Sales Learning Survey Results: Reps vs. Managers

Ever get the feeling your salespeople aren’t quite seeing the importance of something you know is crucial?

Many of us have experienced it. Misalignment is an ever-present issue in business.  Managers are battling it constantly — like Thor and Loki, or Listerine and bad breath.  Fortunately, a recent survey by Allego and the Sales Management Association (SMA) sheds some light on misalignment in the realm of sales learning.

Where Opinions Differ

A gap exists between what sales managers and reps view as important.  Training topics are bound to hold different meaning for people in different roles.  But when the disparity points to a weakness in core selling skills, it can lead to headaches.  The survey showed managers prioritize communication of their firm’s value proposition over more tactical pursuits like presentation delivery.  Reps feel just the opposite.  Why?  Geographically distributed sales organizations typically only hold a few training events each year, with little or no follow-up reinforcement learning.  This leaves little room for reps to get the training and practice needed to master tactical presentation delivery to the point where they’re free to focus on communicating strategic value.  Before achieving a certain level of mastery, reps expend all their energy on getting the tactics right.  This is one of a number of gaps the survey showed.

Bridging the Gap

In many cases, managers and reps see eye to eye.  They agree that microlearning, salesperson practice, and the use of sales enablement platforms are the three most important sales training practices.  In fact, Millennial sales reps value ongoing practice even more than the norm.  Yet managers and reps also consider these same practices as among the least effectively leveraged by their company.  Why is this?  The one common thread is a lack of mobile training delivery methods.  Without a way to accommodate the on-the-go nature of the sales function, these valuable training practices aren’t feasible.  Among survey respondents, only ten percent of companies have fully implemented mobile-enabled training content.

Mobile video sales learning platforms bridge the gap between traditional training approaches and the needs of today’s sales teams.  Ninety-two percent of respondents view best practice sharing as a key salesperson development practice, and mobile video platforms provide the means for distributed sales teams to do it more effectively.  These solutions provide foundational training courses, while reinforcing key learnings with video practice, coaching and flash card quizzes.  They equip salespeople with instant access to situation-specific best practices, right when reps need it.  The result is accelerated onboarding, improved sales certification, and enhanced customer conversations.  

A recent webinar with SMA Founder and Chairman Bob Kelly and Allego Co-founder and President Mark Magnacca provides more insight into how mobile video sales learning platforms bridge the sales training gap.  A more in-depth look at the misalignment between sales managers and reps when it comes to training topics can be found in the full survey report.   For a quick overview, the top findings are captured in an infographic that can be digested in 90 seconds.