Heightened Performance Expectations

Being on the front line, the salesperson directly confronts many of these challenges on a daily basis. Consequently, organizations require that their sales professionals possess the necessary skills for overcoming these challenges and winning sales. Sales professionals at all levels identified a number of human resource concerns that have a real impact on the sales organization’s success. As marketplaces mature and evolve, some of the skill sets required of yesterday’s successful sales professionals have likewise changed. For example, learning how to sell to new audiences, such as senior business leaders and more savvy consumers, being trained to effectively link the benefits of a product offering to a prospect’s bottom line or an individual’s hidden personal needs, or understanding how to interpret financial statements to determine profitable versus unprofitable opportunities are critical skills for winning sales. Yet once again, these emerging training needs arise at a time marked with tighter training budgets.

We interviewed some organizations, especially in the technology sector, that participate in markets that require salespeople to possess some degree of technical knowledge. Lack of technical competence in some industries can put the salesperson at a disadvantage, especially in the absence of a cross-functional team-selling environment. Moreover, finding and keeping salespeople with a mix of sales experience and the necessary technical aptitude can be a daunting assignment. Technological competence is also important from the standpoint of being able to fully leverage the sales technologies, such as a customer relationship management (CRM) or sales force automation (SFA) system, that organizations today rely on.

Like most company divisions, the sales organization wrestles with recruiting, hiring, developing, and retaining individuals who have strong skill sets and a good cultural fit. Many sales managers pointed out that it is all about hiring the right people from the start, and then training them to achieve their potential. Once the talent is onboard, it’s critical that the organization be focused on developing and improving the necessary skill sets of its people. Striking and sustaining a perfectly balanced sales force—recruiting right and training right—to maintain competitive advantage, under any circumstance, is no small feat.

Other sales managers also shared that “working with what we’ve got” was a significant obstacle to their success. In response, some forward-thinking sales organizations avoid the hazards of complacency by continuously reassessing sales responsibilities, positions, and individual strengths to maximize resources for the best gains.

Sales skills and professional development among sales managers is equally as important but has received far less attention in many organizations. So often, sales managers achieve their role based on sales expertise and have little or no leadership skills, which can hamper their ability to successfully navigate the daily maze of hurdles and to keep focused on the bigger picture. The lack of time, resources, and support for training managers further inhibits sales leadership development, and, when all combined, can present the sales organization with some significant challenges—starting at the higher levels.