I enjoy companies that operate from a set of core values & principles. Step one
is to call out learning as core to the business's success.
Next, you should consider:
* Praising knowledge sharing
* Driving a learning culture from the top-down
* Offering easy ways for people to share their learnings
* Embedding learning where sellers & leaders need it most
Sales Subteams
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Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach, Salesforce • January 10
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Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach, Salesforce • January 10
There needs to be a problem to solve. Begin by finding out what problem exists.
Then,
* Create a clear problem statement
* Define the current vs. desired future state
* Outline KPIs/metrics you want the program to impact
* Build an MVP to shop around with sellers & sales leaders
* Ensure you have sponsorship & buy-in from your sales leaders & teams
* Deliver the program
* Capture feedback
* Iterate & repeat
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Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach, Salesforce • January 10
Many of the large research firms (ex: Gartner) and other smaller societies
exist. They put out interesting reports, whitepapers, and findings that showcase
new enablement technology, sales trends, and changes in the learning space.
I'd recommend:
* Check-out new & topical books
* Subscribe or review these firms/sites from time to time
* Join a community (Slack or LinkedIn) with like-minded folks
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Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach, Salesforce • January 10
Begin by baselining critical metrics for new seller success. It could be things
like: time to first deal, deal velocity, time to pipeline, etc.
Then:
* Divide new sellers into 'cohorts'
* Measure their metrics against more tenured seller cohorts
* Understand trends that support or refute your hypotheses
* Draw correlation where you see it to infer if your programs are working
Causation is near impossible but with large enough data-sets, you can find
correlations & trends that will help explain and direct future learning.
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Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach, Salesforce • January 10
Great question & cross-functional support is paramount to success. My best
recommendation:
* Find common areas of overlap or shared interest
* Align on the outcomes you both want to impact
* Setup a 'stand-up' cadence (weekly/bi-weekly)
On more extensive efforts, a project manager can be helpful. For smaller steps,
stay aligned on an end goal, divide & conquer workstreams, and hold one another
accountable.
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Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach, Salesforce • January 10
You'll get many enablement requests from a vast number of sources. I recommend
triaging using this flow:
* Inbound request for enablement
* Substantiate with data (where & when possible)
* Identify outcomes to measure & impact
* Understand if the gap is: skill, will, or knowledge
* Define learning outcomes
* Decide if the program is necessary
* Execute the program
* Capture feedback
* Report back findings
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Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach, Salesforce • January 10
One word: outcomes.
Sales enablement should (and needs to be) tightly aligned to business objectives
& desired outcomes of the business/sales organization. When you tie learning
programs to tangible outcomes & KPIs, you get more accurate success measures.
This translates to happy learners and happy business units: win-win.
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Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach, Salesforce • January 9
Without feedback, you're building & delivering learning in a vacuum and not
setting yourself up for success. To mitigate this:
* Collect feedback early & often
* Send a 5 question (or less) survey after a learning module
* Host a debrief where learners can provide topical feedback in-person (or
remotely)
* Take the feedback & make meaningful changes & tweaks to your training &
programs
* Repeat each time there is a significant change - better, better, never best
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Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach, Salesforce • January 9
In-office, remote, and virtual training is all part of corporate learning,
post-pandemic. Enablers need to think about, and design, learning that is
effective across learning environment & geography. For this to be effective and
for the skills to translate out into the 'real world', enablers need to:
* Balance knowledge transfer (theory) with hands-on practice (application)
* Provide learning 'in the flow of work' - when the employee needs or requires
it the most
* Inject small, consumable learning moments throughout the learners career
* Focus on outcomes
* Ask themselves, 'did this learning help: close a deal, speed up the cycle,
create a new opportunity?'
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Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach, Salesforce • January 9
Sales is an ever-evolving sport and there is no sitting on your laurels if you
want to stay ahead. Companies are constantly on the look-out for cutting edge
technology to train & tune sales skills, increase industry knowledge, and
show-up well in-front of customers.
Adoption of new tools, tactics, & strategies include:
* Understanding the role of AI in sales interactions
* Finding ways to uncover customer pain-points before hearing it directly from
a prospect/client
* Staying on top of best-in-class sales methodologies (or often creating their
own)
* Leveraging a simple, clear, and efficient sales process that maps to the
buying journey of clients