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Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
How to Establish Company Culture During Online Sales Training:Developing a Foundation for Better Sales Staff Retention
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
MindTickle enables businesses, trainers and individuals to
transform their existing online content (PPTs, Videos, documents)
into an interactive learning experience.
MindTickle engages the learner and makes learning efficient,
effective and delightful through a unique combination of game
mechanics (points, medals, badges and leaderboard) and social
tools (profiles, comments, chat and walls).
The platform has been globally adopted by several Fortune
500 customers, and over 55,000 users have benefited from
MindTickle products.
MindTickle has global sales presence with headquarters in the
United States, and development / operations team in India.
About MindTickle
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
Benjamin Franklin
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
Author
Mohit GargMindTickle Co-Founder @mindticklemindtickle.com
Mohit has a diverse work experience spanning across 14
years and four continents.
Prior to co-founding MindTickle, he was a Director in
PwC’s management consulting practice at New York, and
has been a senior member of product teams.
He was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Startup
Leadership Program (SLP) in 2012. Mohit holds an MBA
degree from ISB and MSEE from Stanford University.
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
Table of Contents
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
The Connection Between Sales Education, Retention & Company Culture
Company culture and sales staff education have
become BFFs, and the fact that they pack more punch
together has been a well-ignored detail for at least a
century. Dale Carnegie unwrapped the pair’s power 100
years ago, showing that engaged employees are 202%
more productive than bored ones.
Companies with a reputation for retaining star sales
people over the course of many years understand that
quality training and a winning culture is a major reason
employees stay on the job.
Ask any human resources professional and they will
agree that these factors, more so than money, is the key
to employee retention.
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
Google-EDU’s teaching techniques were overhauled
when co-founder, Larry Page, took over two year training
program—a revamp that was so steeped in pizzazz that
it became the theme of the Hollywood comedy, The
Internship.
If you walked into Googleplex, you’d see hundreds of
young techies learning as a team while playing in a zany
high-tech playground.
You might think that Larry’s lesson lies in adding a few
wacky concepts and animated games to your training
videos, and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong, but Google
has something more important to teach: The only way
to develop corporate culture in your online sales training
program is by understanding what company culture
means.
The most likely reason behind tanking culture
development is a failure to define it.
First You Must Define Your Company’s Culture
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
Why should you care about culture?
Culture is the values, mindsets, and behaviors that constitute an
environment conducive to success. Culture is the glue that binds
your business and is a fundamental motivator for your staff.
Anyone who has had the opportunity to work for several businesses
will say that they can recognize tangible differences in culture. That
tangible feeling can be an inspiration to a sales team or it can be
suffocating.
What’s more, according to Paul Meehan of Bain and Company,
culture motivates your staff to do the right thing rather than
the easy thing. In the Bain survey he cites, “81% of executives
agreed that a company without a winning culture was doomed to
mediocrity.”
If you don’t offer some elements of your corporate culture in
ongoing sales education, you’re missing a huge opportunity to
make the information stick and resonate. Simply put, it’s time to
step into the social learning renaissance with the kind of corporate
culture even Google would envy.
What is Culture and How Does This Help Your Sales Team?
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
Assessing Cultural Fit
Many sales managers make the mistake of hiring based on resumes without considering cultural fit.
Cultural fit is not an easy thing to assess in an interview. Jim Roddy from ere.net says that: “determining
a cultural fit isn’t as simple as describing your work environment and then asking the candidate for a
thumbs up.”
In fact, you don’t want to offer details about your culture until near the end of your interview process.
Roddy says: “Don’t tip your hand by giving information that will coach them on how to answer your
initial questions.”
Take a step back and consider your culture and the attributes that make your business wonderful.
Consider how you can reinforce this in the hiring process. Ask questions about your candidate’s
experience with company culture and how they’ve dealt with any potential challenges that corporate
culture may have presented.
From the initial advertisement of the sales role, to the phone screen, to the face to face interview, take
advantage of opportunities to screen for fit with the culture of your team ensuring that you are setting
your new sales reps up for success.
Hiring Salespeople That Are a Fit For Your Culture
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
How to Build A Winning Sales Culture With Online Sales Training
Building a Great Sales Culture
Culture helps to make every unit of your sales staff a core part of your future. When your online
sales training programs urge your staff members to pitch cool ideas, your foundation for innovation
strengthens.
Think about your experience with sales training and how participation made you feel. Did you feel special?
Did you feel included? Did you feel valuable? Let’s explore how to use culture building to increase sales
staff performance.
Before your new sales reps start you can begin laying down the bricks of corporate culture that will
eventually lead to your most profit driving sales team yet. With online sales training, you can start
educating the new hires about the company, competition, customers, technologies and policies as soon
as they sign that offer letter. A faster onboarding process means that your sales team will be productive
more quickly.
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
Facilitate Communication
1. Encourage Dialogue
Encourage dialogue by giving your sales team online access to each other for question and answer
sessions. Connect your new sales staff to more seasoned sellers by facilitating online social interactions
between the new hires community across the various campuses and geographies.
By connecting the newest members of your sales team to your seasoned sales reps, you are
demonstrating the sales culture with the people that are at the very core of your culture. In addition,
you are building your sales leaders of the future.
Selling is emotional. Selling takes energy. And many salespeople need to be sold on the greater good of
what they’re doing. They need to understand that they are contributing to a bigger picture.
You can even have them come up with their own creed by just capturing their responses in a group
setting to the questions “What do we believe in and why are we here?” Salespeople need vision and it’s
the job of leadership to help that vision come alive.
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
Assess Sales Performance and Manage Low Performers
2. Evaluate Performance
How are you evaluating the performance of your sales team? Usually sales managers know when a salesperson is
underperforming within the first two months. However, it may take a while for sales managers to let that person
go.
Remember underperforming sales reps can be damaging to your sales team culture. It is important to address
this before they become a major cost to your business. Online sales training programs are just another way for
you to stay on top your sales team’s progress.
Most good salespeople need and welcome regular accountability and partnership. Spending regular one-on-one
time with your people not only gives you a chance to mentor and train with them; it shows that what they do is
important and that you care about their success.
Part of the reason why sales coaching has become so popular in recent years is because companies are stretched
thin by tight budgets and managers are not able to spend enough individual time with their people so they seek
outside reinforcement. Start recognizing top leaders in a big public way. One of the fastest ways we get results
for clients is helping them create an incentive plan for driving activity.
While bonuses usually have to stay tied to production, you can offer creative affordable incentives to boost
activity. Top performing sales reps are competitive. With the right culture in place they will want to pursue the
recognition.
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
Reinforce Systems and Processes
3. Practice Makes Perfect
As a sales manager it is your job to enable your team with
the tools and training they need to be successful. It is
important to establish a sales culture with defined processes
to help your team grow. This is critical for new hires but it is
also important to deliver ongoing sales training to your team
to reinforce good sales habits.
The only way to improve is to practice. With ongoing
online sales training, you can make sure that your team is
constantly improving. Measure the top five daily revenue
producing activities of every salesperson. Whatever system
you use is fine, but the data is essential for monitoring
because numbers can tell a story.
Sales is and always will be a numbers game. Whoever
speaks with the most qualified prospects in the shortest
time has the best chance of success. With strong processes
in place you will increase activity and your sales will grow!
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
Conclusion
Interactive training infused with culture wakes up tired minds,
increasing engagement and learning potential. Gone are the
days when training was about teaching alone. Now reinforcing
your culture it is a way to establish the kind of sales team your
business needs.
Graphics and computer companies have made corporate culture
seem to be about installing nap pods and water slides into your
office space, but the reality is a touch more practical. Culture
is a conglomeration of the behavioral norms and values that
underline your company’s collective personality.
At MindTickle we are here to help your company create a
remarkable online sales training program where your culture
shines through. An investment in infusing culture into your
ongoing sales training will increase your staff retention rate.
With MindTickle you can take your current sales training
materials and convert them into an online format that is
convenient, flexible, and saves you money in preparing training
events.
Copyright © 2013 - www.mindtickle.com
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