A team only performs well on game day if players have had the right practice leading up to it, and sales teams are no different. These days, as customer experience becomes increasingly important, how can companies prepare their sales teams to shine during clutch moments?
Patrick Burke, TTEC’s senior vice president of program sales, recently spoke with Customer Strategist Journal Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Glagowski about the crucial role practice plays in a sales team’s success. Here are some highlights from their discussion.
Leverage data for peak sales performance
Just as a playbook tells sports teams which strategies to implement, data analytics give sales teams valuable insights into how they should spend their time and resources.
Real-time data, in particular, are key assets when crafting a sales strategy. Performance indicators, speech analytics, and other metrics can help a team determine best practices. Data from speech analytics, for instance, allows managers to give instant feedback and suggestions to team members based on real-time performance.
The power of data increases exponentially when it’s in the hands of a highly trained and experienced sales leadership team. Data and a team that knows how to use it: they form the crux of an unbeatable team.
“Both of those ensure we have a highly engaged and motivated sales team,” Burke said.
Master before moving on
It may be tempting to unload a lot of information onto a sales team, expect them to internalize it quickly, and thrust them out into the field as soon as possible. But that’s not the best way to nurture sales reps and could prove to be a major misstep, Burke cautioned.
A more successful approach, he said, is giving sales reps one technique and ensuring they can master it, with support from team leadership. Only once that step is mastered, move them on to the next technique or opportunity.
Having sales reps focus in such a singular way gives them the chance to truly master each task. This deliberate repetition and attention to detail will save time and money in the long run, producing a seasoned and knowledgeable workforce.
Coach in real time
Thanks to speech analytics, sales team managers have an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to improving team performance: near-real-time data.
Recording reps, and analyzing what’s captured, produces valuable coaching tips that can be passed on almost immediately. Doing so quickly identifies areas where improvement is needed. It also gives the opportunity to shine a light on – and share – success stories. Others can learn from what their peers are doing that’s working well.
“We’re able to do that often times with our speech analytics, and we’re also able to drive peer review through speech analytics,” Burke said. “We can tell all the reps what our top agents do, the techniques they leverage, what they say, when they say it. Highly engaged sales associates produce winning teams.”
