Sales training: Failure should not be an option. But here is why it happens...

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When it comes to sales training, a classic complaint from leadership is:

“We invested time and money in training the sales team. And it didn’t work out.”

But there is a little unknown secret in the sales training industry. Or not known enough. Sales training can be very powerful if done properly, in an company that has the right sales culture, and not in isolation of other critical activities. Otherwise it could be a total waste of time and money.

Success in sales is dependant on many factors (you can have a first assessment of your sales fonction by clicking here). I won't list them all but here are 5 mistakes that I noticed many organisations make. Which prevent them from truly getting the sales results they want and succeeding to the level they deserve.?

1- Not understanding if they have the right people in place

Sales is the most beautiful job on the planet (I am biased, I admit). For two reasons:

1. When being successful in sales, one can really build a better life for him or herself.
2. To succeed in sales, a lot of personal development is needed which is a road to a healthy mind.

Yet sales is tough. Rejection, hostility, competition, prospects not telling the truth, etc... So a career in sales isn't for everybody. In my eyes, there are two key elements that people need to succeed in sales.?

1- Will to sell. Everybody wants to succeed in their role. But not everybody has the complete commitment to do so. Let's face it, many people "end up in sales" and despite years of sales career are still uncomfortable with many facets of it.

2- The right software between the ears. A set of personal attributes that will help sales people put in place the right sales process and the right sales methodology. A sort of Sales DNA.

There is more to evaluating sales people - self limiting beliefs (list here, French version, ask me the English one if you don't know your sales people limiting beliefs), coachability, etc...- Yet, training people on sales techniques for people that do not have the right will to sell and the right sales DNA is a possible source of failure. The focus is too often on sales techniques and not on these two critical parts.

The message here? Evaluate your team before initiating any training.?It will help you understand if you have the right people and where to put the focus on. And aim at developing their mindset, not just their techniques.

2- Building around people. Rather than around your business

What do I mean by this? I work with a lot of mid-cap companies. The size of their sales team typically vary from 2 or 3 sales people up to 20 +/- sales people. When evaluating a possible collaboration, too often do I hear the leadership telling me : “I need to check with X and Y if they are ok with implementing a transformation project”.?

Agreed, it’s important to make sure people on the ground are on-board. But changing is hard. As Tolstoy used to say :

Yet, the only reason I talk to CEO and CRO is because certain elements necessary for success (mindset, process, messaging, strategy, sales recruitment, accountability framework, etc…) aren’t working as well as they should. And therefore change is needed.?

Therefore if a leader checks with his people “Are you ok with changing?” it's tantamount to telling them “Fancy going to the gym to work on yourself (and by the way, I will pay to the gym on top of your salary) and you will have to change your diet, the way you do various things and exercise regularly. It's not going to be easy but this is to your benefit and the one of the company of course”. Clearly, some people will be keen to change and to do the efforts. But many will resist right away. Hence why asking people can be, more often than not, self-defeating...

That’s what I mean by “Building around people”. The short term interest of people is too often the first focus of a leader at the expense of the long term interest of the company.??

The message here? If you are a company leader, you have to be totally convinced the approach suggested by the sales expert you talk to is fit with your challenges and will bring the outcomes expected. Then and only then bring people along in the journey. Don't ask them permission.

3- Not having the right sales management in place

The role of a sales manager is critical in sales transformation, something that is sometimes not understood enough. Company leaders tend to complain about their sales people yet the problem can be linked to the sales management, not sales people. A good sales manager will 10x your revenue (no scientific data, slight exaggeration but you get the gist). An average sales manager, with the same sales team, will do very little. A poor one will damage your revenues.

A good sales manager will 10x your revenue. An average sales manager will do very little.?As for a poor one, you're doomed...

So if you embark in a sales transformation program, my advice is to make sure you have the right sales management in place. And understand where to develop him / her. ?

4- Lack of a robust sales process

When I started Curio5ity I did assume that most organisations had a sales process in place. And that this wouldn't be something that I should have to focus on. Yet, the amount of companies that do not have a sales process in place is actually fairly large. And when one is in place, it is often not milestones centric, with clear expectations of what are the go / no-go for each stage to qualify in or out, etc...

We could write pages and pages about sales process. Many people have done so, I have - and be warned, I will continue to write about the importance of a robust sales process - but not having one leads to lack of common language, lack of predictability, inefficient training, confusion as per where the sales people are failing, etc...

A sales person should know, by heart, each stage of the sales process, what they seek etc... They rarely do.

Which leads me to the last point which is also critical

5- Not having the right tools in place

Business consultants do use a range of mumbo jumbo nonsense (hope you're not a business consultant, if you are, I am sure you don't use mumbo jumbo, it's the other business consultants who do!). Yet, one mumbo jumbo I like is the importance of 3 P to succeed: people, product and processes.

And by product, I don't mean the product you're selling. I mean the type of CRM product your sales team is using. So many organisations struggle with poor adoption of the CRM for one single reason. The CRM doesn’t help sales people. It's there to control them...

You are making your organisation a disservice if you have the right process, the right people with the wrong product for your sales people. Period.?

Too often a CRM is a tool to control sales people. Not to help them.?

Putting it plainly, in most organisations, the CRM sucks…

What’s the solution? Have a CRM that can support your sales organisation journey towards a continuous development. ?What does "support your sales organisation" mean?

1. Robust, milestone centric sales process implemented in the CRM
2. Educational content within the CRM, reflecting the agreed process
3. Goals and activity centric management
4. Enables robust coaching with leading and lagging KPIs
5. Easy to build and powerful analytics

About the last point, this might sound an obvious requirement for a CRM but a large number of companies declare having a good one but do not have the right "analytics" so they can't tell what part of their process their sales people struggle with.

For instance, the CRM doesn't help them saying if the issue is salespeople struggle to quantify the issue they resolve, salespeople can't built urgency, if they struggle to access decision maker, etc.. That's the kind of analytics that allows an organisation to really understand where their people are failing, need to be developed and build robust sales machines.

An example below of a CRM I strongly recommend, called Membrain. And if your process isn't embedded into your CRM (as for exemple below), you can use this simple too "Sales process builder" to build a powerful one.

The take away?

Success in sales is multifactorial. If your team isn't performing as much as you would like, training them might be the answer. But most likely it's only part of the answer.

So don't overlook questions such as :

1. Do I have the right people in place, is the root cause an issue of mindset or techniques and can they be developed?
2. What about my sales management capabilities ? They are critical to the success of the sales team.
3. Am I, as a leader, a possible source of the problem? What do I need to change to help my people and business?
4. Is our sales process robust enough, milestone centric and is our sales team following it?
5. Are we giving them the best in class sales enablement solution to help them succeed?

Next newsletter: What Father Christmas should bring to your sales team.