According to CSO Insights, 94% of businesses have increased their targets but only 44% believe their sales strategy is able to help them hit those goals.
The goal of any organization is to generate revenue. Everything you do is ultimately in pursuit of that goal. Because making sales is the way that revenue is generated, many companies make the mistake of focusing all their efforts on the sales team, frequently ignoring other departments.
However, to truly maximize revenue opportunities, you must establish a sales culture across your entire organization. When a robust, organization-wide sales culture is built, every team understands that they’re part of a larger goal, and the entire company works towards improving sales, and building long-term customer relationships, in their own way.
How does cross-organization sales training and coaching work towards this goal? There are three primary benefits to expanding your sales training and coaching beyond the sales team.
A Clearly Defined Process
What is your sales process? No doubt it’s outlined in the handbook and talked about in training. But how much of your organization knows and truly understands the steps in your sales process? If a current client calls in and speaks to customer service, will the representative they speak to know where they are in the process? Having a clearly defined process that the entire organization is trained and coached in ensures that your client gets the same messaging and experience no matter who they speak to in your company. Additionally, training additional departments on things such as strategic questioning can open new revenue opportunities every time they interact with a client.
Better Collaboration Between Departments
It is often the case that there is tension between the sales team and other departments across any organization. This tension can be the result of having teams that are siloed away in their own departments without much awareness of what is going on in sales. However, you can reach the important goal of having happy customers, which turn into repeat customers, more effectively and efficiently if everyone who engages with your clients not only understands but is comfortable with the sales process. Having this level of training and coaching helps to ensure that all processes in all departments are designed to serve the customer in a way that builds loyalty and repeat business. Additionally, having this common goal means that your sales team will feel more supported by other departments.
A Common Language
When every member of your sales team is implementing the same sales process, a common, consistent language will be established. Expanding this beyond sales and into other client-facing departments leads to enhanced communications as everyone is now fluent in the selling process. This leads to greater efficiency and enhanced communication as no department feels out-of-the-loop. This lets everyone read from the same playbook and have conversations in a shared language.
Company-Wide Celebration of Success
When so much of a company’s training and education budget is focused on the sales team alone, it often results in the sales team getting all of the credit for hitting revenue goals, even though other teams have contributed towards that goal. The resulting tension can lead to a deprioritization of sales team efforts by other departments. Alternatively, when the entire company is speaking the same language and is receiving as much investment in coaching and training as the sales team, not only are you more likely to hit those targets, but the entire company will feel supported and celebrated along with the sales team.
When your entire organization is trained and coached in a common sales process, every department will be better able to communicate with one another. The sales team will feel more supported by other teams, and everyone feels supported by the company investing in them. The ultimate result: giving everyone in your company the ability to clearly communicate your message to consistently satisfied customers.
