Capturing the tribal knowledge of your superstar reps.
Every time I interview a bunch of sales reps for a competitive analysis, I am amazed by the diversity of how much each of them knows about a targeted competitor. After only a few minutes on the phone you can quickly tell if the rep barely sees them or is a seasoned expert with a high kill rate.
Sales reps are pressed for time and do not have the time to embark on primary research to up their odds of winning. Your best reps guard their time wisely and have the least incentive to share since they already have it figured out.
Even your experts do not have all the pieces to the puzzle; but have differing knowledge and deploy varying tactics to win.
Some sales reps may form informal networks of their peers to share tips and tricks; but this can often be localized and lots of the puzzle pieces can go missing.
There just are not hours in the day for a rep to call everyone necessary to figure out the best way to attack a competitor or to handle a prospect’s objection.
There are a couple of ways that you can tap into the expertise of your star performers. The first is to interview them, preferably when they have some downtime in the car, and roll the information out via formalized tools.
The second way is to tap into their talent at your next team meeting. By breaking you reps into two opposing teams, you can have them whiteboard out the best ways to attack and defend, or the relative strengths and weaknesses of your offering. Make one team represent your company, and the other your toughest competitor. This will force everyone to think like your competition.
Make sure that you put at least one star in each team. If you are short on stars, put them on the competitor’s team since you are looking to gain insights into how your competition thinks.
I bet your stars will be more than willing to share their thoughts in this type of environment. Their natural sales abilities will help the other team mates learn how to think like a top performer.
If everyone could think and act more like your stars, your competition is going to become very uncomfortable.
Keep in mind that just figuring out why your star performers are more effective is only half the battle. Unless this information is rolled out to the masses it is simply an academic exercise.
If you are short handed, can’t wait for your next planned meeting or do not want to spend months figuring out the best way to create and test tools, consider a third party to speed up your efforts.
