Success in sales starts with proper coaching and development. But, as it turns out, many organizations struggle to put a plan in place for these critical priorities. Luckily, the recent release of LevelEleven Success Plans now provides organizations with a streamlined solution to drive employee growth and managerial success!
Here are just a few ways Success Plans can develop your sales team from the top down:
Focus on Sales Activities
For many sales professionals, it’s easy to get lost in non-selling activities throughout the day-to-day grind. In fact, sales reps spend only 37 percent of their time selling. While time spent traveling, responding to customer service inquiries and writing proposals is important, it shouldn’t outweigh the key actions and behaviors that are needed to find and win business. Success Plans allow you to maximize selling time and mitigate non-selling time, which drives sales numbers up across the board. For example, a Success Plan can help a sales rep struggling to build pipeline understand what he or she needs to do to improve by providing them with applicable resources and coaching sessions in one centralized location.
Develop Knowledgeable Sales Managers
Seventy-three percent of front-line Sales Managers receive little to no management training because most Sales Managers are promoted for being successful sales reps, which has zero to do with developing other people. Unaddressed, this can lead to a severe flaw in your sales coaching strategy from the top down. Luckily, Success Plans centralize the coaching process for managers and helps them communicate with their team in a structured and consistent way. As sales reps reach new goals with the help of Success Plans, Sales Managers can continually refine their coaching skills by noting what works best.
Create Structure Around Coaching
Ninety-three percent of Sales Managers claim to spend at least three hours per month coaching each rep, but only 44 percent of those same reps feel they get that much coaching from their manager. This misunderstanding highlights the pertinent need for structure and consistency around sales coaching. Success Plans provide a centralized dashboard where Sales Managers can customize their coaching agendas to meet the needs of individual reps and give two-way transparency into individual expectations over a specific time period. From Performance Improvement Plans for struggling employees to Onboarding Plans for new hires, Success Plans improve communication from the top down.
Improve Employee Performance
Developing underperforming employees is almost always better than releasing them. After all, even underperforming team members have more product knowledge and industry know-how than most new hires. That said, it’s important to coach them to develop skills that revolve around their shortcomings. With Success Plans, Sales Managers can create a customized Performance Improvement Plan that includes coaching sessions, meeting notes and valuable resources focused on the areas each employee needs to improve. Rather than having to start all over again with a new salesperson who may or may not work out, Success Plans allow you to teach sales reps the skills they need to be successful.
Create Structured Onboarding Plans
Studies show that organizations with a standard onboarding process experience 50 percent greater new-hire productivity. So, if you want to see immediate sales success from your new hires, structure is a must. Luckily, Onboarding Plans allow you to create a standardized template for new hires that steers them toward immediate success. What’s more, if you’re hiring a Sales Engineer or another type of specialist, Onboarding Plans can be customized to meet their specific role requirements. In turn, this expedites the onboarding process, allowing new hires to produce sales faster, and make a bigger contribution to your team.
