Training That Drives Employee Performance Improvement

Hey sales leaders: What do you think is the purpose of enablement? Allow me to confound that expectation. Your answer probably includes sales onboarding -- ramping new hires quickly. It may include keeping reps abreast of all the changes -- new releases, new campaigns, new processes, etc. And some of you may include doing periodic training on your unique skills, tools, and processes. But I'll bet a nickel you haven't thought about enablement in terms of performance improvement. I mean identifying behaviors that are contributing to performance gaps, and creating an intervention to measurably change those behaviors -- thereby reducing the performance gaps. Example: you're hearing that reps are discounting too heavily, and you get support for this in reporting on avg discount rates. A performance improvement approach says: --What are the behaviors contributing to the performance gap? --What do we want the behaviors to be? --How can we empirically measure if the behavior has changed? --What's the best way to achieve the desired behavior change? --Fast forward: did we move the needle on those empirical metrics? PROBLEMATIC BEHAVIORS: Maybe the behaviors contributing to the high discount rates include reps not selling value -- not uncovering the business impact of the status quo, not articulating the positive business outcomes of your solution. And maybe they're also not engaging the right personas throughout the sales cycle. DESIRED BEHAVIORS: Maybe you have a sales methodology that calls for reps uncovering & articulating business value -- so you want them to apply that methodology more rigorously in calls & emails. Maybe your deals usually start with mid-level managers, but later reps need to engage the VPs of 2 departments -- so you want them to apply that kind of persona multithreading in their deals. HOW TO MEASURE: For value messaging, leverage Gong/Chorus to measure the % of calls that mention specific words/phrases. For multithreading, measure avg # of personas on opps, & when they're added. Other interesting metrics: Avg # decreases in TCV of an opp, and avg push count. BEHAVIOR CHANGE INTERVENTION: Training is ok, documentation is great, but ongoing coaching is the best way to achieve sustained behavior change. Ideally led by the frontline manager, but okay if led by the enablement team. REVIEWING METRICS: When you clearly define the desired behavior change, the empirical metrics, and the intervention, it's very easy to show whether you made a difference. And it's very easy to argue that it was the enablement initiative is to thank. As a veteran enablement leader, I firmly believe that this kind of "purpose" (and approach) is sorely missing in enablement orgs. And IMO if more enablement orgs approached their work this way, more sales leaders would consider their enablement leaders to be strategic partners in growing the business. Happy selling. #heysalesleaders #salesexcellence

How dispensaries train employees is changing. Since forever, retail and education leadership have been left in the dark about how employees perform and what they can do to help. Data visibility makes the difference here. Retailers can leverage their own historical data to understand where to improve employee performance. Here’s how Seed Talent does it today: 1. Analyze Analyze current qualitative and quantitative data to identify employee gaps in performance where supportive resources are needed. POS data is the key to retailers knowing whether or not employees are effective in their roles or may need additional sales or other supportive training! 2. Assign & Alert Automatically assign and alert employees of supportive training resources to address their performance gaps. Once the employee receives an alert, they have a set amount of time to complete their courses before sequential reminders are sent, helping managers stay on task. 3. Report Set up your KPIs and track progress against training after implementation. You can use your store dashboard to understand the direct business impact of upskilling your team. These reports will ultimately help you enable your team and make better strategic decisions about the role of training at your dispensary. Being able to measure the impact of resourcing and training your teams changes the conversation from box checking courses to actions that measurably drive your business forward!

Training shouldn’t be a checkbox. It should change behavior, build culture, and drive business results. After 20+ years in HR, I saw the same problem over and  over again: companies investing in training that never leads  to real change. According to research from Harvard Business Review,  here’s what separates effective training from wasted time: 1. Start with a baseline You can’t improve what you don’t measure.  Track where people are before you begin. 2. Connect training to business goals If it doesn’t support a real outcome, it’s just noise. 3. Involve managers Employees apply what they see reinforced.  That starts with leadership. 4. Track behavior, not just completion Finishing a course doesn’t mean the learning stuck.  Look for what changed afterward. 5. Collect feedback continuously Don’t assume it’s working.  Ask, adjust, and evolve. This is what we build our programs around. Because I don’t believe in training for the sake of it.  I believe in learning that sticks, and makes people better at what they do.