The Performance Management™ Story

Why Performance Management Consultants™ is Different
What happens when a company sends its field organization to training?

First the participants get on a plane and travel to a destination that has been selected because of its central location or a designated training facility. They sit through a class for two or three days and learn a new methodology for managing or selling. Then the trainees go home and are told to use the new methodology.

When they get back to the field, time and quota pressures take precedence and the lessons learned in training are quickly abandoned. Why? Partly because they can't remember much of what they learned, but mostly because there is nobody who can help them apply the new practices when they need help.

Most corporate training involves teaching and some of it utilizes repetitive practice in the classroom. But the real focus of most corporate training is on learning and instruction, not on implementation or performance. Most organizations make the assumption that, "If we train them, they will change".

The reason this approach doesn't work is a misunderstanding about the nature of changing behavior. There are three elements that make up professional development:

So, why is corporate "training" so ineffective? First of all, the vast majority of people who attend training classes forget most of what they have learned within 45 days because they don't use it. Secondly, corporate training offers no reinforcement, support or coaching following a training event.

In the best case, the trainee's manager is expected to perform the support and reinforcement functions. Unfortunately, managers are not compensated or qualified to coach behavior. They are consumed with other priorities like delivering results. Managers are not training or behavioral experts and in many cases haven't attended training their employees have received.

The best athletes not only train through repetitive practice, they also have coaches to help them put into effect what they need to achieve success. In fact, the world's top athletes take their coaches to the games with them so they can continue this process while they are actually competing.

That's why, at Performance Management Consultants™ we practice Professional Development: The practice of insuring that the users of our training systems put into effect what they have learned resulting in the best possible outcome from their own and their employer's investment of time and resources in training.

Proving the Concept
During the early 90's Thomas Fee worked for a multi-national ERP Software Company as Sales Training Manager. The sales methodology was not taking root so Tom decided to focus on coaching and reinforcement.

The results were astonishing. In his Master's Thesis, presented in 1993, Tom documented the results of his methodology for working with people to reinforce training after their initial learning experience. He statistically validated that the users he had worked with experienced an incredible 100% increase in productivity. That's right! They doubled their close ratio!

Inspired by these results, Tom started a consulting practice, Performance Management Consultants™, in July 1994. He began representing established training purveyors in the areas of professional practice known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and "complex" sales. His world-wide training audiences included: sales reps, pre-sales technical (SE's), client managers, large account managers, post sales project managers and those who managed these functions.

Fee found that the purveyors of popular programs were rigid and inflexible about their content and delivery methods. Training companies wouldn't tailor their products to align with industry, client or market peculiarities. They tended to focus on "butts in seats"; a training industry term referring to the minimum number of people required to attend a training event. They were adamant about delivering only Instructor Led Training in the classroom. Follow up and reinforcement activities were non-existent. Even so Tom was very successful at implementing these programs and achieving better results.

Tom eventually developed his own programs and encouraged his clients to invest their training dollars in efficient delivery methods like the Internet while allocating significant budget to implementation activities. As Tom says, "Training per se is NOT an effective way to improve productivity. If you don't use it, you might as well not have spent the money at all".

Case History
In 1997, a business partner of a multi-national company engaged Performance Management Consultants™ to help them improve their sales. The business partner was about $150 million organization with operations in Australia and New Zealand. Because of the distance and travel expense, Tom recommended delivering an online version of the "training" program and convinced the client to allocate the majority of their budget on implementation.

Using Tom's methods, the client experienced a 50% increase in sales in a year when the overall company had only a 30% increase. In addition, 75% of the client's sales reps made quota. This was a record number of people achieving quota in this company. They closed one deal for $7.5 million USD and for the first time in their 10-year history software sales exceeded services revenue.

As if this wasn't enough, the client also received the Business Partner of the Year Award from the parent company and was recognized for selling more new product than any other Business Partner or Company Branch in the entire world. In 1998, the client realized a 276% increase in sales over the first quarter of 1997.

This is the next generation - high quality content combined with one-on-one support so the user gets what they want when they need it. With this new approach the age-old problem of training is solved. Users are able to put into effect what they have learned.

Performance Management Consultants™ - It's About Talent!