The world of sales has changed.  Sales professionals are being asked to have higher level skills, including consulting and industry expertise.  But there is a distinct conflict between the need to develop skills and time available.  What’s more, sales managers are more likely to focus on a deal than on the skills required to close more sales.  The Self-Directed Learning Engine™ (SDLE) helps sales organizations deliver business results by identifying and closing skill gaps that matter.

As a rule, salespeople are motivated to succeed and will do what it takes to achieve their goals.  The SDLE shows them how they can improve. That self-awareness spurs action.

Our new analytics product has an aggressive first-to-market sales target.  Based on assessment data, only 100 of our 1000 sales reps understand analytics and their connection to our customer needs.  How can we leverage the 100 who are skilled to quickly upskill the others in time? What other initiatives should we undertake?

As individuals and their managers perform assessments, aggregated data identifies where Sales Enablement and Sales Readiness should invest, plan, and budget.  Compare what people CAN do with your projected needs to identify how many people you need to upskill or what skills you need to hire. 

Sales Managers avoid discussions they’re not comfortable having.  Without good data and structure, pinpointing the actual skills that need work may not always be obvious.  The SDLE enables clarity around an individual’s skill.  Because they are both anchored in behavioral examples, they are data-driven, and facilitate a data-driven coaching conversation including any perceptual differences.  A manager knows exactly where to coach, and how to leverage strengths.

One of the most effective ways for salespeople to learn a skill is by working with people who do it well.  Even high performing salespeople aren’t good at everything, which is why the SDLE enables task-based mentoring with a single click.  Because each person is likely to have both exceptional skills and some skill gaps, each person can be both a mentor and a mentee, generating recognition for their time in the sun. Not only is this an incredibly cost effective way to build bench strength, it creates an informal network across the organization.  When mentors see their actions positively affecting others and the organization, they more likely to stay and be engaged.  

It is widely known that training retention diminishes almost immediately after training ends.  Overcome that reality by letting people learn while selling.  Research shows that the greater the relevance, the greater the recall.  What better relevance is there than using a skill practice to complete sales activity for a real prospect or customer?  Not only does that secure better retention of the desired practice, but it provides structure they can re-use over and over until fully ingrained.  What’s more, it completely eliminates the excuse from both salespeople and sales managers that “there’s no time for learning!”

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Our competency development system takes just 2 weeks to implement. We provide everything you need to be successful, including communication toolkits and best practices tailored to all levels of the organization – employees, managers, and leaders.