Can the
Pygmalion Effect Boost Your Sales?
The Pygmalion Effect comes from Greek mythology.
Pygmalion, the King of Cyprus, carved an ivory statue of the ideal woman and
named her Galatea. He had high expectations for his creation. Through his own
will and help from the goddess Venus, Pygmalion brought Galatea to life.
Fast-forward to 1968 and
a classic study that showed the impact of expectations the Pygmalion Effect on
elementary school children’s learning. There’s a lot telecom providers can
learn from it.
In this study by Dr.
Robert Rosenthal, teachers at a school were given the names of certain
students and told that these pupils scored exceptionally high on intellectual
ability tests. The teachers were led to expect great things from these
students. Several months later, tests were administered again and these
students performed better than their peers. But the names of the “bright”
students had been chosen at random. Somehow, teachers’ higher expectations had
been translated into increased learning.
Hundreds of studies have
confirmed that, on average, people’s expectations of other people do influence
the action and achievement of those people. Pygmalion’s Effect is alive and
well, and he is the ultimate coach for telecom providers. What are the
expectations you have for your team when it comes to selling your products? Do
you see your employees as having unlimited potential to increase their
abilities and the revenue they generate for the company? Do you have a coach
who believes that your team has talent and abilities beyond what they’re
demonstrating?
Managers who act as
coaches can enhance the skills of their teams to exceed customer expectations
about sales and service. Following are some tips on great coaching.
Accept people as they
are. Everyone has his or her
strengths and weaknesses. Treat people as unique individuals. Measure them
against themselves, not the top sales person. As a coach, let them know what
they are doing to improve their interactions with customers.
John Wooden was one of
the greatest collegiate basketball coaches in history. Wooden kept diaries on
each of his players. He kept track of the small improvements he felt they
could make and then, at the end of practice, he shared these thoughts with
each player. A good coach works to improve the small things that help each
member of the team exceed his or her own expectations.
Listen 80 percent;
talk 20 percent. A great coach is a
great listener. When communicating with an employee, let him or her know he or
she is the most important person at that moment. Turn your phone off. Close
the door to prevent anyone from interrupting. Create a list of appropriate
opened-ended questions to help you understand how that person views his or her
role and responsibility to the company and the rest of the team. The questions
should require employees to give you insight into how they think they are
doing. Questions such as “What do you think you did well in that call?” and,
“How could you have improved that interaction with the customer?” will give
you critical feedback.
Be specific.
During our working lives, many of us will
have someone say the words “good job” to acknowledge us for a task we
completed. If you’re going to recognize employees for exceeding expectations,
tell them exactly what they did in that customer interaction that made their
performances stellar. Every performance improvement, however small, deserves
some type of recognition. Coaches notice the small things that can turn an
employee into a top performer.
Understand core values
and beliefs. To be an effective
coach, you need to know the players on your team. What are the core values and
beliefs of each of those players? Let’s say an employee on your team believes
it is not good to be superior to others and that recognition for a job well
done places him or her in that position. If he or she operates from that
belief, that employee will do anything to avoid being recognized. Each and
every person on your team is an individual with separate values and beliefs
about recognition and coaching. An excellent way to recognize one person may
have a negative effect on another. If you are going to inspire your team, you
need to understand the core values of the individuals. You need to know what
inspires each member of the team to do his or her best every day.
Does the coach for your
team see every player on the team as having unlimited potential and do they
consistently work on the small things to help those players improve? If the
answer is yes, the Pygmalion Effect is having a positive impact on your sales.
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David Saxby is president of Measure-X, a Phoenix,
Ariz.-based measurement, training and recognition company that specializes in
customer service and sales skill training for utility companies. He can be
reached at 888-644-5499 or via e-mail at
david@measure-x.com. Visit the Measure-X Web site at
www.measure-x.com.
