A few months ago I was discussing with colleagues about a “commercial think tank”. My fancy wording for an area where sales reps can share their stories and what techniques are working so that other reps can take these techniques and try them for themselves.
Generic sales trainings are great, but when you are in the field knowing what the best of the best are doing in your role makes a world of difference. A certain way to phrase something, or a way to show business opportunity like we haven’t done before can make all the difference.
This is something I have THIRSTED after as a rep. I want to know what the best are doing because they are dealing with the same customers as me but getting better results.
My guess is that big companies see this as difficult to create and control. But last night I found a way.
A WordPress blog with the theme P2 loaded. It creates a micro blogging site like twitter where people can post and interact.
Easy to use for all members and easy to control by the organization (managers can be given administrator status and can delete posts or edit things out). Can be password protected or loaded onto your secure server.
A think tank where the people on the ground can share what works today (and what doesn’t) with other people on the ground. One of the best ways for people to learn, and it also builds a long term asset for the company as to what has worked in the past and how to approach future scenarios.
Now to get others to buy into this idea…