Having transitioned from direct selling to learning and development a couple of times in my career, I have noticed some deficits in skilling approaches that may not be obvious to those who have never sold. In the past couple of years, I have been working hard to promote and protect the learner’s perspective.
My unique position allows me to speak from personal experience and share stories from my colleagues and friends. In this article, I will share my story and highlight opportunities I have found for curiosity, growth and ways to ensure that the learner is at the center of every skilling experience you build.
The backstory
When I was 18, I started my career as an appointment scheduler for an energy company. My job was to schedule meetings for outside sales reps. That’s it, just get the appointment.
My first week consisted of reading a “new hire” three-ring binder, listening to my peers on the phone and being watched by a supervisor while I trembled, picking up the phone for the first time ever. Once I realized there was nothing to fear, I discovered I could persuade customers to sign contracts without meeting in person. The leadership team was impressed by my performance and promoted me to outside sales after a short two months in the appointment setter role.
- What worked well?
- Reference material to review.
- Hearing peers’ positioning, customer responses and objection handling.
- Peer mentorship.
- What didn’t work?
- Not having a safe place to practice before getting on the phone.
- According to a study by CSO Insights, “65 percent of salespeople say they can’t find content to send to prospects. This means that they are missing out on opportunities to educate their prospects and move them along the sales cycle.” Another study by Aberdeen Group found that “best-in-class companies provide their sales teams with easy access to relevant content at each stage of the buyer’s journey. This helps them tailor their messages and offers to their prospects’ needs and preferences.”
Over the next seven years, I worked for four different energy companies. After experiencing a few organizations being sold/closing/transitioning “go to market” strategies, I decided it was time to switch to a different industry and went into digital marketing. It felt easy at first, but I quickly hit a lull. I found myself struggling to hit my numbers for an entire quarter. I was going to lose my job.
Shortly after, a new leadership team came in and shook up the way we approached customers. They decided to rally us together for an offsite event in Florida, to teach us a new method of selling. It involved memorizing scripts, getting a certification on the “storytelling,” and capitalizing on strategic value points for various industries.
I followed the method blindly because I knew I had nothing to lose. My ego was already bruised. And it worked! I started selling so much that they decided to promote me to a sales trainer.
- What worked well there?
- A framework for telling stories, connected directly to the industry-specific pain points.
- Scripted in a way that built confidence in the solution.
- What didn’t work well?
- Rigid certifications where we needed to be able to tell the value story for each solution, word for word.
- According to a study by Corporate Visions, “79 percent of buyers say they want sellers to tell stories that show value rather than just list facts and features.” Another study by Gong.io found that “top-performing sellers use stories 1.6 times more often than average performers. Stories help sellers capture customers’ attention, build trust and rapport and differentiate themselves from competitors.”
When I was a sales trainer, we used a classroom-style approach to train people in their first month at the organization.
- What worked well there?
- A stepped approach that slowly moved into practical application with feedback.
- What didn’t work well?
- Culturally, the environment was harsh. There wasn’t much room for accepting “non-certified” sellers. Meaning, that if they did terribly on their script memorizations, oftentimes, it was recommended they don’t pass the training course, which ultimately meant they didn’t have a job at the end.
So, how can someone without direct sales experience get in the mind of a seller?
Determine your audience and their needs: Consider at what level your skilling needs to start. Someone who is brand new to sales needs a different level of skilling than someone who has been selling for 15 years or is managing a bunch of sellers. You can break it into two of the highest buckets: onboarding and continuing education. You may also consider what “bare minimum” knowledge is needed for someone to sell the identified solution and then how you might build on that knowledge through observed practice, peer mentorship and coaching.
Consider the strategy for how you approach each of these audiences to group skilling appropriately:
- Level 1: What is core and common knowledge everyone needs to know?
- Level 2: What are the skills that someone can self-identify and build to improve individual performance, with manager sponsorship?
- Level 3: What are the advanced skills that need to be mastered to become experts in the role?
Interview people doing the job: Interviewing sellers directly is the best way to gain their perspectives. However, it’s not that simple. Executives and stakeholders may tell you what the current gap is, but it’s important to find out why there is a gap in the first place. In my experience, when we didn’t press on why there was a gap in performance, we missed the mark on the training and had lower scores from the learner. To make improvements across your organization, consider the story you need to tell. The audience intended for the skilling experience is the best suited to help you get at the “what,” “why,” and “how.”
Are your top sellers the ones to tell the best stories? Not always. Something I have repeatedly run into is that the best sellers don’t inherently know how to describe what they are doing. It comes naturally to them to do and feels too simple to explain to others or silly to say out loud. You may need to pry with open-ended questions to get them to give you the details you need to create a repeatable framework for others.
Identify the right delivery format: It is important to note that accessibility is crucial for diverse audiences, including those in the neurodiverse community and global audiences. To ensure the inclusion of all, it is recommended to work with experienced professionals and take additional considerations while skilling:
- Is the skilling needed for critical knowledge building, where one-way communication/demonstration can land the message? This approach could be lecture-style to ensure there is true clarity on something. But that doesn’t mean it’s the best for retention.
- Is it necessary to pivot how people are doing something and you need to convince them why it’s important to make a shift? Two-way dialogue is key here because otherwise, you will never get people through the change curve. They need to feel heard, ask questions, poke holes. And you may even gain valuable perspectives for how to improve something through the process.
- Is it a new product/solution that needs base-level skilling, practice and support?
- How can you incorporate a mix of all the right approaches based upon the existing gap?
According to the Learning Pyramid, researched and created by the National Training Laboratories, “the average retention rates for new information are as follows:
- 5 percent: Lecture
- 10 percent: Reading
- 20 percent: Audio-visual
- 30 percent: Demonstration
- 50 percent: Discussion
- 75 percent: Practice doing
- 90 percent: Teaching back to others”
Incorporate fun and gamification into your programs, ensuring they are not superficial but based on real stories that resonate with people: As I reflect on successful past programs, I think about the fact that they were successful due to careful consideration of learner objectives. You will need to reinforce key themes or knowledge throughout the experience. You may consider an online self-paced format or a facilitated event for narrative control. Once you have the gamified program built, consider running a pilot first to ensure the experience is seamless. Regardless, keep groups small to ensure no one is left behind, that every learner had the opportunity to participate, and their voice was heard.
Be sure to survey them after:
- Could they retain the information needed?
- Did they enjoy the experience?
- Did they feel like every minute was worth the energy they spent doing it?
Use all the feedback to make changes. Just because something worked a year ago, doesn’t mean it still works. Be open to revisions and feedback. Sometimes this is the hardest part. I see people get married to solutions they built out of pure pride, yet the data shows people are not happy with the experience or that it doesn’t give the right level of knowledge.
Takeaways
Ultimately, you need to take your time when you are building skilling to ensure you have identified the right needs. Sometimes we think we have the right stakeholders, and although well-intentioned and knowledgeable, often they are too far removed to tell the detailed stories you need to fill your gaps. You need to use real sellers to help you build and review your skilling approach before you push it to the masses.
Remember to keep the skilling program as short as possible, even if you think it couldn’t possibly be landed in under 30 minutes, challenge yourself to stick to the main points. Figure out how to make it bite-sized, maybe even under five minutes and topical. Remember, we need our sellers selling! This will allow for the right level of knowledge to be shared, improve retention, and the ability to get through the change curve faster. If a seller is onboard with what you built, they will advocate for it as well. Which means your landing of the skilling experience will be improved.
