The Ever-Evolving Need for Digital Sales Training

quotJust to give you an idea of the enormity of the changes to the digital media landscape in the last 24 months our quotdigital landscapequot workshop had to explain how to sell stuff that didn39t even exist two years agoquotSo the biggest challenge in the digital space is the pace of change which keeps accelerating For salespeople to keep pace their training needs to be ongoing with the content continuously refreshed amp160all while being measured against ROI benchmarks to ensure that the sales needle moves in the right directionI meet salespeople who tell me how they were able to wing it in their first few years in the business I guess it is possible that some premium content sellers with limited offerings could still do that in 2010amp160But in 2016 everyone is selling and up against competitors selling every form of targeted ROI digital advertising quotThe other guyquot likely has more reach more visitors more measureable engagementamp160andor less expensive inventory amp8212apart from every conceivable agency marketing serviceIn this marketplace an untrained seller has no chance And while every ad team has at least one quotrocket scientistquot or at least a quotreally smartquot Digital Sales Manager learning from the smartest person on your team is never as effective as bringing in people that are specialized trainersWithout training the majority of media sellers this year will be at a 2013 level of understanding and that39s only if they actually spend time training themselvesamp160Which gets us to the essence of what training really is Training is practice We are training ourselves all the timeIf you occasionally pick up a new insight into digital marketing you get good at using that little bit of knowledge during sales conversations Over time you39ll pick up more and get great at speaking with confidence even if you barely understand what you39re saying Since that happens to so many salespeople they are misled into thinking that they don39t need trainingSelftraining isn39t going to give a seller a competitive advantage in 2016 For one thing every seller is trying to outsell their competitors using the same old quotselfstudyquot or the quotjust wingingitquot method Only the sellers who areamp160better than their competition at aligning their offerings with advertisers39 goals while properly selling against their competition over time bringamp160in more of the right deals at the right budget The best trained sellers can convert a quottestquot budget into a long term relationship that equally benefits the advertiser the publisheramp160and the salespersonOngoing training is the key to having confident conversations Last year39s vocabulary won39t cut it when you are having a conversation about attribution safe environments viewabilityamp160and engagement metricsamp160Even if a seller studied programmatic videoamp160and mobile twoamp160years ago the space has changed so much that it39s like we39re starting all over againWhat is the key benefit to ongoing training in a world that just never stops changingWith ongoing practice we improve our ability to learn We speed up the process of learning new thingsamp160and start to be able to discuss new technologies business modelsamp160and strategies But to make that training work it must be customizedFirst it must match the seller39s level of understanding and second it must be applied to the specific sales situations that sellers find themselves in When it comes to digital most sellers are embarrassed about what they don39t know As a result most organizations guess at the proper level for their staff and their training usually starts at a level that39s too advanced Unfortunately when the training misses that mark the affected salespeople tune outTo make training situationally specific roleplays based on actual upcoming meetings with real customers areamp160essential Otherwise sellers think they quotget itquot and don39t realize how poorly prepared they are until it39s too late and the sales opportunity is lost Without outside training this form of roleplaying rarely if ever happensLet39s assume that the rate of change in the digital space will continue to accelerate and to keep up the rate of sales training needs to keep pace By employing purposeful and effective training sellers can truly gain a competitive advantage that will keep them relevantImage courtesy of Corbis The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggers

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The Ever-Evolving Need for Digital Sales Training

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Steve Bookbinder

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