Author: Priyanka Phadke

The success of a sales organization greatly depends on having a successful sales team. However, building a successful sales team can be challenging. High-performing sales teams have characteristics that stand out beyond their performance. To understand why some sales teams underperform, we teamed up with Prachi Mishra, a dedicated leader across learning & development, executive coaching, and organizational development, and the regional Head of Learning- APAC Global Learning & Leadership at Vanderlande. 

“One of the things that stands out most for high-performing sales teams is a culture of engagement,” she says. “So look around, and you will see teams that are performing at their best, they have employees who are highly motivated and engaged”

Recently, Prachi Mishra was featured in our podcast series – #Pitch Perfect and shared her tips on building high-performing sales teams. 

1. Listen with Empathy 

The first thing that organizations must do to build high-performing sales teams is to listen to every individual in their sales teams with empathy and make sure their voices are heard. Moreover, you have to listen with a mindset of curiosity and understanding, not provide solutions. 

2. Create Diversity 

Most high-performing sales teams are usually diverse and unique. This means every sales rep is different from another. They are complementary to each other in terms of talent, skills, experiences, and expertise. Therefore, sales leaders must ensure that they bring in enough diversity within their teams. 

3. Build a culture of engagement 

One of the hallmarks of a high-performing sales team is a culture of engagement. Sales leaders today have to make sure that their teams engage, maximize each team member’s performance, and motivate them every day. 

4. Clarity of goals 

When it comes to high-performing sales teams, each member is absolutely clear in terms of what their goal is, what the team’s goal is, and what their individual goal over the individual contribution is to the team so that they can collectively achieve their goals. 

5. Foster Leadership 

In high-performing sales teams, managers are leaders who are not just bothered by KPIs but go beyond the call of duty. These are managers or leaders who become coaches. So when it comes to sales, they know what they’re selling, how they are selling, and they’re very proficient in the business of selling, but they are equally proficient in the space of coaching. Moreover, they can assess skill gaps in their team members, develop a coaching plan, provide timely feedback, mentor their team members, give the right support, empower their teams, and they do all of this in a very structured approach. They continuously make sure that the big picture is known to their team members, and they make sure that they create a space where team members can flourish. 

With Awarathon as your sales coaching platform, managers get actionable insights and roadmaps to optimize their sales coaching efforts.

Introduction 

In the present times, the notion of a sales organization has undergone significant changes. One such big shift is the ever-changing buyer expectations. To engage and keep up with the buyer’s demands, it is not enough for the sales representatives to just have the right skills. They must also have the ability to engage the buyers throughout their journeys and form meaningful connections. To keep up with these changes, organizations are looking beyond their traditional sales training programs toward sales-readiness platforms powered by technology. 

Sales readiness platforms equip the reps with the information and resources needed to be effective communicators, thereby improving their productivity. In this post, we will reveal a pivotal checklist that will help your organization choose the right sales readiness platform. 

1. A sales readiness platform that delivers measurable outcomes 

An effective sales readiness platform must provide measurable insights on customer experience, key performance indicators, and competency gaps of reps and provide an actionable roadmap to make your sales reps sales-ready. It is also crucial to present the insights in a way that is easy for the target users to understand. 

You need to choose a platform that assesses all the verbal and non-verbal behaviors of reps and takes your customers and businesses’ unique needs into consideration. 

2. A sales readiness platform that provides customization and support.

You don’t want a sales readiness platform that provides generalized sales guidance and does not take your unique business needs into consideration. An effective sales readiness platform takes your specific business needs and target audience into account and tailors its guidance to sales reps so that they can have high-value conversations with actual customers. 

3. A sales readiness platform that enhances reps’ knowledge and skill

One of the main motivations for using a sales readiness platform is to have your sales reps ready with proper behavior skills and relevant knowledge, helping them to effectively communicate with their target customers and improve sales productivity. Therefore, readiness platforms have a vast library of learning material to instill the right behavior and knowledge. Sales readiness platforms enabled by AI can identify the competency gaps of reps and provide an actionable roadmap to upskill and enhance reps’ knowledge. 

4. A sales readiness platform that can implement peer-to-peer learning.

Many sales readiness platforms ignore this aspect and don’t leverage the knowledge and data on high-performing sales reps to help low-performing reps. You need to look for a platform that analyses and provides insights on the techniques and strategies of high-performing reps. With the help of AI, your high-performing reps can become benchmarks for success that can help other sales reps in developing these skills and knowledge. 

5. A sales readiness platform that can update your training program as and when your business needs change 

Your organization may decide to launch a new product or may pivot to target a new audience or a new market. Business needs inevitably evolve, and so do the needs of your sales team. Choose a platform that can customize and adapt to the changing needs of your business. 

Bottom-line 

Choosing a sales readiness platform for your organization should be a well-thought-out decision. The right platform can set up your organization for a greater magnitude of sales success. Reflect on these five points to ensure that your sales team has all the right tools and applications that can assist them in becoming effective communicators. 

About Awarathon 

A sales readiness platform that provides a virtual practice environment allowing reps to practice their pitch deeply assesses competency gaps in reps, and provides actionable insights and roadmaps, maximizing support to your sales team. Awarathon provides customizable guidance and adapts its training platform to your business needs. Therefore, ensuring a smooth sales readiness experience. 

To learn more about Awarathon, contact us or schedule a demo to discover how Awarathon can design a unique sales readiness experience for your organization.

The capability to adapt to things is what takes learning to the next level

Generally, all sales executives go through the same sales coaching/ sales training program regardless of their skills, knowledge, and working experience. The recent hires and senior team members are at various competency levels. But, yet they are trained identically in the same manner. The difficulty with a one-size-fits-all approach is that not all get what they require, and overall program effectiveness is limited. It might be better for some but not the entire sales team as everyone has a different background and experience. Moreover, training needs to be a lot more interactive and engaging with real-life case studies and objection-handling scenarios to add impact and all-round development. 

Some of the core aspects of a sales training program must include: 

• Product Knowledge 
• Market Understanding 
• Buyer Behaviour 
• Competitor offerings 
• Challenges/problem-solving 
• Skill + learning gap analysis 
• Practical insights and demos 
• Peer-peer interactive sessions 

In a way to ensure that your sales team is trained holistically. 

An example for reference: 

Either there is a new product launch or an extension to an older one. The sales team needs to understand the marketing communication, product messaging, buyer personas, product knowledge, competition understanding, market trends, industry growth, and several other parameters. 

Sales is just not just about selling. 

It is a process of building real relationships with your audience, through the right marketing channels and communication mediums to solve their business problems with your offerings (solutions). 

The method to approach | Sales Training Program: 

In a sales training program, the learning experience matters.

A fresher sales representative with 0-3 years of experience may require something else and an experienced sales manager with 6-8 years of experience will demand a different approach to learn. Their learning approach, grasping abilities, execution patterns, and strategizing things are different. 

Experienced sales reps can see the importance of preparation due to their experience. They may need it the most. New representatives tend to be fresh look at everything with optimism and value any available resources. They take the practice with more effort and are eager to apply it. Those more senior can struggle as they are set in their ways, almost pre wired to deliver a specific message. It’s essential to understand this difference and provide a learning experience that fits each person where they are & what they want to achieve. The objectives of a sales executive will not be the same as that of a senior sales manager. 

The working approach | Sales Training Program: 

A way that adapts an individual’s training experience based on skill level and execution is the answer. 

Each learner is directed to resources, and support based on their requirements and performance. The result? Adaptive Learning allows you to scale coaching across competency levels while discussing the needs of each individual. 

Hence, one-size-fits-all programs or coaching solutions are not the answer for an organization that wants to scale up its sales performance. It is because the sales reps working in your organization are of different levels. So, the challenges they face are not the same & understanding them and providing a unique set of solutions to each of them is the answer. 

Sales training program | Way forward: 

The next step could be to perform assessments in the form of a quiz, MCQ, for your sales team to identify knowledge gaps and know how well they perform objection handling, which is easily possible through a video roleplay platform. Therefore opting for a robust video roleplay platform to identify how well your sales reps can perform through the training and the coaching they did is essential. 

Why opt for a Video Roleplay Platform? 

Performance begins with practice and learning.

A video roleplay platform offers some of the essential features required for your organization. To scale up your sales process online and meet your sales quotas with ease. A sales readiness platform or a video roleplay platform in simple terms acts as a post-sales coaching tool. 

It covers all the various stages of the sales cycle before the sales reps interact with their respective buyers. Also, enabling sales managers and business owners to get a detailed performance overview report for their teams, forecast sales better, identify knowledge gaps, and improve learning curves. Therefore, a video roleplay platform has a lot more to offer for organizations looking to transform their sales abilities online and grow more with their sales teams. 

Conclusion: 

Even if you as an organization or a start-up have a sales training program. You need a post-sales training/ after-sales coaching platform where your sales reps/ executives can practice their learnings in a detailed and structured manner. 

Explore more on our Platform.

For a business that often wonders, which is the proper technique to learn formal or informal learning? Let’s first understand the difference between both and how organizations or businesses can benefit from both of them. 

Formal vs. Informal Learning: Sales Learning Method 

Formal learning is structured in nature. Most trainers and coaches lead it in a structured way. On the other hand, informal learning has no traditional structure or curriculum, offers more flexibility for learners, and can often be accessed on the go via mobile devices. Thus, it is essential to know the different opinions between these two. At Awarathon, coaching experience can be opted for based on the company’s needs, objectives, and goals. 

An example in simple terms could be a bus and bike. There is a defined route, fixed stops, and consistent speed related to formal learning ways when you travel by bus. Whereas in the case of informal learning, it is like a person traveling on a bike. He can change the speed as per his time to reach the duration, decide on the breaks, etc. 

Formal vs. Informal Learning: How to Decide Which Sales Learning Method is Better? 

Every company’s difficulties are different, and hence their training programs should be too. It comes down to your company’s specific needs and how a formal and informal learning program can best help. For example: 

• Audience: Is formal training too time-consuming? Is it having a better impact? Do learners follow up when they need info? 
• Tracking & Reporting: What are you precisely tracking? How many people need to generate reports? 
• Content Development: Is it complicated to create and deliver content? Are there any troubles generating messaging? 

By now, you must have known the difference between these two types of learning. So, it is time to initiate building a program for your company. While developing a training strategy for your company, keep in mind – figure out the objectives and goals first. 

Then approach the program selection to make better sense. Many times a blended learning method of informal and formal coaching is the proper approach to move. You can also learn about How Innovative learning methods to build great Work performance for Sales. 

How does Sales readiness software relate to this? 

When you opt for sales readiness software, both formal and informal learning methods are more inclined towards the informal approach. Sales readiness in simple terms – a post-sales training assessment aspect, figure out what have your sales reps learned in the sales coaching program. 

Its relevant features include peer-to-peer learning, content sharing, and assessments in various formats. Also, to practice sales pitches online, on-the-go connectivity makes it one of the most preferred choices amongst sales leaders and managers for their sales teams.

To brief you with an example, the sales coaching program can be considered as a formal learning approach, whereas sales readiness software could be an informal one. Hence, more and more organizations opt for a robust sales readiness solution to streamline and monitor their sales process, efforts, and targets online effectively. 

To explore our portal and know more about us, either email us at info@awarathon.com or fill in the form here – http://awarathon.com/demo/, our team member, will get in touch with you shortly. 

Today, we are proud to share our second blog content with you with fantastic pointers on Sales training ideas to improve sales-readiness.  Welcome to the second and final part, which includes points for your better understanding. So, let’s begin with each topic in detail. 

Stay updated, stay relevant. 

All your sales reps need to read, learn, and execute new things weekly or monthly. No matter what, the work pressure of exploring new things is a must. For example, a 500-word read on some effective selling techniques or how to use online resources to boost sales or free sales tools anything which is relevant to them and excites them. Just read and make notes. 

With all the sales training and mentor guidance, the need to receive self-learning is equally important to remain updated with the latest industry happenings, competitor offerings, and market news. There will be a flow of challenging problems at you in your client call; a conventional sales pitch won’t work, but your research and homework will. Using a sales readiness tool like Awarathon where sales reps can manage, store, and share relevant sales content to ease the process and access on the go. Also, to add knowledge-check that quizzes the sales reps on vital findings. 

Coaching with Millennials 

Millennials prefer facts, practical insights, informal learning ways, assessments to execute learning, and more fun ways to learn. Career growth is also significant to millennials. They want to learn abilities that will help them in a future role. A sales readiness tool is essential to keep all the coaching material/ content guides in one place for all the sales reps to access it when required. 

Understanding the Sales Process 

A proper understanding of the sales process is required for the sales reps to know which action to take at which stage. According to an insight from CSO, 59% of sales-driven companies plan to allocate better funds for sales processes and to coach in the coming year. Hence, understanding each stage of the sales process, the guidelines to follow them, the dos and don’ts of each step, etc., is essential before facing the buyers. 

Put Sales reps in place of the buyers. 

According to Accenture, 77% of buyers believe that sales reps do not understand their business. Most often, sales coaching programs involve sales reps in theoretical-based bookish content and product briefs. This makes the sales reps focus only on what’s taught by the sales coach without considering the other aspects of the buyer journey. 

Hence, make the buyer’s journey a more prominent part of your sales training. You can do this by guaranteeing that customer persona details, including significant business objections, success metrics, and pain points, are part of your coaching curriculum (and then assessing your reps’ mastery of them).

Mastery sessions for Sales Managers 

If your organization is planning to train your sales reps to improve their sales performance, they should be focusing on microlearning and training exercises. Managers led mastery sessions to emphasize particular topics. They are built across narrow, easy topics on sales and relevant aspects. 

Virtual, video learning and practice tools are the best ways for sales reps to practice their messaging in a robust/ safe environment and share their videos with peers for better feedback. Also, to involve the manager and the sales coach to review and improve better. A sales readiness tool could also assist you with the same. 

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