How to engineer changes in sales behaviours and practices that increase sales productivity, effectiveness, and growth - part 2.
Annual sales training is good for a boost in motivation, even morale yet in isolation, it has little impact on behaviours, sales skills, or growth.
There are three aspects of improvement in sales growth. They are methods, sales skills, and morale.
This is part 2 of the article. See part 1 here.
Sales Skills for Growth
The second lever for impacting sales behaviour and increasing sales growth is to improve soft sales skills.
What would be the outcome if national sports teams practised only once a year?
Salespeople and athletes have a lot in common. Success or failure hinges on small margins when there is stiff competition.
Annual sales training makes little or no difference to soft skills. Just as the presence of mind and decision-making make a huge difference to player effectiveness in rugby, football, cricket, basketball, baseball and the like, sharp interpersonal skills are vital for sales success.
Can people stay at their peak at anything without continually practising?
Salespeople are generally left to practice on the job, in their day-to-day work. Is it possible that without examination and refresh, abilities wane, best practices are forgotten, and bad habits encroach?
Developing and Maintaining Soft Sales Skills
Developing and maintaining soft skills is critical for personal and professional success. Soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence are often what set salespeople apart in the workplace and in life.
Here are some ways to develop and maintain soft skills :
1. Self-Assessment and Reflection
Identify Strengths and Weaknesses. Have staff take stock of their current soft skills. Many online assessments and tools help people understand their strengths and opportunities for improvement. Some of them are on this site.
Set specific, measurable goals for improving the most important soft skills.
2. Facilitate Feedback
Set up opportunities for team members to get soft skills feedback from colleagues and managers. Encourage staff to seek feedback from friends and family. Constructive criticism can provide valuable insights into how others perceive us and how we can improve.
Consider arranging a formal blind 360-degree feedback process. 360s are normally based on unattributable input from a wide range of peers, subordinates, and managers and can be run periodically.
3. Require Continuous Learning
There are countless resources available for developing soft skills. Start a library and make it accessible to staff. Create a list of approved training courses and learning programmes that meet high standards. Allocate a per-person learning budget.
Require everyone to deliver a fifteen-minute presentation on what they have learned, how they came by their learning, and how they have applied it, every three months. Have listeners score each delivery.
This process could be part of an appraisal program or a quarterly business review.
4. Encourage the Practice of Attentive Listening
Have all staff anonymously score everyone in their team for attentive listening, once a quarter.
Attentive Listening Guide:
When conversing with others, focus completely on the speaker. Avoid distractions and resist the urge to think about a response while they are speaking. Show that you are listening by nodding, making eye contact, and paraphrasing to confirm understanding.
The pinnacle of listening is indistinguishable from mind reading.
5. Encourage Improvement in communication
Have all staff anonymously score everyone in their team on communication skills, once a quarter.
Clear Communication Guide:
Practise being clear and concise when communicating. Consider the audience and tailor the message accordingly. Pay attention to your body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice, as these can significantly impact how your message is received. As much as practicable, test to be sure that your message has been understood as intended.
6. Develop Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Whenever staff express strong opinions, ask them to identify the source of their feelings and the effect of their feelings on their thoughts and behaviour. This awareness can help people manage their reactions and understand others better.
In conflicts, try the opposing views method. Have each party explain the other person's point of view to the other person's satisfaction.
Use a personality styles workshop to help team members recognise how people are different from each other. We can do this for you in a one-hour Zoom call. Learn more.
7. Encourage Active Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking
Regularly set challenges that demand problem-solving and critical thinking skills. These can be about product development, business problems, or commercial issues. They can be brain teasers, puzzles, or games. Have staff contribute to decision-making by sharing their analysis and opinions. Invite people to reflect on their problem-solving process and consider what could be done to improve it. Have us lead a problem-solving workshop. Learn more.
8. Create More Team Activities
Increase the opportunities for staff to work in teams on projects or activities. These experiences can help improve teamwork, leadership, and conflict-resolution skills.
Teams can be set up to investigate and resolve internal issues. Teamwork can be part of development programmes. Use our Facilitated Enquiry process. Consider inviting volunteers for community service projects. All such activities stretch and develop soft skills.
9. Organise Mentorship and Coaching
A mentor who excels in soft skills can provide guidance, advice, and feedback to help you develop. Consider working with a professional coach who can offer personalised strategies and support for developing soft skills. See our coaching options here.
10. Practise, Practise, Practise
The best way to develop soft sales skills is to practise them in real-life situations. Create opportunities for staff to practise soft sale skills. By 'practise' (the verb), I mean trying out new things or deliberately exercising established skills as opposed to 'practice' (the noun) which means to get on with the job. Each of the points above includes some practical suggestions.
For every practise session, ask questions to prompt reflection and learning.
Maintaining and developing soft skills is an ongoing process that requires practise. By creating opportunities for salespeople to work on their most important skills, you will help them increase their interpersonal effectiveness, improve their presence of mind, and ultimately stimulate business momentum and sales growth.
Next - how to nurture, maintain, and develop sales team morale.
Sales Growth Part 3 - Team Morale
Article by Clive Miller
If you are looking for ways to maintain or improve sales skills, we can help. Telephone +44 (0)1392 851500. We will be pleased to learn about your needs or discuss some options. Alternatively, email custserv@salessense.co.uk or use the contact form here.
