5 Tips For Establishing a Sales Certification Process

Here's a pair of surprising statistics: 60% of our members tell us that they would love to establish a formal skills certification process for their teams, but guess how many have actually done it?

Only about one in every four (see page 43).

So the big question on our mind is – what seems to be the hold-up?

Establishing a certification process for Sales is not easy, particularly for front-line salespeople. In fact, many of the most robust certification programs we've seen from companies like HP, British Airways, and Kohler are not geared toward sellers at all! The focus instead is placed on the certification of line management, a critical challenge in its own right, but one that does not address what to do with all the sales people being cycled through our training and onboarding curriculums.

Fortunately, there are some early lessons from the few but brave member companies we have seen embarking into the world of sales rep certifications. We've summarized the top five here:  

Lesson #1: Certify based on Long-Term Results rather than Short Term Activities. We've seen Electrolux follow this one to the tee, and the impact has been impressive.  By avoiding certifying reps based on the completion of three week training curriculum alone, and instead looking for ongoing demonstration of competency over the course of a full year, Electrolux has seen that when they finally do certify someone, they turn out to be a demonstrably stronger seller. On average, certified account managers are delivering nearly 6% greater net sales growth per year than their uncertified peers.

Lesson #2:  Embed the Certification Process in Salespeople's Day-to-Day Roles. Instead of certifying based on performance in the classroom or completion of a test, Electrolux bases certification purely on field application of learned skills, tools, and internal support resources. Sellers must demonstrate proficiency with real customers over time, shifting the focus from certifying acquisition of knowledge alone to certifying the acquisition and application of skills.

Lesson 3: Award Certifications Based on Customer Outcomes rather than Seller Actions. Instead of measuring their salespeople, Kennametal requires sellers to document the cost savings achieved by their customers before they are nominated for certification.  What do reps gain in return? Certified reps receive a 5-10% bonus to reward the additional value they've proven they can create for customers.

Lesson #4: Make Certification Exclusive. The lesson here again comes from Kennametal, where certified sales reps get a unique icon stamped on their business cards to signal their "certified" status. The impact?  A sizeable proportion of the sales force has begun voluntarily opting into the certification program in hopes of achieving "status" themselves.

Lesson #5: Use Managers as Stage Gates. When it comes to certifications, nothing is a bigger waste of time than putting reps through the formal sign-off process only to have them fail. To limit this inefficiency , Gen-I Australasia established a manager nomination process whereby salespeople must prove that they've mastered required competencies before they can apply for certification and be exited from an rolling Sales Academy curriculum.  The result is an 89% graduation rate – not because the test is easy, but because candidates rarely enter unprepared.

What other lessons have you learned in implementing sales certification program? Please feel free to share in the comment section below.

SEC Members, for more on sales skill development and certification, visit our topic center on Sales Training.