Do you have an internal training team responsible for keeping your Sales Team up to speed on skills and providing in-depth feedback for personal development?
No, you don't have a training team and why would you? You hire self-driven, experienced sales reps and invest in product training. You have a dream team of Sales Managers to provide strategy. You even brought back face-to-face National Meetings and Leadership Offsites for team building events.
Yet...your team is at risk of hitting their sales goals this quarter and even this year. And it's difficult to diagnose the problem. Why are they off-track?
The way the world communicates and sells changed dramatically in the last 3 years. From video conferencing to selling with data, it's more important than ever to ensure your Sales Team has the necessary, updated skills to build relationships, sell value and drive business growth in today's economy.
The Top 3 Reasons Sales Leaders Don't Invest in Skill Training:
Reason #1: I hire experienced Sales People.
Why it's a Myth: Whether a rep has been selling for 5 years or 25, it takes both experience AND continual training for a person to reach their full potential. Professional Athletes never stop training, practicing and getting coached. Health Care workers are diligent about continuing medical education. Why would Sales Professionals be different? The world has changed and the way we communicate has changed. If you aren't training your sales people, who is?
Reason #2: My Sales Managers train their teams.
Why it's a Myth: Training is a full time job and Sales Managers are experts at sales strategy and people development. Depending on the geography of your team, most Sales Managers don't live near their reps and, even if they did, cannot attend every sales call to provide feedback. The result - sales reps are not hitting their number and Sales Managers don't have the time or ability to diagnose the issue.
Reason #3: We have a National Meeting every year (or quarter).
Why it's a Myth: While a rhythm of National Sales Meetings is a GREAT investment in your team, these are rarely designed around the NEEDS the Sales Team.
Consider what it's like to sit in a 3-day offsite meeting with a new topic every hour. That's an average of 5 topics per day, so 15 different topics over the course of the meeting. If each session has 1 action item (most have more), that's a MINIMUM of 15 action items for each Sales Person to execute when they return to their desk on Monday.
There are so many benefits to a National Sales Meeting, but to a Sales Person, it's like drinking from the corporate fire hose.