Have you ever wondered why your team just seems to be stagnant? As the years go on the growth of the organization seems to hit a ceiling? No matter how you as the leader push, the sales and growth just seem to flat line?
When I first started in sales, I was thrust into learning by so many different programs to get me up to speed with the rest of the sales team. We had annual trainings that we took part in as a group every year. Most of the sales team would groan about the annual sales meeting that took them out of their market from seeing their customers.
It was odd because the owner of the organization would basically have the sales trainer from outside the organization come in and train us with basically the same message the owner constantly presented us with.
It was odd that someone would do this, but as I learned when sales people hear the same thing over time it becomes real. I’ve since learned that with all areas of our life that the more we hear the same message, the more it becomes truth. Having an individual come in from outside the organization annually that aligns with the organization’s goals will help solidify with this.
We would spend a couple days in sales training and at the end of the training from the individual outside of the organization, we would then be held back for a debrief. Now the organizational leader was ex-military, but it is the same thing as watching the game film from professional sports teams. The team discussing what they learned and what they can add to their tool box for becoming better is very useful.
When we discuss with others on our team that we trust and they give perspectives and items they learned that we may not have caught from the training it is very helpful. We are typically drinking from a fire hose with information that we cannot capture everything, so discussing with others will help us catch some things we missed.
By discussing this information, the team will form bonds and will become stronger together. This is crucial as the team will start calling each other instead of the leadership when the trust levels are high between each other to bounce ideas off of each other before bringing to leadership. This is crucial because as the team unites in trust, it becomes more efficient and drive faster sales growth.
The last thing we did was do competitive analysis and each person from the group chose one specific area to teach on. The easiest way for us to learn is to actually teach. It took time to prepare for this, but was very beneficial for all of us to learn.
Yes, this took us out of the market for a few days, but it was sharpening out axe to chop down the tree. If we sharpen ourselves, we will be able to cut mor efficient. Sales organizations need this investment to become better especially since they are so limited in actually selling these days. Typically, only 36% of sales time is actually spent in the sales process with customers with all of the other activities that are required. Sales teams need to be invested in if we expect them to grow sales!
Do you team this favor and invest. By doing so, you will benefit greatly!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet
https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book
https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training
https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training