L&D gurus, expert articles, and opinion pieces speak the same language, the urgent need for skilling at the workplace. In the aftermath of the global pandemic, a concentrated effort to drive sales and secure the business has been making the rounds. Most organizations are aboard the skilling process and are taking significant measures to strengthen organizational growth.

However, the focus has been on improving skills for technical roles, administrative roles, and leadership positions. But, what about the sales team or the sales force? What about a specific and specialized mission to upskill and reskill sales team members? The sales team members have faced the wrath of the social-distancing phenomenon, much greater than other teams. These are employees that have constantly interacted with people face-to-face, cracked doors, built relationships, and have been responsible to drive sales by meeting prospects and customers. And now, their entire approach to business has been flipped over, yet have been expected to work harder with the economic slowdown. Doesn’t this call for an urgent need to address their challenges? To skill, does not mean in relation only to technical expertise or multi-tasking/multi-functioning capabilities, it also means to identify challenges that hinder progress and training employees to overcome such barriers to perform at an optimum level. This blog will detail out such burning issues – the criticality of upskilling and reskilling the sales team, delivering specific skills to cope with business needs. We will also ascertain the merits of targeted training for employees and the extended enterprise to drive sales.

However, this blog is not focused only on the effects of the pandemic. A conscious global decision has been brewing for the last year and beyond.

• As of March this year, tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Shopify, Twitter, and more are increasingly adopting extended work-from-home policies.
• In a NABE survey, about 80% of respondents said that their companies had adopted some form of remote-work post-crisis.
• A survey reveals, 95% of Indian companies are planning to stick with remote working for the next two years, at the least. A Gartner CFO Survey (global) revealed that over two-thirds (74%) plan to permanently shift employees to remote work after the Covid19 crisis ends.
• BCG research finds that across the globe, an average of 61% of respondents believe that their current positions will be affected by globalization and other changes.
• Reports also found that employees are more willing to devote more time to learning new skills to stay relevant in their jobs; 62% of the respondents are full-time employees. Additionally, 67% are open to skilling under any circumstances.

It is evident from the highlighted studies and many more papers that remote, or hybrid work and virtual business transactions are here to stay. In the following sections, let us go back to the issue at hand – upskilling and reskilling the sales team specifically.

Many “normal” sales activities have been redesigned to cater to the new needs. Let us take a quick recce of some of the most familiar ones.

Specific skills for the Sales Team

1. Training of and for the sales force is usually considered a once-in-a-tenure necessity. Even then, the focus is mostly on soft skills – communication, business acumen, leadership skills, with new software skills for good measure. While those are important, it does not end there. Organizations are slowly yet steadily making progress into the concept of Product Training for the sales team, and rightly so. With new products flooding the market, many updates, and upgrades, it is imperative that the sales team are brought up to speed, in real-time and are trained continuously.
2. Over the course of the last 20 months, most business transactions underwent a transformation. The sales team was forced to meet clients and make their pitches virtually. While there have been positives, the current climate calls for some modifications. The salesforce must build on this momentum without dropping the ball. What this means is that the sales team must shift from setting up virtual meetings to managing customer interactions and relationships effectively in these remote settings. Do they have the skills to perform these new tasks, and has the organization equipped them with the necessary resources?
3. We are aware of the pace at which eCommerce has progressed over brick-and-mortar stores. Suddenly, the sales team of such businesses is required to have a greater understanding, coordination, and impact with the logistics coordinators and delivery team members, than before. They may also need a different skill set to manage new customer expectations, demands, and competition. Has the sales team been trained on such operational aspects of the business and how it could affect outcomes? The team will be much larger and more diverse than before. Are members now trained to oversee these new complex dynamics? This example may be relevant for retail or eCommerce but is prevalent in principle in every industry and organization. For example, do think about patients receiving diagnosis and medical consults virtually now, and virtual sales by banks and financial institutions with investors, and how these activities were “usually” performed.
4. Another sales area that has amplified is the role of the extended enterprise to drive sales. The extended enterprise comprises vendors, customers, and partners. With the digital tilt here to stay, the availability of information needed to drive sales is equally critical to the extended enterprise, as it is to the internal sales employees in an organization. Have organizations thoroughly factored their needs to provide specific knowledge and skills to this audience?
5. While we presented just some of the specific new skills for a sales team’s day-to-day activities, organizations must pause to think about ways to improve morale and motivation. The sales team continues to be the face of the organization. What specific measures have been taken to address engagement and motivation targeted at the sales team? Have organizations invested in bringing the scattered team members together? How has it inculcated a positive work culture and environment? It is no secret that organizations will find training existing employees more rewarding than hiring new recruits.

From just a few of these examples, we can identify the array of activities performed by sales team members and the specific skills that each of the team members needs. It is also evident that each sales team member performs unique tasks that need to cohesively come together to achieve departmental goals and business objectives. In such an environment, what are the efforts that organizations can undertake to upskill and reskill the sales effectively?

Will generalization or common training for the entire sales force work? Yes, and no. Allow us to elaborate.

• A common program to train about new systems, standard operating procedures, and software will work for the entire team at large. However, for each to rise to their individual challenges of client interactions, product portfolio, and performance, a more targeted approach is essential. A structured, targeted effort to train and skill contributes to improving time-to-productivity too.
• Deploy role-based training. A highly concentrated training effort that maps existing skills, analyses gaps, and delivers training to plug these gaps. It allows the organizations to personalize content and deliver it in a resource/medium that resonates most with the learner. Deliver specific skills that are needed to perform specific tasks.
• Real-time training: In the earlier section, we highlighted the importance of providing valuable information to your sales quickly. Organizations must deploy dependable technology to disperse information to a globally scattered audience instantaneously and seamlessly. It becomes increasingly valuable if the deployed technology assists to deliver content to fingertips and make for easy accessibility and viewing. The Learning Experience Platform or LXP has been built on the principles of accessibility, flexibility, and learner-centric experiences. Read more about the LXP through an article here.
• Next would be the kind of content that needs to be delivered in real-time. Content and resources that will aid the sales force in making a compelling pitch. Key metrics, prospecting tools, ready reckoners, troubleshooting and solutions, practice avenues, simulation platform, etc. are the kind of content that makes an impact. Invest in content creation, deliver substance to your team, and aid them in conversions to drive sales. Equip your sales to be invaluable solution providers to your clients. Did you know that referrals and recommendations influence 90% of all purchases? Organizations can enjoy lower cost-per-lead and better ROI from existing customers.
• Training the extended enterprise: They form an integral part of the whole ecosystem. Accurate mapping of training needs and strategies is essential for this audience too, as they help organizations drive sales and influence markets. Engage with this audience and help to uncover the true value of your products and services. Unify with your internal sales employees and create a robust and cohesive team that works to address problems, deliberate solutions, and drive sales.
• Now that we have a fair understanding of delivering training for specific skills, it is also important that sales members are engaged constantly and are drawing the most from the skilling efforts, over a sustained period. Assessments, leaderboards, discussion forums, and similar features will improve morale, motivation, and collaboration among team members to perform better. Allow for avenues to ideate and innovate. Training strategies like gamification, game-based learning, and assessments, mixed reality solutions have been deployed by organizations with great success in experiential learning.

From the above, it is clear of the specific learning outcomes that can be derived from such training and skilling efforts. Success in achieving business objectives is greater too. While improved performance and metrics are evident in the short run, the long-term benefits are far more significant for the health of the team and organization. Goodwill, and brand loyalty are just some of the intangible benefits to reign supreme.

This video further illustrates how a reputed organization provided targeted training to drive product adoption, nurtured employees’ passion and skills, and saved USD 2.9 million.

Would you like to know more about this organization, or create opportunities with your sales team or simply drive sales? Write to us at lxp@originlearning.com