Enhance Sales Performance with Tools and a Sound Strategy
The post summarizes Mike Kunkle’s webinar emphasizing that effective sales performance improvement requires a strategic approach to sales enablement—selecting appropriate learning tools and aligning them with a structured process across five stages of sales mastery (knowledge acquisition, sustainment, skill development, transfer, and mastery)—to avoid random, ineffective training efforts and instead drive measurable productivity outcomes.
This post recaps Mike Kunkle’s recent sales webinar: From Sales Enablement to Sales Performance – Moving the Needle on the Metrics That Matter. Mike Kunkle is Founder and Sales Transformation Architect for Transforming Sales Results, LLC.
According to the “infinite monkey theorem,” a monkey hitting random keys on a typewriter for an infinite amount of time will eventually write a masterpiece. While this is theoretically possible, it’s not a practical approach—yet some sales enablement professionals take a similar approach by deploying sales learning tools and hoping productivity will eventually increase.
Random Acts of Sales Enablement
Without a sound strategy to support traditional and digital learning programs—one designed to move the needle on the metrics that matter most—training solutions will be, at best, loosely tied to productivity outcomes. Without clear direction, organizations are prone to knee-jerk reactions and order-taking (e.g., “We need a training program on negotiating, stat!”), leading to random acts of sales enablement rather than targeted solutions.
To optimize sales enablement initiatives, it’s important to choose the right learning tools and a strategy that supports each tool. This should be done for every stage of the sales mastery and behavior change process: knowledge acquisition, knowledge sustainment, skill development, skill transfer, and skill mastery.
The 5 Stages of Sales Mastery
- 1.
Knowledge Acquisition
- Use classroom and mobile learning platforms, as well as assessment tools, to help reps acquire new knowledge. Decide which roles will be supported (e.g., business development reps, account executives, sales engineers, sales managers). Determine who will oversee the training, to whom they will report, what success looks like, and how it will be measured.
- 2.
Knowledge Sustainment
- Reinforce the knowledge acquired in Stage 1 to prevent forgetting. Select appropriate learning reinforcement systems and develop a strategy to determine the who, what, why, when, and how of their use.
- 3.
Skill Development
- Use role-playing tools (digital, phone-based, in-person) to help reps interact with customers and assess competencies. Decide who will coach and review skill development, which sales managers will be trained to assess and coach reps, and what kind of gap analysis will be used to measure progress.
- 4.
Skill Transfer
- Provide toolkits that allow reps, with manager supervision, to practice new skills during customer calls. Select, train, and support the managers who will participate in these sessions.
- 5.
Skill Mastery
- Use software programs to record and analyze conversations (phone calls, live meetings) to gauge what top producers do differently. These tools are invaluable for coaching, but guiding reps to skill mastery is an ongoing process. Continually assess high-priority skills and ensure they are being used consistently.
Once these strategies are in place, they create clarity for everyone involved and help define what sales enablement means to your organization. While a full service level agreement may not be necessary, documented procedures or processes regarding goals, learning tools, and users are essential.
Without goal-specific tools and a sound learning strategy, you may as well rely on chance, like monkeys with typewriters, hoping for a masterpiece.
For more information on sales performance, watch the recording of the entire webinar: From Sales Enablement to Sales Performance – Moving the Needle on the Metrics That Matter.