The Himalayas were shrouded in mist during the first days of our hike. Then one morning, the clouds broke, and there stood Mount Everest.
It was imposing — with its jagged cliffs and the sun reflecting off its sheer face. I turned to my friend, who had climbed the mountain years ago, and commented that summiting looked risky. He shrugged and said simply, “It is. But if you have the right guide, your odds of success are much better.”
He was right. The data shows that without a guide only 39% percent of climbers make it to the top, whereas 85% of climbers with a top guide service succeed. As it turns out, this is one of the best analogies I’ve come across for what we as enablement professionals strive to do. Serving as guides, it is our goal to help our revenue team members consistently conquer the summit, make quota, and drive revenue.
We don’t want just some of our people to succeed — we want them all to succeed. And yet, at many companies when enablement launches a new initiative, only a fraction of the team picks it up and runs with it.
That’s not enough, especially in today’s times. If we’re not helping our full team succeed, we’re failing. From a financial perspective, a huge amount of our investment in our sellers and the team that supports them goes to waste. It’s like having a hefty V-8 engine in a car but only having two cylinders firing. From a human perspective, we see too many good people fail to achieve their career goals and churn out of our organization for no fault of their own.
We must all change, quickly. As an enablement team, our mission is to ensure that all of our revenue team members can navigate change and come out the other side as masters of the behaviors that help them win.
Today, I am excited to share the launch of the first chapters of The Definitive Guide to Training and Coaching. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out more chapters to complete your blueprint for helping your revenue teams achieve success.
One of the many things you’ll find in this guide is the Path to Mastery — a systematic approach for embedding new behaviors in a revenue organization, designed to ensure that your full team comes along for the ride. In the simplest terms, the Path to Mastery drives consistent revenue team performance through four steps that enable your entire team to master winning behaviors,
as detailed in the graphic below.
To get started on the Path to Mastery, identify at least one behavior that leadership broadly agrees must change. It should be something impactful, but it doesn’t need to be world-changing. The behavior serves as a concrete way to get started on the journey. As you build the muscle of driving change across your organization, you’ll quickly identify other behaviors to run through this process.
This first chapter of our Definitive Guide to Sales Training and Coaching will begin by laying out what’s required to help a team master winning behaviors. Subsequent chapters will dive deep into the middle two steps, “Provide Training and Structured Practice” and “Drive and Coach Application with Customers.” If you’d like more detail on the first step, please read our recent eBook How to Enable Revenue Teams with Plays that Turn Strategy into Action.
Success doesn’t come from giving your reps a map, pointing to the top of the mountain, and saying, “Good luck.” It does come from becoming a trusted guide and leading your revenue team down the Path to Mastery. This will take time, patience, and perseverance. However, if you follow the recommendations in the chapters to come, I believe you’ll help your entire team achieve consistent performance, grow your business, and navigate change no matter what the future brings.
