How Successful Companies Develop Their Sales Teams
Not enough companies have learned how to employ sales training as a strategic
tool. Those that have are leaders in their industries, offering their shareholders
maximum return on investment. They are able to quickly adapt to changing
market conditions, are respected by their customers, and provide consistent sales
performance.
The salespeople who work for those companies are motivated, stay in their jobs
longer and are proud to help in recruiting their friends who have been successful
selling for other companies. That improves the "bloodline" and saves on recruiting
fees.
Quite often, sales managers and executives don't have the time and experience
to train correctly. Companies with internal training departments often provide
guidance, but sales training is quite different from designing and delivering
training to other areas within an organization, such as customer care,
engineering, or human resources.
Assess Your Situation
The first step for any company deciding to make a change in their sales approach
is always an assessment of the situation. What processes and methods are
currently being employed by the company? What has its sales performance been?
What percentage of salespeople are delivering against plan? What are the biggest
obstacles to success? How dynamic or stable is the company's environment?
What are the practices and expectations of the buyers?
These are only a few considerations.
The primary objective of creating an individually tailored Organizational
Development Program has to be: To achieve consistently superior results through
the performance of every key individual. After all, our people are our most
important -- and indeed, expensive -- resource; it therefore makes sense for us
to want to see a full and proper return on that investment.
Specifically, we are seeking to achieve optimum performance levels via a process
and an all-encompassing framework for defining performance standards. Thisinvolves assessing, appraising, developing, implementing, reviewing and
providing continual feedback on performance.
Emphasis is placed on creating an environment in which the "can do/will do"
mentality thrives and becomes the norm -- success and achievement are
expected and, as a consequence, are much more likely to happen.
Key Factors for Optimum Performance
I believe it is essential to bring together a number of key factors when aiming for
optimum performance levels. A simplified formula would be:
Attitude + Skills + Process (A.S.P.) = Success.
Attitude is fundamental to any achievement because individuals with the right
attitude are far more likely to embrace the essential skills, and at the same time
recognize the control that the process brings.
Skills are the "tools of the trade" and have to be developed on an ongoing basis.
They also need to be specific, because too much time can be wasted over-
burdening employees with inappropriate and irrelevant skills without any
identifiable plan for their future requirements.
The implementation of any skills-development program has to be well-thought
out and logical in its approach if a proper return on that often-considerable
investment is to be achieved.
Process brings organization, efficiency and control, both for the individual and for
management. An effective process provides objective analysis and indicators that
can be benchmarked and accurately measured.
There is, of course, a need to build in knowledge, and that can include knowledge
of your company's products, your specific industry, market sectors, competitors,
business, etc., but generally this education is provided extremely competently
internally.
However, recognition of the A.S.P formula is only the beginning and, in truth,
most organizations merely pay lip service to it, preferring to regard any form ofongoing training as a cost rather than an investment, whether that be short,
medium or long-term.
And yet there is substantial evidence to indicate a direct correlation between
continuing education and consistently high achievement, increased job
satisfaction, and enhanced levels of motivation and loyalty.
The Frontline of Your Business
Our commercial functions, including the sales team, represent the frontline of our
business. If they are not scoring regularly, we cannot possibly achieve our overall
commercial objectives -- i.e., nothing happens until somebody sells something,
and all of that investment in costly accounting systems, new office equipment
, expensive IT systems, etc., will count for nothing.
Dependence on people is key to delivering the latent capability of a business. Our
people are the greatest source of competitive advantage we have, and that is
precisely why we should continue to invest in them and fully develop them.