Best-Of-Breed Sales Teams Focus On Seller Competencies According To Forrester
We couldn’t agree more!!!
Forrester have released their new Planning Guide 2023: Sales Enablement. In it they talk about their top recommendations for 2023.
They summarise these in their recent blog: Three Key Areas For Sales Enablement To Focus On In 2023.
We are delighted to see that their first recommendation is to get yourself a sales competency framework in place.
Peter Ostrow writes “If your sales enablement organization has not communicated the skill, knowledge, and process competencies required for sellers to be hired, onboarded, and considered fully trained, this is a quick win that will benefit a wide range of both sales and other functional leaders.”
If you’ve not already embarked on this then don’t worry, we have a ton of resources to support you via our Sales Competencies Hub.
Of course, if you have already developed a sales competency framework then it’s likely that you’ll fall into 1 of 2 categories:
You have a sales competency framework but it is languishing untouched in a dusty filing system after an initial flurry of activity
You live a breathe your sales competency framework, it sits at the heart of everything you do but it’s a nightmare of admin to maintain
If this is the case then you are missing out on a huge amount of value. Peter goes on to say:
“If you have already accomplished this step, consider moving from a “once and done” mindset (“We did our sales competencies last year, so we’re all set”) to establishing a regular cadence for reviewing and updating them.”
The challenge of moving from a “once and done” project is something we come across every day - if you do fall into this category then this blog will help form your ideas: 3 Steps to Operationalise your Sales Competency Framework
What to avoid…
We love that Forrester has called out the danger of implementing “get-rich-quick offerings that purport to immediately mitigate seller competency gaps”.
Peter makes a solid point that:
“Technology alone will solve few enablement challenges; it can only scale and automate hard-won process improvements such as enhanced sales competency strategies.”
Getting your competency framework fit for scaling takes preparation. We hold multiple workshops during our onboarding to build and refine your competency framework to ensure it is fit for purpose and will drive the outcomes you are looking for. Getting stakeholder alignment and agreement is hard fought but essential for success.
But as Peter states, to scale, automate and not to mention getting a consistent view and use across your organisation, technology can be your friend.
So what can you do to scale and automate?
To scale you need Consistency
In order to scale efficiently, you need to be consistent and repeatable. Everyone should be pretty much on the same path - different styles should be embraced, some may walk, some may run, some may stop for lunch, but the same path is taken none-the-less.
Your competency ‘map’ needs to become your common language, the common path across multiple programs:
All training should be built and delivered around it.
Knowledge should be indexed and shared around it.
Reviews and QBRs should use it as the backbone.
Every Sales Manager should run their 1-2-1s around it.
Coaching should be driven around it.
This link back to a common framework makes it much easier to build into the operating rhythm of sales which in turn, makes it more scalable and faster to adopt.
You have to make it relevant and consumable for sales teams
Sticking your sales competency framework at the heart of everything is still not enough. We also need to make sure it’s relevant to it’s audience. For sales, that’s metrics. We live and die by our metrics, so align all your KPIs (leading & lagging) to the skills or behaviours that drive them.
For example, the conversion of meetings to opportunities would be aligned with Problem Discovery and Solution Positioning. Call to Meeting ratios would be aligned to ‘Prospect Qualification’ and ‘Conversation Quality’ and so on.
In doing this we create even further consistency.
You now know that when someone is struggling to create pipeline, you need to coach, support and develop them around Problem Discovery. That’s exactly the same thing as Ben in the US is doing with his team. So is Hannah in ANZ.
Given we aligned our sales competency framework to everything we measure, we can now also measure the effectiveness directly across all activities.
Training resource x is designed to drive improvements in problem discovery. Problem Discovery is linked to converting meetings into pipeline. Across all reps who consumed this, we can now see an improvement in both skill and results.
The gap analysis and correlation to improved outcomes can now be done at an individual, team and organisation level, all because we aligned to a common framework.
You have to make it simple and easy
If ‘Death of a Salesman’ were to be rewritten today, it may contain only one narrative… ‘admin’.
If something requires additional admin or processes to achieve then it is NOT scalable, is unlikely to be adopted and is therefore a complete waste of time.
Asking busy sales managers and reps to have their CRM open alongside a printed or excel copy of your competency framework and then to update this and send it in so you have a lovely record of progress is literal madness. Throw in needing to trawl the LMS or Content Repository for anything to help and you have a non starter.
Instead, present the information in an actionable format, already interpreted and guiding them towards the focus areas. This ups the consistency and scalability ante significantly.
Having a simple, easy to use, interactive platform means there’s no admin or data capture. No chasing or delays. At an organisational level you can see the value and insights live.
“Most importantly they have an enablement application (e4enable in our case), that allows them to align the training with our sales competency framework, set appropriate development objectives and track progress against the areas they need help with. It’s kind of like a “big magnet” that pulls all of the sales coaching conversations, agreements, objectives together – so it becomes easy to manage, and is an enjoyable & consistent process - that’s the way we got these good habits to stick.”
- Elia Giovanni, Director of Sales Enablement, Apogee Corporation
After reading this, if you’d like a friendly helping hand from people who live and breathe sales competency frameworks, then do get in touch.