5 ways to improve the performance of marketing and sales teams.

Many companies struggle with digital transformation. Often because they focus on the technologies and tools they need. But digital transformation goes far beyond that.

It’s no longer enough to have the latest software or to adopt new technologies as part of your digital strategy. To truly transform your business, you need to develop a digital mindset and have the key digital skills needed to accelerate transformation.

Let’s look at five simple and effective ways to improve your marketing and sales teams and achieve digital excellence.

1. Identify your mindset and skills gaps

Digitization is not an add-on for your business, it’s a necessity, and this mindset needs to be enforced from the top down. Your company needs leaders who understand the importance and impact of digitization to create and sustain a digital culture embedded throughout the organization.

To achieve this, it’s important to understand the current mindset. Ask yourself:

• Are your employees afraid or hesitant to embrace digital technologies?
• Are teams clear about what digital technologies and processes are being used in the organization?/li>
• Do teams collaborate and share information through digital channels?
• Are employees aware of digital activities in the company?
• Do employees know and understand the company’s goals (KPIs, revenue, etc.)?

By taking the time to find out how your employees understand the business, you can put processes in place to ensure transparency and information sharing so everyone is on the same page.

2. Form cross-functional teams

You need to work together to ensure your company’s message is clear and consistent in order to attract leads and persuade potential customers. Encouraging cross-functional collaboration takes into account all knowledge and skills. It allows you to share ideas to optimize the company’s business and gives employees the opportunity to work with new technologies and gain experience. It also helps develop a common language and understanding of digitization to create a forward-looking, cross-departmental perspective.
This not only empowers employees and teaches new skills, but also encourages teams to think outside the box and gives new employees a chance to learn about the company

3. Offer continuous professional development

Companies that invest in the right skills and prepare for the future typically outperform their competitors and achieve 19% higher revenue growth than them. They are also more innovative, better at cross-selling, and provide a significantly better customer experience.

If you want to prepare your employees for the digital world, you need to secure their professional future. Continuing professional development (CPD) programs are one way to ensure relevant and up-to-date training in a variety of core and specialized skills.  

Continuing professional development is beneficial to your employees and your company, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Many specialized companies, including Geniez Web, offer simple and effective ways to learn new skills and earn CPD points, such as reading an e-book, or listening to a short course or podcast.  

Once you’ve identified the skills gaps in your organization, you can adjust and regularly update your internal training and development programs to reflect market changes and keep your skills up to date.

4. Create a reward system that motivates learning

It can be difficult for your employees to learn on top of all their other responsibilities. To encourage learning, it can be helpful to create a motivational and reward system. These can take a variety of forms:

Offer time to learn – this allows employees to step away from work and focus on learning. This can be done weekly or monthly.

Recognize learners publicly – announce employees who take time to learn on internal networks or in meetings.

Reward the “learner of the month,” such as a gift card or a day off from work.

Cash rewards – a cash bonus or additional money to salary on a quarterly or annual basis.

Offer certificates – offering a recognized certificate is a great way to validate learning that can be shared around the company and on social media.

Gamification – if you have a learning management system, consider introducing badges or leader boards to encourage healthy competition.

5. Provide appropriate training and functional learning

It may seem obvious that proper training should be provided, but many companies still don’t do it right. They may have a learning management system in place, but does it meet current skill needs? Does it reflect the level of knowledge of the outside world? 

When you look at the skills your organization needs, you need to link them to the training you offer. So, if you need a social media expert, you need to offer training in that area to keep the rest of the team up to speed.

It’s also important to offer training that is tailored to functional learning and to ensure that your staff is prepared for the job. Essentially, your employees need skills that are immediately usable and useful in all areas of the business to be able to perform certain digital functions.

One of the challenges of digital, whether it’s digital marketing or successful social selling, is that it’s constantly changing. This means that skills can quickly become obsolete and new things – software, social apps, algorithms – must be learned to stay on top of things.  

Bottom line: secure the future of your business and your employees.

As you can see, there are many ways to accelerate your digital skills to keep pace with digitization. First and foremost, it’s about understanding your business and your employees to create a personalized and rewarding career experience.

Your marketing and sales teams are valuable assets that need to be nurtured to ensure employee success and retention. The recruiting market is very competitive. It’s easier to train people who already have the skills you need than to constantly recruit new employees.

Offer customized training that transforms your employees

The best way to compete in today’s digital environment is to have the talent you need to drive change. GeniezWeb will assess your digital competitiveness and develop a customized training program to address the skills gaps within your organization. Contact us today to find out what we can do for you.