Did you know that according to Hubspot, average sales turnover is 3x higher than it is for other industries? Maybe you’ve experienced this first hand – sellers leaving because they’re struggling to reach quota, feel unsupported and disengaged, or are simply overwhelmed and frustrated by administrative tasks.
You’re likely trying to solve this by ramping up your sales engagement efforts – adding tools, content, and fine-tuning your readiness strategy to keep sellers performing at their peak. In fact, data from CSO Insights shows that when onboarding meets or exceeds expectations it can boost quota attainment by 16.2%, however, to truly unlock this sales teams must steer clear of certain pitfalls.
#1 More Technology Helps Enable Sellers
68% of sales organizations are reevaluating their technology stack annually with the goal of understanding if it’s optimized for the needs of their sellers. Working on the go isn’t new for your sales reps, but a recent explosion in digital selling tools forces reps to adapt, and instead of navigating planes, trains, and automobiles, they’re constantly hopping in and out of disparate software systems.
There’s no doubt these tools lighten the operational load for sellers, allowing what was once done in-person to be an instantaneous video or phone interaction, but sellers are not solely in search of more meetings, they’re hungry for techniques to run more effective customer conversations.
This is where enablement solutions that focus on skills training can pay dividends. They empower reps, helping them develop core competencies, build customer trust, and align buyers and sellers around shared value.
#2 Training ONLY Happens During Onboarding
Effective onboarding programs result in 62% higher time to productivity for new hires, however not every new orientation experience is created equally. In constantly changing market conditions, your sales organizations need dynamic onboarding programs that go beyond IT systems, badging, and product knowledge 101.
Sellers need a wide range of knowledge to perform consistently, from value-messaging and content that can be shared with customers to empowerment-focused resources that break down complex selling systems and sales methodologies. These materials also need to be discoverable throughout the course of your rep’s daily activities and not marooned in another tool that reps use once a year for training.
In addition to making the right material accessible to reps, sales organizations need to overcome common training adoption and knowledge retention challenges since B2B reps forget over 70% of the content they learned in a training session within one week.
Savvy sales enablement teams extend sales training programs throughout the first 90 days and beyond to boost average rep quota attainment. They integrate sales plays, seller guidance, microlearning exercises into the course of a rep’s daily activities to increase rep confidence and engagement.
#3 Top Performers are Great Coaches
Just as customer preferences and product innovation evolve, so must sales training programs. The knowledge reps acquire at orientation will not solely be enough to make them top performers quarter after quarter. For this, ongoing training programs must be combined with effective sales coaching strategies.
However it’s unrealistic to expect every manager to be a great coach if they don’t have the insights engine they need to deliver actionable feedback. Today, 70% of sales coaching is not data-driven and organizations that coach this way typically have low coaching effectiveness.
Sales organizations must clearly define a “coaching culture” and acknowledge the time commitment and resources managers need to become effective coaches. For example, if managers have end-to-end visibility across content, client engagement, seller guidance and training, coaches can more effectively communicate the outcomes they are hoping to drive to reps.
In summary, sales reps continue to operate at higher frequencies and encounter constant change as virtual selling practices become the norm. To support sellers, you need an enablement solution that highlights what reps know, the activities they are performing, and whether their messages are landing with prospects. Without these insights, your sales organization is rolling the dice when it comes to rep engagement, churn, and competency development.
Ready to take action? Download a full guide on How to Choose a Sales Enablement Vendor or send us a note; we’re happy to guide you through your journey.
