If you’re over 40, when you were a kid, you learned new information from encyclopedias, teachers, and seminars. Today information comes to us. It bombards us. It’s everywhere.
It’s in your back pocket. Our smartphones are supercomputers that include a web browser, a music library, Game Boy and a smart aleck virtual assistant.
We suffer from information overload and decision fatigue. Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin tells us we’ve created five times as much content in the last five years than in all of human history. We’re assaulted with facts, pseudo facts, jibber-jabber, and disinformation, all posing as information. Sorting through this avalanche of information, trying to figure out what you need to know and deciding what you can ignore is exhausting.
The challenge today isn’t accessing information, it’s filtering it.
And it’s the same for your customers……. and your sales teams. In fact, there’s so much information, it’s become devalued. Everyone has it.
Today, it’s not what you know that matters. It’s what you do with what you know.
Our job as sales leaders is no longer to simply teach information to our sales teams; it’s to help them filter, assimilate, prioritize and apply that information to win deals on a consistent basis.
And, while I hear a lot of conversation about how the customer has changed and the sales process must evolve, I hear very little about how our training processes must change to engage today’s more information rich, easily distracted salespeople.
The passion, energy and commitment you put into your training process will be duplicated by your salespeople in the sales process!
Ask yourself these questions:
- Is my training process as stimulating as my reps’ smart phones?
- Do I employ a one size fits all approach to learning, or do I offer content that adapts to various learning styles?
- Do I leverage multiple learning platforms such as video, group discussion, virtual learning, real time feedback, peer reviews and games and contests?
- Do I connect emotionally with team members and uncover what drives them individually, so that learning isn’t something they have to do but an exhilarating means to reach their goals?
If you’d like to learn more about The Four Pillars to an Effective Training and Coaching program in today’s digital environment, download my e-book here.
