Top Sales Teams Focus on Sales Competencies

Forrester released their Planning Guide 2023: Sales Enablement. In it they talk about their top recommendations for 2023. They summarize these in their 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 have already developed a sales competency framework then it’s likely that you’ll fall into 1 of 2 categories:

1. You have a sales competency framework, but it is languishing untouched in a dusty filing system after an initial flurry of activity.
2. You live and 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. Ostrow 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: Defining a Sales Competency Framework to Drive Top Performer Behavior.

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."

Ostrow 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. Getting stakeholder alignment and agreement is hard fought but essential for success.

But as Ostrow states, to scale, automate, and not to mention getting a consistent view and use across your organization, technology can be your friend.

How to Scale and Automate Your Sales Competencies

To scale you need consistency.

To scale efficiently, you need to be consistent and repeatable. Everyone should be on the same path—different styles should be embraced, some may walk, some may run, but the same path is taken nonetheless.

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, making it more scalable and faster to adopt.

Make Your Sales Competency Framework 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 its audience. For sales, that’s metrics. We live and die by our metrics, so align all your KPIs (leading & lagging) to the skills and behaviors that drive them.

Given we aligned our sales competency framework to everything we measure, we can now also measure the effectiveness directly across all activities. We do this using our Accelerate Sales Performance System.

The Accelerate Sales Performance System is a comprehensive sales capability building solution that brings clarity to the most critical skill gaps you need to address to move your business metrics. Accelerate Learn, one of the components of the Accelerate System, delivers personal learning recommendations to sellers based on real-time performance metrics and competency assessments.

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, 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 record of progress is chaos. Throw in needing to trawl the LMS or Content Repository for anything to help and you have a nonstarter.

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 organizational level you can see the value and insights live.

Learn more about our approach to applying sales competencies in our Accelerate Sales Performance System brochure.