The Four Pillars of Sales Readiness Jim Ninivaggi Chief Readiness Officer, Brainshark
The Four Pillars of Sales Readiness
Jim Ninivaggi
Chief Readiness Officer, Brainshark
Getting Reps Ready
“Do you want to becomfortable
or do you want to be ready?
They’re not necessarily the same.”
Dave Alred, Performance Coach
Today’s Agenda
• From Sales Training to Sales Readiness
• Four Pillars of Sales Readiness
• Best Practices Across the Pillars
From Sales Training to Sales Readiness
At This Very Minute…
Can You Answer This Simple Question…
Are Our Reps Ready?
How Do You Know????
Are Our Reps Ready ?
Step #1 – Over-hire new reps by 20%
“Because we’ve given up on having a higher success rate.”
Step #2 – Over-quota by 20% to hit company targets
“Because we know 40% of reps will fail to hit their number.”.”
Most companies don’t know if a rep is (or isn’t) ready until AFTER they’ve already failed
So what do you do?
Step #3 – Cross fingers and hope for the best
It’s been like this forever…
.”
What is Sales Readiness?
Sales readiness – a core component of sales enablement – involves all strategic activities designed to prepare sellers with the knowledge and skills to make the most of every buyer interaction, whether it’s via email, phone, video conference, or face-to-face.
Sales Readiness: A Component of Sales Enablement
Sales Readiness
• Recruiting• Hiring• Onboarding• Transformation• Continuous Learning• Role Development
Sales Asset Management
• Create• Store/Manage• Deliver to Reps• Share with Buyers• Measure Impact
Sales Comm. Aggregation
• Emails to Field• Sales Broadcasts• Newsletters• Sales Portals• Social• Sales meetings
Four Readiness Pillars
Foundational Continuous Transformational Reactive
The Four Sales Readiness Pillars
Accelerate time to full productivity and improve
retention across every role in the field.
Ensure every member of the field is always ready to maximize every buyer
interaction.
“Re-Board” the entire field while minimizing impact on productivity
and revenue.
Get your entire field message ready in days
or hours.
“We need our sellers to get ramped up and productive faster.”
“This new product is a game changer. How do we get our
reps ready to sell it?”
“This isn’t working – we need our reps to start selling to the C-suite.”
“Two of our competitors just merged. What’s our
message to buyers?”
Foundational Continuous Transformational Reactive
Sales Managers: The Foundation of the Four Sales Readiness Pillars
“We need our sellers to get ramped up and productive faster.”
“This new product is a game changer. How do we get our
reps ready to sell it?”
“This isn’t working – we need our reps to start selling to the C-suite.”
“Two of our competitors just merged. What’s our
message to buyers?”
Sales Management Readiness
Best Practices
Foundational Continuous Transformational Reactive
Sales Managers: The Foundation of the Four Sales Readiness Pillars
“We need our sellers to get ramped up and productive faster.”
“This new product is a game changer. How do we get our
reps ready tosell it?”
“This isn’t working – we need our reps to start selling to the C-suite.”
“Two of our competitors just merged. What’s our
message to buyers?”
Sales Management Readiness
Death by PowerPoint
Hire “experience”
$
Foundational: Onboarding Methods That Don’t Work
Rolodex Check the Boxes
On the job training
Practice on Buyers
• Map time to first critical activities with your sales leadership
• Run 4-6 weeks sprints to get reps ready for next activity
• Build out the assessments and certifications (synchronous and asynchronous)
• Use the onsite “boot-camp” for practice and simulation
• Onboarding programs for all roles
Foundational: Agile Onboarding
Foundational Continuous Transformational Reactive
Sales Managers: The Foundation of the Four Sales Readiness Pillars
“We need our sellers to get ramped up and productive faster.”
“This new product is a game changer. How do we get our
reps ready to sell it?”
“This isn’t working – we need our reps to start selling to the C-suite.”
“Two of our competitors just merged. What’s our
message to buyers?”
Sales Management Readiness
Continuous Readiness: Top Reps Demand It
of high performers indicated a lack of ongoing learning as a key driver in leaving
a company.
39%
Base• Micro-learning• Quick knowledge checks• Peer learning
Assess• Video-based role-play• Machine Analysis• Virtual coaching
Ready• Live simulation• In-field assessment• Coaching guided by technology
Perpetual Readiness
BASE
BASE > ASSESS > READY > REPEAT
Perpetual Readiness
Foundational Continuous Transformational Reactive
Sales Managers: The Foundation of the Four Sales Readiness Pillars
“We need our sellers to get ramped up and productive faster.”
“This new product is a game changer. How do we get our
reps ready to sell it?”
“This isn’t working – we need our reps to start selling to the C-suite.”
“Two of our competitors just merged. What’s our
message to buyers?”
Sales Management Readiness
Transformational: Mind Shift A Different Conversation
• Examples:- Merger/Acquisition
- New markets
- New buyers
- New sales approach
• Trickle-down approach
• The four ‘Cs’ - Coaching. Competent. Confident. Conversation.
• Pilot with small group
• Clear instructions
• Clear on assessment
• Limit reviewers to three or less
• Limit leaderboard to top 25 or less
• In some cases, feedback should be live
• Practice makes perfect
Like assessing live, ensure the rep and assessor know what good looks like
Assessing via Video Platform
Machine analysis for video-based assessment
Foundational Continuous Transformational Reactive
Sales Managers: The Foundation of the Four Sales Readiness Pillars
“We need our sellers to get ramped up and productive faster.”
“This new product is a game changer. How do we get our
reps ready tosell it?”
“This isn’t working – we need our reps to start selling to the C-suite.”
“Two of our competitors just merged. What’s our
message to buyers?”
Sales Management Readiness
You Wake Up Monday Morning…
• Emergency broadcast system
• Prep through simulation
• Manager accountability
Reactive: Days (Hours) to Mastery
Key Takeaways
• The 4 pillars of sales readiness: Foundational, Continuous, Transformational, Reactive
• Foundational – Consider a competency-based approach to onboarding (Agile Onboarding)
• Continuous – Encourage managed peer-to-peer learning
• Transformation – M&A, new markets, etc. are critical triggers for readiness
• Reactive – Readiness requirements go from days to hours
• Sales manager enablement forms the foundation of the readiness pillars
For more information on sales enablement & readiness, visit us at www.brainshark.com.
Questions?
Jim NinivaggiChief Readiness OfficerBrainsharklinkedin.com/in/jninivaggi@Jninivaggi