For many large sales organizations, the multi-million dollar question is how to keep pace with the demands of dynamic and increasingly complex sales cycles. While many still employ traditional face-to-face learning at an average cost of $1,200 per employee, most don’t have that luxury. Instead, they entrust ongoing performance improvement to blended learning approaches and then hope for the best. But is that enough?
For starters, keeping up with the needs of informed buyers requires a clear understanding of customer pain points as they relate to changing market dynamics. Still, studies show that most reps continue to demonstrate greater fluency in products and features than they do industry knowledge or their prospects’ daily business challenges. They also need well-developed selling skills such as listening, critical thinking and decision-making.
Addressing these deficits requires more than costly, intermittent training sessions. It requires a process of engaging sales management in bringing critical selling skills and practical industry expertise forward into the field and ensuring that they are adequately applied in real-world scenarios. A recent Sales Management Association study supports the impact of this approach, showing that the amount and effectiveness of sales coaching together can increase revenue by up to 17 percent. Therefore, an investment in developing 20 outstanding sales coaches, for example, can be far more cost-effective than yet another training session for 120 reps.
For budget-constrained organizations in particular, a solid coaching program helps managers foster their reps’ knowledge, skills and, ultimately, career development. It can also help reduce turnover. So, how can organizations incorporate ongoing coaching programs that add value for reps and the business alike, without adding to the time constraints sales managers already face? It’s all about creating a coaching culture that works. Here are three ways to do it.
Data-Driven Insights
As buying dynamics evolve, sales cycles can become extraordinarily complex. In the technology industry, for example, a sales rep may need to interact with a line of business executives, project managers, operations, finance, purchasing and IT just to move a deal along. The sales rep are expected to speak authoritatively and contextually with each of these contacts, not just about their own solution, but about macro-industry trends and the pros and cons of competitive approaches, as well.
The depth and breadth of what reps need to know today are much greater than they used to be. To help them improve their chances of winning deals, sales managers and coaches must promptly identify, analyze and address knowledge gaps. This is particularly challenging when you consider that many managers may not know how to effectively coach, and they oversee teams of six or more reps on average.
The solution lies in developing strategies for coaching your coaches using management development programs and, more importantly, data. Leveraging actionable insights from sales management platforms can provide managers with a clear snapshot of where each rep stands in terms of knowledge and skills across a broad range of required competencies, and the prescribed steps required to address them.
Leadership Support
A successful coaching culture requires sales leaders who are willing to make coaching a priority. Yet SiriusDecisions’ research shows that nearly half of the organizations they surveyed lack competency-based development programs for sales management. By assessing managers based on their success in developing others, and aligning incentives accordingly, sales leaders can motivate managers to become more engaged coaches. Tying managers’ coaching activities to company-defined competencies and KPIs and then measuring their performance based on their coaching activity makes them more accountable.
Leaders can also provide their support by investing in mobile-first technologies that allow managers to easily record their observations of each rep for better insight into next steps. For example, when managers are on a ride-along with a sales rep, they can quickly and efficiently rate the rep on specific competencies using a mobile device. Aggregating those observations with other data-driven insights into sales reps’ capabilities will enhance the manager’s understanding of where the rep needs coaching the most. This process makes for more focused coaching initiatives, and, more importantly, managers can get in front of any potential issues before it’s too late.
Field Sales Coaches
We know that many sales managers were once top sales reps that were promoted into manager roles without the proper training. These managers often lack the skills to be effective, and with little time in their day, they are challenged to deliver behavioral coaching while focusing instead on deal-related matters. However, that trend is starting to change as organizations realize that developing coaches from the ground up will have a much bigger impact on business outcomes. This realization has led to the rise of the field sales coach, a transitional role that helps successful reps develop into effective managers by coaching their peers in the field. When top salespeople hone their leadership skills in this way, they can develop effective coaching practices that will endure as they move up the ranks to manager.
In a more competitive, demanding and changing business environment, sales organizations need to kick the habit of relying on one-off sales training events. Rather, they need to commit to a continuous coaching model that has been proven to drive business outcomes. Ongoing coaching helps reps address changing buying patterns and more complex sales cycles while creating more effective support in the field long-term. By prioritizing and focusing on developing sales managers who are skilled coaches, organizations can foster a sales force that demonstrates agility in the face of rapid change.
