Smart organizations invest in their salespeople and their sales leaders. When it comes to making these types of skill development and leadership development investments, there are four areas that are worthwhile considering and making sure that you build into your program.
The first is considering your short-term and long-term sustainability objectives. What will help us to make sure that this is a sustainable skill development program for the upcoming year? What are some of the longer-term sustainability opportunities and challenges that we may have, in say, year three and beyond?
The second element is to make sure that there are accountabilities built into the program. Self-accountabilities for any professional or leader that is participating, and accountabilities at the structural and organizational level to make sure that we’re supporting those professionals and supporting the leaders as they are developing new skills and they’re bringing them into the organization and into the marketplace.
The third is the use of data, specifically, the use of data around understanding the skill strengths and skill weaknesses of sales professionals and sales leaders. When you have a really clear understanding of where your strengths and your weaknesses are, you can make the right investments, whether it’s in the skill areas or it’s in the structural areas of your organization, to make sure that you’re creating both short- and long-term success.
The last element is the coaching element, coaching for your sales professionals, coaching for your sales leaders, and also specifically making sure you have an organizational coaching framework that your sales leaders and your sales professionals follow.
So, paying attention to sustainability, accountability, the use of data and the use of coaching will make sure that any investment that you make in a skill development program, in a structural program related to sales and sales growth, that you’ll optimize those programs and you’ll get the return on your investment. If.
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