How to Get Your Reps on Board With a New Sales Process

March 12, 2019 | Melody Astley

Sales_Process_BlogWant to know what’s more difficult than creating a new sales process? Getting your sales team to buy-in and adopt said new sales process as part of their everyday sales routine. To better ensure your sales reps adopt your new sales process, approach the introduction of a new sales process to your sales team the same way you approach your c-level conversations. Show them the value of your solution.

The first lesson in change management is that any updates must come from the top — any other way simply won’t work. Once leaders are ready to roll out the new sales process be sure to take these five steps to get your team to get on board and adopt it.

Empathize With Your Sales Team To Understand Any Initial Adoption Friction

Your sales reps are busy. Between sending proposals, making calls, and following-up with leads, there’s hardly a wasted moment in any working day. To keep tabs on all these tasks, most salespeople have a system or routine that they follow.

When you change the sales process, it’s important to realize that you’re also changing the personal system each of your salespeople uses for managing their day-to-day responsibilities. Which is why it can seem near impossible to get your sales team excited about your new sales process.

A recent Gartner survey of over 2,000 reps found that complex internal processes and procedures increase the burden on sales reps by 62 percent. Your sales team is wary of new processes because they fear that a new approach will pile on even more administrative work and keep them from doing what they love to do. Sell.

Focus Your Rollout Messaging on the Value of the New Process 

You can’t give an order and expect your sales team to follow it without question. You need to be able to communicate the “why” behind the new sales process.

Here are a couple of the most common questions sales reps ask when a new process is announced.

  • Why do we need to change our current process?
  • Why is the new process set up the way it is?
  • Why should I, as a sales rep, care?

These are all fair questions, and even if your sales team doesn’t ask these questions out loud in the rollout meeting, you can be sure they’re thinking them.

If you want your new sales process to be adopted, you need to provide responses to these points as part of your rollout.

In other words, you need to communicate the value of the new process.

 Start by focusing on the following:

  • Does this new process save your reps time?
  • Does this new process make it easier for them to commit more of their time to active selling?
  • Does this new process help your sales team make more sales (and more commissions)?
  • Does this new process remedy known pain points in the current process?

 Get your reps excited about the new process by being open and honest about its key benefits.

On a side note, if your new process doesn’t make the reps job easier or more productive, maybe consider a different approach. Just saying.

Ensure All New Process Enablement Materials Are Accessible From the Start of the Rollout  

The quicker your sales team can start to implement the new process, the more likely it will be adopted. Don’t announce the new process and then say that you’re waiting on materials to be created before the reps can begin following it.

Have all needed sales materials ready before you roll out the new process. Pair the excitement you’ve created around your value messaging with a sense of immediate action to drive adoption.

You also need to have these materials easily accessible. Don’t make your sales team waste time looking for a form, template, case study, or other sales enablement resources. The easier it is for your sales team to integrate the new process into their daily routine, the more successful your rollout will be.

Solicit Field-Tested Feedback

No sales process is perfect, which is why it’s critical for you to work with your sales reps after the rollout of a new strategy to identify any areas of improvement. Field tests are the true indicator of whether or not a new sales process hits the mark.

Sit down with your reps and managers and get their feedback on the process after it has been implemented. Are there any gaps or holes that weren’t addressed?

Get a feel for the adoption of the process while you’re at it. Is their just one stubborn sales rep that refuses to change their ways? Or is it more systemic?

From there you can tweak the process as needed to ensure it aligns with the realities your sales team sees in the field.

Provide Ongoing Training and Support

You can’t expect your reps to sit through a single process announcement session and flawlessly execute on the new process the next day. It will take time to become confident and comfortable with a new system.

Which is why you need to provide ongoing process training and support.  

Whether it’s one-to-one coaching, or group training sessions, your odds of successfully implementing a new sales process increase when you’re providing the team with the support they need to properly learn the mechanics of the new sales process.

Implementing a new sales process starts by ensuring your sales team understands the value the new process is creating. Let them know how the new process positively affects their daily lives and provide them with the knowledge they need to begin implementing the new process on day one. The more your sales team understands the new process and its benefits, the more likely they are to adopt the new way and abandon the old one.

 

Do you additional support with training for a new sales process? Find out more about how FinListics can help support your training efforts

Posted in Sales Training