BLOG

Sales Pros Vs. Laggards: How To Close The Skills Gap

Jamie Shanks
Jamie Shanks

How to Close The Skills GapOver 20-50 sales kick-offs every year, over 10,000’s of sales professionals from every corner of the world. I’ve encountered sales professionals from every walk of life, different ages, genders, ethnicities and educational backgrounds. Yet there’s one big question I get asked on a consistent basis.

“How are my sales professionals compared to others?”

It’s a fair question since us sales professionals are a very competitive bunch. We yearn for the best-in-breed tools and processes that other sales organizations may have. As I first assess sales organizations and begin to answer the question, I notice a visible and obvious difference. For Social Selling, this difference is the “Skill Gap.”

The Skill Gap

The Skill Gap is the digital knowledge difference between neophytes and social ninjas in the office. If the gap is heavily weighted on the neophytes, or there are multiple social ninjas yet still many neophytes, there is a problem. The problem is education and training. How can the company expect to be widely successful if some sales professionals are rock stars, and some need massive handholding?

“The strength of a sales organization is based on its weakest sales professional”

Your existing sales professionals

What are you doing to ensure the shared knowledge between each sales professional is high? How is each sales professional using tools and processes at the same cadence, so there aren’t governance and performance issues? This is what makes performance reviews so frustrating. Unless all skills are equal, then you can isolate one or two challenges. But when there’s a huge knowledge gap (tools and process) between other sales pros, how can you pinpoint a corrective action for the next 90 days? Like a golf swing, there are too many actions to fix.

Your new hires

This is your opportunity to build a talent pool that works in unison. Meaning as a team, they are collectively sharing ideas, and learning from each other. Having these teammates as knowledgeable as your seasoned sales veterans is critical. This will allow your entire sales team to be well equipped for the market and have equal access to knowledge, resources and tools.

One funnel, team revenue

We have every sales hire walk a mile in the Marketing Team’s shoes. To truly understand “One Funnel, Team Revenue,” the sales team needs to understand exactly how leads are created, evaluated, distributed, and then actioned. We have also begun investigating a shared digital library for the best business books, a place for any teammate to listen or read the same books so we’re all on the same page. I’d like to hear what your organization is doing to avoid the dreaded “Skill Gap,” let me know your thoughts.

{{cta(‘ec55a9f6-f4e1-449d-870d-899a003e60a8’)}}

Photo courtesy of © es0lex/ Dollar Photo Club

 

Follow Us

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get our latest blogs direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive more sales insights, analysis, and perspectives from Sales For Life.

The Ultimate Guide to Social Selling