Effective sales leadership and sales management are crucial to sales team performance and bottom-line results. Surprisingly, while a recent Sales Xceleration survey revealed that 96% of Sales Managers recognize the need for sales leadership training, only 1 in 5 organizations budget for it.
Why does this sales leadership training gap persist? Three primary reasons:
- Ignoring the risks of not providing sales leadership training
- Not understanding the potential rewards of effective sales leadership training
- Seeing sales management training as an expense rather than an investment that can have significant ROI
The good news is there’s a solution to help your company overcome the sales leadership training gap. More about that in a moment…
Risks of NOT Providing Proper Sales Management Training
Sales Xceleration’s survey results spotlight two significant and related problems facing sales managers and executives:
- 67% of salespeople fail to achieve their sales quotas
- 3% of companies have not provided their sales managers with any sales leadership training, putting at risk not just future sales, but also morale, sales team stability, the company’s reputation and even its very existence
First things first: two out of every three salespeople do not achieve their quotas! That’s hardly an endorsement for the status quo. While this failure to meet established sales goals can be rooted in many areas, including ineffective onboarding of new sales team members, the primary reason is often highlighted by the second stat: more than half of small and mid-sized businesses have not provided sales leadership training.
Ask yourself this: What would happen if your sales management and sales leadership performance improved? Would it create greater sales rep performance because your sales team is now being led by a trained sales leader? That’s certainly the effect we’ve seen as a result of our Certified Sales Leader (CSL) training program.
But what do you risk by NOT providing effective sales management training?
Sales
Salespeople typically bear the blame for poor sales. Often, however, the inability of these front-line performers (or underperformers) to meet or exceed sales goals results from weak sales management.
Morale
A poorly managed sales team is usually an unmotivated one. And an unmotivated sales team is both unhappy and underperforming. Result: a toxic sales department culture that can poison the larger organization.
Sales Team Stability
When sales team morale is in the dumpster, sales reps look for opportunities in more supportive and functional organizations. And when team members jump ship, the entire sales organization must pick up the slack while new recruits are onboarded and integrated into a still unhealthy culture. This can become a costly, vicious cycle of dysfunction.
Your Company’s Reputation
When a business owner tolerates ineffective sales leadership, sales team members often lose respect for the underqualified Sales Manager, for the business owner and for the business itself. This state of disunion often seeps out into the marketplace, too, tarnishing the corporate brand.
The Existence of Your Business
If sales are weak, morale is bad, sales team members are abandoning ship, and your reputation is in ruins, how long will your business stay afloat?
Rewards of Effective Sales Leadership Training
On the other hand, properly trained sales managers are well-equipped with essential skills and tools to manage their sales team to ensure goals and objectives are met. They can create a progressive and cohesive vision for the sales organization. They have the confidence and ability to develop and manage sales strategies and processes. And they can motivate, inspire, coach and lead sales team members to achieve the individual performance goals necessary for overall company success.
Return on Your Investment for Effective Sales Leadership Training
Why is effective sales management and sales leadership training like Sales Xceleration’s CSL training a valuable investment?
- Your Sales Manager will possess the tools and leadership skills to help your team exceed sales goals and deliver on your company’s revenue targets – now and in the future.
- You can bring a new level of excellence to underperforming processes, tracking, measuring, messaging and coaching for acquiring new clients and growing existing clients.
- Your Sales Manager’s mindset is reset so they see the “big picture view” and can focus on overall corporate objectives, in addition to sales rep improvement and sales department success.
- Your Sales Manager will be able to confidently create and communicate a vision; and can measure sales team performance and authoritatively hold team members accountable.
The Bottom Line:
Poor sales leadership carries significant risks. Superior sales leadership, on the other hand, is the driving force behind superior sales results. The simplest path to those results is via top-quality sales leadership training like Sales Xceleration’s CSL program.
We developed our CSL training to help small and mid-sized businesses benefit from superior sales leadership to optimize revenue performance and business growth. Led by Sales Xceleration-licensed Advisors, CSL training is conducted in-person and focuses on specific company needs while also providing a comprehensive sales leadership curriculum in 16 lessons. These lessons offer comprehensive overviews, role-playing exercises, coaching, templates and tools to ensure your Sales Manager understands the topics and develops the skills to implement these proven practices for your company. Class participants also leave with a toolkit to assist with the implementation of new processes and procedures. Are you ready to see how your sales leadership skills stack up? Take Our Free Sales Leadership Assessment
To learn more about the CSL program, click here or contact us today at 844.874.7253. The program is guaranteed to pay for itself!