This post was originally published by Jenny Boling on lessonly.com.
Here’s a little riddle to start your day:
What is a target set for a specific period of time that both sales reps and sales managers are measured on and want to reach?
Answer: Sales Quota
Typically, reaching your sales goals is a sign that your sales team is performing at its best, your leads are of high quality, and your future growth is predictable. So how do you get there, you ask? With a little help from one of our best, most reliable friends: sales coaching software.
Good sales people can sell anything
Or, that’s how the saying goes. But the truth is that the individual requirements of any sales role vary widely depending on the industry, product, and market needs. These differences are where companies either pull ahead and totally dominate their market space or remain stagnant.
The health of any business is reliant on its sales, and there’s no better way to improve your sales culture and outcomes than by investing in your company’s sales coaching. Let’s take a deeper look at what it means to build successful types of sales training programs and how it will boost performance at your organization.
Good sales reps are born from sales performance coaching
Hyper-personalized coaching within some sort of sales management software is a real slam dunk. After all, training dollars are wasted when sellers aren’t engaged, which just leads to a no-fun domino effect that includes losing employees, having to train and retrain, and missing reaching quota attainment quarter after quarter. Ugh! But, when you pour into the success of your team through sales enablement training, you’ll magically start experiencing things like…
Employee retention
Research proves coaching increases employee retention, which in turn decreases hiring costs. In fact, teams that deliver on-the-job coaching see retention rates increase over teams that don’t.
A team of problem solvers
Managers who get close to their employees’ work can solve real world challenges. A manager’s knowledge is one of the best resources an organization can have, and following sales coaching best practices allows managers to gain insight into their employees’ work, which then allows them to apply their knowledge specifically to real world issues.
Higher sales rates
Companies see an increase in sales when coaching is done correctly. That’s because coaching allows teams to address skills that reps need to do their jobs effectively and efficiently.
At the end of the day, sales software systems build coaches across every single team. The more high-quality coaching an organization has, the more “performance-improving” employees it will have. And, organizations that use sales enablement software to help deliver coaching have a competitive edge because they become more adaptable to needed change and growth.
Employees and teams who experience a continuous increase in skills and work performance actually become more open to change and challenges. And, we think that’s a pretty good reason to start coaching a sales team right now.
Good sale reps with good sales coaching hit quotas
If a sales rep reaches their goals, that means they’ve attained quota. But here’s the thing about sales quota attainment: if your reps don’t hit their goals, you’ll likely miss the mark on your company objectives. And nobody has time for that. To stay on track, it helps to set quotas that motivate and inspire performance and ensure reps are following best practices to improve their chance of making the sale. Our all-time favorite methods include:
Saying to the one-size-fits-all approach
Because different roles have different responsibilities, reps should be measured on different metrics—and both their quota and incentive plan should reflect that.
Considering onboarding time
New employees in any role aren’t able to operate at 100% speed on their first day. They need time to get their bearings and complete proper training. The same is true for sales reps—they need time to ramp up to full productivity. When setting your sales quotas, consider sales ramp up time and set appropriate quotas for new reps.
Giving reps a taste of the good stuff when it comes to sales coaching
Reps at all experience levels need proper training and coaching to ensure they are fully prepared to succeed. It’s pretty simple: poorly trained reps just aren’t equipped to achieve their sales quota. Our training and coaching software helps learn, practice skills, and close deals faster. See how teams can easily track training efforts, gain valuable insights, and identify gaps in training here.
