Photo courtesy of Design Within Reach.
This is a very high-touch
organization. While we do use
email and other social media
platforms to communicate, it
works best to be face-to-face
with people.
experience, establishing a progressive development plan and
removing obstacles so the sales team could focus on selling.
When describing the pre-employment sales assessment, Barry
told me, “We worked with an expert in industrial psychology to
develop a selling styles assessment. It ranks competencies that
are present in high-selling sales professionals. We are now able
to tell whether or not a potential new hire is going to be a great
seller. If you don’t have ability to sell, it’s tough. This has made us
much more effective at determining whether or not a candidate
is a fit for actual selling. It has dramatically improved our hiring
process.
“We determined five elements of our client experience
by studying the best practices of our top sellers,” Barry said.
“Then we created the client experience at the Studio level.” For
example, offering water to customers when they come in to the
Studio and giving them tours are just two components of the
DWR client experience. The experience is part of the company’s
sales DNA. You can walk into a Studio anywhere in the country
and have the same experience.
Progressive development plans (PDPs) make financial goals
transparent to everyone in the Studios. The PDPs measure the
sales team in two areas: client experience and financial goals.
“Thanks to the PDP, there are no surprises. Everyone knows what
they are being rated on and has the chance to see their results,”
said Barry.
Another challenge typical of exceptional growth is
communication. Effective communication practices are hard to
set up because every organization is different. Communication
practices are also strong influences on culture. With an
www.HRCI.org
organization that is growing multistate operations, communicating
is especially difficult. Barry said, “It’s easy to communicate when
you are all under one roof, but when the majority of your people
are spread across 20 states and an international location in
Canada, you must ensure they are all connected.
“We have a culture of continuous improvement at the top
tier, and communication is top-of-mind. Developing ways to
communicate that ensure messages cascade down and touch
every part of DWR is critical, so we invented new techniques.”
I asked her how she was able to give all employees a
connection to the head office — a challenge when an organization
spreads out geographically. Barry said, “We do that through
area managers. Our area managers are each responsible for
three to five Studios. They touch base with those Studios and
all the employees frequently, so they are sharing the necessary
messages.”
She continued, “We have quarterly CEO teleconferences. John
[Edelman] will literally page through a catalog and educate our
employees about new products. He goes into some detail about
our designers, what they offer exclusively to DWR and what
they mean to our ability to enhance, improve and beautify our
customers’ lives.
“Our VP of Sales is the eyes and ears to the field, ensuring
that the sales team is living the DWR client experience and that
headquarters is meeting the clients’ expectations. Inspecting our
expectations is critical to executing the DWR client experience,”
Barry said, “and we bring in our area managers twice a year. They
come to headquarters here in Stamford. Our goal is to have all our
proprietors [similar to store managers] visit the head office, meet
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