Defining "Practices"

What do we generally mean by a business "practice"? Clear, precise definitions are important because they provide the foundation and framework for all that follows.

Too narrow a definition may preclude consideration of vital improvements. Too broad a definition may lead to unfocused or thinly-spread efforts that are often ineffective.

A business "practice" is basically a process — a series of steps designed to accomplish a specific task or task set. It has a clear starting point and a clear completion point. Its steps may include a very broad range of distinct activities.

While specific beginning and endpoints characterize a process, business purpose typically defines a practice. A practice often contains a number of processes organized into a system by an underlying purpose. A practice is defined by knowledge and intelligence; a process is defined by rules.

The sidebar at right illustrates this fundamental distinction in the words of others.

Sales Process vs. Sales Practice

The importance of this distinction may be easier to see by looking at an example. You almost certainly have a pretty good idea of what a typical direct sales process looks like. In its simplest form, it has several basic steps, beginning with an initial contact and ending with closing a sale. The goal or purpose of this process is closing the sale.

How does a sales practice differ? It includes the sales process but goes well beyond it. A sales practice may, for example, be built around the fundamental purpose of increasing sales productivity. The narrow purpose of closing a sale relates specifically to the process but is just a part of the practice.

The sales practice in this case involves knowing the right people in the account's organization and how best to develop productive relationships. It probably involves building a base of knowledge about the customer and its specific needs. It also involves knowing how best to accomplish this. Practice often relies upon intuition built by long experience about what might work best with each particular customer.

As you can see at this point, the sales practice includes much that does not normally appear in a sales process definition. As you include more of the practice within the process, you rely less on the knowledge, intelligence and skill of the salesperson. This can be productive if it serves to improve the performance of the less knowledgeable, less experienced, and less skilled sales people.

In most cases, however, the process must remain flexible in its implementation so that each salesperson can adapt it as needed to address special opportunities and situations. These adaptations are sales practice.

 

Process vs. Practice

This distinction has been pretty thoroughly covered elsewhere. Some useful excerpts:

• Process deals with prescription and formality. Practice  deals with all the variations and disorderliness of getting work accomplished.
  
• Process is how work should be done. Practice is how work is actually done. When process fails, practice is used to fix things.
  
• In a process, the steps are more rigidly followed. In a practice, the intelligence remains almost entirely with the practitioner; designers move as much intelligence as possible into processes.
  
• Process is about dealing with information. Practice is about applying knowledge. Process is something that can be documented, usually as a workflow with well defined boundaries. Follow the process and you will get a predictable output. Practice is about gaining experience to know when (and when not) to break the rules.