This week we are focusing on how you can ensure measurable Return on Investment (ROI) from a Sales Assessment programme and how you actually assemble and communicate a programme that will ensure success for the Sales Management team and the sales people too.
The first point is to decide beforehand what you are going to do with your competency assessment results once you have them. This is vital because by beginning with the end in mind, it provides you with a platform for planning the rollout of the programme, how it is communicated and "sold" internally and helps you to focus on what you can do to improve your sales team once you have assessed them.
Putting your sales team through a series of competency assessments, both online and face to face sales simulations is potentially a stressful time for the sales team. Think about it - you are really saying to the team "we want to know if you can really do the job we are paying you for".
The first thing to do once you have decided on the format and structure of your sales assessment programme is to communicate it clearly to the sales team. Outline the purpose, clarify the objective and state simply how the programme will run and what will happen, when it will take place and most importantly what happens after the competency assessments have been completed - both for those that pass the assessment and those (maybe even more importantly) that do not. The single worst thing you can do is run the programme and then not have a development programme (or exit strategy) for those that do not live up to expectations.
A sales assessment programme, using competency models and quizzes to understand skills and knowledge it exactly that. it is a programme to assess current skills and knowledge. It will not tell you how your people actually perform in front of customers. In the same way that psychometric testing is about understanding personality types and characteristic traits a competency model will not per se improve selling in your business
What will improve performance is, having assessed the team and identified development needs, then working together the sales management team and the sales people work on adopting behaviours that improve performance until they become habits.
Our top ten tips for improving sales performance post a competency assessment programme are:-
- Clearly communicate from the start why you are running the programme, what it involves and how the results will be used to improve selling behaviours
- When rolling out the programme ensure all managers brief their teams on it's importance and encourage participation
- Make it relevant to the sales people - both in terms of content of online quizzes and in terms of sales simulations
- Provide feedback and coaching to all participants immediately after any face to face sales simulations
- Use competency models that provide an output that you can use to improve selling - for example if you want to improve close rates then test closing capability in the sales simulation
- Ensure Sales Managers are bought in and that they take on the responsibility for coaching and development of the team on an ongoing basis
- Test regularly - not once every 5 years. Competency based assessments should be deployed every time a new portfolio item is launched or when there is a perceived dip in sales performance
- Use the results of the programme to improve sales performance not as a big stick or threat of dismissal
- If you need to run training courses as a result of gaps found in sales capability then re-assess skills and knowledge as part of the training course
- Always remember the customer is the most important aspect of your sales process. Involve your customers by finding out what they think of your sales team's performance and build in their views into your competency testing
As ever we are really interested in your views and comments so please tell us what you think of competency models and give us your stories around what has and has not worked for you.
