We’re standing at the precipice of a revolution in B2B sales. The landscape we’ve known for decades is transforming before our eyes, and it’s time we take a good, hard look at what’s coming.
Over the past couple of years, a recurring theme has popped up at conferences for sales and sales enablement leaders. The main theme: growth is attainable, but sales performance is on a continual decline. Here’s the rub – everyone seems to be scrambling for the tool or missing piece that can take their team to the sales promise land.
This is probably why the latest productivity tools are so hot, with the latest AI tools at the top of the list. It seems like everyone is interested in leveraging AI to read the prospect’s mind.
There are now over 3,000 sales and productivity tools on the market, and the number grows each and every year, with each one claiming they have cracked the code. Everyone, it appears, is looking for something to make it easier to sell – and more power to them.
Selling is hard and any edge you can get is worth pursuing.
But here’s the truth about selling – There is no secret sauce, silver bullet, magic fairy dust (choose your favorite metaphor) to mastering the profession.
Make no mistake, we’re a big fan of the tools, pro tips, insights, and anything that will make it easier to sell. Our company has invested heavily in tools. But just like learning to play golf or the violin, there’s a defined set of capabilities sellers need to succeed. There are no shortcuts.
If a golfer struggles to hit the ball in the fairway, yes buy them the latest driver but rigorous practice is required to fix their swing.
As long as sellers are talking to customers, there is no shortcut to mastering the art of influence.
So this begs the question, what’s the most effective strategy for developing a seller’s capabilities?
Training? Nope.
Is it delivering real-time micro-learning to your team? Nope.
Here’s what we’ve learned from 20 years of research, conducting control group studies, and analyzing the highest-performing organizations – If you want to change performance there is nothing more effective than focusing on your front-line sales leader.
Training, micro-learning, and productivity tools are all critical to improving performance but nothing has more impact than the leader/coach. The leader drives the culture and engagement and is the key to developing the seller’s competency.
Simply put…change happens one to one and not in a workshop.
I know this idea on face value, isn’t revolutionary. You’re probably a big believer in coaching. You love the whole coaching movement. Almost every organization I’ve worked with supports the ideas.
But then I spend some time on the field and ask a few questions:
When was the last time you went into a restaurant, and the server told you that you would be having the crab without even giving you the chance to look at the menu? It sounds absurd, but it is exactly what buyers experience when exploring solutions in manufacturing sales every day.
If you’re in sales, you might think everything is negotiable. But if you want to take your B2B sales team to the next level, one thing that’s non-negotiable is investing in training.
