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The 4 Most Impactful Sales Enablement Trends for 2019

Posted on January 23, 2019 | by Sienna

The modern age is now adding a new flavour in the business industry. Considering how the new generation of consumers is reshaping the way companies promote their business, products, and services, acquiring sales seem to be in a clearer perspective this 2019, especially for sales enablement leaders. As heads of a growing function, sales enablement leaders are learning more about how to succeed in their roles with each passing year. Sales organisations have come to appreciate the value that sales enablement solutions can offer, particularly in shortening the length of the sales cycle and increasing pipeline opportunities. In this article, we will discuss the most impactful sales enablement techniques that you should utilise in your business. To start with, here are the four sales enablement trends that you should watch out for this 2019:

1. Sales Coaching and Learning

Gone were the days when salespeople gain all the knowledge and techniques they have to use on the field. Today, most companies are giving time and effort in nurturing their sales team before deploying them on the field. In 2019, most companies will further demand and expect deeper integration of learning and coaching tools into their existing sales enablement platforms. Doing so will help these companies avoid increased turnover, slower ramp time, and fewer sales. Sales coaching is now the common ground of most sales representatives since this enables them to move fluidly in the market.

2. Customer Relationship Management

CRM is the single greatest spend on your sales stack. If your enablement strategy isn’t anchored to it, then you need to rethink your CRM. To fully apply effective CRM, you should weaponise your core sales management with its essential requirements. Start from prompting necessary information on a prospect to connecting with prospects via social media platforms.

3. Generation Z

While Millennials is still a driving force that marketers and salespeople must focus on, there is a new generation emerging that both marketers and salespeople need to be aware of as well: Generation Z. This generation is entirely different from previous generations, at least in some aspects. For example, they were born with access to incredible technology and grew up using social media, smartphones, online shopping and all kinds of other techniques daily. They also care a lot about global issues and their impact on the world, particularly when it comes to environmental issues.

4. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has the potential to make a significant effect on sales teams, which is why it should be on your list of sales enablement. The time savings are inarguable, but the rise of AI has other effects as well. AI increases the value of human skills that can’t be replicated by traditional sale management tools. In 2019, expect that AI-powered roleplay tools will analyse facial expressions to provide insight into the real emotional responses of an audience. Contact us if you are interested to know more about how our Sales Training program can help your sales department create a meaningful sales enablement for your business today.

Preparing New Sales Reps for Success: The Importance of Training After Coaching

Posted on January 10, 2019 | by Sienna

Sales representatives are the people who have a significant influence on how the prospects will respond to each campaign you initiate, and more importantly, how your sales will perform in the long run.

To ensure optimal results, your sales team must possess a number of skills, especially in the area of communication and relationship building. The best salespeople aren’t always the slickest talkers — they’re the most effective listeners.

Instead of doing all the talk and trying to stay one step ahead, an effective salesperson carefully listens to the client’s needs. As for your sales representatives, it also takes time of quality training for them to hone and utilise their skills efficiently.

In this article, we will discuss the importance and benefits of sales training after coaching that is very relevant for startup businesses and small businesses this 2019. Moreover, since 2019 seems to be a fast-growing year for different companies, here are the critical importance of coaching and sales training that you should consider:

Sales Training Supports Coaching

Coaching and training go hand-in-hand, as training provides employees with the knowledge and techniques to develop their skills, while coaching helps instil these skills by assisting employees to apply them at work appropriately. By providing annual training for skills improvement, and then evaluating how well your sales team used what they’ve learned, you will be able to identify more effective ways to sustain productive training for your company.

Creates an Interactive Environment for Learning

Once a preliminary training program is underway, push the agenda onward and upward. Begin by providing ongoing educational opportunities that keep your entire staff up to date on changing protocols, regulations and technologies. When employees are consistently offered opportunities to acclimate, grow and lead, they’re more satisfied with their work and committed to the organisation.

Boost Productivity

By helping your sales representatives to work smarter, they can better understand and balance their time during working hours. This also means that they are less likely to suffer from too much stress because they are more able to approach each task more strategically, thus providing them more time which they can spend on other self-enriching activities.

Improves Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the capability of individuals to recognise their own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately. Guiding your sales reps with how they should balance their emotional understanding in times of crisis will shape them to be cooperative in solving a problem, rather than being incapable of coming up with certain sales issues.

It Helps Bring in New Clients and Appease Current Ones

When combined with a rigorous training program, sales coaching has the added benefit of inspiring and motivating sales representatives to feel more comfortable about taking risks which can lead to big deals and clients. Great coaching can also improve your customer service which can, in turn, appease your clients and raise awareness about your business through word-of-mouth.

If you are looking for a professional sales training company that can help you prepare your sales representatives, contact KONA Customised Training and Consulting today to learn more about our different services that can help your company.

3 Questions That Identify Why Demonstration is the Key to Sales Coaching

Posted on July 27, 2017 | by Sienna

In a recent blog One of the best Sales Managers I ever had was a Rubbish Removalist called ‘Cowboy’ we stressed that just because an employee has experience in a certain area of business it doesn’t mean they will be successful in a new role or new project. Look at how many successful people fail when promoted to managers; or how many corporate high flyers fail when they go into business for themselves; or how often a new employee headhunted from your competition doesn’t achieve the same success in your organisation. HR and Recruiters will point to Behavioural Event Interviewing techniques (a technique that asks the candidate to describe a situation or an experience they had in a previous job) and say that “Past behaviour is an indication of future success”. However, this isn’t effective if the role is different or new to the person. As a Manager and Coach it is critical that Managers don’t have the attitude that because an underperforming employee ‘should know better’ they actually know how to perform. Managers who are having coaching conversations with their people from behind their desks, and discussing what the underperformer should be doing, instead of actually getting out on the road and seeing them in action, are letting their people down and taking the easy way out. In a recent article 4 Things to Consider When Promoting Your Top Sales Person to Sales Manager it was stressed that KNOWING WHAT to do in a job is very different to actually DEMONSTRATING HOW to do the job, and yet far too often Managers and Leaders are taking past results and current office conversations on face value. Until you actually see your people demonstrating the skills and tasks they need to be successful, Managers must stop delegating and empowering, and start providing sales training and coaching to become better Managers as Coaches. So here are 3 questions to see how well your people are being coached: 1. How many days a month do your Managers spend with each of your sales people, actually on the road watching them in-front of customers, so they can see and hear them in action, to be able to provide Sales Training and Coaching. In a recent on-the-spot survey in a KONA Sales Management Training workshop, 12 managers, who were managing 60 sales people between them, had collectively only spent 8 days on the road coaching in the last 4 weeks – less than 1 day each a month. And they were blaming their sales people for being below target! NOTE: Coaching is not offering a better price that you haven’t allowed your people to have, or dropping into a Key Account for a Royal Visit, or spending a couple of hours with your sales person, before “having to get back to the office for an important meeting”. 2. Coaching Professional Sales Skills involves many stages to Sales Proficiency, in addition to the core skills of Cold Calling and Making appointments; Questioning and Listening; Presenting; Negotiating; Closing; and Account Management. So how clear are your Managers and People on the 4 specific and exact Key Skills and Capabilities they need to be proficient at to help them Hit KPIs? (Not to be busy and fill their diary, but to Hit Their KPIs.) 3. What are you going to do as their Manager, Trainer and Coach to improve the way each of your people demonstrate their 4 Key Skills?

Additional Question

Is the blunt, honest truth that the problem with your underperforming people is that their Manager is suffering from Imposter Syndrome – The fear of being exposed as not being up to the job because they actually might not have the Sales Skills or Sales Management Capability they need in the position they are now in?