The Hidden Cost of Lean Sales Teams (And What Leaders Are Paying More Attention To)

Whilst on the surface things can still look fine, when you spend time inside sales teams, you start to see where cracks are starting to form.

What happens in leaner sales teams

When people leave, they don’t just take capacity and resource with them, they take experience, knowledge and time.  Tasks that once had a clear line of responsibility now sit idle because resources are thin and building new knowledge takes time.

Take sales training for example.  In many organisations, in house sales training programs still exist, but they’re not always being delivered in a consistent way.  Primarily because L&D teams are leaner than ever and expected to deliver a wider variety of programs to support a greater portion of the organisation.  So, sales managers step in and do their best to train the content.  But when did being a good sales manager also make someone a great sales trainer?

Or perhaps they don’t step in, and the sales team just keeps doing their best to perform but without the skill development support they need.

When hiring isn’t an option

In a lot of organisations right now, hiring isn’t the immediate answer. There may be a freeze in place, or simply not the appetite to increase cost (and quite possibly the opposite, slash costs where possible).

This inevitably means attention shifts to how the current team is performing and where there is room to strengthen capability.  So, rather than rebuilding headcount, more organisations are starting to look more closely at how capability is delivered.

The question is no longer about who needs to be added, and more about what capability is needed and who can deliver it across the team.

What leaders are starting to do differently

The shift here isn’t necessarily about introducing more training.

It’s about how capability is delivered and by who.

This is where a capability delivery partner can play a role.

With our sales training example, in some cases, that will mean bringing an external B2B sales training program into the business. In others, it’s about working with existing in-house sales training and making sure it is delivered consistently across teams.

Many organisations already have internal programs, frameworks, or ways of working they want to maintain. The challenge is finding the time and consistency to deliver them properly, and that’s where a capability delivery partner can help

A capability delivery partner is having someone take ownership of delivery across the business. Running sessions across teams, facilitating existing programs, and creating space for teams to practise and apply what they are working on. It also means supporting leaders by removing the delivery burden, so they can stay focused on performance and coaching.

Where the return comes from

This is ultimately a commercial decision.

When hiring isn’t changing, or worse is declining, you have to do more with less.

Your options are limited.  Either the team miss out on an upskill whilst getting pushed to do more within a changing environment, and leaders continue to support them as best they can whilst trying to plug the gaps.  Or you engage an external partner whose expertise can step in on a short-term basis to provide the missing resource and capability.

For organisations that are already investing in B2B sales training, this is often where a capability delivery partner fits. Supporting and facilitating what already exists, or introducing additional structure where needed, so capability is delivered consistently across the business.

If you’d like to see how this works in practice, you can find more detail HERE