Do schools kill our creativity?

I came home last night to find my 8th-grade son working on a Powerpoint presentation for school.  Much to my horror, it was filled with bad clip art and dense text.  Here was a very creative kid who spends his spare time making films attempting to conform to the "accepted" practices of presentations for his school.  Scary.  But this is where it all starts.

So, join me today in helping children and your young colleagues understand that communication does not have to forced into bad Powerpoint and that there are better ways to get your point across.

With my son I suggested video and images from Flickr or even better taking his own photos to supplement the communication. 

This reminds me of a presentation at TED (the thought provoking conference that now posts all of its presenations and discussion online) by Sir Ken Robinson called "Do Schools Kill Creativity?  He talks about how a group of small children were asked if they could draw,  everyone in the room raised their hands.  When asked if they could dance, everyone in the room raised their hands.  When asked if they could sing, everyone in the room raised their hands.  And, then later in life - I can't remember what grade but judging by my son it happens before 8th grade - children were asked the same questions and nearly everyone didn't raise their hands anymore.  Their confidence was gone.   Where did it go?

Furthermore, do schools force our children to begin thinking in Powerpoint and Word instead of thinking, creating and then choosing to express some part of their ideas in this tool called Powerpoint as well as in tools called writing, drawing, video, audio, painting and songs?  It seems to me that it does and it seems to me that we all have to do whatever we can to stop it or we will be doomed to bad presentations and bad communication for generations to come.  And, judging by the environment out there a little better communication couldn't hurt.

Accelerating the sales cycle and reducing cost

Here is a something I just posted on my company's blog about automating sales documents in order to accelerate sales and significantly reduce expense.  Documents like NDAs, pricing proposals, contracts and services agreements can be created by sales people themselves through a browser-based interview so that they can be created in real time with no waiting.

Sales is hard enough

Over the past 20 years or so CRM has exploded on the scene, fromGoldMine to ACT! to Siebel and now Salesforce.com and its SaaSbrethren.

CRM has done wonders for automating the sales process and helping sales people execute on a cadence of sales activities, follow a standard process and keep up with customers. Unfortunately, this is only half the battle in creating a truly efficient prospect-to-pay process.

Most sales cycles require a number of sometimes complex and burdensome documents to proceed to closure.  And, if our experience is any guide, it is the creation of these documents that causes immense pain for most salespeople and can delay and even lose sales in some cases.

NDAs, Proposals, Services Statements of Work, Business Cases, Sales Contracts, even customized collateral can be automated to accelerate the sales cycle, reduce the need for lawyers to create and review large volumes of contracts, and increase compliance with internal process and procedures.

Document Assembly can solve this problem by creating standardized templates, clauses and business rules that are owned and controlled by legal and/or sales operations so that every document that is created is done so in a compliant fashion. No more rogue Limitation of Liability clauses or unprofitable pricing.  No more out-of-date templates or old bottom drawer contracts re-used inappropriately.

While ensuring compliance, document assembly also empowers salespeople to create the necessary documents themselves in real time (with non-standard deals automatically escalated to legal on an exception basis). No more backlogs means more satisfied customers.

So, if the documents and contracts in your sales cycle are somewhat negotiable and fairly repetitive and predictable, and if the creation of these documents is slow and painful, you might want to consider automating them.

How to have better sales meetings

Sales meetings are usually bad and frequently a waste of time for a number of reasons.  In a virtual world, where you don't even see your sales people while you are meeting with them, things get even worse.  I used to have a manager who made me drive 3 hours both ways once a month so that I could attend his Monthly Sales Meetings that most people slept through or made excuses avoid.

1) Sales managers and their managers have to learn to trust the system.  If you use a system like Salesforce.com, make sure every sales person religiously updates it and then use it to generate reports and dashboards for management and yourself.  This way you can be very up to date on everything and know that even more data is available if you need it, without having to go through the details of every deal on every weekly call.  It is a huge relief to be able to trust the system and let go of the tedious inspections.   It reminds me of David Allen's book Getting Things Done.  Once you get everything in a system you trust, you can relax and focus on execution and not worry about what you are missing.

2) Sales managers are or used to be sales people and they like to talk.   In order for sales meetings to be succesful, I would argue that sales managers in general need to talk less. Collaboration is much more powerful than any one person so don't be afraid to let everyone else talk and pitch in.  It doesn't mean you aren't doing your job.  What you should do, is be a catalyst for good conversations.

3) Sales managers are also very susceptible to what I will call the Idea of the Month.  Since they spend a lot of time thinking about how to do things better and typically read and research a lot this as well, they sometimes will latch on to the latest idea and create a whole meeting around it. The problem is that most of the good sales people probably read the same books and do the same research.  What I do is write a blog and I used to write a newsletter/email for my team so that I could get book recommendations and ideas out to them in a way they could consume on their own time and not on a weekly call.

4) Agendas are also very important. If you don't tell your team what to expect and what to prepare for, they won't be prepared and won't have thought of questions and will end up not paying attention.  I just read a great interview of Jill Myrick on the MyVenturePad blog by David Stein about how to have better sales meetings.  Jill is a sales consultant whose company Meeting to Win  and blog  are also great places to go for ideas on making your sales meetings worthwhile and motivating.

5) Take the one on one discussions off line.  If you have to talk about a particular deal in real depth or if you have found information lacking in your sales system, then set up another 20-30 minutes with the person to discuss this.  I would recommend 20-30 minutes per week with each rep anyway if you can afford the time to make sure you are hearing things from them that they don't want to mention in the group.

6) Start and finish on time.  If you don't hold the call for people who show up late, they should eventually figure out that they shouldn't show up late.

Passion is the key to great virtual presentations!

The key to presenting a subject in a compelling manner I believe is defined by one thing: passion. When presenting in a virtual world, passion and enthusiasm become even more important because whatever you possess will be repeatedly diminished by distance, bad speaker phones, distractions on the other end that you don't see or hear and etc.

All other things being equal or even failing, passion can sometimes, maybe most of the time, win the day.

I have just finished reading the book iCon Steve Jobs by Jeffrey Young and William Simon. And, among other things, I was really struck by how a passionate person who believes in himself and what he is doing can convince many smart people to do many crazy or seemingly impossible things. While you may be able to argue that he is not a saint, Steve Jobs is passionate and he is one of the best presenters I have ever seen.

So, how do you build passion and sustain enthusiasm throughout the day so that you can deliver probably mostly repetitive presentations in a compelling manner over and over again. How do you build passion and sustain enthusiasm throughout the day in this world now in early 2009 when you wake every morning to news of bad earnings and layoffs, political corruption and squabbling, scandals and foreclosures. It ain't easy.

For me, there have always been three tricks for creating passion and enthusiasm for a presentation, for a visit to the gym or sometimes to just get out of bed.

Number One is Inspiration: Find someone or a number of people who inspire you and then surround yourself with reminders of their hard work, dedication and success. For me it is Steve Prefontaine (a runner), Lance Armstrong (a cyclist) among many others. Think about the sacrifices that others have made to get where they are and how little you really need to do to get up for this next presentation. Another way to get inspired is to watch/listen to great presentations from the past. I would highly recommend listening the old Apple MacWorld keynotes by Steve Jobs (available on iTunes). There are also a good number of great presentations available for free now from the TED Conference. (www.TED.com and also available on iTunes). I would recommend listening to Majora Carter's presentation on Greening the Ghetto, Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin and Sir Ken Robinson on How Schools Kill Creativity for starters. Then just follow your muse. You can also find some good presentations by Guy Kawasaki online.

Number Two is Music: Get an iPod or an iPhone or any MP3 player or use your laptop but get some inspirational music that you can play whenever you need it. In the elevator on the way up to your in person presentation or in your office for a few minutes before you pick up the phone. Whenever you can listen to the music that gets you going. Then on the way home at night listen to something more relaxing to bring you back down to a more relaxed state.

Number Three is Exercise: If I am bogged down during the day, feeling out of it, losing momentum, saying dumb things on the phone, I try to squeeze in a 30-45 minute run or a trip to the gym. Pushing yourself to talk to prospects and customers when you feel out of it doesn't do either of you any good. You can't create a sustainable value to your company or your customers without energy and health so you should be exercising anyway. However, sometimes it pays to time the exercise so that it also helps you get up for your job.

And, one last thing, unless you are in the investment business, I would try to minimize the contact with the bad news in newspapers and TV or save it for the end of the day when your down mood will not be shared with your customers and prospects. Of course, your family might not like that.