6 Training Reinforcement Tips for Sales Success

Personally, I know that I’ve become lazier about focusing on good learning habits and committing information to memory. Technology makes it so easy to look up facts with a quick keyword that I can relax knowing I have a safety net. This isn’t something I’m proud of, and I’m committing to changing my habits on how I absorb and internalize information. I’m encouraging my salespeople to be better learners as well, and reinforcement is the key.

How well my team members learn will make a difference in their daily performance.  If one of my sales reps is having a sales conversation, his or her focus must be on the customer and discovering the customer’s true needs, not searching on the internet while talking on the phone. Obviously, this way of working would be disastrous during a face-to-face meeting with a prospect.

No one wants to see the sales team stumbling through calls. Sales training is designed to teach new techniques and skills. Most of us do a great job at the beginning of the year with our traditional sales kick-off meetings. However, when we are just a few weeks into the year, this training is already starting to fade. Often, we don’t have a plan for reinforcement. According to the Aberdeen Group, only 44 percent of organizations use post-training reinforcement to provide long-term support for their sales teams after initial training. At those firms, the investment pays off, with an average of 79-percent team attainment of sales quota versus 69 percent for those without continuing training.

Act now, before it’s too late. Build on the momentum you created at the sales kick-off, and add repetition and practice to cement the desired sales behaviors. This reinforcement will turn the behaviors into habits. Post-training reinforcement continues to refresh the sales team to make both short-term and long-term goals easier to reach.

By neglecting this next step in training, we inadvertently set ourselves up for failure. Brain science has proven that most of our learning is lost after the first 90 to 120 days, yet usually, sales training is planned around a fun two- or three-day motivational event. Often, there is no intentional follow-up after that. No matter how great the event was, the enthusiasm fades, and true long-term learning simply doesn’t happen.

Here are some best practices that will help your sales team internalize the training and improve their skills:

  1. Design training for the long term: Develop an overall plan that includes refreshers throughout the year.
  2. Chunk information and keep reinforcement learning modules short.Use brief (five minutes or less) learning capsules containing solid information that immediately helps salespeople at the time they really need it and on their schedules.
  3. Make information easy to access, searchable and fast.  Information and training should be part of the daily workflow. Make it accessible in just two or three clicks. Integrate it into your CRM to eliminate the need for another system.
  4. Combine content, training and coaching. Having all three in context, when a sales rep needs it, is most effective.
  5. Create interactive activities. Challenge salespeople with examples, and have them participate in providing answers. Games and exercises are fun, and they improve memory.
  6. Track training modules and virtual coaching activities. As the sales leader, review regular reports. They are a quick snapshot of how well salespeople are progressing and improving. Gaps will become obvious, and you can make adjustments along the way.

Technology can make post-training reinforcement even easier, since tools are at everyone’s fingertips and available all the time. Keep in mind that these tools are designed using brain science to help with memory retention and skill adoption.   With the technology available today, learning modules can be automated and fun for everyone to use, and, even better, they don’t add to the workload. We know that with reinforcement and practice, it’s possible to make learning stick.

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3 Reasons Sales Enablement Roles are on the Rise

Many of us now have jobs that probably didn’t exist when we were kids, or at least, the way we work has changed dramatically due to technology and other factors. The booming market for sales enablement professionals is one of those growing professions. According to LinkedIn, hundreds of job openings are available in this emerging field, but what exactly does this role entail? And how does adding this role make companies more successful?

The research firm Forrester, defines sales enablement as “A strategic, ongoing process that equips all client-facing employees with the ability to consistently and systematically have a valuable conversation with the right set of customer stakeholders at each stage of the customer’s problem-solving life cycle to optimize the return of investment of the selling system.”

The sales enablement function is becoming more defined and includes a variety of solutions. CSO Insights has found that an increasing number of companies are implementing a dedicated sales enablement function. In the 2016 Sales Performance Optimization Study, 32.7% of survey respondents said they had a dedicated sales enablement function. That was up from 25.5% of respondents in the 2015 SPO study and 22.6% in the 2014 SPO study.

There are three key reasons this role is gaining importance:

1. Buyers approach purchases in a new way

Buyers now do a lot of the purchasing research before they ever talk to a salesperson. A research study by Gartner suggests that by 2020, buyers will manage as much as 85% of their purchases without talking face-to-face with a salesperson. Salespeople don’t have the luxury of following a standard, static sales process. They need to be prepared to deliver value and have a conversation on the buyers terms.

Sales enablement helps train, coach, enable and optimize the sales team to meet today’s more sophisticated buyer. In addition, sales enablement teams ensure that sales reps have the content they need no matter what the sales stage. With technology, sales enablement teams can even deliver the content, coaching and training virtually, anytime, anywhere.

2. Content Takes Center Stage

B2B marketers have been focused on content creation to deliver leads for a number of years. Many companies also see the value and importance of sales content throughout the sales cycle. With more and more content being developed, it’s up to the sales enablement team to make sure the right content is 1) created; 2) easily found by sales team and 3) valuable and used by the sales team. However, SiriusDecisions research shows that as much as 2/3 of content goes unused. Sales enablement teams are the ones tasked with fixing those problems, because as a DemandGen Report found, 95% of buyers choose a supplier that provided them the right content throughout the buying process. Armed with the right content, a seller can better sell value and help the buyer.

3. The Need for Sales and Marketing Alignment

Organizations of all sizes have a tendency to create silos when various departments are not communicating or working together. For years, marketing built the brand and drove demand and then sales took over from there. There was a lack of alignment between the two and a lack of accountability to revenue in the marketing department. That is rapidly changing and often the sales enablement function acts as the glue between sales and marketing and is responsible for making sure they stay aligned.

In addition, sales enablement roles use sales and marketing analytics, to optimize training, coaching and content to improve sales rep performance. Exceptional company leaders recognize that the path to growth encompasses more than just sales or just marketing alone. In 2011, Aberdeen Research released a report in which they showed that companies that were superior in aligning marketing and sales experienced an average of 32% growth in annual revenue, compared to a 7% decline in organizations that were lacking this alignment. In Aberdeen’s most recent (2013) report on the subject, they reported that 26% of companies say they’re prioritizing increasing marketing’s visibility into the sales pipeline.

The growth in sales enablement as a key function in organizations is undeniable. The number of people with “sales enablement” in their title on LinkedIn has skyrocketed in recent years. The newly formed Sales Enablement Society is growing rapidly and forming chapters all over the United States. They describe the evolution to be similar to how the CIO position grew out of data processing, or how the CFO role evolved from bookkeeping. The Society (after much debate) is suggesting that a similarly senior role be titled Head of Sales Productivity since many companies treat it as a multi-faceted business function.

Whatever you call it, those that embrace sales enablement first are sure to grow their business. Research from Marketo and Reachforce found that when sales and marketing teams are in sync, companies became 67% better at closing deals. It is no wonder that sales enablement is on the rise.

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Three Strategic Marketing and Sales Mistakes to Avoid in 2017

The year is nearly halfway through, and you may already be feeling you’re behind in reaching the organization’s ambitious 2017 revenue goals. No reason to worry yet, but before your anxiety turns into a mid-year panic attack, it’s a good idea to keep your eye on a few key strategic areas.

The following three, when ignored, become some of the most common mistakes that lead to the midyear panic attack.

1. Not Aligning Sales and Marketing Goals

Sounds simple and obvious, but so many organizations don’t do it. Why—especially when, according to the TAS Group, misalignment costs B2B companies 10% of revenue per year.

Common symptoms are simply structural; these are two separate functions, and the CEO doesn’t hold them accountable for being aligned. Another common reason is they view the sales and marketing relationship as a baton handoff instead of an ongoing partnership: Often, Marketing generates leads, gives them to Sales, and then Sales does its thing.

Steps to avoid misalignment:

  • Agree on joint goals at the beginning of the year. If you haven’t by now this year, get on it ASAP. As the adage goes, “you get what you measure.”
  • Have a common, agreed-upon definition of “lead.” If you haven’t done this in the past, you may need to reset expectations on lead numbers. Most organizations could benefit from having a higher bar for qualifying sales leads. The result may be fewer leads, but higher-quality leads that result in more business and a higher likelihood that Sales will follow up.
  • Have a formally defined lead hand-off process. If the marketing department is backing up the lead truck to the sales department and dumping leads on Sales, it’s time to redefine your process. What is the follow-up expectation? Within 24 hours? How many touches is the minimum before Sales moves on?
  • Measure and refine. Quarterly reviews are recommended, as they give you enough data to see what is working and what is not. They also allow time to change course and affect the remainder of the year.

2. Under-Resourced Plan or Lack of a Plan

Anyone who has pitched the CFO for more money without citing tangible numbers knows that’s as effective as fishing in a roadside puddle.

If the ROI of marketing and sales activities is not clearly communicated, then funds and attention are not dedicated for new tools or staff. Obviously, if you can attribute your activities directly to revenue, you’ll have the most compelling of arguments. But that isn’t always possible.

Try these places to start building a more compelling case:

  • Measure Sales’ use of your content. Sirius Decisions estimates that only 30% of marketing content is used by sales; if you can identify the other 70% and reduce waste, you’ll make your CFO happy. CFOs like reducing waste.
  • Get feedback on your marketing content from your sales reps. Though simple feedback may not be the “holy grail” of attributing content to revenue, it’s logical that pieces of content with higher feedback ratings are probably helping sales reps move deals through the sales funnel.
  • Deploy sales-enablement technology if your organization is more sophisticated and can do so. It will knock the socks off your CFO. With sales-enablement technology tied to your CRM and content, you can show which pieces of content move deals through the sales stages and ultimately result in new revenue.

3. Thinking That Sales Growth and Momentum Will Continue

Often, when things are going well and the company is in a growth phase, it’s easy to become complacent. But before complacency becomes a killer, carve off a portion of your budget and start piloting new approaches.

Ideas to pilot, if you haven’t already:

  • Account-based marketing (ABM). The concept has been around for many years, and it’s now a popular topic in the sales and marketing blogosphere, but very few companies have implemented an ABM approach. Start small with your perfect target market and a small group of accounts. Allocate the right resources to truly customize the content and see what you can produce. It’s likely that those who execute well will achieve higher ROI than those that don’t implement ABM in the very near future.
  • Increase your Sales tech stack. The Marketing tech stack has improved marketers’ ability to automate and deliver highly relevant, targeted content during the marketing process. New Sales tech products are constantly hitting the market with the promise of doing for Sales what martech did for marketers.
  • Start using predictive analytics. Many of the sales tech products are using artificial intelligence and predictive analytics, to help tell you what to do before you know what to do. Even if your current strategy is working, wouldn’t you like to know where your future strategy should go?

Pulling It All Together

At the end of the year, sales will be measured by revenue. Marketing should be measured against revenue as well.

In today’s digital word, old tactics will continue to dwindle in effectiveness. Now, more than ever, your sales and marketing teams need to be collaborating to achieve common goals and using the sophisticated technology available to them. For most B2B organizations, that probably also means looking at processes to improve their sales execution, and they will need to take advantage of technology to automate sales activities, processes, and administrative tasks. A 2016 Gartner report predicts, for example, that by 2018 manual data entry by salespeople will be cut in half due to the adoption of sales productivity tools. If streamlining processes isn’t on your long-term radar yet, now is also the time to start doing research.

So start mapping your long-term strategy and your short-term actions. And don’t panic: 2017 is far from over.

 

This article originally appeared on MarketingProfs.

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