Tips to Upskill Your Marketing & Sales Teams
When it comes to digital transformation, many businesses suffer. This is frequently due to their concentration on the technology and tools needed. But there’s a lot more to digital transformation than that.
It’s no longer sufficient to have the most up-to-date software or employ cutting-edge technology as a component of your digital strategy. To fully transform your company, you’ll need to develop a digital mindset and acquire the crucial digital skills to expedite your transformation.
As the face (and revenue source) of your company, your marketing and sales departments hold the key to becoming digitized. Do they, however, have the expertise and talents to lead your organization to where it needs to go?
Let’s look at five easy and successful techniques to improve your marketing and sales employees to attain digital dominance.
Use Data Efficiently
Giving your sales team quality data is one of the most effective ways to improve their performance. Keep in mind that there are two kinds of data: performance and contact. Both are useful, but although collecting and analyzing performance data takes time, contact data may be enhanced immediately.
Think about your customer list. When was the last time you cleaned and updated it? How much of that data do you think is still viable, given that data deteriorates at up to 30% per year? Consider how much time your staff is wasting on calls that go nowhere. Cleanse that database before you do anything else.
Apply Mentoring
This is a very successful form of upskilling for new staff. Even if a new employee has a fundamental understanding of their job, there will be a knowledge disparity of experience and how that knowledge is used in the workplace.
It’s also possible that you hired someone who showed a ton of potential but lacked all of the necessary abilities for the job. As a result, most new employees of your team will require this type of training.
Rather than leaving a new employee to figure things out independently, a senior team member can act as a mentor, guiding them through the onboarding process. Training takes place on the job in this situation, and the expense is inexpensive compared to other upskilling your employees. You can also increase team bonding with new members by coaching them.
Promote Cross-Functional Teams
It’s pointless for your sales and marketing teams to work in silos. To attract prospects and convert leads, they must collaborate to ensure that your company’s message is clear and consistent. Promoting cross-collaboration considers all knowledge and abilities.
It enables employees to interact with and explore new technologies while also allowing them to share ideas to maximize the activities in your firm. It also aids in installing a single vocabulary and understanding of digital to facilitate future and cross-departmental thinking.
This enables staff, delivers new information, encourages teams to think outside their areas of expertise, and provides opportunities for new hires to become acquainted with the organization. For example, a new marketing member would find it useful to attend a weekly sales meeting to learn the jargon and observe the strategies utilized to increase conversions.
For example, the sales team may go into blog edits to learn about the relevance of SEO keywords in lead generation.
Mobile Communication and Collaboration Tools
There are many innovative new sales tools available to speed operations. If you don’t want to give your competitors an advantage, you need to outfit your staff with the latest and greatest. Of course, technology is only useful when it is utilized correctly. If your sales tools provide your sales force an advantage, they must be integrated into your procedures and best practices.
Consider your objectives and how the resources available to you can assist you in achieving them. Remember that you want to free up time for your sales team so they can spend more time with their clients. Any technology that does not assist them in this way is unlikely to be worth the money you spend on it.
Offer Relevant Training and Functional Learning
Examine the abilities needed in the industry and match them to the training you provide. So, if you require a social media expert, provide coaching in that area so that other teammates can keep up.
It’s also critical to provide training that encourages active learning and ensures that your employees are “work-ready.” To perform specific digital functions, you want your workforce to have skill sets that are immediately suitable and relevant across business areas.
One of the difficulties with digital, whether digital marketing or social selling, is that it’s constantly changing. This means that talents can quickly become obsolete, necessitating acquiring new skills such as software, social media apps, and algorithms following the change.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are various methods for improving your digital skills to keep up with digitalization. It’s all about getting to know your company and your employees so you can offer unique and useful experiences that help people advance their careers.
Your marketing and sales staff are precious assets that must be fostered to ensure they perform well and stay with the company. After all, it’s a tough job market for employees. It is easier to teach existing employees the skills they require rather than hire new ones.
