Building a Dynamic Sales Skills Strategy
With ever-shifting customer behaviors, market trends and available talent, developing today’s sales reps for tomorrow’s roles is more important than ever.
How are sales organizations adapting their skill sets to meet these dynamic challenges?
One minute insights:
More than one-third of sales professionals say they are very satisfied with their organization’s overall skills strategy
Half of respondents utilize feedback from mock customer calls or panels to help identify skill gaps
Live virtual sessions are the most common form of skills training, followed by vendor-led in-person sessions
Identifying skill gaps and ensuring training is relevant are the most common obstacles
Frequent skill testing and manager feedback the norm as most organizations are satisfied with their skills strategy
The most common way organizations identify skill gaps is from feedback from manager performance reviews (76%). Skills assessments (67%) and employee feedback from 360 reviews (58%) are the next most common approaches.
How does your organization identify skills gaps? Select all that apply.
None of these 1%
n = 86
61% of respondents report assessing the skills of their sales organization daily (20%) or weekly (41%).
How frequently do you assess the skills of your sales organization?
n = 86
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Question: What, if anything, would you change about your sales organization’s skills strategy?
Finding the time for more assessment of current skills and benchmarking.
93% are very satisfied (37%) or somewhat satisfied (56%) with their organization’s overall skills strategy.
How satisfied are you with your sales organization’s overall skills strategy?
Somewhat dissatisfied 0%
n = 86
Organization’s commonly turn to on-the-job training and virtual classes to address skill gaps
The two most commonly selected sales skills in need of the most improvement are knowledge of product and use cases (58%), and sales processes (58%).
Which of the following sales skills needs the most improvement in your organization? Select all that apply
Retention strategy 29% | Networking skills 26% | Industry knowledge 20% | Other 0%
n = 86
On-the-job training (70%), coaching and/or mentoring (65%) and online or virtual training (64%) are the three most commonly selected ways that organizations address skill gaps.
How do you address skills gaps within your sales organization? Select all that apply.
Redesigning territories/redistributing accounts 29% | Other 1%
Other response: “Immersive practice”
n = 86
Question: What, if anything, would you change about your sales organization’s skills strategy?
I feel like we are lacking in collaboration…mentorship programs are a great start, in my opinion.
Live virtual sessions (32%) are the most common form of skills training, followed by vendor-led in-person sessions (26%).
Which of the following is the most common way you deploy skills training for your sales organization?
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
n = 86
Identifying skills gaps remains a key obstacle among sales teams
Tracking sales performance (90%) is the most common way respondents ensure training and development programs effectively improve performance.
How do you ensure training and development programs effectively improve sales performance? Select all that apply.
Other 1%
Other response: “They are unique and targeted to the individual so they always increase performance.”
n = 86
Identifying skills gaps (41%) is the most selected challenge faced when building a skills strategy
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced building a skills strategy for your sales organization?
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Respondent Breakdown
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
Respondents: 86 sales directors, VPs, and C-level executives whose sales organizations have a reactive, adaptive, or mixed skills strategy in place to grow talent