How can we learn from our best sales performers?

How do we get the rest of our sales team learning from our top performers? Should we get our top sales performer in front of our sales team to teach them how to be more effective?

Well that all depends

• How well does that top sales performer understand how and why they sell well?
• Can they articulate what they do in a step by step process?
• Can they teach to the others in a simple and meaningful way?
• Do they want to teach others?

The reality is that most top sales performers are unaware of what makes them ‘good’ which in turn makes it really hard for them to transfer and teach what they know and do to others. So how do we capture their talent, knowledge, skill or wisdom?

Job Design
One way of teaching our sales people what our best performers do is to first profile these sales superstars by using a Job Design process to map the core capabilities or competencies of top sales performers. By mapping the core capabilities or competencies of our best sales performers we make explicit the behaviours expected for effective performance in the role, and these behaviours can be easily observed in selection, development planning and performance assessment contexts.

Sadly, many organisations use generic capability or competency definitions for profiling, development and succession planning of their people if they use anything at all. However, our research has revealed that these generic competency definitions are often too generalised and not relevant to specialised roles such as sales. This drastically diminished their usefulness in performance development, coaching, talent management and so on.

A Job Design process can provide very specific behavioural criteria for all levels of sales and service roles. Once mapped, they can be implemented into recruitment kits, performance management systems, coaching, succession planning and induction processes.

Video Role Modelling
Another way is to video tape our top sales performers performing true to life role plays where they can demonstrate their sales capabilities across the sales spectrum. This works most effectively when we have a sales process that can be followed and the sales people we want to teach can see the process in action and how it’s supposed to be done via the video. If we then combine this with capabilities developed from the Job Design process, those sales people we want to teach can see the behavioral markers being applied for themselves.

And besides, positioned properly, it’s great kudos for the top sales performers and can really be an aspirational target for sales people to aim for. If you are fortunate to have a team large enough to have several top performers, video tape them all and make them available to your team. Kath Podnar, GM Sales for Jeans West, knows how effective this can be. This forms a part of their ongoing education of their front line staff, is easy to set up and inexpensive to do.

Modelling good sales capability is like learning to dance. We watch the dance moves performed by an experienced dancer while listening to the rhythm, and then we try it out for ourselves and practice, practice, practice.

Making clear and explicit the behaviours you expect to be applied in a sales role is key. Linking them to a clear sales process and giving people examples of others who can model and apply the desired behaviours and process well helps people learn more effectively.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au