As the year comes to a close, we want to reflect on the top sales management insights from inside sales leaders. Staying informed on the latest tools, technologies and methods to success is an integral part of what we do. One of the best ways LevelEleven does this is by actively participating in the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP) Conferences. Most recently we presented at UNITE 2017 and the Leadership Summit 2017. Here are the insights we found most impactful and how our sales management solution works into the mix:
1. Figure out What Matters
Monica Venturella at Bracket Global posed an interesting question at the UNITE 2017 Conference: “How do we define what matters most?” It’s a great question that often goes overlooked. As a company, how do you identify the metrics, behaviors or actions that matter most?
These are questions that any sales manager should be asking, and answering them isn’t as easy as it seems. Venturella suggests “gearing metrics toward desired results.” In other words, figure out what you want to achieve and work backwards to find a controllable selling behavior that will lead towards that goal.
Dr. Scott Baird, Founder of Griffin Hill, stated in his UNITE 2017 presentation, “Measuring the wrong things will lead to the wrong behavior,” and he’s right. In order to achieve your goals, figure out the right things to measure and it will lead to the right behavior.
Where does LevelEleven fit in?
Motivating the behaviors that lead to closing more business is what LevelEleven does, through real-time leaderboards, activity scorecards, contests, TV broadcasts and sales coaching, all embedded within Salesforce.com.
2. Data & Tech is Overshadowing Action
At UNITE 2017, LevelEleven CEO, Bob Marsh, spoke about the struggle to translate data and reports into action. Putting faith in “fix it” technologies is no longer in fashion. Finding solutions that are easy to implement and actually help you achieve your goals is better than purchasing a multitude of technologies that go unused or add noise to your daily operations.
How does LevelEleven make a difference?
According to one of our partners, Vantage Point Performance, 83% of sales metrics aren’t actionable, meaning there’s no way to measure the specific behaviors that lead (or do not lead) to a sales result. Our sales management solution helps sales teams navigate the noise and putting focus back on fundamental daily actions. LevelEleven enables salespeople to act and provides transparency into the metrics that matter most.
3. Sales Managers Require Better Coaching
A lack of sales management training was a recurring topic discussed at the AA-ISP conferences. Jay Davey, President at Infinity, pulled statistics from the Harvard Business Review, which states, “Companies devote substantial energy to recruiting the best sales talent, but when it comes to managers, most simply select their best sales people for the job.”
Being a top-performing sales person is one thing. Teaching others how to follow suit is a whole different challenge, one that top-performing salespeople aren’t often equipped to handle on their own. Bryan Summerhays, VP B2B Direct Sales at MarketStar, presented at the Boston 2017 Summit and insisted, “Consistent, individualized coaching drives performance.” Without the tools to coach properly, performance can easily drop day-by-day until months later, it will be difficult to pinpoint what went wrong. Making sure that salespeople develop good habits and are taught the best methods to achieve their goals is integral to coaching a successful team. Letting salespeople rely on pure instinct yields unproductive hours and untapped potential.
How does LevelEleven facilitate sales coaching?
The third edition of our product, “Coach,” aims to facilitate consistent coaching sessions between managers and reps. LevelEleven stores each rep’s key performance indicators and provides configurable coaching templates that allow managers to document sessions and assign action items. Everything is within Salesforce, which is particularly useful during quarterly and yearly reviews.
4. Adapt to the Increasing Millennial Workforce
Adapting to meet the needs of a young sales team was another theme touched upon at the AA-ISP Leadership Summit 2017 by Microsoft’s Sam Caucci. He identified that by the year 2020, one in two employees will be millennials. So how should training efforts shift in response to this increasing amount of working individuals who are often pegged by their desire to be entertained, need for adult approval and short attention span? Caucci suggests updating outdated training platforms, cultivating competition and offering better rewards. He also makes a point that gamification alone won’t improve skill.
Is LevelEleven useful for millennial-dominated sales teams?
Yes. Far beyond our initial gamification platform, we offer an entire sales management solution that motivates salespeople toward the behaviors that close more business. We do this through real-time leaderboards, activity scorecards, contests, TV broadcasts and sales coaching, all embedded within salesforce.com. Epos Now is a testament to how LevelEleven is an especially useful resource for millennial-dominated sales teams. The leading provider for cloud-based point of sales systems, Epos Now finds benefit in the transparency, real-time data and structure LevelEleven provides to their young sales team.
Think your sales team could benefit from LevelEleven? Explore our product page to get started.
