How the sales industry and sales technology have changed in the past eight years
How you can use technology as a strategic differentiator for your business
Whether sales technology should influence your hiring practices
What we can expect to see in the sales technology landscape in the future
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“How can we use technology as a strategic differentiator to help our organization grow in the fastest way possible and really builds relationships with customers?”
That’s the question every organization should ask itself before adding something to their sales stack according to Nancy Nardin, and she would know. Nardin has worked in sales in the Valley since the 1980s – she even sold the world’s first laptop computer. Eight years ago she founded Smart Selling Tools, a place where sales practitioners can learn about sales technology and stay up-to-date on the industry.
With so many different sales technologies now available it can be overwhelming to know what will help your sales organization.
“I don’t think we really should be thinking about the tech too much,” suggests Nardin. “What we should be doing is thinking about what’s keeping us from being as effective and productive as we can be. What’s keeping us from generating more revenue and from serving the customer better? These are the challenges that we need to break down, and then decide what technology is the best technology to apply to that.”
You need a license before you can drive a car. Your SAT scores open the door to grad school. Applying the same lens to sales teams, how do you know if your sales team are ready to have customer conversations?
If you don’t know whether your reps are sales ready, you’re really just hoping they know what to say and how to address your customer’s pain points.
While your business might be winning deals today, a more agile and sales ready competitor could leapfrog you and adversely affect your quarter in an instant. There are so many things that could and do affect your deals, but sales readiness is one of the few that is within your control.
Sales readiness ensures that your reps aren’t losing deals because they simply do not possess the required knowledge or skills, or they aren’t receiving the right coaching. These are all things that you may not know about if you aren’t measuring the sales readiness of your reps.
So how do you know if your business is sales ready?
Your company strategy filters down to tactics and go-to-market strategy
Business strategy doesn’t operate in isolation. For a business to be successful it’s sales and go-to-market strategy has to be continuously aligned with the changing strategy. Businesses that achieve this are able to align their sales organization with their strategy seamlessly. Consider these questions:
How confident are you that a random sample of 20 of your sales reps can articulate your top three value propositions consistently?
Are your other customer facing teams, from technology support to Customer Success, using the same messaging and philosophy when communicating with customers? How do you track whether they’re on message?
How often do your sales reps lose a deal because they weren’t aware that a particular product feature existed?
Sales enablement is a priority
While some businesses have jumped onto the sales enablement bandwagon with vigor and understand its importance others are still a bit sceptical. Then there are those who set up a sales enablement team because everyone else around them is, not because they see the value in the role.
Only businesses who prioritize sales enablement at all levels of the organization will succeed. However, if you’re not sure whether your entire business is along for the ride consider this:
Do you have a formal sales enablement function and prioritized sales enablement initiatives?
Is your C-Suite aligned with the sales enablement priorities? Are they investing sufficient time to ensure that your sales team accepts your sales enablement initiatives?
Are you able to demonstrate the ROI of sales enablement initiatives to the C-Suite and your sales team?
How much collaboration is there between sales enablement and other areas of your organization (such as Marketing, Sales Operations, Product and the C-Suite)?
Does your sales team have access to sales enablement tools that they use regularly? Can you measure how effective these tools are and how engaged your reps are with them?
Your new hires are ramping up quickly
If you don’t start them on the right foot your reps are less likely to succeed. MongoDB has experienced sales success because they set up a robust onboarding program – this has translated into $200k more revenue per rep in their first year and a reduction in new hire ramp up time from 11 to 5 months. Some questions to answer about your organization include:
Are your new hires ramping up at a consistent rate or are there large variations in time to productivity?
How do you know whether your new hires understand the knowledge they’ve been trained on?
How often do you check back to see if they’ve retained this knowledge?
Do you have a process in place for reps to demonstrate that they know how to apply their knowledge in customer conversations?
Your sales team is meeting quota
According to SiriusDecisions only 27% of sales reps meet or exceed their quota. If the majority of your team are meeting quota then hold onto them because they’re clearly ready for any situation that’s put before them. However, if many of your reps are struggling to meet their targets then it might be time to consider the following:
Do you have a strong pipeline of opportunities in place? How can this be bolstered?
How closely are you tracking the performance of individual team members against forecast? Do you know if your reps are delivering the right value proposition to your prospects?
Is there consistency in your deal size, or is this haphazard? Are some reps more consistent than others?
How do your win rates stack up against your competitors? Are there any specific competitors that present a greater challenge for your reps? Why?
Coaching is an integral part of your organizational culture
The better your reps’ sales skills are the more sales ready they’ll be. One of the best ways to improve sales skills is through coaching. Research has shown that as little as three hours of coaching a month can increase average close rates by 70%. But if your business supports sales coaching at all levels then you already know this, if not perhaps ask yourself these questions:
How do your managers know what to coach each individual sales rep on? How are knowledge and skill gaps identified?
Is sales coaching left up to your sales managers or are subject matter experts from across the business brought in when appropriate?
Your reps are all singing from the same songbook
The larger your sales team, the more challenging it is to ensure that they’re all on message. While there was less urgency for consistent messaging in days gone by, there’s too much happening these days to wait until your annual Sales Kickoff to bring all your reps up to speed. If your reps understand your value proposition and can articulate it on-demand then you’re on track, but if you’re not sure consider these questions:
How well can your reps adapt their message to a specific context?
Do your reps know how to connect your product with their customer’s specific pain points?
How well do your reps understand your competitive advantages? Do they know how to articulate this and connect them to your customer’s pain points?
The bell curve of your A, B and C Players is flattening
Let’s admit it, in most companies only a handful of reps consistently meet quota, and it’s virtually unheard for every rep in a sales organization to make their target. Businesses that have effectively managed to bring each of their reps closer to meeting quota are those who are able to tap into what makes their A Players tick.
Focusing in on leading indicators is key to achieving this, yet most managers still focus their energy on lagging indicators like pipeline and conversion rates. But managers aren’t to blame, they require training and frameworks that help them identify what drives those leading indicators and coach their reps to achieve this. Here are some questions that you should answer if you’re not sure how your managers coach your reps:
Are you able to identify what makes your A Players tick? Do you know how to replicate their winning formula?
What is your plan to enable those B Players who are putting in the effort but still not meeting quota?
How wide are the capability gaps between your A and B Players?
How consistently do your reps articulate your value proposition and message to customers? Do you have a process in place to remediate message gaps and inconsistencies?
Your sales team know what’s going on internally and externally
New product features, competitor movements, industry changes; things are changing so quickly in the digital age. This means sales teams need to receive and absorb a lot of information quickly to be sales ready. When your team is on top of everything they’re well placed to stay one step ahead of their competition. If you’re not sure whether your reps are up-to-date, consider these things:
Do your reps often complain that they weren’t aware of a new product feature or industry change?
Do you have a process in place to coordinate and communicate product, competitive and industry updates to your sales reps?
Can you measure or identify how well your reps can apply this new knowledge? Do they understand what it means to their prospects and how to articulate that effectively?
Unicorns like AppDynamics, Cloudera, Mulesoft, Nutanix and Qualtrics rely on sales readiness to power their sales success. What are you doing to make sure your sales team is successful?
You know that sales enablement can help your sales reps be more effective at their role, but how do you know which sales enablement platform is best for you? There are so many to choose from and some have very different features, which can make comparing them confusing.
Generally, sales enablement platforms fall into two categories;
sales readiness and sales asset management
.
Sales readiness platforms help you prepare your sales reps to have meaningful conversations with their customers. Sales asset management platforms enable reps to manage their sales content. In this post, I’m going to focus in on the five steps that will help you find the right sales readiness platform for your business.
Step 1: Step back and define your objectives
While you may be eager to pick a solution and get started, it’s important to take some time to reflect on what you’re trying to achieve first. While you may feel like you’re wasting precious time, in the long run, this step will save you from making the wrong decision, and it will help you gain clarity on what your business really needs.
There isn’t a one size fits all approach to sales readiness, what your sales reps need to be sales ready may be very different from other businesses. Consider the following questions:
What stage is your business in?If you’re scaling rapidly perhaps you’re struggling to ramp up all your new hires effectively with your current onboarding program. If you’re an established business with a large sales team perhaps you find it challenging to keep all your reps on message.
How dynamic is your industry?If your competitors (and you) are releasing new product features every other week, then communicating regularly and keeping your reps on message is crucial to their readiness.
How much visibility do you have on your reps’ capabilities?If you don’t have a process in place to identify skill or capability gaps then a solution that enables you to assess their capabilities would be helpful.
Are you developing a culture of coaching and sales effectiveness?If the majority of your reps aren’t meeting quota regularly or turning over too soon then your coaching process may need more structure to give your reps the cadence they need to close more deals. Your managers may also need more support to create a culture of coaching and feedback, enabling them to focus on broader sales effectiveness, rather than just pipeline and sales skills.
Is your business in need of a sales transformation?If you’ve recently gone through an M&A or you’ve launched a new product you may need an effective way to ensure your customer-facing team is aligned to the new messaging quickly and effectively.
Is your current system really working?Old school LMS and classroom training sessions just don’t cut it anymore. To keep your reps engaged, achieve ROI for your sales enablement efforts and keep up with your competitors, it may be time to update your system to something that addresses the sales issues you face today.
Once you have identified your key objectives, you’re ready to move onto the next stage.
Step 2: Identify your dependencies
Your sales readiness platform is probably not the only tool in your sales stack. While all these tools are designed to make life easier for your sales team, they can actually make it more challenging if they’re not integrated. After all, how many logins can you remember?
That’s why it’s a good idea to identify what tools or platforms you would like your sales readiness platform to talk to. Would reporting be easier if your sales readiness platform could report based on the categories in your CRM? Would your sales reps find it useful if your sales readiness tool could help them identify contextual content for customer conversations from your sales asset management tool?
By including this level of integration on your wishlist you can narrow down the sales readiness platforms that best suit your needs.
Step 3: Prioritize what’s important
This is where the objectives you identified in step 1 become important. They should drive the features and functionalities that you need the most from your sales readiness platform. It’s helpful to identify what your priorities are using a basic framework and then listing out the key elements that your business needs under each category. I suggest using a framework that includes knowledge enablement, skill development, scenario-based training, analytics and other features:
Knowledge Enablement:
This refers to the ability of your reps to use knowledge in the context of their sales situations.
Feature: Learning modules
You need this if you want to
Assign modules to personalize learning tracks for different learners or groups.
Selectively invite individuals and groups to learning modules.
Feature: Mobile app and bite-sized content files
You need this if you want to
Share regular updates on new product features, competitive insights, success stories and marketing collateral in real time.
Feature: Assessments and Certifications
You need this if you want to
Customize benchmarks or pass scores for goal-based assessments.
Generate and award certificates to reps when they complete a level.
Feature: Flexible content formats
You need this if you want to
Import content from other sources (like Dropbox, Google Drive, Slideshare or Youtube).
Directly upload or amend content in any file format.
Create short and long form training content.
Feature: Quick quizzes
You need this if you want to
Measure knowledge retention with pop quizzes and reinforce key information.
Intertwine quizzes with content for effective reinforcement.
Conduct timed quizzes and randomize questions.
Feature: Easy content search and discovery
You need this if you want to
Enable your reps to be able to find content easily when they need it.
Ensure your reps can bookmark content so they can access easily.
Enable content to be saved offline so they can find it anytime.
Feature: Gamification
You need this if you want to
Drive adoption and ensure your sales reps actually use the platform and even enjoy using it.
Customize rewards based on content importance.
Feature: Integration with other systems
You need this if you want to
Integrate with your sales asset management tool so you can enable your reps to access content that is relevant to their specific situation at the time they need it most.
Integrate with your CRM so you can leverage the segmentation and team profiles you have created there for analytics or to allocate learning tracks.
Integrate with HR systems so you can leverage the team and individual profiles you have created there for analytics or to allocate learning tracks.
Skill development:
These features help your reps handle specific sales scenarios.
Feature: Structured coaching
You need this if you want to:
Enable contextual coaching so managers can objectively observe reps while they are in their sales motion. They can then provide feedback and training and support reps when navigating complex sales scenarios in real time.
Give your manager the ability to conduct on-the-job coaching, even when they’re in a different location to their reps. They can observe and rate how reps perform their sales activities
Scenario-based training:
These features help your reps execute your plan through coaching. This teaches them to follow the sales process and even receive specific feedback on their deals.
Feature: Video / audio role plays
You need this if you want to:
Help your reps practice how they respond to specific and contextual sales situations.
Ensure your reps are articulating your product value proposition consistently, know how to demo your product or can deliver a compelling elevator pitch.
Enable managers to review video, voice over powerpoint, voiceover screen capture and audio responses in real time.
Enable managers to review and grade email responses and offline learning.
Customize evaluation parameters for role plays.
Feature: Automated workflows
You need this if you want to:
Enable your sales managers, sales enablement or other team members to provide qualitative and quantitative feedback on the video or audio recordings your reps submit.
Create accountability and a cadence for coaching, so it becomes something that your managers and reps do every day.
Feature: Best practices library
You need this if you want to:
Share best practices and success stories across your team and facilitate peer to peer learning.
Feature:Contextual remediation
You need this if you want to:
Suggest training tracks to reps based on identified knowledge or skill gaps.
Automate training based on gaps identified by their manager.
Analytics:
These features help you drive accountability, identify knowledge and skill gaps, and report back to sales managers and leaders.
Feature: Drill down views and reports
You need this if you want to:
Measure and track the engagement and retention of each rep, sales team or region.
Track cohorts (based on their onboarding batch, sales kickoff attendance etc) to see how each has performed against other cohorts.
Export user data into Salesforce.
Feature: Reporting on content effectiveness
You need this if you want to:
Identify which content has an impact on your reps’ performance and which do not.
Feature: Reporting on business impact
You need this if you want to:
Correlate sales enablement activities with business outcomes. This will help demonstrate the impact on revenue of initiatives or improvements in capability.
Other priorities
Aside from features, there are several other questions that you may want to ask a vendor including:
What is their roadmap in terms of product enhancements and expansions?
What are the minimum software/hardware requirements to use the solution?
What are the solution’s implementation strategy and process?
How long will the implementation process take?
How much of your support is typically required during implementation?
What Is Customer Success support available after implementation?
Step 4: Evaluate platforms against your priorities
It may be tempting to just pick the first platform you demo but it may not have everything you need. It’s important to at least compare two or three sales readiness platforms so you can see just how different they are. By listing out the criteria that are your priorities, and then assessing each platform against that criteria, you can objectively identify which platform will best meet your needs.
Step 5:Get feedback or read reviews
Once you’ve identified the sales readiness platform that best meets your needs, it’s always helpful to hear from people who actually use the product. This is actually easier to do than you may realize. Websites like G2 Crowd allow users to provide unbiased reviews of software platforms they’ve used in real time. You can see how people rated different aspects of each platform and read their comments about what it’s like to use the tool.
While it may sound daunting, by taking a little extra time to evaluate and choose the right sales readiness platform you will save yourself a lot of time and effort in the long run.
When it’s time for your sales organization to invest in sales enablement and productivity
How to enable your sales managers to perform at their best by shifting their mindset
How to prioritize and continuously improve sales enablement and training initiatives
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“If you’ve got to double your revenue to stay on track with your projections, you can’t do that on 30k deals. And if marketing is doing great things and attracting really great logos, but sales aren’t doing the right things, you’re not going to get what you’re looking for. And if sales is doing a really good job targeting their accounts and they’re motivated to hit the phones, but marketing isn’t giving them any air cover you’re not going to get the lift you’re looking for.”
That was the problem the Marketo was facing by relying on inbound marketing for its sales leads. So it decided to find a new way to scale, and leveraging the power of Account Based Marketing Engagio was born. Ray Carroll moved to Engagio as VP of Sales and was tasked with the job of building and scaling this next generation marketing technology company. As the business grew the issue of sales productivity became more apparent.
“The incremental efficiency on the average sale price, the time it takes to get a rep to productivity, the average sales cycle; you get those gains through having a first-class sales enablement function. And that’s why you see companies like Box, Zendesk, and HubSpot have Directors of Sales Productivity. Because if you can get 500 people with all deals at a 1% more close rate or making their deal cycle less, that is a significant uplift. That’s bigger than any single deal which you close for half a million dollars,” explains Carroll.
Thanks to sales enablement the role of the sales manager is also changing. “Managers have to realize that your job no longer is having your name in lights or closing the deal. It’s helping your team be as good at their job at scale, and only when you do that will you win as a team. It’s shifting from tactical to strategic.”
Listen now
to find out how Carroll has helped Engagio make the transformative shift from tactical to strategic sales.
Why decision coaching is important to your customers
What are the must-have components of a top-notch sales training program
How to coach your sales reps so that it sticks
The link between mindfulness and sales performance
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“The new problem customers are facing is that they have too many choices. And making decisions are difficult because they’re so distracted, everybody wants their attention instantly. Customers now really need somebody’s help to coach them through the decision process.”
And that’s where the modern salesperson can step in according to Jeffrey Lipsius, Author, and President of Selling To The Point. With over 30 years experience in training salespeople, Lipsius has seen how the sales game has changed in the digital age.
“The salesperson has to be the learner, not the teacher. So the salesperson has to be very customer aware. Because if you are customer aware then you’re going to be able to respond in a way that’s going to help the customer make better decisions. All this talk about salespeople getting customer buying resistance, handling objections and being difficult in prospecting, that all goes away if the customer believes that the salesperson is there to help them make a better decision.”
That’s why Lipsius believes that decision coaching is a very important tool for a salesperson add to their tool chest. “A salesperson really only has to pay attention to 3 factors in the customer’s decision process,” says Lipsius. Listen now
to find out Lipsius’ three C’s to the customer decision process.
Effective onboarding is the cornerstone of human capital management. There’s no doubt that it sets the tone and in many cases can also set the trajectory for new hires joining your organization.
According to an Aberdeen Onboarding Benchmark report, “New employees often feel that the attention they receive during the pre-hire stages is abandoned once they are hired.” In Fortune 500 companies alone, about 500,000 managers take on new roles each year and, overall, managers begin new jobs every two to four years. Unfortunately, in the midst of all these transitions:
Half of all senior outside hires fail within 18 months in a new position
Half of all hourly workers leave new jobs within the first 120 days
Source: Aberdeen Group, The Onboarding Benchmark Report
What we want to avoid is new hires feeling that your organization is not meeting the expectations set by the hiring process. Fortunately, this challenge can be overcome with investment in a pre-join program. Pre-join is the time between the employee accepting the offer of employment and starting in your company on day one. For most companies, the pre-join investment includes checklists with tasks like ‘get your email set up, take a drug test, and register for your employee number’. If this doesn’t sound inspiring, that’s because it isn’t.
For more inspired ways to deliver an excellent pre-join new hire onboarding experience, we decided to speak with two experts: Mohit Garg, Co-Founder of Mindtickle and Todd Raphael, Chief Editor at ERE. Ere is the premier resource for the employment, HR, and recruiting world.
Read on for our conversation!
In your experience, can organizations benefit from engaging with new hires between the offer and the first day of work? How does this help the new hire?
Mohit Garg: Modern-day talent development is about keeping your employee at the center of the experience. It’s important to treat every new hire as a new customer that you are prospecting or pitching and, like a marketing campaign, invest in building the relationship through referral and retention. When you look through this lens, it is similar to onboarding a new customer. You want the experience to be high touch and ensure that expectations are met.
In many ways, your new hire is forming an opinion about your organization before the hiring process begins. Research from Aberdeen Group shows that employees make a decision to work with a company long-term within three months of joining an organization! They are asking, “Is this consistent with my expectations?” They are comparing your organization’s values to their worldview and value system.
The pre-join phase is an opportunity to engage your new hire with the value proposition of the business. You can show new employees what it means to work in your organization by starting your new hires off in an excited and positive state of mind. Focus on fostering a strong appetite to learn and get engaged. Having info on what to expect can reduce your new hire’s anxiety on day one.
Todd Raphael: I agree that investing in the pre-join experience is a great opportunity to invest in your new hires. However, it’s important to really consider your approach and ensure that your pre-join experience is relevant and voluntary.
For example, you don’t want to bombard your new hire with parties and conference calls. You are supposed to get to know people as you join a new company, but it is important to be aware that when people leave a job, they sometimes need time before starting. Sometimes you just want a vacation and to be with your friends and family. You don’t want to create a pre-join experience that makes the candidate feel like it is controlling their life.
Instead, ask someone what their availability is. This allows them to set aside time in a way that makes sense for them. Just be careful about making them feel like this is going to take over their life.
What are the activities that organizations can deliver during the pre-joining period?
Mohit Garg: Let’s look at this from the perspective of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. At the basic level, a new hire needs to understand how the organization offers an opportunity for a secure life for their family. At the next level, an employee is concerned with work-life balance as well as how to further learning and their future career. They want to align their aspirations with the business. The third level is for new hire self-actualization with the new hire thinking about corporate social responsibility and the ecological footprint of the business. They want to know how the business is investing in the community and working with employee partners in charity opportunities.
You want to try to hit on all three levels of Maslow’s hierarchy with a readily available pre-join program that communicates the value proposition of the business. Incorporate success examples. For example, show the “12-year employee story” featuring a long-time respected employee in the business. You can also show how the organization is making the world a better place with stories of how the business supports the community. Think of it as a welcome package with continued engagement, delivered through multiple channels – email, print materials, and online communities.
Todd Raphael: Here are some more ideas. You can facilitate many activities online. Sodexo and ADP send newsletters to employees and send a modified version to potential employees – of course, you want to make sure that it is relevant. You could have future employees meet their future co-workers in a private online group or use Twitter or other social media to have current employees welcome future employees. Put together a document, an email, or a video with half a dozen employees talking about what they are doing and what they are excited about.
Make an inspiring video. For example, if you are a shoe company, you can feature an inspiring athlete who has used your shoes. If you provide medical devices, show a patient that has benefited. This can be really inspiring. In every industry, you have former customers, buyers, and partners. Show the impact your business is making on the world to future employees.
In terms of offline activities, you could Invite your new hire to company calls and get-togethers, but again be respectful of time. Check in with the new hire and see how they are feeling. Allow time for a check-in to address any concerns they may have before the first day.
Another angle to consider is your current employees. When a new employee starts, the employer is often thinking about how to make the experience good for them, but they don’t think about current employees who are often nervous. The current employee may be thinking: are they going to be promoted in my place? Are they a threat?
To address this, consider communicating what the new employee’s role is all about. Make your current team member feel valued. Work on reducing their anxiety and nervousness.
How can you influence the possibility of employee retention during pre-join?
Todd Raphael: The problem starts pretty early for external hires. It stems from when they get to work and it isn’t like what they expected. Start with setting expectations early. To get a handle on expectations, talk to your own employees and see what they experienced. You might find out things you didn’t know about the new hire experience and then you can tailor accordingly.
Also, there may be an opportunity for long-time employees to be involved. Have the new hire meet up with a mentor for coffee during pre-join. This is often more beneficial than the new hire meeting with their future manager who may be busy or not as good at coaching. The new hire benefits from knowing that they can ask questions of someone who can advise them but is not connected to hiring and firing.
Mohit Garg: To add to Todd’s point, you also have to consider what stage the employee is in and connect the pre-join to the post-join experience. This requires communication between human resources, recruiting, and learning and development as the new hire get handed off to different groups throughout the new hire onboarding experience. A seamless view of the new hire experience is needed.
Typically only public domain material is available. Once they are inside the building, then proprietary information is then made available. So one of the challenges for businesses in the pre-join period is having a way to deliver access to secure company information before day one.
Secure online learning platforms like Mindtickle enable you to provide links to private information with a pre-join program login. This provides an opportunity for motivated new hires to learn as much as they want before formal new hire orientation starts.
Using gamification in a pre-join program, you can begin to identify the strengths of new hires beyond what you know from the interview process. It also allows employees to self-select and show progress as part of the pre-join experience. New hire self-selection and performance on learning modules can be good indicators in order to skill matching. This can help retention in the long run.
What is the best way for organizations get started developing a pre-join program?
Todd Raphael: Human resources managers should speak with recruiters to get a sense of what would be good. Look at your company’s history with pre-join and new hire onboarding to figure out what the gaps are. You are looking for what prospective employees are concerned about.
You might also look at Glassdoor to see what are people saying about your company. Don’t forget to talk to your current employees as they are a valuable resource in creating a strong pre-join experience!
Mohit Garg: It is also important to begin by looking at the mix of hires joining your organization. For example, are the entry-level hires or lateral hires? These segments have different needs. You have to treat entry-level campus hires differently than lateral recruiting hires that come to the business with more experience. Technology can help you deliver a flexible experience that recognizes differences in new hire needs. Technology can help automate the order and priority for pre-join content delivery.
Next, you can implement a small pilot and have pre-join new hires go through it. You can get feedback and ensure that target outcomes are being achieved. Start with a geography or a region and scale from there.
Thank you, Todd and Mohit for your helpful insight on building a great new hire pre-join experience!
What are your thoughts on more inspired ways to deliver an excellent pre-join new hire onboarding experience? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Todd Raphael is a widely cited/quoted figure in the employment/HR/recruiting world and is the Chief Editor at ERE. Find ERE at www.ere.net.
Mohit Garg is the Co-Founder of Mindtickle. Prior to co-founding Mindtickle, he served as a Director in PwC’s management consulting practice in New York. He was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Startup Leadership Program (SLP) in 2012. Mr. Garg holds an MBA degree from ISB and an MSEE from Stanford University.
This objective is at the core of Cloudera’s sales enablement strategy according to Lars Nilsson, VP Global Inside Sales, who has helped the company scale from a team of just 11 salespeople to a global selling operation with 200 sellers and over 150 sales engineers, solution architects, business development and customer-facing individuals. In this webinar you will learn:
How to methodically onboard your people and make them productive sooner
Benefits of creating an infrastructure that supports enablement initiatives
Sales enablement activities that drive conversion from discovery to final sale
How to ensure sales reps are consistently on the message to deliver a best in class customer experience, and
How Cloudera leverages sales enablement as their competitive advantage
to hear the Cloudera team, along with our VP Sales, Marc Wendling, and Max Altschuler from Sales Hacker, talk about how a modern sales organization can leverage sales enablement to bring value to their customers and prospects consistently and efficiently.
It’s nearly time for the bi-annual performance review performance again. As I pulled out data and started to fill out forms for each of my sales reps, I started to think about how much benefit this process provides to them and whether there’s a way to actually make the mid-year performance review process more relevant from a sales perspective.
Turning to LinkedIn, I came across some interesting conversations on the way different managers approach reviews for their sales staff. The consensus seems to be that while a biannual review process may suit some business teams, it just isn’t adequate for sales managers. As David Collins Oliver observes, “The key is that if your sales manager is effective, they should be shadowing each salesperson periodically, doing quick one on ones, actively communicating with their team to truly understand the effectiveness of each salesperson. Thus, the one on ones should not be a major ordeal, unless of course the salesperson has not been performinng. Edmund Chien agrees that more regular reviews are necessary for sales managers, “We conduct weekly mini-reviews. It’s much better to make small adjustments than going the wrong way for 6 or 12 months.”
In fact Brian Geery went as far as to say that you could almost do away with the biannual review process altogether:
“If your sales manager(s) are providing regular coaching and if you have monthly sales activity goals and annual sales quotas, there is no need for a mid-year review.”
However, others did offer some good thoughts on how to use the mid-year check-in to gather feedback and plan development opportunities. I really like this idea put forward by Craig Preston, “I think a great tool for mutual benefit is the 2-way review (allowing staff to also provide a review for management). This helps managers as well, and really aligns expectations of both salespeople and their managers.”
What appeared clear from my research is that coaching and reviews go hand in hand, and they should be part of the day-to-day management of a sales rep.
So How Often Should You Review Your Sales Reps?
There really are no hard and fast rules about how often you should review your sales reps, but it’s closely aligned to the level of coaching that they require. So it really depends on what stage of maturity they’re at as a sales rep. For example, your new hires will require a much higher touch than seasoned professionals who are operating at full productivity. There are four stages of development that we’ve identified that indicate the level of both coaching and periodic reviews. There are four stages of development that we’ve identified that indicate the level of both coaching and periodic reviews. Micromanagement – When you’re just getting your newbie up and running they need more tactical coaching and micro-management. For these reps, you’re probably speaking to them every day, reviewing their numbers and seeing how they’re doing; Activity – For new reps who are moving up their cycle of growth or your C Players, their performance may look predictable but it’s still not quite up to par. Their coaching needs are more activity based, focusing on specific skill gaps but they will still need you to watch over their performance closely. At this stage, you’re probably reviewing their performance a few times a week. Pipeline – For consistent performers, your solid B Players, they’re ready to be more independent. Coaching should focus on helping them manage their pipeline. As they progress into this stage, they may only need you to review their performance once a week. Results – The final stage of development is for those who are clear challengers, achieving results and performing at full productivity. These are your A Players and they’re independent performers. While you may not need to review them every week, it’s still important to check in regularly and work on areas of strategic coaching for fine-tuning and to keep them engaged.
While you prepare to tick the box for the mid-year review process, the reality is that this shouldn’t be the first time you talk to your reps about their quota or their development. Conducting regular reviews and structured coaching to plug gaps and develop each rep based on their individual needs will ensure there are no surprises at the end of the year. While HR may not allow you to do away with the mid-year performance review altogether, you can use this time to create a solid plan for developing your sales staff and a checkpoint to ensure that structured development and coaching plans are on track.
While HR may not allow you to do away with the mid-year performance review altogether, you can use this time to create a solid plan for developing your sales staff and a checkpoint to ensure that structured development and coaching plans are on track.
Recently, I found myself having similar conversations about how to manage channel partners with several customers from very different industries. The customers were in retail, technology, and hospitality respectively, but they each had similarities in the way they dealt with these partner relationships. The differences in their channel partner strategies were not due to their industries but rather were influenced by the stage of their business was at, or very specific market factors.
Despite their differences, there was one overriding principle to how they approached their channel partnerships; it’s a strategic investment for their business. While their reasoning may differ, this didn’t detract from the importance of these relationships to their sales efforts and bottom line. For example, FMCG producer Dabur Asia explained how channel partners were a critical player linking their retailers and customers. At the other spectrum, enterprise cloud platform producer Nutanix utilizes these arrangements to help them unlock doors in new geographies quickly.
Common threads also appeared in terms of their sales model and their enablement strategy, so much so, that I identified three broad channel partner strategies. Before I launch into these, it’s helpful to outline what I mean when talking about channel partnerships.
A channel partner specializes in various aspects of the sales process and undertakes this as a service on behalf of a business. Nutanix uses channel partners to help them scale quickly by undertaking just lead generation in some geographies, while they use their own sales engineer to conduct demos. But in new locations where they have no sales team, the channel partners help them expand with minimal investment, by managing their entire sales process right through to closing. They also have premium partners who are able to unlock doors which they cannot directly.
Based on these recent customer discussions the three channel partner strategies I’ve identified are: Exclusive, Targeted and Global.
1. Exclusive channel partnership strategy
Best for when you have a point solution.
A friend of mine has a software startup that sells email encryption software to large enterprises. As large companies tend to purchase their product as part of a broader email security solution, their only go-to-market strategy is to use channel partners who have expert knowledge. They bundle several point offerings as part of an overall solution for the larger business problem. Businesses in this position prefer aligning themselves with channel partners who are SMEs in their field, who they can provide with exclusive access to their solution.
The key challenges in an exclusive channel partnership are to engage your channel partner reps. As each one is an SME in their area, they already know and understand the benefits that you offer, but keeping them highly motivated to sell your solution as part of their bundled package is critical. This is why most point solutions I’ve seen have a dedicated channel manager, who works closely with their partners to make sure they stay engaged.
An effective partner enablement strategy includes a strong onboarding program that focuses in on helping them sell your solution.
As they’re an exclusive channel partner, there’s plenty of scope for you to tailor the program to take into account their business model and even integrate any other training they may have already undertaken. This will ensure your solution makes sense within their overall contingent and adds value to their sales goals. As your channel partner reps are already SMEs the onboarding program doesn’t need to be long or intensive. Providing them with enough information to enable them to have some early wins, will help get them on their way quickly.
2. Targeted channel partnership strategy
Best for when you’re just starting to test the waters with channel partners. Most companies I’ve seen already have a very successful sales track record and are leveraging channel partners to help them grow rapidly. It’s not about signing up everyone who could sell their solution, but rather about building strategic partnerships that will take them where they want to go.
One of our customers sells tea in India, and are leveraging a franchise model to grow their business exponentially. These franchises are essentially channel partners, who open shop fronts to sell their specialty teas.
To maintain their growth trajectory, they’ve found that they need to ensure the franchise reps can represent their business in the same way their in-house sales reps do.
Aligning their channel partners with their business values, customer service philosophy and product messaging is key to their success. Similarly, another customer in the tech industry is building on its $100m revenue base, as it prepares for an IPO in a couple of years. It’s facing the same issues, as its channel partner reps also need to be able to sing the same song as their in-house sales reps to be successful.
This is a high touch strategy, bringing on board only a few channel partners at a time. With only a few channel partners on board, ensuring their success early is critical to maximizing revenue.
The key challenges are being able to not only get your channel partner reps up to speed quickly but also ensure that they understand how to sell your solution effectively. Investing in and providing support to your channel partners early on can make all the difference to their success.
An effective partner enablement strategy includes not only onboarding your channel partner reps quickly, but also certifying them so that you have comfort in knowing they can sell your product or service effectively.
Our high-growth customers that have executed this strategy have actually made sure that their channel partner (or franchise) reps have actually passed their certification before they can go out and sell. While it may take a couple of months to get each new channel partner up to scratch, by putting in place a robust certification program they have found that the additional effort was worthwhile in the long-run.
3. Global channel partnership strategy
Best for businesses that are looking to expand across more than one geography, or even globally in a short time frame.
Depending on your business structure, you may have several different levels to your channel partnerships, some tackling only part of the sales process, while others may sell right through to close. For example, Nutanix, expanded globally in just 24 months by bringing on board channel partners in different countries. In some countries, their channel partners are the sole sales representatives for their product, responsible for the entire sales process. In other locations, they leverage channel partners to supply leads, while their own sales and account engineers conduct demos and close their deals.
The key challenge in this strategy is to keep your channel partner reps engaged with your solution, and up to date with any new information about your product or service. This may cover everything from marketing offers to success stories or even changes in your competitive environment.
An effective partner enablement strategy often has a tiered approach, as different channel partners may have different responsibilities. Nutanix has several tiers to its enablement strategy, as the onboarding and certification required for a channel partner who is charged with closing a deal are different to one who only handles lead generation. The former includes training on demos and objection handling, which would just be superfluous for the latter.
They’ve found it’s critical that their channel partner’s reps are ready to sell at all times. Just like their own in-house sales reps, they need the latest information to do their job effectively. From success stories to competitive insights, keeping them up to date not only builds on their knowledge base, and helps keep them engaged with their solution, ensuring it stays top of mind.
Regardless of which strategy you employ, your end game is to ensure that your channel partners achieve success. So once you have the right partners on board, enabling them to sell your solution is, of course, a priority. Next, I’ll take you through the four things I’ve discovered that can help your channel partners sell more.
“How can we use technology as a strategic differentiator to help our organization grow in the fastest way possible and really builds relationships with customers?”
You need a license before you can drive a car. Your SAT scores open the door to grad school. Applying the same lens to sales teams, how do you know if your sales team are ready to have customer conversations?
You know that sales enablement can help your sales reps be more effective at their role, but how do you know which sales enablement platform is best for you? There are so many to choose from and some have very different features, which can make comparing them confusing.
It’s nearly time for the bi-annual performance review performance again. As I pulled out data and started to fill out forms for each of my sales reps, I started to think about how much benefit this process provides to them and whether there’s a way to actually make the mid-year performance review process more relevant from a sales perspective.
Recently, I found myself having similar conversations about how to manage channel partners with several customers from very different industries. The customers were in retail, technology, and hospitality respectively, but they each had similarities in the way they dealt with these partner relationships. The differences in their channel partner strategies were not due to their industries but rather were influenced by the stage of their business was at, or very specific market factors.
As each one is an SME in their area, they already know and understand the benefits that you offer, but keeping them highly motivated to sell your solution as part of their bundled package is critical. This is why most point solutions I’ve seen have a dedicated channel manager, who works closely with their partners to make sure they stay engaged. 