Many sales leaders consider any day a salesperson is not actively selling to be a loss. The numbers, however, tell a different story. According to research, for every dollar a company invests in sales training it earns back $4.53. That’s a 353% ROI, which is quite mind blowing. On the flip side, and equally astonishing, is the fact that 27% of companies don’t offer their teams any sales onboarding, training, or enablement. A significant hurdle on the path to success.
Getting teams to be sales-ready is more than getting them to recite the product catalog or chase down signatures. To be sales-ready, teams should be prepared to confidently seize opportunities and move deals forward, to foresee customer needs and deliver on their expectations.
Proper onboarding sets off the sales readiness journey, providing a detailed understanding of the company and its products on offer. But, it shouldn’t end there.
Here are the top three steps to take on the road to sales readiness:
- Tools and Tech
Providing your team with the tools to power their success is the first building block of sales readiness. There are many online collaboration and project management platforms, prospect management tools, CPQ solutions, and others. The key is to understand the people and the processes, and then find the tools that would support them in running these processes more efficiently.
- Sales Enablement
With the proper tools set in place, it’s time to train teams on how to run them. A team that isn’t using its sales enablement tools is creating a double loss: first, lost potential of better processes and second, the loss of resources invested in the tool. Sales leaders should aspire to provide their teams with the tools and the skills to use them. This includes building on existing knowledge and deepening proficiency, but also, continuously seeking new methods and tools to empower teams’ success.
- Continuous Upskilling and Coaching
Chess masters don’t just practice before a match. They continuously learn to widen the scope of their abilities. They practice with a trainer to grow their skills, to eliminate their weaknesses, and master their craft. The same goes for salespeople. Being sales-ready isn’t about simply passing a test, or facing customers for the first time. Rather, it’s an ongoing process of acquiring new skills and developing existing ones to improve performance.
Sales readiness is an achievable goal, but it’s not a final destination. Being sales-ready is an ongoing process, a guided professional journey. Sales leaders are urged to prioritize the ongoing learning and upskilling of their teams, including putting in the time, effort, and other resources that this requires. Done well, it’s a perpetual, fluid motion that streamlines the journey and keeps everyone growing.
