Sales Enablement Series: Uncovering Partner Sales Frameworks with ChatGPT (Part 1)

Selling with Sabine

Sabine, the host and producer of the "Selling with Sabine" podcast, a consumer-to-business sales expert with a wealth of experience working for tech companies, including telecommunications and cybersecurity. She holds an Adult Learning Graduate certificate and utilizes her Instructional Design Graduate program knowledge to design and develop sales training assets such as job aids, and micro e-learning courses for her clients.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Sabine Taylor, the host of "Selling with Sabine," and welcome to Episode 8, the first of a three-part series on sales enablement. In this installment, we will talk about using AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to determine which sales frameworks are being used by your partners. So, let's get started!

Before we dive deeper, let's establish a clear understanding of sales enablement from a partner's perspective. In this scenario it typically involves two companies engaged in a financial agreement, with one company reselling the products of the other company to their customers. To illustrate, imagine a relationship between LG and Walmart. In this example, LG is the manufacturer, and Walmart is their partner. When a customer buys an LG TV for lets say $286 at Walmart, LG may receive $136, while Walmart keeps $140.

As the manufacturer, LG's primary objective is to sell as many TVs within Walmart's ecosystem, such as stores and online. To achieve this goal, LG should know the sales framework Walmart uses to train their sales representatives.

However, for competitive reasons, Walmart may not share share their proprietary sales framework with LG. They may be concerned that sharing this framework could lead to LG sharing it with other retailers, such as BestBuy or Staples, who also are LG’s partners. Instead, Walmart may request sales training from LG by simply asking for product specifications. But what happens when customers ask questions that cannot be answered using the specs? In this scenario the Sales Rep will lose credibility if they cannot answer those questions, and the customer may simply go someplace else to buy from a Rep who can answer all of their questions.

When a partner refrains from sharing their sales framework, there is a risk that the company may create training materials that do not align with their unique sales approach. Such materials can confuse the Sales Representatives, resulting in misinformation which can often lead to product returns. More importantly, there is a possibility that the partner may not renew the contract with that first company especially if they find another company who comprehends the partner's sales process better.

To tackle this challenge effectively, there are three criteria’s that need to be in place:

First, a company must have a certified sales trainer with substantial onboarding experience, someone who is well-versed in following sales frameworks and can visit a store or shadow a sales rep during a sales call to assess what flows the reps are using, when selling products so are they greeting first, asking questions second and recommending solutions third etc.

The second criteria, is that the certified sales trainer prompts ChatGPT an Artificial Intelligence tool to provide a list of sales framework that follow this sales approach that they observed when they were shadowing that Sales Rep.

Third criteria is that the certified sales trainer provide that list of sale frameworks that they got from ChatGPT to an instructional designer who can then create job aids and pitch decks that align with the partner's framework. Finally, these materials when completed will be presented to the partner. If the partner finds value in the training material, they may ask the company to develop additional training materials, which will be an indicator that the partner training is very effective.

So as I prepare to wrap up working within a partner ecosystem is very complex but leveraging Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT can help a company unlock answers to questions they have when creating partner training materials.

If you found this information useful, I kindly ask for your support by liking and sharing this podcast. Your support will help me become more discoverable by business owners, sales leaders, and professionals who want to access valuable sales coaching tips.

With that said, I'm also a certified sales trainer and instructional designer I can help your company close sales learning gaps. I do this by leveraging my knowledge of adult learning practices and theories, to help write sales curriculum pretty fast, and I have done this for Fortune 150 companies in the telecom and cybersecurity space for about 10 years.

If you're interested in contacting me or working with me, visit LinkedIn.com when you land on that site you can type in the name, Sabine Taylor in the search field. In the search results, you should find Sabine Taylor “The Sales Training Architect.” I respond to those messages faster. Have a wonderful day and thank you for listening.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesalestrainingarchitect/