How to Certify 400 Sales Reps on Four Lines of Business in One Month
Getting a geographically distributed sales team on the same page when it comes to new messaging rollouts, product launch – or anything, really – can be like herding cats. Sales certification helps, but long distances and scheduling make it tough. And sales teams rely too often on in-person certification programs that cost a lot of money and don’t always work that well.
Like many of us who anxiously clung to our World Book encyclopedias for the first few chapters of the Google revolution, sales organizations can’t always see the writing on the wall immediately. However, lots are starting to. Mobile video sales learning technologies open the way for rich back-and-forth interaction between reps and managers in different time zones, so they can spend more time preparing without blowing out the budget on travel.
And efficiency cuts cost, but the lion’s share of value lies in the influence managers gain over talk tracks that happen in the real world. With the barriers of travel and scheduling removed, managers can focus on details they never traditionally had time for. That’s how the golden pitch gets crafted for each individual on a sales team. Managers stay close with their reps and get them all competent fast. That’s how LogMeIn pulled off certifying 400 reps on four different lines of business in one month.
A Sales Certification Story
A leading software company was rolling out new positioning and faced the challenge of certifying more than 100 reps scattered across the globe. In-person sales certifications weren’t going to happen. So the company’s VP Sales and his team used this technology to create a series of short videos that clearly laid out the best way to convey the updated messaging. They tasked reps with watching three videos and then recording and submitting their own. Managers then reviewed and critiqued the submissions remotely, and scored each rep’s performance on seven specific criteria like command of the material, presentation style, overall alignment with go-to-market strategy, etc.. Managers were able to stay current with reps to continually evaluate and course correct throughout the whole process.
At the end of it all they’d boosted win rates by 8% and slashed training cost by 30%. And it didn’t stop there. The real magic happened as they got out in the field and used managers’ feedback to develop even better talk tracks — which they then sent back to prove competency and further iterate. They streamlined collaboration and now do this every time they launch products.
The process of mobile sales coaching brings a new edge to the sales certification process because it gives managers more visibility, while establishing a forum for fast review, course-correction and fine-tuning.
For more on how Allego injects real-world lessons into sales certification, download Allego’s Blueprint for Sales Certification.
