Measure the potency of your sales assessment gameplan…and more!
Size matters when profits are at stake. Or rather, measuring the ‘size’ of sales performance can have a direct correlation with how well the organisation’s bottomline is doing. After all, sales are the lifeblood of many firms, directly impacting revenues, and measuring sales metrics accurately is key. In fact, keeping track of the key performance indicators of virtually any department in the business could yield insights and benefits in one manner or another – perhaps not as direct fiscal returns as sales, but still contributing to the efficient running of the organisation.
Source: Sales Activator
It used to be that it was hard to gauge how well salespeople were performing. Usually, training and live assessment tests would be conducted, where they would practise techniques in the field, either shadowing a more experienced seller or tackling a live client in a veritable ‘trial by fire’. Sometimes they would have dummy interactions with pretend prospects, but compiling and vetting through these findings was very much dependent on the individual assessors and not nearly objective enough. Moreover, it was challenging to determine plausible subsequent courses of action based on these very granular, individualised results and takeaways.
This turns out to be an unfortunate industry-wide predicament, as input from other active sales teams is that most don’t have a built-in process nor an assessment tool to measure sales competencies either across the board or against each other. These include in areas such as generalised sales knowledge, the preparation and planning to begin outreach, as well as in sales soft skills to hone convincing strategies.
How to keep customers involved so they don’t feel like disconnecting? What is the best method to deliver the intended message? How (and when) to effectively use past customer testimonials, research and visual aids to make your case stronger – and when can they be detriments that take away from the message you are trying to present?
Quantifiable data that brings together incisive best practices along with thought-through and measured outcomes that drill down into individual areas – each of them measurable – appears to make the most sense. Many of the sought-after characteristics in sales tend to be skill or knowledge-based: relationship building, negotiation skills, presentation skills, commercial conversations, and leadership, to name a few.
Source: Sales Activator
Nurturing these skill sets via training or coaching by seasoned professionals can be monumentally beneficial. But nailing these often-subjective skills into quantitative, metrics-based ratings can be a way to establish measurable performance barometers. This method gives the organisations robust, data-driven support when evaluating their return on investment (ROI) on learning and development initiatives. And it’s not just for sales teams either. Evaluating ROI for any sort of assessment (for any other competency, like in HR or marketing) cannot be considered exhaustive or accurate without the benefit of qualitative, digitally powered data intelligence. It can not only inform better overhead decision-making but provide insight into optimising other parts of the operation, too.
While there are many options on the managed services market for off-the-shelf business intelligence solutions, most offer a multitude of complex additional features. These might require comprehension of the system’s multifaceted mechanics and likely a lot of back-and-forth communication with integration specialists to have it work seamlessly with an organisation’s existing digital infrastructure. To say nothing of training on the system itself, just to figure out how to set up assessment modules for sales and other units that could benefit from data insights and analysis.
Source: sales assessment
Moreover, the complexity and breadth of features on offer make a lot of these tools cost-prohibitive for many companies to implement with an eye towards measuring returns. Out-of-the-box solutions often come with exorbitant set-up fees and tie users to vendors for a longer term with high per-user or per-annum fee models. On the flip side, the alternative ‘DIY’ modules out there can place significant demands on available resources as well as require restrictive amounts of capital investment, more than a mid-sized outfit might be willing to part with for minimal guidance on implementation.
But for performance-oriented companies that want to affordably measure key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets across myriad factors ranging from recruitment to development and career advancement, Sales Activator’s Competency Assessment Tool (or CAT) can occupy that space. Developed harnessing Sales Activator’s training, coaching and product know-how, the Competency Assessment Tool is not just for sales teams but can be utilised to measure the competencies of any department, such as marketing, operations, HR, and even leadership metrics.
Unlike many other tools, CAT offers a basic set-up fee that is calculated based on time spent to build – which in turn is derived based on the number of competencies and questions to be included. This package is offered as an annual licence, and the assessment tool will also comprise up to four separate evaluations and reports, up to four assessment sessions per learner, and a fully customisable dashboard.
CAT is designed to empower team leaders to be effective in assessing team members, and suggest solutions to improve performance The capable Sales Activator team will first work with key stakeholders to get a clearer picture of the competencies involved and the measures that need to be tracked, then build a bespoke tool to address those needs.. The user supplies the relevant data while Sales Activator and CAT does the heavy (data-intensive) lifting.
Sales Activator specialists can leverage their vast training experience in everything from helping craft assessment questions right up to creating individualised, bespoke assessment reports in PDF format. Sales Activator offers comprehensive after-sale support, too, with report reviews, development, coaching recommendations and even the supply of coaching materials and assets to accompany initial and ongoing training modules, if so required.
Sales Activator helps hone sales teams down to a precision edge, and the Competency Assessment Tool can now assist the rest of the organisation in precisely measuring the competencies of all departments for a culture of targeted success. Watch a demo of the Sales Team Assessment Tool first here, and contact Sales Activator to get the productivity ball rolling for your company today.
To find out more visit www.salesactivator.com or to make an enquiry contact support@salesactivator.com
