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Posts Tagged ‘Starting a peer group’
Conference Calling Peer Group: Is it right for you?
You’re reading this blog so that must mean you have some interest in either Conference Calling or Peer Groups or possibly both. Visiting our blog is a great first step.
Many folks ask, with conference calling and peer groups, is it possible to have one without the other? The short answer is yes but we are quick to ask, why would you want to do that?
Sure, you could have a peer group that meets in person at a designated location on a regular basis but that can really be an impediment on the attendance and participation; not because folks don’t want to be there, but if you have an elite group of people to interact with, chances are, they’re pretty busy and might not be able to always be available to meet for coffee on the other side of town twice a week.
Plus, doing your peer groups in person is going to limit your selection of who you have as a part of that peer group. You are limited to participants within a significantly smaller area than if you were meeting over a conference call. Often times, when your radius of participants is small, it really makes it difficult to create the “no competition” atmosphere that fosters ideas and sharing. The broader your group, the less inhibition there will be, allowing the participants to talk freely about what works for them in their field and what doesn’t.
Many people think a peer group is the same thing as a club or group with a common interest. While this is somewhat true, in order for a peer group to have all the true benefits it can provide, you want it to be comprised of people with a common interest or goal but with each of them bringing their individual interest or talents to the table to share with the rest of the group. A great example would be sales. You can develop a peer group of participants all involved in sales. What makes it different from a group or club, is they might not all be in the same ‘field’. By using this theory, a participant who handles sales for a pharmaceutical company could very well be part of a peer group with a participant who handles sales for a home theater company. The two very different areas of expertise share the common bond of sales and one can benefit the other by sharing the sales techniques that work for them in their specific field. This is the best illustrated difference between a club or group and a peer group.
When you utilize conference calling to facilitate the meetings of your peer group, you are able to reach out and include people from all areas of the globe and in turn benefit from their regional and geographical differences. I’m pretty sure a fellow in Rockport isn’t going to be able to meet the group twice a month at the local coffee shop in Boca Raton. (As much as he would love to be able to.)
Get hooked up with conference calling, and the Rockport fellow is sure to be in attendance. By using conference calling, you can classify your participants with even more similarities without horning in on anyones’ territory. Utilizing conference calling will allow you to create a peer group of individuals all within the same field of specialized interest. A perfect example of that would be a group of life insurance representatives spread out from coast to coast. No chance of a rep from California stepping on the toes of a rep in New Jersey when you use conference calling.
So again, yes, you can do peer groups and conference calling by themselves, but they work so much better when they work together.
photo credit: Nat W
How Does a Peer Group Work?
Okay, you’ve made the decision to get involved with a Peer Group. Now what?
Well, It’s not as simple as drawing five names out of a hat. You want to know the Peers you will be meeting with and be sure you’re choosing the cream of the crop.
Let’s use the example of sales. You’ve been in sales for several years and you’ve certainly picked up a few tricks of what works and what doesn’t. Imagine having some one- on-one time with a fellow sales rep that has 20 more years experience than you. Betcha they’ve got a few stories to tell.
Often, at conventions or seminars or any gathering involving competing representatives, there’s a slight hesitation to “share” your trade secrets for fear that the competition will step in and horn in on your established territory. With a peer group, individuals are selected based partly on their location as to not be a threat to others in the field so everyone can speak freely without the fear of ‘poaching’.
Complacency is often times a regular presence with anyone who has been doing the same thing for a long period of time. Getting stuck in a rut and going through the day to day motions becomes second nature. As long as productivity and sales aren’t going down, not to worry, right?
Wrong.
Complacency is okay if you’re only striving for mediocre. For anyone with goals and aspirations to continually succeed and make advancements in their field, complacency is suicide. When selecting members of your Peer Group, you need to develop an eye for recognizing individuals stuck in the rut of complacency. One person with an attitude like that will poison the whole group.
Sharing experiences and client feedback is the general environment created within a Peer Group. From that environment, new ideas are born. From those new ideas, advancements are made. It’s a beautiful cycle.
Do you have an hour of your week that you can commit to being part of an active, successful Peer Group?
Peer Group Defined
In many of our previous posts we’ve mentioned Peer Groups. In our next series of posts, we are going to take apart the actuality of what a peer group is and how it can be a beneficial asset to anyone that wants to grow their business, expand their knowledge or simply socialize with folks of a like mind.
According to Wikipedia, a peer group is a social group consisting of people who are equal in such respects as age, education or social class. Peer groups are an informal primary group of people who share a similar or equal status and who are usually of roughly the same age, tended to travel around and interact within the social aggregate. Members of a particular peer group often have similar interests and backgrounds, bonded by the premise of sameness. However, some peer groups are very diverse, crossing social divides such as socioeconomic status, level of education, race, creed, culture, or religion.
Taking the general concept of what a Peer Group is, we are going to explain the different features to look for when applying the principals of a Peer Group to a business setting.
You want to create a small group, between 4 to 7 participants, with a similar connection whether it be sales, customer service, or any other aspect of your field. The group is brought together in a non competitive environment to share ideas, experience and lessons learned the hard way. The group then takes what they’ve learned from their peers and applies the newfound knowledge to their own ventures.
It’s like a mini convention of the best and the brightest with a front row seat for everyone.
We have some proven results showing the power of a well developed Peer Group. Here are some numbers generated from groups we have worked with:
• $106,000 in new revenues in the first year, on small ticket orders with an average sale of only $95! (Companies whose items cost more can expect a far larger increase in revenues)—that means approximately 1116 new, unpredicted sales!
• Discounting one low performer who sold right around the baseline, the other five reps who went directly into the No Nonsense Conference program sold at 170% of baseline expectations. The two experienced reps in the team sold at 133% and 123% of previous performance; one of them achieved an astonishing 486% of baseline!
• Distributor retention rate for one group reached 88%, compared to 10% before the program was instituted.
If you’re looking for a way to get some amazing results and high productivity out of your team members or even for yourself, a peer group is the best move you can make to get on the right path.