Are effective salespeople born or bred? Can successful direct salespeople automatically convert to successful channel sales professionals? Is there a role for formal channel sales training and certification or should it simply be left to learning “on the job”? These are the questions that many heads of channel management find themselves facing year after year.
There continues to be little research conducted in the areas of channel sales and channel management training so to find the answers we usually need to look to studies on the impact of direct sales training. LinkedIn, for example, produced a “State of Sales Pocket Guide” in 2020 to assess the impact of the Covid 19 environment on sales skills and the importance that buyers place on various elements of a salesperson’s skillsets.
The results are interesting in that they reinforce the consistent message that effective salespeople need to far more listening than talking. Even more importantly, they need to be “active” listeners, seeking out a thorough understanding of the buyer’s situation and needs. The following chart from the LinkedIn study highlights the key skills that effective sales (and therefore channel management professionals) need to have according to professional buyers.
LinkedIn “State of Sales Pocket Guide 2020”.
The question for heads of channel management is whether they believe that sales people are born with these skills, or need to invest in developing these skills over time.
Another piece of research conducted by Training Industry Inc. in association with the Sales Readiness Group suggests that sales people themselves believe that these are skills that need to be developed over time through formal channel management training. This research found that the most effective channel management and salespeople place strong emphasis on the importance of sales training to help them to achieve their sales goals. The chart below outlines that fully 87% of sales people believe that sales training has a moderate to large impact on their ability to be effective in achieving sales goals.
The same research also stressed the impact on lost revenue to a business by having poorly trained sales and channel management team members. While effective sales and channel management training can get a new hire up to speed in 24 weeks, ineffective training can delay effective onboarding by almost two months. If this is spread across 10 new hires the result can be lost revenue of almost half a million dollars!
Report by Training Industry Inc. & Sales Readiness Group: “The Salesperson’s Perspective on the Impact of Sales Training”.
The same research also stressed the impact on lost revenue to a business by having poorly trained sales and channel management team members. While effective sales and channel management training can get a new hire up to speed in 24 weeks, ineffective training can delay effective onboarding by almost two months. If this is spread across 10 new hires the result can be lost revenue of almost half a million dollars!
Report by Training Industry Inc. & Sales Readiness Group: “The Salesperson’s Perspective on the Impact of Sales Training”.
Another piece of research, this time by RAIN Group also found that elite sales performers take training much more seriously than high and moderate performers.
RAIN Group: “The Business Case for Sales Training”.
The conclusion of the LinkedIn research is that in two critical areas heads of sales are hiring channel management professionals that are mismatched with buyers needs: Active listening and expertise.
LinkedIn “State of Sales Pocket Guide 2020”.
According to the LinkedIn report, “All salespeople spend time with their managers. How they spend their time together differs. Top-performing salespeople are more likely (33% to 26%) to spend time with their managers in training. They are also more likely to receive training from outside sales experts by a margin of 46% to 38%. The embrace of training makes sense in an effort to keep pace in a fast-changing world.”
Overall the research demonstrates that the most effective sales people and channel management professionals take training seriously as it provides them with a route to develop the skills most highly prized by professional buyers. Certainly, for high ticket items, “natural” salespeople are consistently outperformed by those who have honed their skills in the areas of expertise and “active listening”.