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What is Sales Transformation?

Sep 11th, 2018

“Transformation” is one of the most overused words in business, and its popularity has left us with definitions that don’t always align with each other. This is especially true when it comes to sales organizaitons, which are ostensibly dealing with change all the time

What is Sales Transformation?

Sales transformation is a wholesale change in go-to-market strategy and execution that requires salespeople to have fundamentally different conversations with their buyers.

Common scenarios include:

  • Mergers, acquisitions and divestitures
  • Major product innovation (i.e., it changes  buyer conversations)
  • Going after new markets or buyers
  • Adopting a new sales methodology

These situations present a number of challenges for sales teams around training, coaching and enablement. Why is that?

In any true sales transformation, the goal is to “re-board” the entire field force while minimizing the transformation’s impact on productivity and revenue. For that to succeed, the sales enablement or training function must help enact real, lasting change in the organization by getting front-line sales management on board with the new strategy and convince top-performing reps to “walk the walk.”

That’s why today’s sales organizations should strive for transformational readiness in these scenarios, by maintaining a laser-focus on equipping reps with the knowledge and skills needed to have new conversations.

Here are a few quick tips for sales enablement leaders dealing with a business transformation:

  • Educate managers on the new learning paths you will provide for the sales force
  • Create a dedicated team of in-house experts responsible for ensuring reps have mastered new selling scenarios; this team should include sales ops, sales management, reps and marketing
  • Highlight early success stories to prove to reps that the transformation is working (sales readiness technology is especially useful here)

Watch the following video, Part 3 of 4 in our series on the 4 Pillars of Sales Readiness, to learn more:

For more on sales transformation, check out our exclusive eBook, Sales Transformations: A Sales Enablement Survival Guide.