Stay in Control: How Modern Learning Tools Prevent Sales Leaders From a Downward Spiral

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In a dynamic, ever-changing sales environment, it’s hard for sales leaders to predict or control numerous variables. They can’t control what their competitors do or give reps immediate access to key decision makers, but do you know what they can do? They can control the how. How sales teams pitch, how they react and how they respond to customer concerns.

“How” has become one of the most critical words across industries. Only 10 years ago, salespeople could walk in to any prospective customer’s office for a face-to-face meeting right off the bat. In 2019 that’s almost unheard of. Even if you do get the meeting, it’s likely that the decision will be made by a smaller team, rather than the head honcho of decision-making, so the skills required for success are more complex.

Put Your Best Foot Forward Every Single Time

With less opportunities and more minds to persuade, your sales team needs to come in guns blazing and ready to every sales call. How are they going to do it? That’s in your control. By developing a confident, well-prepared and highly skilled team, your reps will be ready to seal the deal- as long as these modern learning methods are in place:

1) Just-in-time learning

Mobile videos have transformed daily life. When was the last time you headed to the library for the one time you needed to learn how to fix a leaky faucet or cook a new recipe? You probably can’t remember the last time because in recent years, all you need to do is pull up a YouTube video. All you need to do is press play and watch and learn. Agile sales organizations are applying this same logic to deliver key information to their sales teams at the exact moment they need it.

Rather than holding classes, or issuing emails and new sales training materials, they distribute bite-sized how-to videos and news updates to ensure reps can access mission-critical information just before a customer interaction.

2) Digitized Coaching

The idea of “coaching” isn’t particularly modern. We’ve been coached by our managers on new upgrades and now we’re coaching reps on new products, it’s not a new process. What’s modern are the digital tools that enable managers to increase the amount of time they can devote to coaching.

Without these modern sales learning and readiness tools, managers simply just wouldn’t have the time to coach every single rep who could use a little bit of brushing up. Once modern learning tools are in possession, managers can work with their salespeople remotely, offering advice and feedback in response to their practice videos or quiz results. Say “goodbye” to the three-day ride-alongs and “hello” to modern selling machines.

3) P2P Training

Don’t you wish all reps can be as good as your best? Well now they can be. Today, with the help of modern sales learning and readiness platforms, organizations can have their “A player” reps record their best practices, tips and subject matter expertise with the rest of the team. That way, reps can learn from the best of the best.

Instant access to the sales messaging that your best salespeople actually use to close deals—as well as how it looks and sounds—will inspire the other reps to rehearse their presentations and objection handling. When combined with reinforcement drills and assessments to ensure that reps are watching the videos and rehearsing their presentations, these peer-to-peer collaborations are far more effective in helping salespeople up their game.

As the pace of change rapidly increases in sales, training cannot be the way it used to be. Crossing your fingers that everyone read your emails it isn’t an option, and neither is hoping everyone took enough notes to remember all the material after a classroom training session. Building a better sales force ultimately requires organizations to take more ownership over the “controllables,” which will determine how well their reps are prepared for their next customer conversation.

A version of this article was originially published on the Allego Blog. You can read the original post here.

Mark Magnacca
Mark Magnacca is the President and co-founder of Allego, and has spent the last 15 years helping sales leaders shorten the sales cycle and distribute their best ideas faster. Prior to co-founding Allego, Mark founded Insight Development Group, Inc., a leading Sales and Presentation training firm specializing in the Financial Services industry. As a former financial advisor, Mark brings a unique perspective to the world of consultative selling. Mark is a graduate of Babson College and resides in the Boston area.

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