Guest Blog by Rachel Ashkin - "Developing a competency model for your sales people"

Comment

Comment by Rachel Ashkin on October 27, 2010 at 12:42pm

Hi Greg - great points you have made below.

The fundamental consideration for including the sales management team in competency model development is based on where they fall on the competency maturity curve. Sales management is a very dynamic job function and the competencies and skills required for sales management varies dramatically by company.

The question that needs to be asked is “Are my sales managers leaders or managers?” There are two levels of consideration here. First, there is the sales leader competency assessment discussion. An organization must decide if they believe they have administrators, task managers or true leaders in the sales management posts. This is a critical assessment because if the sales managers aren’t true leaders then the competency model will be foreign, confusing and even threatening to them. In this case, the competency model must include the development of the sales managers themselves and therefore they are not in a position to develop the model.

Second, is the capability/capacity for the sales management team to rise above the tactical elements of driving sales results and be able to understand and successfully translate the competency model into coaching and mentoring opportunities with their people. In other words, do the sales managers themselves have the ability to not only comprehend but teach what they’ve learned and address competency gaps in their people?

The biggest mistake a company can make with including their sales managers in the development of the competency model is misjudging their competency maturity levels. A company must be realistic and pragmatic about the leadership level of their sales managers. Developing competency models with managers rather than leaders is like showing up to a gunfight with a knife. It’s a mismatch of abilities.

A best practice is to assess your sales managers’ capabilities and then evaluate their level of participation in competency model development. Sales managers rather than leaders can still have a seat at the table when it comes to implementing the competency model. However, they will need to go through an appropriate level of competency based training and human resource or organizational development people will need to partner with them as they begin to train, coach, and mentor their sales people.

Comment by Greg Marshall on October 26, 2010 at 8:56am

Hi Ryan

I recently experienced an intense déja vu feeling, during a private mentoring session with a Sales Leader in a medium sized enterprise. Her issue stemmed from the fact that members of the companies senior management team, along with HR, had developed a (very good) competency framework for the sales organisation; and had then released it immediately without involving the sales management in briefing / understanding the framework.

I experienced a similar situation in a much larger organisation about a decade ago. The impact of not involving the Field and Regional Sales Managers in the development of, and delivery of the framework almost destroyed the value of the tool. Ift he SM's haven't developed their belief in the framework before its wider release, then the value really diminishes. Front line SM's are focussed on measurement of their teams and essentially their development; the significance of the well developed competency model provides the SM with an essential development framework. They are key custodians and ambassadors of the competency model, and it seems unbelievable that a Senior Management Team (in a hurry etc etc) don't channel the successful introduction of the framework through the Sales Management team......the glaringly obvious route to take for immediate results, yet overlooked by Senior Management sometimes? Or maybe my expereinces were unique? What do you think?

PS - Had some fun once by inviting a sales group to develop their own competency model for consideration by an ExCo team - this didn't get very far considering a skills focus included "low golf handicap" and role statements included "effective abuse of expense budget" and "influential in social dining environments"...

Comment by Ryan Kubacki on October 20, 2010 at 3:24pm

Rachel, this is a timely subject as many sales organizations are grappling with this. What are the "common mistakes" organizations make in approaching this and what are the best practices in implementation?