The effectiveness of your sales team has a direct impact on the overall success of your organization.
Unfortunately, according to a recent study, only 24.3% of salespeople exceed their quotas. Why does sales team effectiveness sometimes fail to live up to expectations, and what can you do about it?
In this blog post, we’ll look at the top seven elements that damage sales team effectiveness and explore practical sales enablement strategies that you can use to improve your win rates.
1. No formal coaching
One of the biggest obstacles to sales team effectiveness is a lack of formal coaching. CSO Insights’2019 Sales Enablement Optimization Study found that only 37% of businesses have a formal sales coaching process. [Tweet this!]
This is problematic because coaching is where new information is reinforced so that it is put into action. Indeed, that same study found that a dynamic coaching process led a win rate that was 19% higher than the average.
2. No sales management training
Similarly, the presence of sales management training was also identified by CSO Insights as a factor in sales team effectiveness. Sales managers have a profound impact on productivity, execution, and sales development, and the CSO Insights study found that when companies invested more in sales management training, they saw significant improvements in revenue attainment.
Despite this, frontline sales managers remain neglected, and organizations that don’t provide manager training are twice as common as those that fail to train ordinary salespeople.
3. Unskilled salespeople
While much can be achieved by implementing high-level training and coaching programs, some skills required for sales are difficult to teach. Sales requires a wide range of skills, including soft skills like empathy and resilience.
For this reason, you need to develop a hiring strategy that quickly and accurately identifies whether or not a candidate has the necessary mindset and traits for the job, regardless of previous experience.
4. An uncomfortable workplace
A poorly designed workplace can severely hinder productivity, morale, and motivation, and this includes everything from the overall layout of the sales floor, to the chairs you have sales staff sitting on.
In particular, when it comes to sales, a certain level of sound privacy is essential for maximizing effectiveness. Uncomfortable working spaces, a lack of natural light, and excessive noise have also all been associated with increased staff turnover, meaning investment in training and coaching could potentially be wasted.
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In their sales enablement study, CSO Insights also established the importance of sales alignment, with dynamic customer journey alignment boosting win rates by nearly 18% above the average.
Nevertheless, approximately 48% of organizations do not actively align their sales processes to their customers’ journey or have only an informal alignment process, hurting their own sales performance as a consequence.
6. Poor staff relationships
Another element that can significantly hinder sales team effectiveness is a poor relationship between sales reps and their line managers. This can negatively impact motivation, reduce productivity, and make sales reps less likely to respond positively to any sales coaching they are offered.
Additionally, poor workplace relationships are a major cause of stress, illness, absenteeism, and staff turnover. [Tweet this!]
7. Unhelpful sales content
Finally, the quality of the content your business puts out can have a major impact on social selling effectiveness. Indeed, CSO Insights’ Sales Enablement Optimization Study found that companies with a formal content strategy increased their win rates by around 27%.
The expression “content is king” exists for a reason and it is paramount that you take the time to create and share high-quality, genuinely useful, and unique content with your target audience.
Conclusion
Research shows that well over a third of all salespeople are currently under-performing, and while some lack the necessary skills, others have their effectiveness limited by poor business practices. In particular, companies need to pay attention to training, coaching, and customer journey alignment.
Author Bio:
Monika Götzmann is the EMEA Marketing Director of Miller Heiman Group, a global sales training and customer experience company. It specializes in providing exceptional sales training and helps organizations develop business strategies to increase sales effectiveness. Monika enjoys sharing her insight and thoughts to provide better sales and leadership training.
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