Maureen Haga Sales Performance Consultant, M2Execution
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhaga/
What do you do?
I am a collaborative and respected sales performance development consultant who has dedicated 35 years to training, coaching, and motivating commercial print sales organizations to overcome sales challenges, achieve sales quotas, and dominate their markets. I’ve had the honor to work with the industry’s “original” top ten commercial printers; both as a leader and an external consultant. I am known as a trusted advisor and strategic troubleshooter, who quickly diagnoses obstacles that can impede sales achievement and provides customized training and coaching solutions that influence revenue outcomes, enrich customer relationships, and facilitate sales cultural change. I am deeply honored to have worked with exceptional print sales talent and leadership. We have grown and learned from each other.
What investments have you made in your professional career development?
Early in my print industry career, I participated in RR Donnelley’s new sales hire training and development program. This program was both challenging and transformational. I learned all the commercial print markets (book, financial, catalog, magazine, special interest publications, direct mail, and financial)
This 9-month program taught and indoctrinated me to respect and love printing. I still reflect on the book, To Be a Good Printer when working with both sales and manufacturing print employees.
In addition, I received numerous certifications for training and coaching print sales leadership and representatives and lean manufacturing process improvement.
As for academic career development, I have a Master’s in Adult Corporate Instructional Management. As part of this degree, my thesis showed how print sales professionals who received high-quality and hands-on training, exceeded their sales quotas and increased their income. This research study was published in numerous industry publications and featured at industry conferences.
What investments have you made in your personal development?
I paid 20% of my Master’s Degree; RR Donnelley paid the remaining 80% provided I received a B or higher grade in each class. In addition, for 9/13 of my courses, I used print industry sales challenges and created use and business cases for attracting the best talent, training and developing the talent to excel, and motivating the talent to execute corporate strategic initiatives and sales/market goals.
Over my 35 years in the print industry, I have participated in numerous development programs for leadership development, print production, customer satisfaction, and workflow management.
How can the industry proactively invest in women, and why should this be a priority?
I strongly believe the commercial print industry needs to establish formal mentor program(s) designed for women; to address the unique challenges they will experience in the print industry. I was very fortunate to have several successful women who supported, coached, and mentored me throughout my career. They came from different backgrounds and experience levels that included sales, human resources, legal, manufacturing, marketing, and finance.
In addition, women need to ask for the opportunity to have a seat at the table where they can provide different points of view, and provide value and insights. I’ve had the opportunity to serve on Women in Print Advisory Boards, Workplace Diversity Steering Committees, and Women in Sales award judging committees. In these roles, I was able to ask insightful questions, actively listen to the challenges women experienced, and collaborate with executives to create and implement workplace employee engagement programs to address and remove the challenges. The outcomes resulted in higher retention of women in sales, manufacturing, and corporate staff, stronger and more diverse succession plans, and higher employee loyalty. This is why women’s mentoring and workplace-inclusive programs should be a priority.
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