The Top Sales Training Best Practices with Tim Strickland, #214

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Navigating churn has become the topic of discussion for many B2B sales organizations. So, what is a sales leader to do when new sales reps are coming and going faster than ever before? 

Knowing the best practices to attract top talent, to train them to be successful and to advance within your organization, and to engage them to continually improve are all discussed in this episode of the Modern Selling Podcast.

Our guest, Tim Strickland, brings with him a wealth of knowledge and strategies that will help all sales leaders – from the CRO to the sales enablement manager – more effectively motivate, communicate, and train their sales teams.

Tim Strickland is the Chief Revenue Officer for ZoomInfo – a suite of modern go-to-market software, data, and market intelligence used by thousands of sales and marketing teams worldwide to uncover new opportunities and accomplish their goals by leveraging prospect and customer engagement insights and drivers. 

In his role at ZoomInfo, Tim leads their new business sales, new customer sales, emerging product sales, sales development, partnerships and alliances, and sales enablement. Through his stellar 15+ year career, Tim has perfected the formula to help sales reps and sales teams alike to skyrocket their productivity, success, and careers to the next level.

Download the full episode to hear the most proven strategies that are working right now to help sales reps – of all experience levels – increase their effectiveness and close more deals.

How Can B2B Sales Organizations Motivate the Modern Seller?

In today’s post-pandemic business landscape, it’s not uncommon for sales reps to “career hop” from organization to organization within a few months. Whether it is chasing a larger base salary or commission, it’s become harder for sales leaders to keep their sales teams staffed.

I wanted to see Tim’s take on this and what he believes sales organizations should be doing to help mitigate this mass exodus that’s happening within the sales industry.

He proposes four key elements that every sales organization should have in order to attract and retain top talent from the sales rep level all the way to the CRO.

1. Room for Growth. This isn’t unique to just the sales industry, but most employees want to work within environments that offer professional development, training, and learning opportunities for them to advance their skills and knowledge sets.
2. Opportunities to be Challenged. It is through embracing and overcoming challenges that sales teams can truly grow and evolve to improve their processes and effectiveness over time. Without these built-in opportunities to try new things and find new ways of solving problems, many sales organizations remain stagnant.  
3. Cross-Functional Support. To have a truly effective sales department requires a collaborative approach with and across many departments, including customer service, operations, and marketing. The more cross-functional support sales reps can receive, the higher the likelihood they will feel encouraged to not stay. 
4. Career Growth Trajectory. Are there chances for promotion, advancement, or prominent recognition? If there are limited opportunities to advance beyond their current role, then this can be a red flag for many sales professionals and signal that this may be time to “jump ship”.

Listen into the full conversation to hear what other key elements Tim recommends sales organizations build into their culture to keep sales reps and sales leaders well-positioned to thrive (and stay)!

How Do B2B Sales Organizations Create a “Modern Sales Playbook”?

Having been in sales for over 20+ years, I understand the power of having a sales plan or strategy for your sales teams to follow.

I was curious to get Tim’s perspective on what makes a ‘good’ sales playbook, how sales leaders should be using it, and what other considerations are at play to advance the effectiveness of sales teams.

His insights are quite interesting, “I look at a sales playbook as a constantly moving target. It’s not something you make and forget. It has to be continuously evolved, added to, refined, etc. What’s important is to create a solid sales foundation that is at the core of your strategy and then from there you might emerge hundreds, if not thousands of sales plays.”

Here at Vengreso, we are always looking for ways to improve our prospecting and sales win rates. And, the best way to do this is through the use of metrics.

How many prospects make it to a call? How many prospects are we closing? How long is the sales cycle? How has our win rate changed over the last 90 days?

All of these data points help us to hone in on what part of our prospecting and sales process has to be refined so that we’re executing the right plays, for the right buyer personas, at the right times.

If improving how your sales teams are winning deals is a top priority, then make sure to download this episode to get an inside scoop into what sales plays and strategies you should be running.

What Specific Training Strategies Are Working to Increase Sales Productivity?

One key thing I’ve found that separates average sales organizations from those that can consistently outpace their competition is… training!

Those sales leaders that focus on training their sales reps and build in continual training opportunities are not only able to improve sales success, but they’re also able to retain top talent.

Yet, despite this, some 75% sales leaders acknowledge that they’re not spending enough time each week providing coaching and training to their sales teams.

Here, at Vengreso we use an “OGC” model that revolves around providing on-demand coaching, group feedback, and sales leader coaching.

In this way, every sales rep receives advice, ideas, suggestions, and feedback from both their sales leader and their peers.

Tim shares a unique framework that he uses at ZoomInfo to keep the feedback loop open with his sales teams to help them increase MQLs, win rates, and land more key decision makers on sales calls.

Join the conversation and listen in to hear what’s working right now to help sales leaders close the coaching gap and significantly boost their sales team’s effectiveness and productivity.