The plans for the Sales Enablement Forum are in full swing, so here is a quick video update on the theme, the speakers, and why I believe this is a can't miss opportunity to put you and your team on a fast track to delivering measurable results for your CEO.  

I hope to see you in March. Thanks, Brad

As the 2011 calendar year winds down, many sales enablement professionals are working on their sales kickoff initiative for the coming year. These large-scale events are an integral part of annual cycle, where the sales team converges on a fully prepared hotel for a days-long pep rally full of content sessions, vision-setting, and plenty of networking. Many of the sales kickoffs we hear about, and participate in, are focused on motivating and inspiring the sales force to hit their annual quota, or better yet, set new sales records.  

While a healthy dose of motivation for the sales force is always important, next year's sales kickoff may require a healthy dose of reality as well.

It seems the expense of sales kickoffs is being scrutinized more than last year at higher levels of the organization. In fact, many of sales enablement professionals we talked with this quarter are being asked to justify the sales kickoff investment by their CEO. On top of that, sales leaders are asking for a more specific description of what's going to happen in the sales kickoff, and how the content in the event is going to help their salespeople drive the sales process forward. Both of these views – the view from the top and the view from the trenches – converge at a seemingly simple, yet often difficult to answer question:

"What's the expected impact of the sales kickoff next year?"

Technology vendors continue to focus on implementing sales coaching programs. I'm finding that sales coaching programs mostly focus on providing sales managers the skills they need to be more "coach-like" with their reps. When you step back and look at what kind of skills sales managers need to be more coaching oriented, you end up with a broad ranging list like objectively assessing reps and where they're at, or clearly defining future rep behaviors, or using technology to help inform sales coaching decisions. Along with this focus on skills, some sales coaching programs focus on defining the critical elements of each sales coaching conversation (like increased relevance, giving developmental feedback, and providing motivation). Yet, despite these efforts, the sales enablement professionals we talk to share their frustration that sales coaching doesn't quite take off with frontline sales managers like they were expecting.

For example, in one technology vendor, sales coaching didn't take off despite sales coaching training, top-down sales leader support, and feedback from reps demanding more coach-like interactions with their managers. In another technology vendor, it seemed massive communications and sales coaching training efforts were a non-starter (and dare I say it, dead on arrival).  Why is that? Why are technology vendors seemingly doing the right things, but not getting the traction they expect?

It seems that one critical and often overlooked aspect of helping sales coaches be more successful is the ability to help coaches get started: 1) defining their sales coaching approach, and 2) starting each and every interaction with reps in a valuable and meaningful way, especially when those interactions are around previously identified sales coaching scenarios.

Sales training and enablement professionals who effectively build an internal sales coaching capability help sales reps overcome complexity and sell more successfully. According to the sales enablement professionals we interviewed, building an internal sales coaching capability has two major components: strategic architecture and effective enablement.

The strategic architecture is built from thoughtful design, implementation, and reinforcement of sales coaching initiatives. Effective enablement comes from using sales coaching conversations as the design point while making sure coaches have the right content, skills, and tools to do tailor those conversations.

Unfortunately, most of the sales coaching programs we see lack the tools and methods to do just that.

So what is an enterprising sales training or sales enablement professional to do?

Join me for a Forrester workshop on sales coaching

To understand the state of sales coaching today, Forrester interviewed sales enablement professionals at 35 technology vendors. They universally agreed that achieving the goals of the sales leadership team, including selling at higher levels, often requires a change in salesperson behavior. This workshop provides sales enablement professionals the strategies and tools needed to create effective sales coaching programs at their companies to more effectively support their sales initiatives in the field.

Many sales enablement professionals we talked to have looked to sales coaching as a key enabler to salesperson success. So we built the workshop to

• Help you plan a more effective sales coaching program 
• Provide a methodology for prioritizing, facilitating, and continuously improving individual sales coaching conversations