Nick Salas, Author at Mindtickle

Ad-hoc Sales Training is Holding Your Sales Team Back. Here’s Why

Nick Salas on February 8, 2022

Your sales reps are likely to be the most in-demand people in your company. Every team wants their time and attention to make sure the right products and messages get in front of prospective customers. And sales training is where this popularity can cause unexpected problems.

Well-intentioned sales enablement teams take the initiative and create training resources for your sales reps to read, watch, or complete. But they only do so on an ad-hoc basis. Every team is so focused on their own priorities — whether it’s the latest product feature or new marketing messaging — that they don’t consider what your sales team needs to know about those things until the very last minute.

So your reps feel like new training activities are coming at them from every direction. Instead of enabling your sales reps with the information and knowledge, they need to succeed, an ad-hoc approach to sales training is distracting and overwhelming.

Ad-hoc sales training causes more problems than it solves

Ad-hoc sales training is when training for your sales team gets rolled out without advance planning, a set timeline, or a clear strategy.

Sometimes ad-hoc training is the best option for sales teams because you can roll it out quickly in response to market changes or competitor updates. However, it often creeps into big companies and becomes the primary method of training.

An ad-hoc approach can prevent your sales team from reaching its full potential and, ultimately, lose new customers. Reps will struggle to learn from training materials and find it difficult to retain the information they need to successfully engage with prospects, and managers cannot tailor training to the needs of individual sales reps.

Reps disengage with ad-hoc sales training

Sales reps disengage with ad-hoc sales training when they’re required to complete every single exercise, regardless of whether it’s relevant to their existing skills, experience, or area of focus. They may think the time spent completing the training could’ve been spent nurturing leads and working toward their monthly quota. And if you make all of your reps go through the exact same training program, they might be right.

Unfortunately, disengagement spreads quickly. For example, suppose one of your more experienced reps stops completing your training because they’re already familiar with the subject matter. In that case, other, more junior reps may follow suit and miss out on the information they need to level up their sales skills.

Even worse, when reps disengage with their training, they don’t retain (or acquire in the first place) the knowledge, skills, or information you are trying to share. They start to see sales training as a box-ticking exercise rather than a valuable ongoing process investing in their personal development.

Reps get lots of new information but can’t connect the dots

An ad-hoc approach to sales training lacks an overarching strategy. Without a strategy, reps don’t have the necessary context to help them understand how each element of their training will improve their overall performance and help them hit quota.

For example, in a single month, your reps may need to complete:

Training with multiple product managers to learn about new features coming to each product
Messaging training from your marketing team
Sales skills training focused on common skills such as objection handling or running effective demos

In this scenario, your reps will get lots of new information. But there’s no common theme or recurring idea to help them join the dots and put the ideas into practice.

While you’ll sometimes need to roll out ad-hoc training exercises in response to changes in the market or competitive landscape, you can still put together an overarching strategy for training that focuses on building reps’ sales skills or product knowledge.

A strategy means there’s a logical progression to the training. For example, a sales manager might deliver a session for their reps on running effective demos. The next week, the reps could record virtual demos to put that training into practice. You could also supplement this with microlearning activities like quizzes or short challenges to remind reps of demo best practices. Different exercises should build on topics you covered before, to ensure your training combines new information with refresher exercises to improve information retention.

Reps struggle to retain knowledge and put skills into practice

Ad-hoc sales training can lead to information overload. Too many different training exercises can leave your reps feeling overwhelmed by all the new information. And if reps are being bombarded with new information, there’s no time for reinforcement, making it difficult for them to retain that knowledge or skill to use in their sales interactions.

Ad-hoc sales training is often treated as a one-and-done activity: you covered the new product messaging with your reps — check! But that assumes your sellers have perfect information recall and that, after a single training session, they’ll be able to use that new messaging perfectly in their next sales call.

Unfortunately, most sales reps don’t have superhuman memory skills. A lack of spaced reinforcement of your sales training can cause inaccuracies, inconsistent messaging, or uncertainty in sales conversations because your reps haven’t practiced their training. This can erode trust in your business because prospects think of your representatives as the experts on your product… but when sales reps can’t remember the latest information about features and updates, they’ll appear unprofessional and unprepared.

Managers can’t tailor training to individual reps

Ad-hoc training from product or marketing teams is often shared with sellers on short notice with little advance information about what it’ll cover. This means managers can’t tailor the training to their reps based on individual skills gaps, knowledge gaps, or behaviors that need improving.

But all your reps have different skill levels, experiences, and strengths, so it doesn’t make sense to put all of them through the same cookie-cutter sales training exercises. For example, if you have one rep with just a couple of years of experience who’s been with your company the whole time, they’ll have different knowledge gaps than a rep with 20 years of experience who’s new to your company. Of course, both reps have their own strengths and weaknesses, but ad-hoc sales training means they both have to complete the same exercises.

Instead of a constant flurry of ad-hoc activities, you need an agile training program you can easily tailor to the needs of each seller. Your sales training will be more effective if it’s individualized to each rep. Sellers will be able to focus on areas where they can make the most significant improvements and not waste time going over topics or skills they excel at. But if managers don’t know ahead of time what the next training module will cover, they can’t segment their reps based on existing skills and competencies and identify who should and shouldn’t complete the training.

Discover a smarter way to train and enable your sales teams

There will always be unplanned updates and market changes your reps need training on. But there are lots of sales skills and company- and product-related information that’s easier to anticipate. Your sales enablement team will know the most pertinent topics and focus areas to help sellers build up their product knowledge and develop their skills.

The antidote to ad-hoc training is to embrace the idea of sales readiness. This involves a culture of continuous learning and improvement. It encourages ongoing learning through a mix of training, reinforcement, and practice to set your reps up for success. Adopting a team culture of ongoing improvement can help companies move away from ad-hoc sales training and develop agile programs designed around the needs of their sellers.

Ready to learn more, and take the first step in building an ongoing approach to sales training? Check out this eBook: Ramp Time to Productivity: Why Sales Everboarding is the Secret to Your Success.

7 Stats That Prove Continuous Improvement and Customized Training is Key to Achieving Revenue Goals

Nick Salas on October 12, 2021

As a sales leader, it should be no surprise to hear that preparing your team to win starts with building knowledge through continuous training and reinforcement. Developing seller knowledge starts with onboarding, but it’s most effective when continually reinforced throughout a seller’s tenure with your company.

We recently teamed up with Heinz Marketing to create The New Sales Enablement Standard: How Today’s Sales Leaders Grow Revenue With a Sales Readiness Approach. In it, we look at how sales leaders can empower their teams to achieve revenue goals through customized readiness programs. Let’s dig in!

1. Many sales leaders used to expect 20% of their sales force to generate 80% of their revenue.

Gone are the days of sales leaders relying on a few top sellers to do the heavy lifting for the rest of their teams. In a typical organization, that means four out of five sellers wouldn’t be used to their full potential — causing a serious negative impact on the bottom line.

By creating customized sales training plans, sales managers can unlock the true power of their full team. To do this, it’s important for managers to quantify every possible aspect of seller performance including things like sales performance based on business goals, completion of training modules, and the number of new skills obtained.

When coaching and monitoring these specific key performance metrics in each seller, teams are able to customize their tactics to each individual seller to help them reach their goals.

2. Of teams who hit 100% of their sales goals, 32% have a dedicated sales enablement program.

The reality is that only 14.7% of sales teams hit their sales goals. That isn’t a particularly high amount when you consider the investments that most organizations put into sales headcount. But when you look at the teams that are crushing their targets, there’s something many of them have in common: a dedicated sales enablement program.

Traditionally, sales and marketing teams have managed the sales enablement strategy entirely on their own. But a modern selling environment calls for the involvement of more teams in order to build a stronger program and ultimately a stronger team. The top three functions involved in sales enablement programs are sales/revenue operations, sales leadership, and marketing.

3. 78.6% of companies that have an effective training program meet 100% of their selling quota.

When an organization takes the time to invest in a sales training program, everybody wins. With nearly 80% of companies that have an effective training program in place meeting their quota, the results speak for themselves.

The key is to take training beyond onboarding and on-the-job coaching and start regularly training employees on a more consistent basis, placing an emphasis on knowledge retention rather than just delivering information.

4. Only 37% of companies extend their onboarding programs beyond the first month.

While we’re all familiar with onboarding and how important it is to a seller’s success, very few organizations foster a learning environment for reps outside of that first 30-day window. The major problem with this is that it’s proven that companies who invest in ongoing training win more deals.

In the results of a recent survey, of the respondents who hit 75% or of their quota, 90% participate in sales training on a monthly basis. Promoting continuous learning is essential to equipping sellers with the skills and knowledge they need to achieve their revenue goals.

5. After just six days, people forget 75% of the information they learn in training.

Reinforcing knowledge is just as important as the imparting of knowledge itself. We often speak about the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, which is a formula that states that humans forget approximately 50% of new information within an hour, forget 70% in 24 hours, and 90% after 30 days.

This is where spaced reinforcements come into play. By creating microlearning modules coupled with spaced repetition, retrieval practice, coaching, and personalization for each rep, sales managers can more effectively promote knowledge retention within their teams.

6. 8 out of 10 teams who have effective coaching practices hit greater than 75% of sales quotas.

It’s no secret that better coaching practices equate to more wins for your team. In fact, adopting a consistent coaching culture is vital to your team’s success. When done right, it can provide insight and opportunity to improve on every buyer interaction (like where something went wrong, how to uncover bottlenecks, and how to pivot for future success).

Performance-related conversations can be difficult to have, especially if a rep isn’t doing well. But when we rely on data to guide these conversations, they not only become easier to have, but are also more valuable for the rep on the receiving end of the feedback.

7. 57% of respondents who have effective practice opportunities see sellers achieving 75% and greater of their sales goals.

Sales practice opportunities can include everything from microlearning, to role-play, to quizzes, to certifications, and beyond. The important thing is that sellers are given ample resources to flex their knowledge and build on their existing skills to grow in their roles.

Of the respondents to our recent survey who hit 100% seller quota attainment, 57% rely heavily on coaching to build knowledge within their teams. This shows that with every bit of coaching a seller receives, their ability to move deals forward and close deals in real-world conversations dramatically increases.

A worthy investment for sales leaders

Sales coaching is definitely an investment, but when you look at the data, it’s not something sales leaders can afford to ignore. It’s clear that taking the time to build out training programs that go beyond a seller’s first 30 or 90 days on the job drive tangible results, and are well worth the efforts when it comes to achieving revenue goals.

At the end of the day, we all want our teams to be successful and reach quota every quarter. But in order to hit those goals on a team level, we have to take a step back and start nurturing sellers’ abilities on an individual level too. After all, the greatest successes all start with one small change. Let a stellar training program be yours!

How Gamification and Interactive Sales Training Develop High-Performing Sales Teams

Nick Salas on September 16, 2021

Sales training must engage sellers and enable them to tackle any sales interaction. Unfortunately, the tried and true sales training formats of old now get stale quickly. Classroom-based lectures, group brainstorming sessions, and annual performance reviews lose their utility, bringing the team’s productivity and focus down with it.

But sales training doesn’t have to be a drag. It may surprise you, but with the right approach, it can even be, dare we say, fun? Gamification and interactive methods spice up training and inspire reps to not just passively participate, but actively engage in learning. And the concept of gamification doesn’t just deliver short-term results — it plays a significant role in a dynamic sales everboarding strategy, leading to better productivity and retention over time.

Below we define gamification and show you how it can be a lucrative technique for your training program.

What is gamification?

Gamification refers to the application of gaming elements into non-game situations or processes. Incorporating point-keeping, leaderboards, badges, competitions, team activities, and other game-like features boosts concentration and participation.

While fusing a game-like system into your sales training strategy may not feel natural at first, thinking strategically and investing the necessary time and effort can drive success across the organization.

Benefits of gamification in sales training

Gamification addresses common frustrations associated with conventional training methods, offering the following advantages:

Enhances motivation. The spirit of competition is proven to trigger endorphins, motivating people to work even harder to reach goals and “beat” their fellow sellers.

Boosts engagement. More motivated sellers mean they are more willing to participate and complete assigned training materials.

Adds convenience. Available on mobile, training games and competitions can be done anywhere, any time — also contributing to higher engagement across the team.

Is less time-consuming. While upfront it will take some time to create gamified training and set it in motion, sales reps can complete the training without taking hours away from active selling.

Focuses on unique needs. Gamification can be personalized to individual teams and salespeople to strengthen the skills that need it most.

Promotes continuous learning. Rather than watching a video or reviewing a product slide deck, you can consolidate as many materials as you want into your contest or game, and space them out to focus on different subjects and cement learning.

Builds morale. Sales can be isolating, with reps taking an “every person for themselves” outlook. Creating competition surrounding training materials and events spurs teamwork and collaboration across the organization.

Implementing gamification into your sales training program

Does this all sound like it could boost seller productivity? Ready to try it out with your organization? Keep these best practices in mind to ensure gamified learning is a win for everyone on your team.

Start with desired outcomes and objectives

With any training, you likely have goals in mind for what you want to achieve. Developing a gamification program will require time and financial investment, and the only way to know whether it’s working is to set specific objectives toward which to work. Whether you are trying to educate sellers on a new product, increase reps’ content usage with buyers, or grow a certain skill set, put SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) into place and communicate them with your team.

Establish a timeline

Once your goals are set, work backward to create a realistic timetable. Consider how long it will take to craft your gamification strategy, roll it out to the team, and carry out the game itself. Whether you decide to hold a contest rewarding whoever completes the training first or assign points for different training-related challenges, determine a deadline and stick to it. If you introduce the game as a continuous activity with no end, there won’t be a sense of urgency and you’ll likely find many reps fail to participate.

Offer gamified learning digitally

It doesn’t make much sense to gamify training for added enjoyment then force sellers to complete it at their desk in the office. Lean into the game format and make training materials available via an app or mobile platform for sellers to play at their leisure, wherever they are. This added convenience will encourage continued cooperation amongst the team.

Track individual progress

Those objectives you set in the beginning? Critical to a gamified training initiative is to evaluate success throughout. Put reps — and your training program — to the test with regular assessments of both completion and performance. If completion rates or scores are low, you’ll need to make adjustments to your approach. To further motivate salespeople to continue participating in future training exercises, recognize rep achievements and reward them with appropriate prizes.

Reinforcement: essential to lucrative training

While gamification is more interactive and engaging, it’s important that while analyzing participation in the training itself you are also assuring that sellers are actually learning and retaining information over time. A single contest may show immediate positive results, but are reps absorbing the information 30, 60, and 90 days after it’s complete?

You want to make things fun, but at the end of the day, the goal of training remains the same: generating positive sales outcomes. The great thing about gamification is that it can be incorporated anywhere you choose within training. But it should be just one part of your broader sales everboarding strategy, driving ongoing learning that leads to better sales readiness, improved buyer engagement, and ultimately more closed deals.

How to Maximize Performance With Microlearning to Deliver Sales Training

Nick Salas on August 24, 2021

Today’s productive and successful seller must be a jack of all trades, mastering a variety of skills to engage buyers and close deals.

Sales onboarding and ongoing enablement activities are typically one-and-done affairs for sales reps. Reps are bombarded with information about the company, industry, customers, competitors, and sales methodologies over the span of a week or so, then left to their own devices and expected to dive in and start selling.

What can leadership do to ensure reps gain all the knowledge they need and absorb it for ongoing success? Develop a sales training strategy that includes microlearning. It could be the secret to turning sellers on your team into better performers.

What is microlearning?

Where traditionally sales organizations onboard new reps and then often don’t train again until months later at annual meetings, microlearning keeps reps up-to-date all the time and is a key part of sales everboarding, a term we use to reference ongoing learning. microlearning provides small, bite-sized training materials that are more engaging and interactive. Typically offered via a mobile platform, these materials are remotely accessible and can be completed at one’s convenience.

The key to developing a microlearning program is to identify and work toward specific learning objectives, using training materials that are highly focused and complementary.

Examples of microlearning include:

Videos delivered by SMEs, successful sales reps, or executives
Quizzes
Games
Situational simulations

Challenges in sales enablement & training

There’s a lot at stake for your sales enablement and training activities: You need to build (or rebuild) the knowledge and skills your salespeople will need to succeed while also promoting morale and teamwork. So it’s key to keep reps engaged throughout onboarding and beyond:

1. Holding reps’ attention. If you throw too much information at your reps at one time, their focus will inevitably fade– so it’s on you to find ways to maintain the team’s concentration.
2. Reducing time away from selling. Reps may also be hesitant — or even bothered — to take time away from work for enablement activities because they see the opportunity cost of training as too high. phones and computers and
3. Focusing on sales skills. Salespeople are not interested in generic training that’s not clearly connected to business results, so ensure that your enablement activities aren’t just bite-sized, but also clearly aimed at improving outcomes.
4. Keeping it interesting and individualized. Different people excel and struggle in different areas, and they also learn best through various methods. Using different modalities and adjusting enablement activities based on strengths and weaknesses will keep reps engaged and help them hone the skills they need to succeed.
5. Getting information to stick through spaced reinforcements. Perhaps the biggest drawback to most sales onboarding and training is ensuring that knowledge is retained over the long haul. Research has shown that 90% of training is forgotten within a month if you don’t follow up, so spacing out short reinforcement activities is critical.

What microlearning can do for your sales training program

microlearning doesn’t solve all the challenges of conventional sales training but it’s an essential piece in transitioning to a more dynamic, sales everboarding approach Its mobile format is inherently shorter, more accessible, and more convenient for reps to complete and for leadership to distribute and measure. When training doesn’t feel like a huge undertaking, sellers are more likely to participate and complete the materials assigned to them.

As a key part of a sales training and enablement approach, the convenience of microlearning means it can be offered up at any time for continuous learning reinforcement. Keep salespeople on top of their game with materials at the ready, and get them quickly up-to-speed on products, promotions, and industry news with fresh videos and assessments.

Microlearning can also be easily tailored to fit the individual needs of every seller on your team. Depending on the specific person, buyer, and selling conversation, you can serve relevant and timely learning content when it’s needed most. How do you know whether training is having a positive impact? microlearning platforms have analytics capabilities for leadership to see not only which reps finished their assigned training, but also whether it had an effect on those reps’ real-life sales interactions.

The cherry on top with microlearning is its cost-effectiveness: You can reinforce and augment other learning without having to bear the considerable travel and facilities expenses associated with in-person sessions.

A culture of learning, from day one

Incorporating microlearning into your larger sales strategy doesn’t have to take away from in-person training; there is still value in congregating sellers in person to celebrate wins, set goals as a team, share ideas and best practices, and build rapport. microlearning supplements and supports these touchstone events for a true sales everboarding approach.

A focus on knowledge and skill-building in your initial onboarding and ongoing enablement activities will prepare new hires to be open and committed to continuing education, driving better outcomes for them as individuals and the organization as a whole.

Lessons Learned: Tales from a Virtual Business Review

Nick Salas on August 28, 2020

This month, we held our second all-virtual sales QBR (Quarterly Business Review) here at Mindtickle, and like the one we held last quarter, we had some successes, but more importantly some lessons learned. These points are what I want to focus on here in order to help fellow enablement professionals as they are thinking about executing all-virtual events, especially ones that hold as much importance to field reps as a QBR does.

The Successes

Success #1: Gathering input from the teams is extremely important not only for setting the agenda, but also creating an atmosphere of collaboration. I sent a survey beforehand asking the field if they preferred two half-days, or one longer day of sessions. The consensus was that two half-days would be better, so we delivered sessions over two days, 4-hours a piece. This small change helped keep attention towards the sessions without getting Zoom fatigue. Also, using Mindtickle’s pre-built templates helped ensure that the content over the two days was aligned with the time expectations of the field.

Success #2: Pre-work is just as essential if not more so than the actual QBR itself. Work done before fosters engagement with the team that will help them get more out the session. The pre-work we asked the field to complete included a series of videos highlighting each session with the following:

3 objectives the participants can expect to learn as a result of the session
Best next action or takeaway that the rep can expect to take back to their territory as a result of the session
An opportunity to ask the presenter a question based on the topic they were planning to present

Completing this pre-work allowed the participants to get a glimpse of the agenda while providing context. An additional benefit is this drives more interactivity during the actual sessions with the built-in questions as pre-work.

Success #3: Another part of the pre-work was their response to a simple question: What do you want to learn at the QBR? We caveated that with the fact that we would not be able to address all topics, but I took the feedback and customized the topics to cater to the specific needs of the field. More importantly, as we prepped the presenters, we were able to verify that their topics matched the expectations of the team, which we further emphasized during our dry runs with each presenter.

Success #4: Having a theme for your QBR provides focus for the agenda, the speakers and the presentations. Last QBR, I wasn’t explicit or direct with a theme. This time, however, I made sure that our theme was emphasized in some form during each of the presentations. Additionally, the post-work we set up to follow QBR was specifically tied to the theme in order to reiterate the importance to the field. Furthermore, we put together role-play exercises so the field felt more confidence around that theme.

Lessons to Remember

Lesson learned #1: Keeping speakers on schedule and within their allotted times is difficult no matter how much you plan. But within a virtual environment, this is even more essential. Although some flexibility is required, virtual meetings can quickly get out of hand in terms of time allotments, and it is important to moderate the time slots and keep presenters on topic. Always provide some buffer in the time allotted to each speaker and build that into your schedule.

Lesson learned 2: Ensure the team is engaged is a challenge regardless of how much you plan especially because of the volume of content and topics. For me, organizing sessions through a sales readiness platform such as Mindtickle allows other presenters and participants to review the agenda and enroll in individual sessions ahead of time. Also, I used quizzes and games tied to a leaderboard to showcase team members completed assignments and retained knowledge of what they learned.

Lesson learned 3: No matter how much you shorten the agenda, QBRs require a significant time commitment from the team. The virtual QBR is even more difficult because you’re either focusing on the video call intently or you’re easily distracted (e.g. emails, phone, etc.). So remember to build in sufficient breaks for attendees. I like to fill breaks with small tasks and knowledge checks, but it is important that we give people TRUE breaks to let them take a breath and reset for the next set of sessions.

Overall, a successful virtual QBR relies heavily on preparation from both the enablement team who is organizing the event, to the participants who will be consuming the content. Keeping the presenters aligned to the specific needs of what sales needs to know in order to sell more software is key. Knowledge fall-off is a real thing, and without a plan around reiteration and reinforcement, the topics will quickly be forgotten. If the presentations and topics are relevant, tied to a sales role, quick to learn, and aligned with the initiatives of both the department and the company, your QBR has a higher likelihood of success. The most important thing to remember is to have fun!

For more information, check out our Quick Start Kit for Virtual Sales Events.

10 Lessons Learned from Running a Fully Remote QBR

Nick Salas on May 30, 2020

Like many other companies at the moment, Mindtickle has been learning to adapt to a 100% virtual environment. As such, we just wrapped up our Q2 Quarterly Business Review (QBR), and we were able to conduct the entire process and meeting virtually. In a way, it was a living QBR with sales and other team members presenting content based on their own lessons learned. Fortunately, it was a success with engagement being strong throughout! But of course, there are always lessons to be learned for making these better and better over time. As the Head of Sales Readiness, I oversaw the QBR ranging from the format and structure to the sessions and post-event engagement. As part of that experience, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of the lessons learned.

Make sure you have a theme. Even though I know what the theme was and the objectives, I should have communicated better to the field instead of assuming they would discern the theme by piecing all of the sessions together. Make sure to market the QBR with a lot of excitement ahead of time.
Pick a platform to support your plan. Without Mindtickle, it would have been difficult to put a logical framework together for the sales teams to follow. Being able to use a platform designed specifically for making virtual QBR’s successful obviously gave me an advantage. But it is important to remember that, regardless of what platform you use to execute the virtual QBR, ensure that the flow and logic of the structure make sense. I constantly checked and re-checked that the sessions were being organized in the proper order and that the times were aligned with the agenda, and the technology helped keep me accountable to that.
Segment your virtual QBR. Breaks are not only encouraged, they are mandatory if you want your QBR to succeed. You can’t expect to have an engaged team for a full day or a couple of half days without building in some breathing room. I built in three breaks throughout the day and that seemed sufficient, but when creating the agenda, assume that your learners are going to need mental and physical breaks throughout.
Pre-work is essential. While pre-work is an important part of the virtual QBR, I would incorporate additional activities including having the presenters pre-record some brief messages and shorten the live presenting time. One key learning is resist the urge to schedule 60-minute sessions in a virtual QBR. 30-minute sessions are ideal and even those can test the attention spans of reps. Make the pre-work such that the live presentations take care of themselves and all that are left are questions and possible brief reiteration.
Keep people excited and engaged. Not only did I build in knowledge checks throughout the day and during breaks, but we also played online games with questions and topics completely unrelated to the QBR content. It shouldn’t be all work and no play and you should give the team an opportunity for a mental break to have some fun.
Assign a moderator to check messages. As the organizer especially in a virtual environment using Zoom, you’ll likely be bombarded with questions, technical issues, clarification, follow-up, etc. during the QBR, which is not only difficult but stressful. Ask someone to help moderate the questions and the chatter that comes through during the day.
Do dry runs beforehand. The dry runs we did with the presenters allowed myself, along with sales leadership, to ensure that the message was concise and focused, which helps keep people engaged throughout the day.
Create breakouts to accommodate different discussions. Something we didn’t do but will certainly incorporate next time, is to use the breakout room feature in Zoom. Give the teams time to digest and talk about how they can apply what they are learning throughout the day in a safe space without worrying about interrupting the sessions.
Keep participants on their toes and engaged. We’ve all done it – turned off our video during a video call. To keep everyone honest, randomly ask participants to turn on their cameras and say something about themselves throughout the day. This ensures they are staying engaged and provides everyone an opportunity to learn something new about their peers.
Reinforce knowledge and key learnings through structured post-work. Organize post-QBR work that will make an impact and that will reiterate key themes learned throughout the day. Using Mindtickle, we accomplish this through a series of quizzes and exercises that occur right after the QBR and over several weeks to ensure knowledge reinforcement.

While the feedback was that this was a very successful event, I (and I’m sure my enablement professionals agree) am always looking for ways to improve the experience Every training is as much a learning experience for sales enablement as it is for the sales teams.

I hope these insights are useful and I invite fellow sales readiness and enablement professionals to comment and join the discussion. For more blogs like this and other resources to help keep teams remote and ready, visit our “Remote and Ready” page.

Sales Replanning without Anxiety: An Enablement Leader’s Practical Perspective on Executing an Effective Virtual Business Review

Nick Salas on April 16, 2020

Business reviews are especially critical at the moment in aligning sales and management teams to adjusted targets, current quarter forecasts as well as a unified and standardized message. With no options to meet face-to-face, it is imperative that your virtual replanning and review strategy be one that is inclusive and prescriptive, including collaboration with internal departments that have a stake in ensuring messaging and sales execution is done correctly. Getting the same level of involvement and team participation from collaborators (now in different zipcodes and timezones) can be impossible if you rely on a multi-hour or multi-day live streaming session or default to passing documents back and forth over content channels.

Luckily sales readiness technology such as Mindtickle can assist with soliciting feedback from the field team and managers, account planning and pre-meeting territory reviews. By enabling video or screen share submissions, auto- and manager-driven, 1:1 reviews, sellers benefit from proper preparation and are impactful. Activities such as pre-work and video role play are great tools to include to increase participation, while gamification drives engagement that’s fun and effective. In my experience there are two key elements common to every successful QBR or business review I have been part of that I believe are critical in today’s environment.

Consideration #1

Business reviews should not be an anxiety-inducing exercise for sellers…far from it. Sellers should look forward to receiving feedback from leaders and cross-departmental stakeholders to increase their skills and tactics.

Tip:

Sessions need to be upbeat, positive, and encouraging for sellers, and more importantly, this keeps them engaged and involved.
Sales enablement leaders should ensure that the content being presented at business reviews correlate back to competencies and skills that have been identified as key to an individual seller’s success. For sales leaders, this can help in better evaluating skills gaps and learning opportunities that either hindered or helped in driving sellers to get their prospects converted through each stage of the sales process.

Consideration #2

Business reviews shouldn’t be an overwhelming experience in the amount of information that’s presented. Consider the requirements and venue of your remote workforce since the business review will be done via video conference.