Dan BrockwellOne of the biggest challenges we see from sales managers in fast-growing orgs is managing their time.
Sales managers carry a heavy weight of responsibilities dedicated to customer interactions, meeting personal sales quotas, forecasting and planning, administrative tasks, and overseeing fellow sales team members.
In many organisations, a significant chunk of time goes towards 1:1 sessions between managers and reps (research shows they take up 32% of sales manager time).
Whilst a baseline here is invaluable, as the function matures, maintaining the same frequency and length of 1:1s becomes unscalable and unsustainable.
To scale support & feedback, we need to find ways to enable SDRs to drive their own learning, and engage in peer-to-peer learning amongst each other.
🤓 Self-Learning Strategies
1. Daily Sales Reflection
Implement a daily reflection practice for SDRs using a structured template, fostering introspection and continuous improvement
👉Earlywork sales diary template here: Daily Sales Reflection Template
2. Personalised Learning Tracker
Empower SDRs to track their own sales training progress using tools such as Google Sheets or shared leaderboards, promoting autonomy and accountability. If there’s areas they want to learn more about, they can formalise them in their ‘personal curriculum’ as items to tick off.
3. L&D Budget Allocation
Provide employees with a Learning and Development budget, enabling them to invest in select courses aligned with their career goals.
4. Async Resource Bank
Pull together a drive of recommended reads, podcasts, resources and external guides for further learning and development. Some of our favourite creators include 30 Minutes to President’s Club, Chris Orlob and Josh Braun.
5. AE Competency Framework
Provide a clear AE or promotion competency framework, allowing SDRs to measure their goals and align their efforts with organisational objectives.
6. Networking & Industry Engagement
Encourage SDRs to expand their professional networks by attending industry events, creating content, following sales content creators on social media, and actively engaging with industry-related content. By immersing themselves in the latest trends and insights, SDRs can enhance their learning and stay ahead of industry developments.
7. Call Recordings Library
Use a tool like Gong or Fathom to record calls across the team, giving reps a way to learn from both SDR and AE calls at different stages of the funnel in their own time.
8. Get Reps to Own Their Metrics
Encourage reps to take ownership over their own numbers by giving them a calculator to understand how their activity translates to outcomes. Give them benchmarks for different activity levels and conversion rates so that independently, they can identify issues in their own approach and work on these.
👉 Here’s a target calculator template we’ve built that helps reps understand activity-to-target and account-to-target forecasts.
🙌 Collaborative Learning Initiatives
1. Celebrate and Share Wins
Establish a dedicated #wins channel and cadences for sharing successful prospecting strategies and tactics that are working and focus on creating a collaborative environment for knowledge exchange.
2. Pod Learning Structure
Form accountability pods of 2-4 reps within the team and focus on matching folks with similar personality styles to do group reflections together and share learnings. Establish goals for SDRs to watch and share feedback on a set number of peer calls weekly, promoting a culture of continuous improvement. Research shows learning is more effective in smaller, intimate groups.
3. Daily Standup & Stand-down
Conduct twice-daily standups exclusively for all SDRs to facilitate open communication and the sharing of tips amongst each other, holding the whole team accountable for what they say they’re going to achieve for the day.
4. Create Interactive Learning Environments
Develop e-learning modules with interactive elements, such as quizzes, scenarios, and discussions, to make online learning more engaging and collaborative.
5. Peer-led Training Sessions
Allow ramped SDRs to take turns leading training sessions on topics they excel in. This empowers individuals to share their expertise and encourages a sense of ownership in their development. Alternatively, if you have AEs interested in the leadership track, get them to run learning sessions for the SDRs.
6. Mentorship/Buddy Programs
Establish mentorship initiatives where AEs or experienced SDRs mentor newer team members regularly e.g. weekly or fortnightly catchups. This creates a supportive environment for sharing insights and addressing individual challenges.
7. Resource Exchange
Similar to a centralised Resource Bank made by a manager, a dedicated #resources channel can help reps share third-party content e.g. podcasts, articles, etc. that they’ve found helpful in their role.