulated services in 2015, equalling the amount set aside by the government for digital infrastructure in the Autumn Statement. As discussed in previous blogs, Ofcom’s intervention to separate Openreach from BT is likely to lead to a more progressive strategy. Together with EU regulation of the mobile networks this will cause dramatic reductions in the cost of internet and faster, more reliable services over mobile and fixed connections.

The cloud

In 2005, the front page of Comms Business depicted a gravestone on which was inscribed “RIP PBX”. It was more than 10 years before the first failure of a major PBX manufacturer but cloud voice is now established as first choice for SMEs needing a phone system. The market leader, Broadsoft, has around 15m seats installed worldwide – more than all the other vendors combined. Whereas UK business once lagged the world in cloud adoption, as internet connectivity speeds and reliability have improved so UK SMEs have caught up. Today around 80% are using at least one cloud application in their business.

Social trends generating opportunities in 2017

Of course, there are many social trends we could talk about here. I have chosen three that relate to business and are connected. In summary, there are more companies starting up in the UK and fewer of these are failing. The working environment has changed and continues to change, assisted by technology and a more flexible approach to working practices.

Businesses starting up 

In 2016 there were 5.5m businesses in the UK up from 5.4m in 2015 and 5.25m the year before that. 99% of these business employ fewer that 250 people and 96% fewer than 10 people. The proportion of businesses employing any staff at all has been stuck at 24% for the last 3 years and down 1% compared to 2013. In 2015, 383,000 businesses started trading and 252,000 businesses ceased trading. Apart from a small spike in 2009 the business death-rate has always been around 10% however, the difference, 131,000 in 2015, is the largest since records began.

The prominent trend is for very small ‘freelancers’ working in cooperation with each other or for larger organisations. They have very low start-up costs and tend not to directly employ people. Consequently, they are less likely to go bust in slow periods. In 2013 women constituted only 16% of UK board directors and by the end of 2015 this had increased to 26%. This could either mean that more established companies are appointing women to their boards or that most new businesses in the UK are being started up by women.

Location independent working (LIW)

At the end of 2015 1.5m workers in the UK stated their primary place of work was not the office - up 20% in a decade. Many would have expected this to be higher but until now technology and acceptability have applied friction to this trend. Some would say that cloud technology is essential for productive LIW and UK business has been slow to adopt the cloud when compared to business in the US. With fast internet connectivity widely available and the growth of inexpensive reliable business apps, the brakes are off and we can expect LIW to accelerate in the next few years.

With advances in hosted telephony and increasing demand for compliance-based systems, the call recording market remains buoyant. There are a range of solutions to suit all business types and budgets. Cloud-based call recording has several distinct advantages over on premise alternatives as follows:

It is generally cheaper.

Often businesses don’t need all their extensions monitored and paying by the month per extension is easier and cheaper than installing a server onsite connected to a PBX.

It is more secure.

Any onsite system needs to be firewalled and backed-up, either online or by physically taking backups and locking them in a fireproof safe.

It is more flexible.

Certain professions (lawyers, IFAs) must record their calls and onsite systems tie them to the office. Cloud-based recording means they can work anywhere and still have their calls recorded.

It is more scalable.

Onsite systems need to be physically upgraded whereas a cloud-based system never runs out of capacity.

At the right price, many companies will opt for call recording even if there is no regulatory requirement to do so. It is essential if a company wants to take orders over the phone and is a great tool for training customer support and sales people. 

Of course pricing is important and suppliers that try to extract too much margin from their resellers will lose out because their channel partners will simply not be able to win business at a reasonable margin. However, having the best margin is no good if you don’t win the business. Here are some ways in which your best suppliers will improve your conversion rate with customers and new prospects. 

1. Software tools and automation

Smaller resellers will rarely want to deal directly with carriers and the networks don’t have the capability to properly support more than a handful of super-resellers, distributors and aggregators. This means bespoke pricing (e.g. leased line quotes), orders and support often have to pass through an intermediary. Suppliers that don’t automate these processes with portals and APIs are injecting significant time and potential for error. When responding to a prospect or customer need, speed and accuracy are often key factors in winning the business

2. Competitive analysis and benchmarking

Resellers often don’t have the resource to constantly monitor the market and their rate of order may not be sufficient to give them enough first hand data to shape their proposition and beat the competition. Suppliers with hundreds of reseller partners should be harvesting feedback from their partner network and conducting their own research. The output should be constant price benchmarking and helpful documents lke competition matrices – comparing pricing and features to your main competitors.

3. Pre-sales technical and sales support

Pure wholesalers cannot afford to supply this resource except for the largest bids. Even then you might be disappointed in the quality of sales skills and technical knowledge available to help you answer queries and handle objections on your way to winning an order. Again because of the relative rate of order, your supplier may be able to justify this resource where you may not. You will be able to trust your best suppliers to respond quickly and accurately and often you will involve them, as part of your team, in conference calls and meetings.

The company that supplies the internet connection to an SME is often the first choice for cloud applications like online backup, 365 and cloud voice. Many SMEs will default to BT even though they may not offer the best and most cost-effective solution. Local IT and Telecoms providers can capture this business and secure future cloud opportunities, by following three simple rules.

Rule 1 – Use the waiters list

If your SME cannot currently get fibre broadband or justify an Ethernet circuit, contact your connectivity partner who can add them to the waiters list. As soon as fibre broadband becomes available, you will be alerted and can contact your customer with the details.

Rule 2 – Monitor movers and shakers

Around 1% of UK SMEs move office every month and half again will open an additional office. There are 5.5m SMEs in the UK so that’s 82,500 opportunities to sell a new connectivity circuit every month. Our most successful Partners have regular (3 to 6-monthly) scheduled reviews with customers where they get wind of early plans for expansion. Also consider regular emails re-enforcing the portfolio of products you can quote for.

Rule 3 – Monitor contract end-dates

The cost of bandwidth is halving every year and BT are very active in re-signing Ethernet and fibre broadband customers to new terms before they come out of contract. Although these new terms look favourable, they are often much more expensive than the new market price. Find out the expiry dates of your customers’ connectivity, make a note in the diary and bring it up at every review. BT are now set up to accept a phone call as a legally binding contract and many SMEs have been caught out by this. Advise your customers not to agree to anything until they have spoken to you.