- You're always training your sales team.
You can go out and hire sales coaches.
You can have your team read books.
If you're a big enough company,
you can hire a full-time trainer for your team.
These are all good ideas,
but what's the cheapest, easiest,
lowest-hanging fruit strategy to train your team?
Well, when I was in sales at Google,
I had a great manager.
He would figure out which rep on the team was
the best at a particular sales skill.
He identified the rep on the team
and that was the very best to generate new leads.
Then, he identified the rep that was most talented
at running effective customer meetings.
Lastly, he figured out which rep was best at negotiating
and closing deals.
Once he identified the best rep at each key skill,
he would then empower that rep to train the rest
of the team in that skill.
So the rep that was best at lead gen had
the leadership opportunity to train everyone
on his tips and tricks to generate leads.
So just like a great sports coach names team captains,
you could empower your team members to be a leader
in an area and transfer their unique skills
across the team.
Here's how you can do it.
Rate your sales reps on a scale of one to 10
on their different sales skills that you think
are the key skills that are most important
to being successful on your unique team.
Take into account their performance
in each step of the sales process,
things like prospecting, overcoming objections,
managing their territory, time management,
following up, closing, etc.
Use your judgment combined with data from your CRM
to help you determine who's the best in each area.
Compare sales metrics like number of calls,
meetings, and closed deals.
Ask your reps which team member they turn to
if they have questions in a certain area.
Once you know who your top performers are in each area,
coach these reps to recognize
and articulate their own skills.
Make them better teachers for your team.
Put your best rep under a microscope,
and analyze their daily activities in their area
of expertise to find specific things
that they could train their colleagues about.
Understand things like how they plan their day,
what they prioritize on a daily basis,
tools and processes that they use to stay productive.
Also, think about the skills and tricks they're using
that makes them unique.
You're setting up a win-win situation.
Not only does turning your high performers
into coaches push the team to be better,
it also makes your successful reps feel recognized
for what they're good at, appreciated,
and gives them a leadership opportunity,
which develops your future leaders on the team.
Remember that the best leaders develop
great leaders underneath them.
Group training sessions are also an easy way to get everyone
on the same page and improve teamwork.
Try having your team practice their skills in pairs
or in groups.
Reps can also show the team how to apply their techniques
in situational exercises.
Think about how you can leverage competitive games
because they're a great motivator
and create healthy competition between reps.
This creates a healthy and collaborative sales culture
that encourages teamwork, self-improvement,
and high performance.
Now, write down a list of all the most important skills
that a sales rep needs to be successful on your sales team,
and write the members of your team on a scale of one to 10
on those skills.
Then take your best rep in each skill
and clone them across the rest of the team.