So who owns the responsibility of development - The debate continues

Last week I highlighted a debate that is taking place on LinkedIn about the role of sales trainers, sales training, coaching and who ultimately owns responsibility for developing the team.

This week the debate has progressed and a number of themes have started to appear:

• Sales management - should they coach?
• Sales people - should they own their own development?
• Selling - is it a profession?

Sales Management - should they coach?

The discussion has highlighted a number of key issues:

• Do we have the right sales managers and do they know what to do?
• The contributors of the debate are clear
• "A good manager provides direction, council and encourages staff development."
• "A large percentage of the sales leaders we work with don't have the required skills (and in some cases, traits) to coach, train, develop, manage, and lead their teams. The unfortunate ones either don't know it or know it and don't look for outside help. That's why the average tenure among sales leaders is less than 2 years."
• Who does the coaching? -
• "Everyone benefits from outside professional programs -- if they are good."
• "Personally I am very passionate about training at all levels, including research, content and delivery. That said, demands on delivering all the arms of sales strategy can often mean you have to hand it over to your divisional heads. If nothing else than to contribute to their personal development too. "
• "External suppliers set the ground rules, managers have to own the delivery and behavioural change"

Clearly there is a view that sales managers, as a generalisation, lack the skills to coach and they need external help. But there is also a growing viewpoint that coaching is a fundamental part of sales management and that they should ultimately own the role of head coach, even if they delegate specific activities.

Sales People - should they own their own development?

This has already drawn out some interesting views:

• "When you look at sales as a profession, and compare that to being a surgeon, lawyer, pilot, realtor, electrician, dentist, civil engineer, and most other professions, you quickly realize that every other one has oversight, requirements, governance, or a government agency or professional standard for continuing education."
• "We do not know what the appropriate skill set for sales is, how can we expect the rep to know?"
• "I agree that the rep has primary responsibility for their own development. I've always had a significant library available of both sales books, CDs, etc. AND information about my customers' business. This includes general business and marketing topics as well."
• "I firmly believe that every rep's review must have an education accessment and plan component."

Our experience, based on recent discussions, is that more organisations are looking for sales reps to truly own their own development. The organisation will provide a range of resources, but it is up to the sales rep to use them and prove the progress they have made. Success is no longer a certificate of attendance on a course.

Selling - Is it a Profession?

There is a clear theme coming out from a number of parties about the need to make selling a profession and have its own "professional body".

• "If the company, employers and/or trainers cannot agree (or prove) what it is that makes a successful sales professional, then perhaps we will do better to try and establish a critical mass of opinion/proof via an independent body. "

There are already two "professional bodies" making a claim for the sales profession, the ISMM and IPS (Part of the CIM). Currently neither of these has made any real progress and there are other bodies trying to be set-up, e.g "The Association of Sales Professionals", but these may have the issue of being associated with a particular view point of the founder.

Do you want a professional body?

We would like to hear your views, is the answer a professional body that oversees continual professional development, that provides a recognised certification that crosses organisations and provides structure for coaching and personal development?

We are speaking to many organisations who are defining their own development structures and "certification"; should we be saying to them, "join with us to work with a professional body", or do you really care?

Please give us your view, either comment on this blog or e-mail mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com.

Help us move the debate away from training providers and towards the sales community itself.

We look forward to hearing your views.