As 2016 nears, most B2B companies are fine-tuning their revenue goals for next year.
And the sales targets for next year will be higher than this year. That is pretty much guaranteed.
WHY?
Because the average win rate of forecast deals for B2B companies this year was only 45.9% (Source: CSO Insights), they will have to be even higher in 2016, just to get back on track.
Being wrong 54.1% of the time means that things are going on in the sales process that salespeople are not aware of.
When quotas are announced in early January, they will typically be accompanied by so-called B2B sales training sessions designed to educate salespeople on what the company wants them to do, that will enable them to hit those targets.
These sessions are usually not real sales training sessions, but information sessions on what is needed to hit the 2016 targets.
Expectations of B2B Sales People
The sales people are expected to;
• call on executives in the C-suite,
• be challenging with their sales calls,
• create a sense of urgency,
• differentiate their company’s products or services versus those of the competition,
• sell value,
• etc.
Unfortunately, far too often, this is where the “sales training” ends. Sometimes a sales “guru” is asked to come in and give some sales training.
This guru will then give a “motivational” speech about how to succeed in sales, sprinkled with some ideas about how to hit their targets.
And then afterwards, the sales’ people are asking themselves; “How do you expect me to accomplish all of those goals?”
Regrettably, this is the scenario in too many B2B companies every year.
Does this sound familiar to your company?
The real problem here is that so called sales training (usually one session efforts) is not followed up with the needed coaching.
Imagine trying to be a top notch golfer after you only had one lesson? You go out and hit balls, practice some putting and chipping, and then can’t figure out why you can’t even break 100, never mind shoot par.
Like anything it takes years of practice and extensive COACHING to become good at golf, AND especially sales.
Through many studies, sales training without coaching is mostly useless. You usually get some gain, but everyone is back to their normal level after about one month.
In order to succeed in life and sports, and especially sales, sales people need constant reinforcement through coaching.
Does B2B Sales Coaching Pay Off?
Here are two interesting graphics about training and coaching
As you can see from the first graphic, training gives a one-time boost in sales behaviour and results, but people quickly slip back into their old familiar behaviour without coaching reinforcement, and increases in sales are negligible.
However, with coaching after training, you can see that although there is a slight dip in both graphics right after training, the sales people who received coaching keep getting better and better results.
Through all of my coaching years, I have found that coaching costs very little compared to the increased results that have occurred. In many cases, coaching fees were less than 1% of the overall increase in revenues.
So, if you truly want to grow your business, you need to have your sales people trained and coached by professionals. And in most cases, this means hiring outside professional B2B sales coaches. You will see a very worthwhile ROI.
If you want your sales people to reach their quotas this year, then get them the right coaching.
Your B2B Sales Ready Assessment
To see if your company is ready to meet their targets next year, take your here.
Kind regards,
Ian Dainty
Ian Dainty’s Email
P.S. – Be sure to “like” and share this article, using the social media buttons on the left, so your friends and colleagues can see and follow all of the articles posted here.
0 comments