How to increase the competence of your sales force?

By Frédéric Poulet

In Unclassified

Developing the skills of the sales force is obviously a major concern for any self-respecting sales manager, regardless of the field of activity.

Whether in Retail, BtoC or BtoB, the quality of the sales force still makes the difference today.

However, the situation has changed in recent years with the advent of digital technology and the digital divide it could generate with the "older generations" of sales reps.

However, even the "Digital Natives", the millenials (generations Y and Z), although more comfortable with web technologies, use internet applications in a playful context... but when it comes to professional use, knowing how to use Snapchat or Instagram at most gives good browsing reflexes but does not guarantee professional efficiency.

In any case, these young generations have never known the good old paper Factbook of the Sales Forces of yesteryear, and the organizational and commercial efficiency logics that go with it.

And in any case, whether it is for the new or older generations, the challenge is to unite everyone, regardless of their propensity or predisposition, to feed and receive the best sales information that will make the difference.

In the same way, initial or continuing training will have to adapt to the maturity of each individual (from beginner to expert) and offer the flexibility that digital technology now makes possible. Embracing MOOCs, taking advantage of hidden time for information and training. All this is all the easier to do today, as long as you have the will and the tools to do it.

1. successfully recruit sales reps Digital Natives

Generation Y or Generation Z, although synonymous with "Digital Natives", do not guarantee that your sales reps will adapt to the company's culture, DNA and tools.
Of course, as long as your sales reps software is similar to native "Gafa"-style applications, and you've designed it with intuitive ergonomics and UX, this new sales reps population will find it easy to get to grips with.
It will also be easier to "get into" if you know how to use the codes (Serious Games as training), integrated Live Chat, Facebook or Twitter newsfeed of the company, etc.
Clearly, these elements are important to demonstrate and explain as early as the recruitment phase, even before you want to increase the competence of your sales force.
Indeed, between the company that will provide old paper brochures and the one that will have the latest sales force application, HR will clearly not have the same discourse and the same arguments.
Successful recruitment of digital natives therefore also involves the promise of finding work tools in the company that correspond to the best of what is done today in the field of the general public.
The more "User Friendly", intuitive and immediately available your sales reps tools are, the more they will be used. And the more likely your sales effectiveness will be.

2. train your employees sales reps in ongoing sales techniques

Having said that, it doesn't necessarily follow that your salesperson will have the qualities required to be an intrinsic "Sales Killer"... Developing the skills of your sales force is essential.
Of course, the famous General Sales Techniques (Preparing for a visit, Discovery phase, Sales pitch, Conclusion, Handling objections...) will remain essential... and they will need to be trained and coached on them.
Even if the Manager's role is to ensure that these Sales Techniques are applied on a daily basis, having a digital tool that can relay these training sessions online, train the Sales Force on a daily basis through Quizzes, training modules, and keep track of the level of use by each salesperson.... will be a major asset.
What could be better than knowing who has been trained (or not), for how long, on which modules, and being able to assess their understanding, appropriation and potential use?
All this is now possible with Applications like SalesApps !

3 - How to improve the skills of your sales force? Here's our advice! 

Globally, increasing the competence of sales and marketing organizations is a challenge in the following 3 contexts

New entrants (// with the average turnover of sales organizations - so a challenge for all firms, not just the growing ones)

Change of organization (e.g. from a product organization to a vertical organization where the sales person has to master offers that he did not sell)

Launch of new products or services
This phase of getting up to speed is called ramp-up time and we at Salesapps clearly believe that this adaptation time can be divided by two.
There are 2 phases in the ramp-up time:

1. 1. Mastering offers, learning the right arguments and pitches (these are our training modules)
   2. Assessment of skills (quiz)

For all this to work at the start and especially on a logic of continuous training in addition, it is necessary

• • A simple and playful interface of the tools
  • Short sessions to multiply the rate of use in any circumstance (just before a meeting, in transport... any occasion is good)
  • Easy online/offline access on tablet, PC and smartphone!

4. equip your sales force with efficient digital sales books

Once the Sales Techniques training has been successfully completed, it is important to be able to present things to customers in a qualitative and professional manner.
Beyond the quality of the arguments, visuals and feedback that you will have to present, the perceived image of your company or your brands is also at stake
Having the freshest and most recent information via automatic and live synchronization, being sure to be able to provide your customers with the latest (and good...) rates, being able to play the latest Youtube video without leaving the sales force application... all this requires the latest embedded technology!
No more old obsolete Pdf that your salesmen take 10 minutes to find to support a sales argument
No more paper estimates to fill in by hand in the margin of the sales proposal
The Digital Sales Book can be used today both as a means of demonstration and as a means of "Live" electronic signature...
Everyone knows that the time saved in the transaction, in the ability to close the sale, will be commercial efficiency, and therefore... additional sales

5. link your digital sales force applications to CRM

Here again, if your visit reports and transactions automatically go back into the CRM as soon as a simple wifi / 4G connection allows it, you have a part of the Sales Administration problem that is solved!
No more delays in placing an order... the order can now be entered directly and almost simultaneously after the electronic signature of the quote.
A linear statement entry in a supermarket?...
The same! Your sales force has a data entry tool on a digital tablet (Ipad, Notebook...) which allows them to save an infinite amount of time vs. a PC or a Mac to hold with one hand, when the other tries awkwardly to enter with a finger.
Competing information feedback? Hop... a tagged photo goes live to the Marketing Department or to the competitor's monitoring service...
Interconnect your sales force tablet to a CRM like Salesforcefor example, has become "commonplace" and the "B to Ba" of what companies like SalesApps must provide to their customers.

6.train your sales teams to prospect effectively using digital technology.

When a company identifies marketing-qualified leads as part of itsInbound Marketingapproach, it can then assign them to sales reps for physical appointments.
Speed of action is then essential to demonstrate the company's responsiveness.
Preparing a quotation based on qualified elements, and being able to formalize it immediately, will become an essential element.
The salesperson, thanks to his or her Sales Force tablet application, will be directly at the end of the prospecting chain initiated by his or her hierarchy (or marketing), and will above all be directed as a result of the prospect's prioritization and supposedly "ready" maturity.
With qualitative tools such as SalesApps, you can clearly maximize the chances of sales conversion, thanks to an excellent mix of targeting, responsiveness and offer presentation quality.

7. really stick to your sales reps SMART goals

Of course, the Grand Theories of Sales remain valid. Whatever the digital equipment of your salespeople, respect these great principles.
The objectives should therefore be:

1. 1. Specific
   2. Measurable
   3. Accepted
   4. Realists
   5. Timed

And they will be all the more so if the Sales Department has the capacity to analyze the performance history of its salespeople
It is quite possible to reconcile presentation capacity and sales performance measurement in a tool like Salesapps 

8. evaluate your salespeople correctly

Do you know what can motivate or de-motivate a sales force, or a salesperson?
Not being able to evaluate the performance of a salesperson by his or her manager.
Why is this?
Because the lack of credibility of the hierarchy (beyond a possible lack of technical skills on its part) will be of:

1. 1. Misleadingly congratulate real but undeserved performance
   2. Sanctioning poor performance for which the vendor is not responsible

Consequently, the more the acuity and the real measurement of the performance will be there, the more your salesmen will be grateful to you
Beyond the setting of "SMART" objectives, it is the quality of the assessment of their achievement, and the way to reach them that will make management credible.
In fact, modules integrated to Salesapps can help you to better appreciate the sales performance of each salesperson through the achievement or not of their objectives.
But also the ability to optimize the use of his sales tools, and his own online training.

9. call on specialists in the best digital tools for sales forces

Setting up a digital application for sales reps is no easy task.
To avoid disappointment, the technical quality of its development is essential, and online availability, response rates, synchronization capacity, multilingualism for international organizations... all these elements are crucial.
Don't miss out on a specification that meets all your objectives:

• • • sales reps
    • marketing
    • communication department
    • IT
    • General Management

You are about to put in the hands of each salesperson the reflection of the company image you want to give.
Finally, a tool with a beautiful appearance, ergonomics and a UX close to native consumer applications will be a guarantee of perfect adoption and use by your sales force.
To do this, don't hesitate to call on specialists like Salesapps, who will also be able, thanks to their expertise, to customize the tool to your specific field of activity.
Increasing the competence of your sales force cannot be improvised.

If you liked this article, I invite you to download our white paper: " Digitalization of customer meetings " and to contact us.