Keeping Your Sales Team Focused
The world, today, doesn’t just seem different – it is different. With daily reminders of the power of the Coronavirus, and its companion COVID-19 infection, to bring markets, enterprises – and yes, even normal daily activities – to a sudden, shuddering halt, we are all looking for a way to navigate this new reality.
Remaining strong – and in fact, stalwart – in the face of this uncharted new landscape represents a generational challenge for many in positions of sales management. For those entrusted with leading sales professionals, planning your escape from the clutches of the bear market will take everything you’ve learned to this point – and perhaps, some strategies that you haven’t yet become acquainted with.
Leading your sales team in a world that no one could have imagined 45 days ago – and expecting them to pivot from their tried and true methods, quite literally, on a dime – won’t be easy.
Sales Management Strategies
That said, it is our belief that there are three things sales managers can do right now to make you’re your sales team emerges from these times without missing a step:
- Decide if you want to prosper or perish. Though this may seem like an odd choice, it’s the essential decision you need to make right now. If you decide not to prosper, then you have made the decision to perish.
- Have a plan. This is not the time to manage based on instinct, or to allow hubris to take the wheel. If you haven’t done so already, convene your leadership team and lay out exactly what actions you need to take to keep sales team members motivated and to troubleshoot as needed.
- Track, train, and educate. Now is the time to ensure the lines of communication are wide open. If you have been lax in doing so, make sure you are providing tools to ensure your team has a clear understanding of what is expected of them; and using analytics to track results. Most importantly, don’t forget to reinforce your training strategies, and enlist the help of training professionals if you need help in implementing new ones.
Enter Stress Analysis and Virtual Training
Stress – whether on machinery or humans — puts systems under pressure, and shows us where the cracks are located. When it comes to analyzing the impact of stress on sales professionals, we rely on a set of analytics-based tools that can gauge a sales teams stregths, weaknesses, and areas for growth and development.
Using these assessments, we can develop and deploy a virtual training program that allows your team to receive tailored training based on their results. Through virtual training, we can deliver key learnings in small, “bite-sized” chunks, allowing your team to remain in their market during the training, and to receive reinforcement in real time. And, given that travel restrictions might still become stiffer in the near future, virtual training is a great alternative — taking the form of a video conference where the instructor and learners are in separate locations. It also can be done in a simulated environment, facilitated by an app-based eLearning system.
As an example, here at The Brooks Group, the IMPACT Selling Virtual Sales Training Program was rolled out as a response to the growing demand for virtual training. Our vision was to offer the virtual program to companies that have far-flung sales resources, or are looking to stretch their training budget by eliminating travel expenses – though it can also be a worthy surrogate, if factors like the Coronovirus affect a company’s travel plans.
Though it is understandable to wonder whether virtual training can measure up to training delivered in person, you can put those fears to rest. Virtual training can actually be quite compelling, with the opportunity to employ some next generation tools that help to ensure focus, participation, and assimilation of content.
However you do it, now is the time to determine whether you will prosper or perish – and be ready to pounce, and strengthen your business, once fears have passed, and life returns to normal.
Can we help you deploy the IMPACT Selling Virtual Sales Training Program, or other strategies, to keep your sales development goals on track for 2020? For more than 40 years, The Brooks Group has partnered with sales organizations around the globe—helping them to hire, train, coach, and develop salespeople and sales managers to reach maximum performance levels.
Learn more about the IMPACT Selling Virtual Sales Training Program with our helpful information packet below!
