How do you transform an industry? How do you transform your sales team?
What differentiates your sales team from your competition? Most people think of product for differentiation and your product or service may not be that different. If your product or service is outstanding, but your sales team isn’t, does that limit your growth and profits? Your sales team can be a strong differentiator, but how?
I’m working with several clients that this is their focus. They are embracing the challenges of the pandemic and the resulting recession and turning their focus to how they can improve with their sales teams. Strong, differentiating sales teams grow revenue more quickly and more profitably. So, what is the difference with sales teams that are successful and those that are “average”?
There is no “silver bullet”. There is a process, however, that will improve your odds. It starts with hiring the right people, onboarding them, developing them through strong product and skills training. We think in terms of strategy, people, process, and technology. We look at companies and evaluate their strategy, their systems, and their resources to make sure they align. Salespeople reside in the resources lane and it’s a critical piece of the differentiation puzzle.
The starting point for sales team development is knowing the skills and values that you need for your team to have success. Hiring people who do not have those skills and values just leads to disappointment and additional costs and lost opportunities. I’m a proponent of using an outcome-based process to determine what success looks like with a specific sales role. From there you can determine what skills are needed to reach that outcome. It helps you hire more effectively, and it helps you invest in the right onboarding and training processes.
Well trained sales teams are differentiated sales teams. While it might be tempting and even necessary to suspend investments in training during an economic slowdown, investing in training and the differentiation it provides for your customer will pay off in additional revenue and profit. The companies we are working with recognize that now is the time to invest in their teams.