In most sales organizations, there is a fine line between average and great sales reps: the reps that barely hit their quota and ones that often exceed it. On the surface, it might seem like the luck of the draw for those reps that are excelling, but there are usually very perceptible—and repeatable—habits and practices that exceptional reps possess. And prospects easily notice: according to Forrester, 70% of executive buyers claim salespeople are not prepared sales conversations. How can you keep your great reps on the right track, and help your mediocre reps break their bad habits?
One of the bad habits sales reps need to kick is poor collaboration with marketing. A mediocre sales rep doesn’t provide marketing with feedback regarding collateral and messaging delivery or updates. Any and all feedback, regardless of whether it’s positive or negative, helps marketing teams deliver higher quality content. Marketing teams are able to create more of what’s working, and less of what’s not. But when mediocre reps aren’t relaying that information, marketing teams remain in the dark.
Some good sales reps proactively provide feedback on collateral to marketing, but there isn’t a streamlined process for reps to follow regarding this. Feedback typically comes in a one-off email or yell across the room. Best-in-class sales organizations have a centralized portal that organizes collateral based on industry, role, and stage in the sales cycle so sales reps can share only what’s relevant to the prospect. This portal ideally collects content usage analytics, allowing marketing to see what collateral is being used for certain scenarios, what’s working, and what isn’t. That way, sales reps don’t need to directly provide feedback on each and every sales conversation to marketing, and marketing can get the information it needs to improve.
This is just one way that mediocre sales reps can be transformed into great ones. For more bad habits to help your average sales reps kick, please download our brand new free guide below!
