Turns out there is a disconnect between salespeople, training and feedback. According to new data out from Corporate Visions while most brands agree that salespeople need training to ensure their messaging is articulated well (85%) fewer than half are having salespeople practice their pitches in person (41%).
In fact, according to the survey, about one-third of respondents say no one is responsible for coaching salespeople with their pitches. This, despite the fact that over half (53%) say message articulation is critical to success.
“There’s a tragic irony occurring where everyone believes that salespeople with their lips moving is a company’s most powerful weapon for communicating value, but reasonable practice and inspection of competency is not a requirement,” said Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer for Corporate Visions. “Even leaving it to sales managers, like most companies seem to do, is essentially a hit-or-miss proposition, given the pressure for pipeline and deal forecasts as well as the distributed nature of sales teams.”
Some interesting takeaways from the Corporate Visions survey include:
•49% say managers are responsible for message coaching
•36% say training organizations are responsible for message coaching
•34% say no one is responsible
•33% ‘never require’ salespeople to submit videos of their messages for coaching/feedback
•21% ‘sometimes require’ this
•3% ‘always require’ submitted videos for feedback