“Digitally empowered buyers,” who are they and what exactly do they want? If your sales team doesn’t know the answers to this, then you have big problems. ‘Digitally,’ and ‘empowered’ aren’t just buzz words of the time they are common terms. If you are not thinking of your clients as ‘digitally empowered’ then you’re living in the past!
These digitally empowered consumers want, nay expect, salespeople to have the skills and knowledge to deliver value and solve complex issues – not just pitch their product/service. In fact, a recent report from Forrester Research, ‘Overhaul Sales Training to Win and Retain More Customers,’ found that organisations are underestimating this difficult feat.
Forrester cites the following as the primary reasons:
- The changed buying environment that is demanding new sales competencies
- Adapting salespeople’s mindsets is a massive scale challenge
- Current training methods are inadequate and yet not changed
These are the realities of selling in this new market, and the terrifying thing is that not enough people are discussing and acknowledging them. The report goes on to discuss the problems and, in particular, two key barriers that sales professionals face in tackling this challenge. The first one being:
One-size-fits-all training does NOT equate to success for all.
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A huge mistake that companies keep making, that only wastes time and money. Sales teams are made up of unique individuals with differing combinations of knowledge, skill, education, life and business experiences. You cannot expect to train them all with the same training methods; they are not sheep that need to be herded.
If you want to address your sales person the right way you need to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses through assessments first. This valuable information will help guide training sessions and focus the trainer on what exactly needs to be addressed. Furthermore, clients are unique, and if you are willing to accept this and adapt to their needs, then you must put the same care into meeting the needs of your unique sales people.
The second barrier found was; long gaps in sales training leads to sales unpreparedness.
How often are you training? If there are long gaps between your sessions then how can you expect your sales team to be up-to-date with the latest product’s messaging, competitor’s information, and executive communication? If your sales team is behind on the knowledge, they will fall behind on closed deals. Forrester refers to a great quote by John D. Brandford:
An enlightened view of the world of education and without a doubt a correct one.
Today’s ‘digitally empowered buyers’ won’t wait; they will go elsewhere. Stay ahead of the times and know exactly what your potential clients’ want, when, where and how. The more time spent training your team on this; the less time spent daydreaming about better result.
Is Your Sales Team Keeping Up with the Times?
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