What’s Missing from Your Sales Process? [Podcast]

What’s Missing from Your Sales Process? [Podcast]
January 4, 2018

What is the biggest challenge facing sales reps today? According to Jim Ninivaggi, Brainshark’s Chief Readiness Officer, “a lot of reps have come up without having the benefit of learning the core, basic, fundamental skills [of selling].” On a recent episode of Accelerate!, host Andy Paul and Jim discussed how the days of ‘sales academies,’ where reps were onboarded for months and much of the training was focused on core selling skills, are long gone.

Jim says we now have “a generation of sales people who are expected to have the basics, but don’t.” Many sellers are expected to complete at least a few days of product or process-based training, but are left in the dark when it comes to essential selling skills and habits. This is why many of today’s reps go straight into selling their product before asking the buyer the right questions and uncovering critical pain points, demonstrating a lack of empathy for the buyer.

The difference is that, “You have to bring your ‘A’ game every time [you talk] to a client or customer because you never know which one’s going to be a point of influence,”Andy says. So how can sales organizations ensure their reps bring their ‘A’ game and are really ready for buyer interactions?

Related: Why Sales Readiness Is Critical to Growth

In this 38-minute podcast, you’ll hear why sales readiness needs to be at the heart of every organization and how it can maximize the value of every buyer or customer interaction, including:

  • Understanding what the most fundamental selling skills are and how to help reps truly master them
  • The importance of training reps to sell to a person and not a persona
  • What a Chief Readiness Officer is and why every organization should have one
  • How to think about your selling culture as a serving culture, i.e., how are you helping the customer?
  • Simplifying the sales process for the customer to help them reach a decision faster

To listen to the full podcast episode Is Your Sales Process Sales Ready?, click here.