How to Create a Challenger Ecosystem

The world of Sales is changing. The amount of time reps get to spend with customers is decreasing. The time to engage with customers is moving later and later in the purchase decision. The speed of commodification is increasing and margins are shrinking all the time. High performing reps are able to keep up with these changes, but what about core reps?

Sales enablement leaders are struggling to match the pace of rep development with these changes in the buying world.  The difficulty is not a lack of support to offer; rather, there is so much to do, it is hard to know where to begin. There is new technology to offer: sales portals, iPads, Chatter feeds, social selling to name a few. There are new training initiatives for skills and product knowledge as well as professional development. It can all be overwhelming.

In our Challenger skills adoption workshops we recommend beginning with a specific set of questions: 

Do we have a rationalized set of tools that help reps sell at each stage of the buying process? Do we have a sales academy or university that ties together the skills and knowledge we think reps require to succeed at their jobs? Do we have a certification program that expects long-term demonstration of skill mastery for both reps and managers?

Do we think of how all these things fit together as one?

We recommend taking a step back to think about enablement as creating an ecosystem in which each activity adds to and supports the next, magnifying the value in an additive way. In reality you likely have most of the tools and support you need, but may not be deploying in the most effective way. Use your competency model as a basis and map how your tools and resources support the skills and activities your reps need to develop.

SLC Members: Register for an upcoming Challenger Skills Adoption Workshop, or listen to a webinar replay on Challenger Skills Adoption: Driving Long-Term Behavior Change.