Listening to Sales Reps Can Deliver These Five Benefits

We are so much better at talking than listening – despite having been given two ears but only one mouth. This certainly applies to me, and it also applies to most people at b-to-b organizations. Everyone wants to enable sales reps, but how often do we ask, listen and then act on what reps say in return?  At this year’s SiriusDecisions Summit, I will share ideas on how to create an always-on, systemic set of tactics that can be used to capture insights from sales reps to change the way we do business. 

There are five different types of insights that can help the company improve its competitiveness by enabling companies to do the following:

• Improve sales enablement. Reps frequently need to ask questions of subject matter experts who are scattered throughout the organization. Getting insights on what sales needs to know is useful for improving knowledge transfer, training and empowerment materials (e.g. sales aids).
• Improve rep efficiency. Reps know what works and what doesn’t work. For example, they know which administrative steps in a sales process are a waste of time and should be removed, which steps should be automated and which steps should be added. Gathering and acting on rep insights into the internal workings of the company can make sales more efficient.
• Improve messaging and offerings. Sales has insights into what messages and content resonate with buyers. They can provide great observational insights on what customers find good and bad about solutions. Collecting and analyzing reps’ observations about the market can improve messaging, offerings and the customer experience.
• Increase innovation. Sales reps are great sources for innovation. Capturing and analyzing rep ideas for new offerings, tools and processes can help a company jump ahead of the market.
• Increase best practices. High-performing sales reps have figured out how to execute effectively.  Capturing and mining their best practices can support enablement efforts to develop all reps.

At our upcoming Summit, in addition to sharing a few other benefits of listening to sales reps, I will also present the tactics that can be used to assemble a “listening program” – also known as a sales advocacy program. Unlike the well-known mantra of “Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” we’d like you to share what you hear with others on your team!  After all, listening is only the first step – sharing and taking action are next.

SiriusDecisions Summit 2018 will be held May 8-10 at the Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas. Click here for more information and to register today!