Carnegie Class Creates Return on Investment (Jeffrey Wood Commentary)

There’s a great sign inside B&M Grocery and Café at Combs, a sneeze-and-miss-it community on Arkansas Highway 16. The warning there on Gene and Wanda Kimball’s kitchen door reads, “We shoot every third salesman, and the second one just left.”

Since carpetbaggers invaded the South during Reconstruction, the image of silver-tongued, sharp-dealin’ snake oil peddlers has been a running barb for all who’ve followed in the field of sales. Even now, just saying the word -“salesman” – can evoke the kind of disdain polite society reserves for only the most despised occupations:

Lawyer. Umpire. Politician.

Bad habits and misplaced priorities are the two biggest contributors to the negative image of sales professionals. Quick-turn sales slicks who take more from customers than they give in return create a bad name for everyone in business. After all, if you’re in business, you’re in sales.

The truth is sales is less an art of persuading as it is an art of providing. Today companies and markets demand targeted solutions aimed at their evolving needs, not at simply filling another sales rep’s quota.

Growing this collaborative approach to business is one of the reasons why Gray Matters LLC, the Springdale niche publisher that owns the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, recently sent me and the majority of our brand strategy staff through the Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage course.

The eight-week sales training curriculum is held one night per week for about three hours each session. Seth Mohorn, managing partner of Carnegie corporate training provider Howard, Mohorn & Associates LLC (see story, p. 14), does an incredible job of teaching the class.

The program covers everything from smart prospecting to developing approaches that add value for clients. Our team of five was joined by bankers, retail suppliers, technicians, financial planners and construction materials providers. We all learned from each other.

John Hicks, purchasing and marketing manager for Darragh Co. in Little Rock, saw two members of his Lowell team excel in this fall’s program. The construction materials supplier said Carnegie courses give sales people confidence because they learn others struggle with the same things they do. Through role play, the courses stimulate presentation and service skills. By “building relationships internally and externally,” he said, Carnegie generates a real return on investment.

“We do send our folks to Sales Advantage to help them bring in more revenue,” Hicks said. “But the reality is Darragh cares about their individual futures, too. [Sales people] understand this course is not cheap. I mean, you can go to a $125 class and call that training.

“But Dale Carnegie is something we invest in for our staff’s long-term success. It demonstrates the company cares about its people, and promotes longevity with our sales force.”

Charles Tucker, manager of Consolidated Electrical Distributors Inc. in Springdale (CED-Springdale), agrees. After studying statistics on what manufacturers invest in equipment vs. their people, Tucker said tapping into Carnegie training teaches people to be more effective personally and professionally.

“[Manufacturers] invest in hardware/software often at the expense of what most of us consider our most valuable resource, our people,” Tucker said. “… Investments in technology are important. Investment in good people is critical.”

Tucker added that understanding what you sell is not as important as what people need is the “differentiating factor in good sales professionals vs. sales people.”

For Gray Matters’ part, our crew highly recommends sales teams go through Carnegie training together. We got nudged out of our comfort zones in front of our peers, but learning our strengths and weaknesses motivated us to improve as individuals and as a team.

No company is perfect, and we don’t claim to be. But we’re confident that we’re better equipped after Sales Advantage to truly serve clients with the goal of growing their business in mind.

Some of us are natural planners. Others are good speakers or strategic thinkers. All of us are better, more productive sales professionals having been through Sales Advantage.

Maybe your team would be, too.