3 Keys for a Future of Work Sales Team

You must invest in coaching development programs to level-up your managers.

By Sam Caucci On Dec 15, 2021

The future of work and future of sales are here. Unfortunately, most sales leaders are struggling to create an environment that sets up each salesperson for success. This training and development problem isn’t just a problem for sales teams.

America’s recent lack of job growth can be tied to workforce issues that have been worsening for years. Today, the US is ranked second to last among 29 developed nations in investing in taxpayer-funded training programs. That number has been falling year-over-year for the last 30 years.

Employers have clocked out on workforce investment by continuing to invest in outdated technology for a workforce that has been changing rapidly. It is wild to think that with all of the technology available today, we are still printing manuals and forcing workers to watch learning modules as if they are back in school. In fact, 91% of all training dollars still only go towards classroom instruction or desktop-only based learning.

So, what do we do? –

Leaders need to step up. This means investing in a recruiting, training and development infrastructure that finds great workers, develops great workers, and keeps great workers. This will also result in them selling more and servicing better. Here are a few tips:

Recruit Like Nick Saban – Nick Saban is the head football coach at the University of Alabama. After a long recruiting trip, Coach Saban realized he wasted too much time driving from school to school, so he got Alabama to buy him a helicopter. Now he avoids traffic, navigates big cities, and goes wherever he needs to in order to recruit more players with a personal touch. It obviously has worked. Saban has won seven national championships.
Make Training Mobile-First – Companies need to invest in better technology. Today, most job training is clunky, and research shows workers forget 87% of what they learn during online training in just 30 days. And, more shocking is that only 1% of all training is available mobile-first. A quick fix is to invest in training programs that are mobile-first and allow workers to voluntarily explore new learning opportunities instead of just being force fed a series of modules that they can only access on a desktop.
Level Up Your Managers – A recent Gallup study found the leading driver of employee engagement is not pay, it is a very specific kind of manager that leads like a “coach.”

Unfortunately, most sales managers are just the best seller and not the one best equipped to lead a team. It’s for this reason that you must equally invest in coaching development programs to level-up your managers. That is if you want your sellers to win.

About the Author: Sam Caucci is the CEO and founder of 1Huddle, a Newark-based workforce tech company that upskills, trains and motivates employees through science-backed, quick-burst mobile games. 1 Huddle clients include the US Air Force, UEFA, Loews Hotels, ESPN, Audible, Madison Square Garden, and the City of Newark.

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