Make Machines Your Sales Practice Servants

With so much media attention devoted to AI, machine learning and job-stealing robots, we sometimes forget that digital technology was designed to be our servant, not vice versa.

Rather than focusing on what machines can learn from us (or each other), sales coaches should look to how machines can enhance human learning.

Digital learning tools are especially useful, if not critical, when a sales manager must coach a distributed team – one spread across multiple cities or even multiple continents. They’re particularly well-suited to helping reps rehearse their sales calls and presentations.

Asynchronous Sales Coaching

Not that long ago, rehearsing was usually reserved for only the most critical presentations – the ones the “Big Dogs” were going to attend.

Most coaches simply didn’t have time to help every rep because it required them to be physically or virtually present with two, five or 10 people simultaneously.

Today, thanks to sales learning and coaching tools, sales practice and “post-game” analyses can be done asynchronously. For example, a manager doesn’t have to be on the phone or video chat with a rep while she runs through a presentation. Instead, he can watch the video offline, asynchronously. What’s more, the manager can input notes, feedback and even scoring right into the system for the rep to review later.

Over time, recorded practice sessions and feedback become not only a set of valuable data points for sellers, they also become a library of best practice templates. The ability to observe and replicate “the golden pitch” for future use is key to spreading the wisdom of top talent throughout the middle of the pack.

Overcoming Resistance to Practicing

Keep those benefits in mind. You may need to cite them to convince your reps to practice their sales calls and presentations.

It’s not unusual for some salespeople to balk at practicing. As a sales coach, you have two basic options for overcoming this resistance. You can: (1) issue threats and demands, or (2) sell the bottom-line benefits of practice, including the time-saving and “best practice template” advantages of a digital learning platform.

In addition, you should point out that a well-practiced rep is more confident, tends to come off as more trustworthy to clients, and usually wins more deals.

Look at it through the rep’s eyes. If you can help the person see practice in terms of dollars and cents, you’re more likely to break down any reluctance.

Salespeople put success in jeopardy when they don’t practice regardless of how confident they may seem prior to presenting.  Fortunately, with the aid of “machine servants” like sales learning and sales coaching platforms, you don’t have to be in the same room at the same time as the rep to coach and give feedback.

For more on how Allego help sales coaches overcome resistance to practicing, read the blog Provoke Deliberate Sales Practice with Mobile Technology.