Michael (not his real name) has just been promoted to corporate training manager for a large manufacturing company. But just two years ago, he was thought to be failing miserably in his former position of field training manager.

At that time, Michael’s job was to oversee training in his company’s manufacturing plants. Michael says that he dramatically turned around the perception that he was failing by making only one change: He started reporting the progress of his trainees in a way that underscored the financial gain to his corporation and the connection to the measures of each of the plant managers. Michael became a hero by doing nothing differently other than communicating value in a way that helped his plant managers see connections that were simply not obvious in their fast-paced environment.

But, I HATE Numbers!

You probably didn’t go into organization development, people development, or any other “development” for the numbers. You got into your profession because you love people. Even if you don’t hate numbers, practitioners in WLP have not focused nearly as much attention on financial numbers as line managers do in other parts of a business. If you don’t know why you would want to focus on finances and numbers, then consider the following studies.

Sales Skills Return-on-Investment Study

In 2002, a major technology firm commissioned a return-on-investment (ROI) study to determine the effectiveness of a financial selling skills course (Seagraves, 2003). The course taught salespeople to read financial statements to understand the issues that an organization was facing and then to show the value of their solutions to the executives within that organization. In other words, just as was shown in the Twin Cities study, this class taught salespeople to read financial statements and to think strategically, rather than tactically.

One of the most significant findings of the study was that when salespeople used the concepts and techniques taught in this class in a deal, those salespeople reported that they were more than 30 percent more likely to win those deals than they were before they took the class.

During debriefing interviews, several salespeople in the study insisted that their use of a financial value approach was the only reason they had won some of their deals during the tough economic conditions of 2002. These salespeople stated that they had gained more respect and trust from executives because those executives believed the salespeople understood their business and could effectively communicate the value of the solution they were offering. The salespeople had earned a seat at the table as trusted advisors to their clients.

Important Notice that the executives in the Twin Cities study expected human asset professionals to have the ability to read financial statements, to present a business case, and to sell. In the Sales Skills ROI Study, being able to communicate value in financial terms was a critical skill set to master in order to gain respect and a competitive edge.

Job Search Success Stories

If the requirements of the Twin Cities executives and the success of salespeo ple using financial based strategies don’t appeal to you, then consider the success of WLP job seekers using these techniques.

Important Job seekers who discuss the value of their skills in terms of the financial benefits those skills could bring to their potential employers report getting further in highly competitive interviews and having shorter job search cycles.

In a very successful case, during the tough job market of late 2002, the president of one of the chapters of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) cold-called a company and landed a job just a day after hearing a presentation on the concepts in this article. She credits her success to what she learned from the presentation. Apparently, her hiring manager agreed with the executives from the Twin Cities: Speaking the language of finance makes a dramatic difference in communicating value.

If Not for Yourself, Then for Those You Serve
There is another important reason for understanding and communicating value in terms of financial numbers. As noted in the preface, telling a story of results and performance to the people who generated those results is just as important as telling that story to the executives who manage them.

Familiar, Comfortable, Confident

Human resource management and development is starting to move into the executive boardroom. If you want to gain more recognition, respect, resources, or ability to help the people you serve, you cannot avoid numbers. The answer lies in becoming more familiar, comfortable, and confident in using numbers to understand, identify, demonstrate, and communicate value.

Let’s Review:

Communicating value depends on a command of financial terms and a clear, concise structure that summarizes the most important points in 30 seconds or less.

The terms used to communicate value must correspond to the measures that the audience pays attention to every day.

A seat at the table will only be gained if the WLP professional acquires the ability to think like a general manager or salesperson, to think strategically and not tactically, to understand financial statements, and to sell.

Financially based communication has been shown to significantly increase persuasiveness, sales, and job search success.

Understanding how much their performance improvements have improved the bottom line can be just as important to participants as it is to their executives.