The path to sales mastery comes through training and experience, but this doesn’t apply to a situation like Covid-19. In these unprecedented times, did you – as a company- think about retraining your sales reps?
Every organization wants to empower its salespeople and prepare them for all sorts of contingencies. However, a situation like Covid-19 that presents itself once in a lifetime might not urge every business to rethink its training procedure. There are many business leaders who still believe in and are trying to stick to the traditional method of doing sales. According to them, any new change in the process might disrupt the great performance that they have observed in the past. And, the greatest disbelief of all, is that the pandemic is not gonna last forever.
While they might not be very wrong, the pandemic is also not nudging from its place. As a sales leader, you must not stop and wait for the right time and opportunity to present itself. For great sales, every opportunity is the best opportunity and every time is the right time.
Other companies who never decided to stop have started curating new ways to help their sales representative. Several companies have doubled down on their sales training and are trying to focus which areas they need to rethink.
Top reasons you should double down on your sales training during the Covid-19 situation
Former selling skills and requirements doesn’t work anymore
The way of selling has changed. The skills and competencies your sales reps needed to get successful earlier are different to what they need right now to succeed.
All that one-on-one interaction tactics and psychological tools that worked before might not find a place in today’s Zoom meetings.
This goes especially for field sales who can no longer be out there meeting clients face to face.
Suiting up neatly would not be as important as making sure if the reps have good lighting on their video chats.
Transitioning of inside-sales skills to field reps
Skills of an inside sales representative is now coming in handy more for the sales reps who are inbound. Things like calendering, remote presentations, coordinating groups and teams, etc., are the skills that field sales reps are managing. The role comes to them as a default as they moved from field sales reps to at-home sales reps.
Remote presentations
More sales requires more interactions, and today that is only happening virtually. Interactions is a key criteria for any kind of selling and remote presentations is just another medium of doing that. Remote presentations is the most-used medium of selling right now, and probably the only option in many cases.
While meeting virtually might make things easier for many, there are others who find physical meetings more convenient. Also, some experts argue that convincing a client to take an action might be 3x more difficult if you were not meeting them physically.
The important thing, however, is that remote presentations are a thing now and your sales reps need to master that. This is the biggest tool they have in their arsenal to close the next deal and keep the client flow running. Hence, the faster you train them to present greatly, the sooner they will meet expected targets.
Try to improve and polish everything that goes into a virtual presentation.
New ways of messaging and pitching
If there is anything that the pandemic has changed at the broadest level, it would be the “tone of messaging.” Brands around the world choose empathy before anything else to interact with their customers. And, sales is no indifferent to that.
Constantly pitch in new ideas to your sales reps of how they can bring more empathy and emotions into the conversation.
Product-centric messaging or sales discounts can backfire almost one hundred percent. Sales organizations need to pivot to an entirely new way of messaging.
In the end, you must know that there are obvious upskilling and training needs here. As a sales organization, your must double down on those needs and get your reps prepared for whatever that’s coming.
