Sharing Sales Best practices can boost the morale of your Sales Team.
‘Congratulations! Now tell us, How did you Close that Sale?’ Our Answer: Peer Learning!
Consider an instance: There is a huge plate of food with multiple dishes (mind you all dishes are something you had wanted to try or already your favourite). Now I tell you to eat all of them in one day. Despite being motivated to savour all of them, there will come a point in the day where you would develop, though momentarily yet an aversive attitude towards the dishes which were something that you desired once upon a time.
So is the situation with training. Consider an all-day sales training program. Let us all be optimistic and think that all the sales employees are hungry to learn and have come empty stomach to savour every piece of learning offered to them. There will come a point when they will experience information overload which will affect their motivation (here hunger) for learning.
Back to the Huge plate of food, if instead of eating EVERYTHING in a day I told you to eat the dishes as and when you like, one day at a time. Exactly! You would be able to savour the taste of each dish and the taste will stay in your mind for a longer time! Similarly, when the sales employee is taught daily, his hunger for learning remains active.
Naturally, a question arises how do we serve the sales employee day to day food to keep the hunger active? The answer is Peer Learning. Just as the huge plate of food was broken down into small portions of food. Peer learning breaks down the learning for an employee into bite-sized portions.
A training program offers an employee with a lot of learning in one day but peer learning enables the employee to learn daily from their team members throughout their tenure.
Peer Learning helps breakdown lengthy Sales Training Modules into Fun, Bite-Sized and Anecdotal Learning Experiences
Sales Managers to Coaches :
As every manager, the role of the sales manager involves coaching their subordinates. However, it is important to know that apart from coaching, the sales manager has to adhere to other responsibilities such as customer interaction, administrative activities, managing sellers etc. This makes it evident that the manager is likely to struggle in coaching his subordinates on a one-on-one basis. In such a scenario employing peer learning at an organization helps in easing the load from the managers’ shoulder.
Instance: Instead of approaching the manager regarding an issue, asking a peer for their advice proves to be more effective, both, for the sales manager as well as the sales employee.
Breeding A Culture of Positivity
Ultimately you are a mixture of all the people you meet. Therefore, it becomes essential to be surrounded by a good company. Especially in a sales organization, where there is cut-throat competition. Imagine being surrounded by peers who are very lethargic and not driven by the work they do. Despite having the required skills, to a certain extent, your intrinsic motivation will be influenced by working in such an environment and within no time you will see yourself underperforming.
On the contrary, when surrounded by peers who are capable and driven by their work you put an extra effort to perform. In a sense that performance of your peers becomes a motivating factor for you. Observing and Modelling the behaviour of these top performers can help an under or a middle performer. In Fact, it also helps the other top performers to maintain and increase their potential.
SkillSharing Between Boomers and Millennials
One of the biggest advantages of peer learning in the sales department is the expertise of most experienced sales personnel in the organization. It would take these new sales employee years to learn a particular tactic that comes with experience. In such a scenario, the SME can share their insight, saving the young sales employee years of time. It’s a two-way street, meaning that enabling collaboration across generations will help the SME to learn new technology and tactics as the times and customer focus changes. This collaboration opens gates for fostering a learning culture among the organization. When SMEs and Young salespeople become peers, experience and fresh ideas, giving an organization a competitive edge.
Meaningful Water Cooler Conversations :
Those 2 mins conversations near the water cooler can be a great source of learning and bonding among the employees. There is a lot of diversity in the sales team. Diversity especially with respect to the customers they handle. Thus, each diverse customer provides a challenge to the sales employee. Such type of diversity can prove to be very challenging and stressful, ultimately leading to burn out. Having a peer who has been in a similar situation on the job, can be very helpful in combating diverse customers.
If there is a persistent problem faced by all members, brainstorming collectively, voicing their opinions and ideas can help the team reach the solution effectively and faster. Not only does the team find a solution but also feels psychologically safe. A sense of psychological well being is promoted with the feeling of safety. The employee doesn’t experience the same amount of stress as before and uses the resource to find an effective strategy. They feel recognized and the camaraderie is strengthened.
Peer Learning enables all these factors and makes it possible for the sales representatives to learn and grow in their career. At BHyve, we constantly strive to help you organization flourish by helping you materialize the benefits of Peer learning in a gamified fashion. To know more about us, contact us at www.bhyve.io
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