Get off the 'methodology-merry-go-round'...
We've been involved in the world of international sales for decades; on the receiving end of different training approaches, have trained and coached thousands of salespeople around the world, in different sectors, countries and languages and have been sold to on hundreds of occasions. We genuinely know what 'great' looks and sounds like.
It is a constant source of frustration that international businesses spend millions every year on sales training that has not evolved over time - and where the measurability of success hasn't moved forward.
In engagements with new customers we find they are on the 'methodology merry-go-round'. They have used a training provider for several years but find there is little 'traction' or application and sales results haven't improved as expected. This results in the provider being 'fired' and another one brought in with their approach...only to find years later (and at significant expense) nothing has changed - and so the situation repeats.
Do you find this as frustrating as we do?
We are methodology agnostic. We think most methodologies are well researched and, on the whole, sound. It is the ability to apply the techniques and tools in a sustained and rigorous way (with manager reinforcement and appropriate tracking), adjusted for your unique situation, location, culture and language that makes the difference.
This doesn't mean running a 'two-day coaching skills' module for managers on the GROW technique is the answer. Far from it. In our experience most managers will never make expert coaches (certainly not what we would call an 'expert').
It requires a new way to look at getting the best results from what you have already invested in. There are several ways to adjust HOW the training is conducted...and HOW it is reinforced. That's where we come in.
Don't put up with mediocrity - call us. You have absolutely nothing to lose...other than an approach that probably isn't giving you the kind of return you need.
If you recognise any of the following we need to talk.
Poor customer & business research and insight.
A lack of ability to prove your value.
Deals that always seem to come down to price.
Sales people engaging too few of the right people.
Sales questioning & listening skills lacking confidence.
Coaching taught, but low managerial expertise.
Patchy opportunity qualification.
Low confidence in pipeline accuracy.
Training as 'fun' rather than a success driver.
Off-the-shelf training that is not customized, localized or delivered locally in your native language.
“You are what you repeatedly do.
Excellence is not an event – it is a habit.”
Many of the sales approaches used today are based on concepts developed 30-40 years ago. These are often a very useful foundation, but many no longer reflect the new environment where sales are taking place - they have not evolved. The world has moved on; pressures are different, the pace is different, expectations are different, attention spans are different...so the way we develop capability needs to be different.
Q. So what's wrong with the current approach?
There are a number of themes as to why the building of sales capability doesn’t result in the intended improvements in sales capability.
A lack of focus on commercial knowledge and understanding
One observation noticed time and time again with sales organizations of all shapes and sizes is a significant gap in the ability of salespeople to articulate HOW what they sell adds real and measurable value to their customers.
Unsophisticated development methods
Putting everyone on the same ‘training’.
Expecting sales managers to be an expert coach after a one or two-day program.
Competency models that are hard to define, open to opinion and rarely correlate to winning business.
Too much theory and little practice.
An over-reliance on the ‘trainer’ to make the difference.
Emphasis placed on asking salespeople what they think of the expert (via the Happy Sheet), rather than asking the expert to comment on the salespeople.
A lack of focus on emotional maturity and strength
The vast majority of traditional approaches to developing sales capability are methodology centric. Some degree of process is, of course, important. However, buying is an emotional process and this, as well as building a strong sales mindset, can often be overlooked in typical ‘training’ approaches.
A lack of rigour in tracking progress
Tracking is often limited to fairly crude attempts to attribute a certain percentage of a successful sale to the training. This is far from ideal as many of the factors that contribute to the success of a sale are outside the control and/or influence of a salesperson let alone attributable to any training they may have undertaken.
What is often missing is the tracking of ‘customer commitment’ metrics (within the control and influence of the salesperson) that are strong indicators of whether a deal is on track, and moving towards a sale…or not.
If we want better sales performance and are going to invest to achieve this, how do we ensure it delivers desired improvements quickly and Globally?
The answer is to approach this as a business generation exercise rather than a training one, and to generate more business more quickly, a sales operation needs a business-generation engine. This has four main parts:
Concise & interest generating articulation of value
All salespeople need a crystal-clear understanding of exactly how their products and services add value to their customer’s business.
Addressing this involves:
The creation of specific ‘Value Statements’ (by customer type and by stakeholder type) that sales can then articulate.
Using previous customer experiences to hypothesise the potential quantifiable value their products and services can bring to prospects.
Deepening the understanding of how and where this value is created…and specifically for whom.
This clarity will greatly aid salespeople in confidently making their approach to either a prospect or a new stakeholder in an existing customer organisation.
Skills to qualify & progress opportunities through pipeline
We believe there are 3 critical ‘roles’ salespeople need to master: Salesperson as a Business Person, Salesperson Making the Case for Change, Salesperson as a Closer. A critical part of the process therefore, is developing these skills in a way that has a tangible impact.
Addressing this involves:
Removing as much of the 'knowledge acquisition' as possible. Carefully crafted pre-work (delivered through a variety of methods) and knowledge 'checks' can ensure only people that pass these checks are allowed onto 'skill-practice-only' workshops.
Checking knowledge can also help to identify where additional gaps residehese can be closed before putting people onto a workshop. This can prevent the workshop leader spending hours going over information participants should already know.
Workshops where salespeople repeatedly practice the skills for all three roles (buyer, seller and observer). These allow participants to work through real opportunities and apply a logical, simple and robust process to each. By seeing tangible progress on live opportunities, the perceived value of participating in the process is increased.
A focus on enabling salespeople to build the customer’s emotional commitment to buy. This includes building familiarity and dexterity with a mix of proven verbal behaviours that enable salespeople to deal effectively with unexpected outcomes that would otherwise impact confidence.
Where development workshops are relevant, we recommend participation across working teams. Yes, it can be useful to mix and match with other people from across the business, however we think it is more productive for salesperson to work with their peers on real opportunities relevant to everyone.
Note: We believe workshops are a critical component of the mix. Much has been made of the benefits of e-learning, however, face-to-face interaction is a powerful medium for transforming beliefs and habits – a key requirement for behavioural change. In addition, technology has advanced to the point where certain workshops can be run extremely effectively remotely - removing associated logistical and cost barriers.
Robust evaluation & tracking of progress
It is critical to be able to practically and regularly evaluate development effectiveness.
Addressing this involves:
Tracking progress with the generation of business. While it is difficult to link deals won directly to a development intervention, it is possible to track whether everything that should be being done as part of a sales opportunity is being done. We have tools and checklists that enable salespeople and managers to analyse opportunities in detail. This significantly improves opportunity qualification, forecasting and pipeline confidence. Our tools enable accurate identification of where in the pipeline an opportunity is and what actions are required to move it forward. They can be easily aligned to sales stages within your existing pipeline tracking systems or CRM.
Feedback to participants on where they would benefit from further development. Development represents a significant investment in external resources which should be used to provide feedback to attendees. Workshops need to be delivered in a way that allows this interchange, enabling the experts to provide valuable feedback to salespeople on where they could usefully focus their time on appropriate ongoing development.
Feedback on the quality of interventions being provided. The feedback on quality and effectiveness of development workshops is limited. We think there are improvements to be made in terms of the quality of data collected and the insights it produces. This would allow ongoing adjustments and improvements to be made that would increase the effectiveness and relevance of the content and delivery. We actively encourage our customer stakeholders and sponsors to review the training, results and feedback. We then encourage a collaborative approach in adjusting the content to ensure it remains effective.
Sustainable momentum
If development is to become a cog in improving sales performance, it needs to become an ongoing part of the sales operation.
Addressing this involves:
A manager fast track that:
Enables managers to be a role model for the behaviours and skills required. Many sales managers are both ‘player’ and ‘coach’ and this needs to be refected in their development and ongoing support.
Moves away from the manager as an expert coach and enables managers to provide support and leadership when needed. Salespeople need support from their managers and need managers who are able to judge when to coach, when to advise and when to roll their sleeves up. This is much more attuned to the modus operandi of a sales manager and therefore an easier shift for them to make.
Deal Coaching. A structured deal-review process where individual opportunities are robustly reviewed with a view to identifying any gaps in application of sales skills, techniques and best practice to that deal.
Development of internal ‘leaders’. Identifying those that can own and drive critical parts of the development and performance improvement process. This might include running deal-reviews, workshop facilitation, coaching or the creation of internal champions.
Technology solutions. Tools and systems that enable salespeople to have additional performance improvement resources available at their fingertips as and when needed.