A critical component to the success of any sales team is enablement, especially in ever-changing sectors like technology. Setting up training for not only the solution reps are trying to sell, but also the ecosystem that is around your product. Sales reps to be experts in their field and act as customer advisors to be successful. However, there is one thing that you can not teach, experience.
I have trained and/or mentored more than 100 reps over my career and it can be a frustrating, rewarding, and difficult task. Many time I would get frustrated when watching reps take calls or customer meetings and they miss critical ques in the prospects demeanor, statements, or body language. As seasoned reps it comes almost by instinct to know when to push the soft sale, to ask for the business, or know when to back off. Often we forget when we are mentoring a new rep that they don’t have the same level of experience. For inside sales or business development roles this may be the very first time the rep has presented to anyone other than their classmates in school. Nerves and anxiety comes into play as a distraction.
I believe it is important when we are mentoring reps to find situations that gives them experience of tough situations. Role playing is part of it, but getting them in front of low-value targets early in their training is also a great strategy. One thing that I have always found helpful when training is to do customer call debriefs with the rep as soon after the meeting as possible. If onsite with a customer, take time when leaving to go over what went well, what cues they might have missed, and your take on the meeting. This immediate feedback will help the rep adapt and learn more quickly than trying to recap on the next week’s 1:1.
Most importantly, as mentors we should always be aware of the experience level of our mentee when giving advice or training. As mentees we need to always look for situations that will move us out of our comfort zone and give us new experiences. If you are just breaking into a sales career try to find a mentor who will take the time and help you gain the experience you need to be successful.
