4 Signs That You Need Training

Business has been growing steadily over the years. Time passed. You now have a bigger sales and marketing team, with a proper business structure. Profits should continue to grow, but it hasn't.

While the revenue have gone up, you realize that the profits are actually eroding over the years.

What you discovered during your conversation with the respective Sales Managers are that competitions are getting more intense in the market. The sales cycles are also getting longer. Forecasts are no longer as accurate. Positive engagement with prospects are turning out cold at closing stages.

So what could be happening?

When an organization grows in size, we are often too focus on business strategy and execution while neglecting the common denominator of all things - people. However, the fastest way to increasing profits is by building the people wealth of your business, followed by strategy and execution.

Owners invest hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to bring qualified prospects to their businesses. Yet they fail to invest in training and educating their salespeople or sales managers. This is a critical limiting factor for growth.

Conversations with owners revealed that they are concern in spending money in training people who may leave their organization, thus benefiting other companies instead. However, there is also a saying that "what if you do not train them, and they stay?".

Cherrypick Consulting would like to offer 4 tell-tale signs that hints a warning sign that you will have to start investing in your people :

#1 - POOR FORECAST ACCURACY

Over the years, the accuracy of the sales forecasting seems to be suffering and getting worse. Many what seemed as great prospect engagement deals are also dropping for no reasons. It is either customer going for cheaper price or holding the project back.

#2 - LONGER SALES CYCLE

This is a subset of the first point. With the increase in unpredictability of the sales opportunities, the sales cycle is also affected. Prolonged sales cycle could either mean you lost the deal without knowing it, or prospect can't make a compelling attempt to move things forward.

#3 - SMALLER OPPORTUNITY SIZE

Comparing the historical information against current, you realize that the opportunity size has remain the same, if not smaller. The number of units per opportunity is almost the same as before.

#4 - ERODING MARGINS

The number of requests for discounted opportunities are getting more frequent. The degree of discounts are also getting more steep. These affects the margins per deal as well. And the common objections that your sales are struggling to mitigate sounds like "your price is too expensive", "your competitor is cheaper", or "please give me a discount".

"Owners invest hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to bring qualified prospects to their businesses. Yet they fail to invest in training and educating their salespeople or sales managers. This is a critical limiting factor for growth."

If we take a closer analysis of the above 4 signs, you can conclude that it relates to :

- building a value proposition for the opportunity (value proposition does not equate to price)

- ability to go deep into the requirement by asking the right questions

Building value propositions requires the sales to understand the customer, qualify and quantify the situation, and build the correct message and solution to help a customer.

Asking the right questions requires an individual to listen to a conversation, ask emotional and logical questions relating to the situation, and finding the impact to the prospect's environment.

Both value building and conversations are soft skills that needs to be invested in.

Business owners have a couple of choices to do drive growth with people, depending on the business and intent - One is to invest in trained salespeople which are more likely to be costly and there are no guarantees of retention of the talent. Or two, to invest in training the existing salespeople to drive growth and at the same time induce motivation and improvement in talent retention.

"One is to invest in trained salespeople which are more likely to be costly and there are no guarantees of retention of the talent. Or two, to invest in training the existing salespeople to drive growth and at the same time induce motivation and improvement in talent retention."

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Watch out for any of these 4 tell-tale signs in your organisation. If you see any of them, take time to look deeper into issue. There is a possible and high chance that training is an investment you can't ignore.

Cherrypick Consulting helps our customers achieve the exact opposite of the above 4 risks but tailoring content, message and focus. Our delivery is not just delivered with fun and practicality, but includes real assessments and reinforcements as well. To find out more, reach out to us.

Again, we would love to hear from you regarding any comments on this week's post.

Cherry-O!

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