Questions to Consider when Building Your Learning and Development Strategy

For sales organizations thinking about building a learning and development strategy, there are questions that you need to consider in each of the following areas: Alignment,Strategy,Infrastructure and Engagement.

Alignment:
- Do you have buy-in from the key decision makers within the organization?

- Are the core values of your organization reflected in your learning and development plan?

- Have you communicated your vision and mission for your learning and development strategy clearly throughout the sales organization? Has it been embraced?

Strategy:
- Have you mapped and formalized your sales process? Is it integratabe within the global sales, marketing and supply processes of the organization? Is it flexible enough to support cultural differences?

- Have you communicated the sales process to the organization?

- What sales tools do you envision will accompany each step of the process?

- Have you established a method for managing and tracking the effectiveness of your sales plan?

Infrastructure:
- Who are the key players on your learnng and development team?

- What are their roles for carryiing out your learning and development strategy? And do they have what they need to carry out their roles effectively? Motivation and desire? Knowledge and skills? Tools and resources?

- What systems are in place (LMS) for managing the learning process efficiently?

Engagement:
- How enthusiastic are the learners about the future of the organization? the future of their jobs?

- How willing are the learners to contribute to the success of your sales organization?

- How motivated are the learnes to attain and apply new knowledge and skills?

Developing a Company-Wide Sales Culture to Achieve Organizational Results

Consider the following scenario:

A company’s web designer is given a task to get new product information explained on
the company’s website. With no direction or oversight, he proceeds to design a flashy media kit with all the bells and whistles – music, eye-catching images and high tech transitions. When asked why he didn’t include detailed product information, he explained that he thought that the information would clutter up the design. The real reason was because he wanted to update his portfolio so that he could find a better job.

Why am I telling you this story? Because, while the story itself is fiction (a little confession, I took it from a Dilbert comic strip) it reflects the mindset of many employees. And that is, that unless you are a salesperson within your organization, you probably don’t believe that you play a role in the sales process. In this brief scenario, you can see all the ways that this mindset can wreak havoc on your business including lost sales because customers do not have access to readable information, low productivity and employee turnover.

There are several reasons your employees might behave this way.

To some, “sales” is still a dirty word and your employees might not want the stigma attached to them. Others feel why should they sell? What’s in it for them anyway? My guess is that’s the way the disgruntled employee in the Dilbert comic strip felt.

More often than not, however, most employees, simply haven’t been trained to recognize an opportunity to “sell” and do not possess the skills to do so even if they did recognize the opportunity. Therefore, they just don’t think about it.

I like to tell the story about the financial institution where I do all my banking. Once a month, I drive up to the drive-thru window to pay my mortgage. I’ve been doing this for 11 years and the Teller has been there as long. She knows the lollypop flavor my children prefer. I enjoy the 1 minute exchange we have with each other and I always leave smiling. What’s interesting is that not once in the 11 years I’ve been driving up to her window has she ever mentioned to me that “the bank had lowered its mortgage rates and would I be interested in learning more?” Or “I noticed that you haven’t taken advantage of our CD’s….” or simply handed me a brochure. If I want to learn about CD’s or mortgages, I best park my car, walk into the bank, ask to speak to the “person who handles CD’s or mortgages” and then take a seat and wait until he is finished with the previous customer. Whew!!! No thanks.

To change a culture, we must change how we think, how we behave, how we communicate how we reinforce change and how we learn new skills.

Consider yet another example to drive home the point:

A manufacturing plant pays its workers an hourly wage. They are expected to produce 200 units each day. They are allowed to work overtime if necessary to get the job done. Overtime is the only way for employees to make extra money.

Now, ask yourself the following questions.

• What is the culture of this type of business environment?
• What type of “behavior” would this culture foster?
• What impact would this behavior have on the company?
• How might the company “motivate” employees to change their behavior?

It’s not hard to see that the culture of this type of environment will foster behavior that goes directly against the company’s desire to increase profitability. Employees have no incentive to perform at their best and more than likely discourage others from performing at their best as well.

Developing a company-wide sales culture is not just a good idea, it’s a necessity. With the number of companies who are competing to take your customers’ business, it behooves you to get every employee on board. This does not mean that your bank tellers should be making cold calls. Nor does it mean that your dispatchers should be following up on leads. It does mean that regardless of the roles and goals of each department within your organization, every employee must recognize that they play a vital role in the sales process. A sales culture is one where every mindset reflects the following truths:

“I am part of the sales process”
“Selling is about building relationships”
“If I help the company succeed, so will I”

The way to accomplish this is as follows:

Develop performance goals for each department within your organization that are directly aligned to the overarching business objective of the company

Simply put, the overarching business objective of every company is to make money. However, in most organizations, the sales division is the only department directly responsible for profit. Whether it is bringing in new customers or selling more to existing customers, performance is measured on each individual’s ability to make money for the company. As a result, goals, strategies and tactics are developed to drive performance. By aligning the actions, goals and strategic plans of all divisions, your organization stands a better chance of achieving its overarching business objective.

Establish processes that capture opportunities to sell the value of doing business with your company

From the moment an idea comes to fruition, your company should be thinking about the “process of the sale.” You can start by asking yourself the following questions:

• Where are the customer touch points throughout the organization and within each department?
• What procedures are in place at each touch point to capture critical business development information? Where is this information stored and who has access to the information?
• How is critical business development information shared between departments?

Establish compensation plans and recognition programs that reward (motivate) all employees – not just sales.

Traditional sales compensation plans pit salesperson against salesperson and fail to recognize the value that others within the organization bring to the sales process. Today, more and more companies are beginning to recognize the negative effective this has on employee morale as well as profitability. (Remember the manufacturing company we talked about?). By instituting team bonus systems, companies motivate employees to work together to achieve a common goal.

Provide sales training for all employees within your organization.

The best salespeople understand that selling is about building relationships. And relationship building is all about the art of communication. When your employees know how to ask questions in order get to the root cause of problems and concerns; when they can present solutions to problems and make sound recommendations; when they can recognize an opportunity to provide additional services to a customer or collaborate with another employee to come up with a win/win solution for all parties; when they believe they are part of the sales process and feel valued, they are better prepared to sell the value of doing business with your company and to create harmony within.

Measuring Sales Training ROI

Companies spend thousands of dollars a year on sales training, yet rarely do they measure the return on the investment they make. Unlike most forms of training it is somewhat easier to measure the ROI of sales training. You simply look at your metrics before training and compare them to your sales metrics after training. Simple enough right? Not so fast. There are very specific things you need to do before you send your salespeople to training. Here are some tips for measuring the return on your sales training effectiveness:


1. Identify your sales metrics that you want to impact (i.e., increase sales of "green widgets" in "territory A" by x%" by "end of third quarter").

2. Qualify the "green widget" opportunities (i.e., who are potential "green widget" owners in "territory A?" "What do they know about "green widgets?" "Are they buying "green widgets" from a competitor?" "If so, what does the competitor have that I don't have (and vice versa?))

3. Match the opportunities with the capabilities of your sales force (i.e., In order to sell "green widgets" in "territory A" what capabilities must my sales force possess?). Keep in mind that selling skills is only one piece of the puzzle. Other pieces could include "green widget" expertise or product knowledge, training and demonstration capabilities, problem solving skills, competitor awareness, etc.

4. Assess the capabilities of your sales force. (i.e., who is capable of doing what? Who needs to be trained in what?)

5. Match the right training to the right individual. This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to create a separate workshop for each learner. It does mean, however, that each learner should come to the program prepared and empowered to integrate specific and targeted performance initiatives.

6. Individualized action plans. It is imperative that each learner prepare a 90-Day action plan that links directly to the metrics and capabilities he or she desires to improve upon. This then becomes the basis for measuring sales training ROI!

I recently hosted an executive roundtable at the Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales at William Paterson University. In attendance were a small group of leaders from various businesses and industries. Also in attendance were students from the College of Business - two of whom are either majoring or minoring in Professional Sales and one who is majoring in Global Business Managerment.


When I first considered hosting this event, the goal was to provide space whereby thought leaders could identify and share insight into some of the most challenging issues that they currently face. The purpose of inviting the students was to expose them to the realities that they will face in just a few short years. While I had hoped that this event would launch a series of ongoing discussions, I didn't have a clear picture of what the long-term goal would be. What I did know was that I wanted everyone who participated to take away something meaningful. Something useful.


The event, which was facilitated by Richard Magid of Soundboard Consulting, began with open introductions that enabled everyone in the group to get to know each other. He then divided us into 3 groups- each group was to work together to identify one current problem, challenge and issue that was relevant to all members of the group. I placed one student with each group and encouraged them to listen, learn and provide insight. The 3 topics that arose were:

• How does a company who truly wants to sell value differentiate itself from the competitor who is sellng cheaper?
  
• When does brand image become a deterrent?
  
• How do you move your sales force from solutions based selling to outcome based selling?

In our larger group of 12, we then chose one topic:

• How do you move your sales force from solutions based selling to outcome based selling?
  

We then worked the issue through a Problem-solving process. The executive who posed this issue agreed to be on the "hot seat" and others posed questions:

• Does every customer want this new way of selling?
• Is there value in “vertricalizing” the sales force?
• Is the marketing/messaging in line with your sales methodology?
• Does this new way of selling require compensation restructuring?
• Have you assessed your desire competencies now?
• Have you considered your sales force to re-interview for their job.

The group then moved into an idea generation phase. Some of the ideas considered:

• Consider the impact the transition will have on your sales force; especially those who are perceived as “not prepared” to make the transition.
  
• Begin by communicating to the company that an organizational change is about to take place. Letting the employees know helps them to prepare and does not single out any individual employee.
  
• Evaluate the competencies needed for the “new performance.” How different are they from the competences needed for the “current performance?”
  
• Rewrite job descriptions that are aligned with the new skill sets.
  
• Conduct 360 assessments of the sales force to identify skill gaps.
  
• Institute a re-interview process to ensure that you have the right employee in the right job. This allows you to afford employee the opportunity to opt into right job.

It wasn't until we were winding down, that it occurred to me that we would not realize the benefits of this experience until sometime down the road. Not until we had really worked through these issues. In a society of quick fixes, where everything has to be done now, it was refreshing to see that these exceptional leaders were willing to commit to returning to the Russ Berrie Institute on a bi-monthly basis to ensure that, as a cohort unit, they worked these issues through to implementation.

But what struck me as the most value aspect of this event was the feedback I received from the students. These young men and women who are the future brought a fresh perspective to the table. They truly appreciated the ability to be a part of this collaborative event and learn from industry experts.

I am looking forward to our next roundtable discussion in June, 2010.