3 Coaching Value Drivers of Data Visualization

One thing front line managers today are not short on is data. Each day brings a new stream of spreadsheets, reports, tables, analyses, and other data sources designed to help managers make better decisions and run their business. The reality is that all of this data is not necessarily having the desired effect. In fact in a lot of cases, it’s creating the opposite outcome—overloading managers with data to the point it’s taking time away from their top priority of developing their people.

Case in point: During the Vietnam war, a trend emerged in which fighter pilots were being shot down at an increasing rate during dog fights. After analyzing cockpit data, researchers found that a group of pilots who shut off their alarm systems after only 2 or 3 alarms went off so they could focus on the task at hand had better survival rates than their counterparts who left all alarms on. What this suggested was that after a certain point, too much data and warning systems can have a counterproductive effect. This showed that it’s vital to prioritize the most important, urgent information and manage the information flow in order to help pilots focus on their primary task—flying the plane and fighting the enemy.

As this relates to managers and coaching, there are 3 key value areas where data visualization can have a dramatic impact on sales performance, employee satisfaction and retention, and professional development of sales team members.

1. Visualized data is easier to digest. Just like food, data that’s hard to digest can give you heartburn, or leave you feeling queasy and unsure of what to do about it. When managers are given the right data in ways that are meaningful to the task at hand (eg, for coaching) it helps them focus on decision making and prioritization instead of slicing, dicing, and dissecting a lot of disparate data points. Visualized data in coaching applications should be designed to help managers focus on specific tasks that guide and enable better coaching. 
2. Priorities and warning signs present themselves faster. One of the big challenges many managers have with the current flow of data is that it’s just data. It’s usually not organized in a way that’s designed to help prioritize important and urgent needs or opportunities. In contrast, visualized data presents “insights” in a way that’s designed to draw attention to issues, opportunities, and trends that help managers see these things earlier. Quicker visibility typically gives them more time to react, plan, and take the right action, which results in better sales outcomes and efficiencies. 
3. Collaboration is easier with visualized data. The concept of collaborative coaching relies heavily on the manager and the sales professional participating in and taking ownership for outcomes from coaching. This collaboration can be significantly more challenging when using data from multiple disparate sources, having to interpret it in order to gain consensus, and then factoring in variability of the type and source of each data point. Much of this process is worked out in the design of the data visualization elements of an application. This process takes a lot of the guesswork and debate out of the equation and places the focus on performance, development, and results of the sales professional.

If you’re considering adopting a coaching platform or application, we recommend looking beyond the basic support functions and looking closely at how the solution uses data visualization to tell the story. You should be able to instantly gain insights and draw conclusions at a glance. These insights and conclusions about priorities and opportunities are the value drivers that propel sales performance and enable managers to focus on their primary job—coaching to develop their people.

About the author 

For over 25 years Gary Marinko has worked in a consultative capacity with Fortune 500 companies solving complex business challenges with technology. More recently Gary has combined his expertise in technology with sales training in the life sciences industry to bring focused value creation to key Proficient Learning customers. In his current role, he leads the interactive business unit at Proficient Learning, which focuses on developing sales enablement software and mobile solutions that help sales teams and managers accelerate performance and efficiency.

4 Key Rules to Releasing an App to Your Teams

It’s the moment of truth. You and your team have worked hard to select and customize an app, and now you’re releasing it to your internal teams. Here are 4 key rules to keep in mind!

Select an ingenious app
How do you truly select a good app that will meet all the needs of a particular team? This starts with understanding your internal team’s world. Obtain information and first-hand experience to properly select and customize an app that acts as a solution. Another key factor is to select something that is intuitive. Living in a world where everything has an app, users are developing certain expectations. Those that are non-intuitive will have a short shelf life. 

Develop an effective plan

Nothing is more important than having a solid deployment plan. Have you developed a plan that includes all parties and that will not inconvenience those helping or those receiving? Keep in mind that adaptability during this process is important as well. We can attest that with technology things can change at any moment. The best thing to do is to prepare for all possibilities.

Make sure training is fundamental

Now that you’ve selected and customized your app and developed a release plan for the team, your main focus shifts to providing the best-possible training. This can include live sessions, virtual sessions, and more importantly, follow up. Give your internal teams the chance to familiarize themselves with the app on their own time. Be sure to provide useful resources to help ensure people are comfortable with the tool and truly understand how to use it.

Create a supportive experience

Support is essential in this process. Once you have your app up and running, your responsibility to your internal customers doesn’t end there. Technology is fluid and always changing, and the app must continually improve. The best way to do this is to obtain feedback from your internal customers and reflect that feedback in the app’s updates. Meet with your app partner to ensure that any enhancements they make take the internal customer feedback into consideration. More importantly, provide an excellent support team that will help the internal teams when in need. This will help create a positive support experience and increase the use of the app to achieve the business goals desired.

About the Author

MeeAe Strosnider–Implementation Manager

As the Implementation Manager at Proficient Learning, MeeAe Strosnider is responsible for managing the implementation of mCoach solutions with a diverse range of companies, coordinating end-user training that drives solution adoptions and satisfactions, and managing customer expectations to ensure full utilization of the mCoach solution. MeeAe collaborates with Product Management, Sales, and Development to support customer implementations and produce high-quality deliverables that meet Proficient Learning’s expectations for excellence. MeeAe previously held various management positions in different fields from pharmacy to retail sales and her background include extensive sales, customer service, and implementation experience.  She brings her enthusiasm for process and new development to her role at Proficient Learning. MeeAe graduated from Richmond, The American International University in London, with a bachelor’s degree in Communications and Media.  

3 Reasons Coaching Belongs in Your Sales Technology Stack

I have sold technology for over 20 years in both the enterprise and stand-alone solution space. In my experience, one of the biggest unresolved strategic decisions companies continue to face is whether to utilize functionality in existing enterprise platforms, or consider a “best of breed” stand-alone solution and then integrate it. Determining an ROI on this decision can be tricky at best and downright impossible at worst.
The underlying challenge most sales leaders face is prioritizing what they want their managers to focus on with their teams. With analytics, CRM, LMS, and a host of other sales automation and enablement solutions, technology overload and prioritization has become a legitimate concern. So here are a few ideas to help frame the discussion around coaching and whether it should have its own place in your sales tech stack.

1. Sales coaching has a proven impact on top-line performance. A growing body of continuing research bears out that managers who coach effectively, spend time consistently with their teams, and set and follow through on expectations (skill development and sales performance) outperform their peer groups. Consistently executing on these KPIs requires the right technology solution in order to maximize performance and make it sustainable. In the pharmaceutical space where we primarily work, there is validated research demonstrating that effective coaches outperform their average peers by a margin of over 30%. Over a 3-year period, that number increases to over 60%. With the coaching platforms available today in a SaaS model, the impact and ROI can be staggering and makes a compelling case for putting a specialized coaching platform in the tech stack. 
2. Sales coaching is a specialized skill. Simply using spreadsheets or other functionality that’s built into a platform designed primarily for another business need may appear to be an easier path, but generally won’t deliver the desired result of maximizing sales. Effective coaching requires a host of skills that range from preparation for coaching interactions to one-on-one in-field sessions, to difficult conversations. The resources needed to support all of these activities are rarely in a CRM or analytics application and are frequently impossible to locate and access when most needed by a manager—in the coaching moment. Whether this is the result of coaching being an afterthought or not thinking of coaching as a strategic value driver, the result can be millions of dollars in unrealized revenue. When you look at coaching as one of the specialized skills that a manager has to have in his or her toolkit, it becomes clear that as a primary function of sales management, a coaching platform is a good strategic decision and will deliver a compelling ROI. 
3. Sales coaching ROI can be difficult to measure. All technology ROI is challenging to measure, but the moving parts in coaching can make this solution area particularly thorny. If your platform and solution partner provides decent analytics, you will be able to correlate the activities associated with better and more consistent coaching that impacts sales. At the least, you’ll be able to draw some reasonable conclusions about how your sales coaching program is getting implemented in the field. In many cases even if you take the most conservative approach to top-line impact and severely discount operational efficiencies, most companies can see and achieve 10x to 20x return on the initial investment and ongoing platform subscriptions.

The bottom line when struggling to decide if a coaching platform belongs in your sales tech stack is to focus on these 3 critical drivers: impact on sales performance, enabling tools needed to support specialized coaching skills, and ability to track ROI. Then look at how well your managers are coaching and where they’re struggling. If you don’t know how to evaluate that or don’t have visibility into both what they’re doing and the results, you’ve probably just answered your question about putting coaching in your sales tech stack.

About the author
For over 25 years Gary Marinko has worked in a consultative capacity with Fortune 500 companies solving complex business challenges with technology. More recently Gary has combined his expertise in technology with sales training in the life sciences industry to bring focused value creation to key Proficient Learning customers. In his current role, he leads the interactive business unit at Proficient Learning, which focuses on developing sales enablement software and mobile solutions that help sales teams and managers accelerate performance and efficiency.

Three Rules for Successful Implementation

It’s project kickoff time! You’re preparing to implement with a new stakeholder and it’s going to be a long process with a lot of moving pieces. To ensure successful implementation and customer satisfaction, there are a few cardinal rules to follow.

Rule #1--Be Transparent and Communicate

When it comes to any type of implementation—especially with technology—you should be transparent with the stakeholder. Be clear about all of the processes you develop, every recommendation you provide, and all of the testing that might occur. Remember that you’re both building a partnership with each other, so you must have a foundation of trust. If anything becomes delayed or it looks like the deliverable deadline will change, open the lines of communication. Not only that but, most importantly, present solutions!

Rule #2--Be Adaptable and Think Ahead

It’s imperative to think ahead at all times. Step back and look at the bigger picture. What challenges could arise during the implementation process? The stakeholder is extremely busy and looks to your expertise in ensuring a smooth implementation. Think ahead about items that will be helpful for the stakeholder. These might include clear and concise timelines, who is responsible for which action items, and what happens after an action item is completed. When you’re able to plan ahead and adapt to changes that are outside of the initial plan and process, stakeholders appreciate your ability to tackle challenges—and success follows!

Rule #3--Be Available and Step Outside of the Box

There are times where an implementation requires services that go above and beyond. There may even be times when answering an email or addressing an item will be outside of normal business hours. Though such tasks may be a bit inconvenient or take some extra effort, ensuring successful implementation doesn’t always happen during normal business hours. If a challenge arises, be able to think outside the box and bring solutions to your stakeholder.

Each new implementation sparks new ideas and improves processes. At the same time, and most importantly, the success of each implementation is determined by the trust and loyalty of a stakeholder. All parties involved understand challenges may arise during the planned implementation, but it’s adaptability and creative thinking that will bring everyone to the launch with full confidence. Being available to provide information, deliver results, and communicate are all essential parts of the overall project success!

About the Author

MeeAe Strosnider–Implementation Manager

As the Implementation Manager at Proficient Learning, MeeAe Strosnider is responsible for managing the implementation of mCoach solutions with a diverse range of companies, coordinating end-user training that drives solution adoptions and satisfactions, and managing customer expectations to ensure full utilization of the mCoach solution. MeeAe collaborates with Product Management, Sales, and Development to support customer implementations and produce high-quality deliverables that meet Proficient Learning’s expectations for excellence. MeeAe previously held various management positions in different fields from pharmacy to retail sales and her background include extensive sales, customer service, and implementation experience.  She brings her enthusiasm for process and new development to her role at Proficient Learning. MeeAe graduated from Richmond, The American International University in London with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Media. 

Collaborative Coaching: Changing the Mind-Set

As a manager, when you’re planning for your field rides or one-off conversations with your team, how often do these events feel like a “have to” versus a “get to”? How does your team feel? If you had an opportunity to change that mind-set to a “get to” for both parties, how would that change your overall feeling as the coaching approached?

Imagine what a change of coaching mind-set could do for your team’s engagement and productivity. Simple changes to a leader’s approach to coaching sessions and field rides would change your employees’ mind-sets from “time with their manager” to an ongoing event that would result in goal achievement and increased productivity.

Collaborative Coaching is a new approach and mind-set that you can implement to strengthen your relationship with your team. Though there are multiple components to Collaborative Coaching, here a few actions you can take to get started. You may say, “I have done, or already do, these things,” which is wonderful. But take a moment and reflect on what you do to prepare for coaching sessions to see if you do them every day. And don’t forget to include your employees in the process.

• Review past coaching session documents as prework before the session. Both you and your employee should review past coaching session documents as part of the biweekly skill analysis. You should set the expectation that they will be initiating the conversation. Ask them to share this analysis when the coaching session begins. Then look to identify which new approach they’ve tried that was based on the previous coaching session. Ask them, "What else do you feel you need to do differently?”
• Assess how their actions have impacted their business. Look to see which actions they have implemented since the last coaching session. What was the impact on business results and were they correlated to your employee’s actions? Analyze the results they’ve seen as well as the business impact. This will generate a conversation that directly connects their actions to results as opposed to just checking the box that the action was completed.
• Mutually set goals for each coaching session. What are your employee’s goals for today and how will that impact the business now and throughout the year? Set the expectation that you will spend some time at the beginning of your session together discussing such goals. This means not starting by reviewing sales numbers, who you may be visiting today, and business plans. Rather, create time for having a two-way dialogue with your employee, focusing on them—their wants for achieving their goals—and gaining insight into their thoughts. 

This is how you kick off Collaborative Coaching and start transforming the mind-set from a “have-to” to a “get-to.” By including your employee as part of the experience, they’ll feel that you’re truly there for them—and not just because you have to be. The results? Hopefully you’ll have a more positive day, there will be less pressure on both of you, and give your employees increased accountability while they focus on bettering their performance.

About the Author

Marcy Lantzy, VP Sales and Marketing

In her current role with Proficient Learning, Marcy leads the sales and marketing team to bring innovative and strategic learning and technology solutions to help sales teams and leaders in the life sciences industry achieve their goals.

She has deep industry experience on a global scale, leading and designing training, creating sales models and curriculums, working with clients to create a strategy for effective training, and driving adoption of learning solutions to change behavior in a variety of different therapeutic areas. In her previous roles, she was responsible for leading client development efforts over a wide range of training practices including specialty sales, managed markets, hospital sales, and leadership training. Marcy is an experienced facilitator, trainer, manager, and executive who has successfully helped sales professionals and managers, at every level of tenure, develop their skills and improve their effectiveness.

Three Core Building Blocks of Coaching to Implement in 2017

Midway through my selling career I had a manager who I really didn’t get along with. Let’s call him Bob. I’d been in sales for about 10 years and had experienced some success working with Fortune 500 companies selling complex solutions and services. When I changed companies, I quickly learned that my work life had changed—and not for the better. Within 3 or 4 months I found myself dreading Bob’s “coaching” calls and was often left confused about where I stood and what exactly was expected, other than “sell more.” Ironically, I was consistently at or above quota and had a track record bringing in deals when it mattered. But none of this seemed to make any difference.

As I progressed in my sales career, both as a manager and informal coach, 3 core building blocks of my coaching process emerged as the keys to helping people perform to their full ability and developing engagement.

Trust: The first and most important element of coaching is building trust. Without trust, every recommendation, suggestion, or request will be viewed with skepticism. In a coaching situation lacking trust, your team members will constantly question your motives, making it exceedingly difficult to achieve the behavior changes that improve performance. Trust is built over time in many different ways such as backing your people with internal stakeholders, supporting their professional development and career aspirations, and course correcting when they’re not getting it right.

Consistency: One of the most challenging issues we see in most sales organizations is coaching consistency. This building block actually covers 3 different issues: planned, ongoing coaching; coaching different team members consistently; and coaching individuals consistently over a period of time. Sometimes coaching opportunities can be spontaneous, but top-performing managers make coaching a priority and devote time to coach their teams in a planned, sustained way.

While many companies have developed and implemented sales competencies and behaviors, they frequently read like they were written by a room full of consultants (which is often true). As a result, these competencies and behaviors do not fulfill the promise of creating consistency and equity across teams and in individual coaching conversations. The good news here is that there are now technology platforms available (like mCoach) that enable managers to ensure coaching consistency in a much more effective and efficient way. Tools like mCoach make complex competency and behavior models functional and actually make them high-powered coaching tools that help drive performance and enable constructive dialogue about personal and professional development.

Value: Let’s face it, coaching is not a completely altruistic endeavor. Coaching is a means to an end with the end being increased performance in terms of sales, efficiency, or some other measure. Sure, in theory you get better performance out of the process, but in order for coaching to stick and pay off, the team member has to see and derive value from coaching interactions. When we talk about planning and prepping for a coaching interaction, this should be a starting point to begin thinking about what you plan to focus on, how to react and provide feedback, and to think about what you’re likely to see or hear. If you’re able to reorient the coaching session in a way that puts you in service to your team, the likelihood of delivering actual value goes up considerably.

I ended up working for Bob only about 18 months, during which time I learned a lot about the pivotal role managers play (or don’t play) in motivating and developing team members. This chapter of my sales story happily ends at a hot technology company where I took a position that was challenging, exciting, and really propelled my career forward. Take a few minutes this week to evaluate your coaching building blocks and make sure these 3 are part of your foundation.

About the Author

For over 25 years Gary Marinko has worked in a consultative capacity with Fortune 500 companies solving complex business challenges with technology. More recently Gary has combined his expertise in technology with sales training in the life sciences industry to bring focused value creation to key Proficient Learning customers. In his current role, he leads the interactive business unit at Proficient Learning, which focuses on developing sales enablement software and mobile solutions that help sales teams and managers accelerate performance and efficiency.

Unlocking the Benefits of Digital Transformation by Utilizing Proper Data Management

In the current business landscape, the key to survival is being able to quickly adjust one’s approaches based on market conditions.  Knowing how a business is performing requires timely information, so the digital transformation movement--with its reliance on digital and database solutions that are faster and more efficient than paper-based solutions–has become increasingly popular.

To capitalize on this movement toward digital transformation, the research firm NuoDB collected data to understand organizations’ reactions to the changes in data collection and management. The firm found that database and data management was viewed as one of the most important factors, with 92% of respondents stating it to be “critical” or “very important” in the digitization journeys.¹

In 2017, many businesses still find themselves utilizing paper-based solutions to gather input from users and customers. These solutions require a lengthy, cumbersome process when moving from data collection to information analysis; there are many steps involved in converting the answers written on paper to a centralized tool that can only be managed and seen by one business department at a time. This requires that department to build a specialized report every time the data needs to be analyzed. In essence, this creates business silos, which prohibit stakeholders from making timely business decisions.

A database approach is the best way to collect, store, and manage data because it provides some of the following advantages:

• Improved decision making--The timeliness of business data, combined with business intelligence tools empowers businesses to make quick, informed decisions
• Increased information sharing--Critical business data is housed in a centralized digital environment, improving user access to information. Information can be more easily shared, which improves communication and increasing productivity
• Improved data security–Database solutions provide a better framework for enforcing data privacy and security policies. Critical business data in  HR or sales can be limited by audience or user group
• Enhanced reporting and data integration—Integrating systems is easier when data already exists in a structured format, so the ability to view standard reports or to create ad-hoc reports is crucial when making key business decisions
• Minimized data consistency--A properly designed database will decrease the amount of data inconsistencies, which will inspire more confidence in the final output

Harnessing the power of data–along with the appropriate tools to transform that data into information--enables companies to make timely, informed decisions. This approach can make the difference between success and failure. Transitioning to a digital transformation mindset can unlock numerous opportunities for companies to engage with customers and increase business opportunities. 

¹ http://www.readitquik.com/articles/storage/database-is-the-key-to-unlock-digital-transformation/

About the Author

Lori Schoenhard, PMP, CSM, CSPO–Software Development Manager at Proficient Learning, LLC

As the Software Development Manager, Lori is responsible for the technical delivery of Proficient Learning’s mobile and Web development projects. She manages the entire application life cycle including concept development for new product enhancements; leading technical teams to execute on technical delivery, developing documentation; and implementing user feedback. Lori has extensive experience in digital and software project management, technical account management, business analysis, quality assurance, and software development. Lori is a graduate of Luther College and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in IT Project Management from Boston University. Lori is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute and is also a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Product Owner (CSPO) from Scrum Alliance.

5 Key Tips to Building Stakeholder Trust and Loyalty

As we kick off 2017 and plan ahead for all of our exciting upcoming initiatives, we embark on new projects with valued stakeholders. From the perspective of being a new client vendor, we have to approach this as a test of trust. The client trusts us to be experts in our field and guide them through a successful implementation and rollout of a project. We are the experts, and now is our time to shine. You will also encounter this as you begin new initiatives with internal or external stakeholders. Here are a few key tips to gain stakeholders’ trust as we build these new relationships.

Getting to Know You

This may seem like an obvious way to kick things off, but the best approach in getting to know your stakeholder is to learn their work habits. They are busy and may be part of many projects in addition to their own workload. Understanding your stakeholder and adapting to their needs is the best way to maximize their efforts and time. A few examples are as follows:

• Does your stakeholder get into the office early or stay late? Schedule necessary calls around their most available times. This means being flexible outside of normal business hours as needed
• Does your stakeholder prefer email communication to phone calls?

Create Timelines

Each project always has a deadline and deliverables. As you get to know your stakeholder, make sure you have a high-level timeline you can update and provide them throughout the project. This will give them a clear understanding of what needs to get done and when. A few suggestions to get this in full swing are:

• Create a timeline with stages. It’s easier to break down a project in major stages such as pre-launch, launch, and post-launch
• Keep it to 1 page and in a table format for an easy read
• Don’t forget to include milestones

Stay Organized

Anyone who has worked on a project knows that organization is a key factor for success. Multiple events happen through the duration of any project and as the project manager/project lead it is your responsibility to stay organized and keep the project moving. Great examples of this are:

• Take detailed meeting minutes and send them out to the project team. Identify all action items for both sides and make them easy to reference when the stakeholder reviews
• Utilize project management tools to create to-do lists with due dates and descriptive deliverables. This creates a central place for everyone on the project to stay in the loop and see what is expected of them and by which deadlines 

How Can I Help?  

As you develop a trusting relationship with your project team and the stakeholders they work with to successfully complete a project, offer extra support! Though any email support should always involve you copying the stakeholder, this effort takes the responsibility of 1 task off their plate. You could to this by:

• Drafting mass emails to send to the organization
• Reaching out to coordinate with their internal teams to accomplish information sharing

Communication, Communication, Communication!

Communication is a key asset for success in any project involving a team. There is a balance that you as a project manager have to maintain to communicate as effectively as possible. Some good tips to follow:

• Never flood your stakeholders inboxes with multiple emails when they can all be condensed into 1 bulleted email that is concise and to the point
• Provide your stakeholders with project updates. There are times when the project is being worked on but no visible action items are required of the team. Even so, you should provide them a weekly update and report the progress. This assures the team that expectations are being met

These may seem like common sense concepts, but with the increase of busy schedules and deadlines, stakeholder experience can get lost in the project process. The work that you provide a stakeholder isn’t just the finished product, but the experience you provided before, during, and after that implementation. For me, these key elements can make or break a client relationship.

About the Author

MeeAe Strosnider–Technical Account Manager

As the Technical Account Manager at Proficient Learning, MeeAe Strosnider is responsible for managing the implementation of mCoach solutions with a diverse range of companies, coordinating end-user training that drives solution adoptions and satisfactions, and managing customer expectations to ensure full utilization of the mCoach solution. MeeAe collaborates with Product Management, Sales, and Development to support customer implementations and produce high-quality deliverables that meet Proficient Learning’s expectations for excellence. MeeAe previously held various management positions in different fields from pharmacy to retail sales and her background includes extensive sales, customer service, and implementation experience.  She brings her enthusiasm for process and new development to her role at Proficient Learning. MeeAe graduated from Richmond, The American International University in London, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Media.  

4 Ways Stakeholders are Important to a Project

Whether internal or external, all of the projects that you manage have stakeholders. One of the main reasons projects fail is because the deliverables were not what the customer wanted or they did not meet the customer’s needs. To ensure project success, it helps that you know all of the key stakeholders on your project, how they prefer to communicate, what their needs are, and what the acceptable end results are. 

Engaging stakeholders during—and especially at the beginning of—your project will help reduce and uncover risks and increase their "buy-in." When stakeholders are adequately engaged, their influence spreads far and wide. Some of the ways stakeholders are important to a project are as follows. 

1. Providing Expertise
Stakeholders are a wealth of knowledge about current processes, historical information, and industry insight. Many times these team members will have been at the company or on the project longer than the project manager or project team. It’s important to involve all key stakeholders when gathering and documenting requirements to avoid missing major deliverables of the project. Project managers, or others who are in charge of deliverables, may not be experts on every project. Key stakeholders can provide requirements or constraints based on information from their industry that will be important to have when understanding project constraints and risks. 

2. Reducing and Uncovering Risk
The more you engage and involve stakeholders, the more you will reduce and uncover risks on your project. When discussing initial requirements, project needs, and constraints, stakeholders may bring up issues or concerns about meeting those things. Uncovering risks and then discussing a plan to mitigate them before issues arise will dramatically increase the success of your project. Involving knowledgeable stakeholders during this process will help. 

3. Increasing Project Success
By gathering and reviewing project requirements with stakeholders, you will get their "buy-in," which will in turn help increase project success. If you can't meet stakeholders’ needs, due to conflicting needs or priorities, set expectations early in the project life cycle. This will help you manage the relationship throughout the project instead of there being surprises at the end. Stakeholders should always be aware of the project scope, key milestones, and when they will be expected to review any deliverables prior to final acceptance. 

4. Granting Project Acceptance
The more regularly you engage and involve stakeholders from the start, the more likely you will have a positive project conclusion. By the end of the project, the team members should have already been aware of delivery expectations, risks, and how to mitigate the risks. They also should have reviewed draft deliverables along the way. This process should help avoid any surprises at the end of your project. The final acceptance is just their final stamp of approval during the project closure phase. 

Make sure that you consider all key stakeholders as a part of your project team. They all will bring value and expertise to help ensure your project is a success!

About the Author
Lori Schoenhard, PMP, CSM, CSPO–Software Development Manager at Proficient Learning, LLC

As the Software Development Manager, Lori is responsible for the technical delivery of Proficient Learning’s mobile and web development projects. She manages the entire application life cycle including concept development for new product enhancements, leading technical teams to execute on technical delivery, developing documentation, and implementing user feedback. Lori has extensive experience in digital and software project management, technical account management, business analysis, quality assurance, and software development. Lori is a graduate of Luther College and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in IT Project Management from Boston University. Lori is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute and is also a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Product Owner (CSPO) from Scrum Alliance.

Which Comes First—Enabling Technology or Skill Development? Four must-ask questions for this classic “chicken or the egg” situation

About a year ago I was in one of those meetings with our team that we’ve all been in, discussing how to make a critical process more efficient, increase customer service levels and transparency, and give our team better tools so they could do a better job. In the room were sales, marketing, and development leadership, along with a few other stakeholders who had an interest in the outcome of the discussion. 

Our team did a great job deconstructing the challenges and getting to the core issues: communication, enabling technology, and team member skills. One of the approaches we used was to create a “solution cascade” by which we prioritized the things that have to happen in the best order so that we achieve the target outcome. We faced the same question each time we created the cascade: Do we first upskill our team and then deploy the enabling technology? Or do we instead first deploy the technology designed to enable the team to better execute their new skills? Communication in this case turned out to be a byproduct of better skill execution, and got incorporated into the training component. 

If you’re facing a similar situation, here are 4 questions to ask your team that may help bring some clarity to the discussion. 

1. Do we need to make the intended change faster than we can implement the technology? If yes, then you may not have a choice other than to train or intervene in the current processes
2. Is deploying the technology first going to overtax our team’s ability to learn or function in their job roles? You want to ensure the technology is seen as a resource versus a distraction. Taking the time to learn technology is to be expected and is part of the process
3. Are we likely to uncover better approaches and processes as we deploy the technology? The technology may change the way we’re thinking about our current processes
4. Is it possible that the training will actually be more efficient when we include the technology on the front end? 

As we were deciding which route to take, we created a couple of different scenarios—one that deployed the training first in order to give the technology a “home” when it was deployed, and another in which we deployed the technology first and built the training around how to use the tool to execute. 

• Training first: People need to understand expectations and have solid business practices in place. Otherwise, technology will simply accelerate problems and poor decisions. Underlying job skills are critical to effective implementation of any new enabling technology
• Technology first: The enabling technology will function as the glue that holds the skill development together. It will help accelerate adoption of new business processes and make them more sustainable in the long run by increasing efficiency for the people who are responsible for implementing them. This option increases the learning load by layering the technology on top of the skill learning. So a discussion on knowledge retention and time availability must happen 

In the end, we opted to implement technology first and upskill around the platform. Six months in, it appears to have been a good decision. It turned out that if we had implemented the skill side first, we would have uncovered a lot of processes that would have had to be reworked and retrained simply because we didn’t have enough knowledge about different ways the platform would help our team streamline this aspect of their work—we didn’t know what we didn’t know. The other significant benefit that came out during training was that if we had opted to train in advance of deploying the technology, we never would have been able to sustain the business processes we were asking our team to adopt. We never could have gotten to the level of efficiency and service without the technology being in place. The technology allowed us to do more and do it faster. 

About the author: 

For over 25 years Gary Marinko has worked in a consultative capacity with Fortune 500 companies solving complex business challenges with technology. More recently Gary has combined his expertise in technology with sales training in the life sciences industry to bring focused value creation to key Proficient Learning customers. In his current role, he leads the interactive business unit at Proficient Learning, which focuses on developing sales enablement software and mobile solutions that help sales teams and managers accelerate performance and efficiency. 

Crafting a Software Release Management Process That Provides a Positive Client Experience

Software development projects require a great deal of planning, dedication, and attention to detail. But what about when the work is complete and needs to be released to the client? That's why we are ultimately all here—to best serve the needs of our clients.

Effective release management practices ensure that once the software is built, it is successfully released to the people who want to use it. Those who manage this process have a strong ability to positively influence the relationship with their clients. Part of this process includes providing both a consistent experience in every release and excellent communication.

Establish a consistent release cycle

One thing that many of my clients have appreciated is a consistent and reliable release cycle for updates. They know exactly when they are expected to be available for user acceptance testing and when they should expect production updates to occur. If working as an outside vendor, this helps provide your client contacts the support they need with their teams to establish better methods of communication and to set expectations.

When creating a schedule, here are some items that are beneficial to consider in the process.

1. Compile a list of all of your clients that would benefit from a release cycle and pencil them into a deployment schedule, considering the frequency of updates that they require. This process is perfect for an Agile/Scrum approach as you can tie this into Sprint Release Management
2. Look for release date conflicts in your schedule. Try not to schedule 2 or more major clients on the same day. This will assist with mitigating resource constraints and allow time for troubleshooting and support if needed  
3. Consider your clients in your schedule. Add adequate time for them to perform user acceptance testing on their updates and to provide feedback, and allow a buffer to make any quick bug fixes as needed. Major changes or scope additions should be considered for the next release cycle
4. Once this process is completed, provide this schedule to your clients

Submit release notes and testing information to clients once a build is available

As part of the software release process, you should compile information on the updates that will be included in that release and craft a non-technical document for your clients. This document should outline the version number they are receiving and what updates are included. Add screenshots or other explanatory information, such as related future updates. To speed up the user acceptance testing process, consider creating and providing test cases that can be performed on the updates.

Take inventory of your current client communications and make adjustments as necessary

Outstanding communication is one of the major parts of any successful client experience. Consider all the ways you are currently communicating to your clients regarding when and how they receive software updates and ways it can be improved. These communication pieces can range from describing the release process or proposed scheduling, to monthly release communications, deployment window notifications, or warranty information. Try and create boilerplate documents that can be reused by all clients so that everyone has the same user release communication experience. A consistent user communication experience is beneficial if management changes from one staff member to another or if new employees need to be briefed.

Provide outstanding customer service

Deployments hardly ever go 100% right. Many times schedules are at the mercy of resources or bugs are unexpectedly introduced during the code deployment process. One of the most important things is to communicate and work together as a team to resolve issues. Offer to provide clients a walk-through or documentation on new features. Providing an outstanding customer experience is key every step of the way.

About the Author

Lori Schoenhard, PMP, CSM, CSPO–Software Development Manager at Proficient Learning, LLC

As the Software Development Manager, Lori is responsible for the technical delivery of Proficient Learning’s mobile and web development projects. She manages the entire application life cycle including concept development for new product enhancements, leading technical teams to execute on technical delivery, developing documentation, and implementing user feedback. Lori has extensive experience in digital and software project management, technical account management, business analysis, quality assurance, and software development. Lori is a graduate of Luther College and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in IT Project Management from Boston University. Lori is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute and is also a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Product Owner (CSPO) from Scrum Alliance.

mCoach™ virtual Resource Center offers suite of customized on-demand resources for individualized coaching support

Online library of robust, integrated resources empowers sales managers to analyze, plan, and execute sales force coaching and development programs more efficiently and effectively

Wilmington, NC (October 12, 2015)–Proficient Learning, LLC, announces today the release of a robust Resource Center as an integral feature of its mCoach mobile enterprise application platform.

Connecting training resources and tools to the coaching interaction in a timely manner has historically been a challenge. The mCoach platform now provides a virtual solution to transform this challenge into an instantaneous and easy process. At the touch of a finger, the sales manager can select resources during the field ride to coach or help train a sales professional on a specific skill. The on-demand Resource Center provides a library of quality resources and tools that managers can use for professional growth and development of their sales professional during coaching sessions. With mCoach, these mobile resources are easily accessible and are compliant with overall organizational development guidelines.

“Proficient Learning uniquely understands the value that training can play as an integral component of the coaching process. We’ve structured mCoach to be able to incorporate not only our own in-house coaching resources, but also customized coaching resources that our clients currently use. It’s all about creating an exceptional coaching environment for our clients who want to engage and inspire their sales professionals to realize their full potential,” stated Pam Marinko, CEO, Proficient Learning, LLC. “Each client is different, so the portfolio of coaching tools that reside in their mCoach Resource Center is ultimately determined by their organization’s needs and resources.”

Summary data on actionable skills is generated through the platform to support the sales and training strategy. As a result, sales managers now possess the necessary business intelligence to make better and more informed decisions. In addition, they can select recommended coaching tools and training resources to meet the needs of their individual sales professionals. Popular coaching topics in the mCoach virtual Resource Center include strategic account planning, selling skills, identifying industry market trends, and business acumen. This online library of robust, integrated coaching resources covers many more topics that managers can easily access to effectively coach their sales professionals.

Additional features and benefits of mCoach are available at www.mymcoach.com. Information on advanced selling skills training from Proficient Learning is available at www.proficientlearning.com.

About mCoach

mCoach is a mobile coaching application designed to enhance the quality and effectiveness with which management interacts with and develops the selling skills of their sales professionals. mCoach is a scalable, interactive coaching tool that simplifies the coaching and development process and enables managers to rapidly identify sales performance opportunities.

About Proficient Learning, LLC

Since 2005, Proficient Learning has been creating customized sales performance and management training solutions that deliver sales results. As a leader in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries, Proficient Learning has built a suite of Ready-to-Train™ solutions based on extensive experience in the classroom and in the field, as well as management development programs to drive improved sales force effectiveness.


For additional information on mCoach please contact:

Marcy Lantzy
VP, Innovation and New Product Development

Proficient Learning, LLC

Phone: 910.398.1220

marcy.lantzy@proficientlearning.com

Gary Marinko

VP, Business Development

Proficient Learning, LLC

Phone: 910.232.7598

gary.marinko@proficientlearning.com

mCoach launches enhanced Field Coaching Report capability increasing sales performance value and impact of coaching

Automated field coaching report (FCR) process with mCoach™ promotes more collaborative sales coaching dialogue between managers and sales professionals while driving improved sales performance

Wilmington, NC (September 1, 2015)–With the integration of simple, intuitive Field Coaching Reports and an automated FCR process into its mCoach application, Proficient Learning, LLC has introduced a paradigm shift in delivering more effective sales coaching practices. mCoach offers sales managers a FCR that’s not only easier to complete but provides robust development tools at their fingertips while in the field, on the phone, or preparing for a field ride.

Three key features of mCoach are designed to promote collaboration between sales management and sales professionals and to streamline, simplify, and enrich the FCR process:

·        The one touch evaluation slide bar enables the manager to easily and consistently evaluate their sales professionals’ selling skills throughout the day

·        The field ride observation section develops the manager’s ability to recognize and describe observable behavior to enhance coaching effectiveness

·        The automated coaching plan feature allows for easy selection of available development resources to accelerate skill improvement and training sales professionals

At any time throughout the process, the sales manager can dynamically view how the FCR is evolving and instantly share it via email or on the mCoach platform once it is completed. 

“The once-and-done FCR enhances the quality and effectiveness of sales managers. They can now spend their valuable time coaching and developing their sales professionals rather than handling administrative issues tied to historical FCR processes,” stated Marcy Lantzy VP, Innovation and New Product Development.

“Gone are the days of sales managers viewing FCRs as a ‘have-to’ exercise after each field ride. With mCoach, the FCR becomes a collaborative opportunity to improve the performance of each sales professional. The mobile application puts an array of valuable development tools at the manager’s fingertips. The ease and simplicity of mCoach increases quality time spent in the field which leads to increased sales performance,” continued Lantzy.

Additional features and benefits of mCoach and its Field Coaching Reports are available at www.mymcoach.com.

About mCoach

mCoach is a mobile coaching application designed to enhance the quality and effectiveness with which management interacts with and develops the selling skills of their sales professionals. mCoach is a scalable, interactive coaching tool that simplifies the coaching and development process and enables managers to rapidly identify sales performance opportunities. 

About Proficient Learning, LLC

Since 2005, Proficient Learning has been creating customized sales performance and management training solutions that deliver sales results. As a leader in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries, Proficient Learning has built a suite of Ready-to-Train™ solutions based on extensive experience in the classroom and in the field, as well as management development programs to drive improved sales force effectiveness.

For additional information on mCoach please contact:

Marcy Lantzy
VP, Innovation and New Product Development
Proficient Learning, LLC
Phone: 910.509.0104
marcy.lantzy@proficientlearning.com

Gary Marinko
VP, Business Development
Proficient Learning, LLC
Phone: 910.232.7598
gary.marinko@proficientlearning.com

Data visualization enriches user value of mobile coaching application

The intuitive and interactive interface of mCoach^TM empowers sales management to analyze, plan, and execute sales force coaching and development programs more efficiently and effectively

Wilmington, NC (July 31, 2015)–Proficient Learning, LLC, announces the integration of robust data visualization capabilities into its mCoach application. The “visual data” aggregates historical performance at both the individual and team levels and combines it with previous coaching activity to deliver at-a-glance diagnostics. These visual tools enable sales managers to quickly prioritize conversations not only among individuals within the team, but around skills development as part of an overall coaching plan. The application offers sales managers an interactive and dynamic user experience with the ability to drill down to the individual performance level from several team-based diagnostics:

·        The Team Performance Bar provides the user QTD or YTD sales attainment and the number of field rides in the past 12 months

·        The Skill Diagnostics Window shows how a team is performing in each skill, a description of the skill, how many times the skill has been coached in the past 6 months, and the combined team average ratings by quarter

The benefit with visual and graphical representations of large quantities of information is virtual, on-demand business intelligence that can drive individualized coaching plans and improve sales performance.

 “We made every effort to design enhanced data visualization tools with features like color-coded ratings, bar charts, and trend lines for instant analysis of KPIs at both the team and individual level. Our goal was to create an application that’s not only quick and easy for the sales manager to use either in the field or remotely, but also aids in faster and better team performance analysis and prioritization. Visual data is integral to facilitating more relevant, useful, and timely feedback and coaching, all leading to higher-performing sales teams,” stated Gary Marinko, VP, Business Development.

About mCoach

mCoach is a mobile coaching application designed to enhance the quality and effectiveness with which management interacts with and develops the selling skills of their sales professionals. mCoach is a scalable, interactive coaching tool that simplifies the coaching and development process and enables managers to rapidly identify sales performance opportunities. 

About Proficient Learning, LLC

Since 2005, Proficient Learning has been creating customized sales performance and management training solutions that deliver sales results. As a leader in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries, Proficient Learning has built a suite of Ready-to-Train™ solutions based on extensive experience in the classroom and in the field, as well as management development programs to drive improved sales force effectiveness. For more information visit www.proficientlearning.com.

For additional information on mCoach please contact:

Marcy Lantzy
VP, Innovation and New Product Development
Proficient Learning, LLC
Phone: 910.509.0104
marcy.lantzy@proficientlearning.com

Gary Marinko
VP, Business Development
Proficient Learning, LLC
Phone: 910.232.7598
gary.marinko@proficientlearning.com