When you’re trying to assess the sales strategy effectiveness of a large organization, your first goal should be this: to understand the needs of the sales organization and build the perfect training program.

But getting an accurate pulse on a large sales organization isn’t easy. It’s like getting input from 500 people about an upcoming dinner party. And if you miss the mark on your final decision, the most vocal people in the company have no problem communicating how they feel about the “party.”

We get it. We’ve been assessing massive sales organizations for decades. And just like you, we don’t have the luxury to get it wrong. So how do you get it right? In the absence of any other reasonable options, most people focus on surveys. While that’s important for getting a grasp on perceived needs and appetite for change, surveys don’t reveal actual sales strategy or sales capabilities.

If you wanted to assess someone’s ability to cook, an athlete’s skill level, or someone’s ability to sing, you wouldn’t base your assessment on how they answered a few questions. You would taste their food, watch them play, or listen to them sing before making a call on what needs to improve. Selling is no different: To assess a seller, you have to watch a seller.

Successful selling is a blend of skills, knowledge, and values. Surveys are the perfect tool to expose a knowledge gap, but they are marginal at discovering a flawed value system, and honestly, strike out when assessing real skills or sales strategy. If you haven’t heard, denial and a lack of self-awareness is definitely a thing. Just tune into “American Idol,” and you’ll see how people can do a very poor job of assessing their own skills. This trend has also been validated in numerous studies, including a recent one that stated 94% of college professors think they are above average. What does that tell us? Even college professors fail to fill out surveys assessing their abilities accurately.

SO WHAT’S THE BEST ACTION FOR SALES MANAGEMENT TO TAKE?

There’s a four-step approach ASLAN® has been using for sales management for over a decade, and it has proven incredibly accurate at determining the developmental needs of a sales organization and maybe, more importantly, getting buy-in from all the stakeholders.

Think about it: When’s the last time you got everyone to agree on what training is needed and how much you should invest in it? It sounds far fetched, but it is possible, and it all comes down to understanding collectively what will work best for your team.

Ready to learn more about our approach to effective sales management? Stay tuned for our next blog, which dives into the first step to assessing a large sales organization. Until then, sign up for our newsletter to get the latest delivered to your inbox.

Tom Stanfill

As Co-founder and CEO, Tom’s primary role is to create content that helps people live, sell, and serve more effectively. Find him on LinkedIn