The last year was a stark reminder of how quickly an economy can change. From rising inflation to Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse, the past year showed just how fast the economy could change.
As economists debate Fed interest rate policies and whether or not we are in a recession right now–or if one will ever come–consumers, as well as businesses, have faced rising costs and tighter finances.
Closing sales for businesses has never been simple, but now it is even harder. Buyers are more demanding but have smaller budgets. The pressure on sellers to deliver is greater, with fewer sales opportunities.
When leaders are under pressure to show maximum returns on every investment, tech stacks will also be scrutinized.
It’s good to know that these challenges are not new. They are, however, more urgent. There are ways to equip buyers, sellers, and revenue/sales managers with the strategies and tools they need to succeed.
Take a look at the current sales situation and the key challenges that stakeholders face.
Disconnect between buyer and seller.
Sales reps are increasingly being asked to personalize their customers’ buying experiences in the current recessionary climate. In sales calls, buyers and sellers seem to be disconnected. This indicates a power dynamics that is more buyer-centric as budget cuts continue.
The buyer is becoming more critical of their purchases while less engaged in sales calls. Buyers ask an average of 18 sales questions, up from the 13 of the previous year. At the same time, the average talk time of buyers during discovery phases has dropped from 51% to 39%, according to Mindtickle’s State of Sales Productivity report.
Only 34% of buyers agreed that their sales rep was helpful during the entire buying process. Customer satisfaction, however, is the primary source of success for businesses. It is important to focus on creating a positive customer experience right from the first sales call.
Sales reps must learn to adapt to and personalize their experience in order to add value to buyers. In sales training, however, one size doesn’t fit all. Another buyer might be having difficulty with a competitive position or choosing the most useful content to share with other buyers.
Understanding performance and skill gaps allows organizations to train their sellers in specific areas. This ensures that sellers are prepared and ready to work with buyers.
Sales Training Priorities are Changing
According to the Mindtickle study, 88% of sales reps said they were coached about open deals and 34% on skills. Sales teams are spending more time discussing values than building long-term skills. This is likely due to the increased pressure that they face as purchasing slows.
While closing deals is important, skill training is even more crucial to building the foundation of consistent quota achievement:
- Deals Coaching is a coaching program that focuses on the buyer and their specific business needs. This results in a more immediate benefit for interacting with merely one person.
- Skills Training focuses instead on developing knowledge and behaviors that are critical for success. This puts sellers in a stronger position to close sales in the long term.
The economy gives more power to the buyer. Organizations need to focus on skill training to complement the training programs of sales teams and to provide the sales reps with lasting skills that will help them grow and succeed in the long term. These skills include learning how to use keywords, avoiding filler words, keeping a steady pace when talking, and mastering product knowledge.
Sales Reps are overwhelmed by sales content.
The majority of sales content available is not of high quality, and sales reps feel overwhelmed by all the written materials available. Mindtickle’s research found that content generates relatively little engagement, with the vast majority of attention coming from a small portion of the content.
In order to improve sales, it is important to identify the best-performing content.
Businesses can use sales enablement platforms to gather data about how sellers interact with content on the ground and how they are aware of certain content. This allows them to identify what information is being used and whether valuable content is not being utilized.
The organization can also track and measure how the sales reps have been trained and how this training has translated into their use of content in the field.
Businesses can reallocate their resources to the most valuable and used content.
This results in more effective sales training for new representatives and more valuable content for reps.
Creating Ongoing, Personalized Sales Training
Businesses can overcome the sales challenges highlighted in this article by ensuring that rep training is effective. This includes identifying each rep’s strengths and weaknesses, not just their performance on deals. Then, use this information to develop ongoing training plans that are tailored to the rep’s skills and goals.
Managers can better understand their sales reps’ performance with conversational Intelligence, which uses AI to analyze call recordings, gather data, and identify key themes, questions, and areas that were discussed.
Managers can compare these behaviors to those of top-performing reps and then create a customized training program that is based on the skills proven to close deals. A personalized program could include, for example, live roleplays where the rep explains what the company does, recommends content to review, and quizzes them on previous courses.
Training doesn’t stop after a few lessons. Sellers who don’t learn regularly forget 70% of the information they learned within a week. This leads to missed deals and missed quotas.
AI can be used to create a culture of continuous training and reinforce skills, thereby ensuring that reps are successful on the field.
Organizations can ensure that their sales reps have the necessary skills by providing frequent, individual training. This will help them to be knowledgeable about product details, selling methods, how to deliver pitches, etc., which results in a high-quality experience for customers.