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As the vice president of learning services for The Brooks Group, Michelle Richardson leads the strategy, design, and delivery of training and assessment solutions to support clients in their talent development needs. Michelle works closely with clients to uncover challenges using a variety of diagnostic and assessment tools, including sales effectiveness audits and reporting processes that were developed under her leadership. Her depth of knowledge on instructional design principles combined with her extensive experience in sales enablement and leadership best practices allows her and her team to develop and deliver solutions that get real results for clients. She has led regional, national, and global rollouts and implementation of The Brooks Group’s methodology, including curriculum that she has developed in the areas of sales leadership, account management, negotiation skills, and coaching. Her depth of knowledge on instructional design principles and her keen attention to detail have significantly enhanced The Brooks Group’s core IMPACT Selling® training programs, as well as offerings related to strategic and complex sales, account management, negotiation skills, sales management, coaching, and ROI measurement. She holds a BA from the College of William and Mary and has completed coursework in the Phillips ROI Methodology from the ROI Institute, Inc. She uses her 20 years of experience in curriculum design and sales training to build effective, engaging solutions for sales teams spanning a variety of industries, selling cycles, and environments.

Michelle Richardson

New research by The Brooks Group shows that setting up your sales team for success in 2024 lies in your company’s approach to sales process adherence, onboarding, sales training, and coaching. In this interactive webinar, The Brooks Group President and CEO Spencer Wixom and VP of Sales Performance Research Michelle Richardson will share the compelling results of their latest sales performance research.
Register today to learn:

How onboarding, training, and coaching strategies can influence revenue goals
Why your sales team needs to follow a structured sales process
Top sales skills your team needs to adopt to stay competitive
Actionable tips to develop sellers who can sell effectively in any situation 

Primary Capability Covered: Coaching
Participation in this event, either live or recorded, can be reported for one (1) professional development point toward initial certification or recertification requirements for the APTD or CPTD credential.
 

New Research: Training Strategies of Top Performing Sales Teams

How are you feeling today? Talent leaders know that emotional intelligence (EI) is a contributor to professional success. Awareness of one’s own emotions and the emotions of others is essential to managing feelings and relationships in a productive and empathetic way.Yet many sales leaders focus on building their team’s hard skills and neglect emotional intelligence or “soft skills.” Emotional intelligence matters for every field—especially sales. When sales professionals understand and act on emotions appropriately, they can connect and communicate more effectively with their colleagues and customers.This ability has a significant impact on job satisfaction and sales performance. Find out why emotional intelligence is essential for sales professionals today and how to develop this critical skill.The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Sales Having a great product is no longer a guarantee of a successful sales career. Today’s sales professionals need to position themselves as strategic advisors—resources to help solve their customers’ business problems. This is known as “consultative selling.”A consultative sales professional puts the buyer’s needs ahead of their own. Instead of leading with a sales pitch, sellers discuss options, provide insights, and guide buyers.Emotionally intelligent sales professionals are well suited for consultative selling because they’re aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, able to adapt to the emotional states of others, and proficient at building rapport and maintaining strong connections.5 Ways Emotional Intelligence Affects Sales PerformanceThere are five categories: self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, empathy, and motivation. Each of these contributes to the success of highly emotionally intelligent sales professionals.1. Self-Aware Sales Professionals Manage Their Emotional StatesSelf-aware sellers can identify and understand their emotions and the impact they have on others. They can manage their mood, are less likely to clash with others, and recover from rejection faster than sellers who don’t recognize or manage feelings. 2. Self-Regulated Sales Professionals Control Their ImpulsesSelf-regulated salespeople don’t bring negative emotions—anxiety, discomfort, or irritation—to sales conversations. They adapt their behavior to the needs of their job and can motivate themselves over the long term. 3. Socially Skilled Sales Professionals Make Meaningful Connections Sales professionals with strong social skills make meaningful connections, build rapport easily, and maintain relationships over time. They know how to “read a room” and adjust their own behavior to get the outcomes they desire. 4. Empathetic Sales Professionals Understand Others’ EmotionsEmpathetic sales professionals identify other people’s emotions—and are good at adapting to fit the situation. Empathy helps sellers understand customer needs, goals, and pain points so they can address them most effectively.5. Motivated Sales Professionals Work to Achieve Their GoalsMotivated sales professionals get more done in a day and seek out training to improve their skills. They pursue promising leads and follow up on opportunities more assertively than less-motivated peers. They embrace coaching that helps them reach their goals.Developing an Emotionally Intelligent Sales Team Emotional intelligence can be developed to improve sales team performance and harmony. Look for these five building blocks of emotional intelligence when hiring and developing sales professionals:Self-Awareness: Do they seem able to recognize their own emotions and tendencies? Emotional Regulation: How do they describe handling stressful or challenging situations?Social Skills: Do they make eye contact? Do they pick up on social and non-verbal cues? Empathy: Can they see things from another perspective? Do they actively listen?Motivational Skills: Do they have techniques or habits to keep themselves energized? You can help your sales professionals increase their emotional intelligence and perform to their maximum potential with an emotional quotient (EQ) assessment. Assessments help team members gain self-awareness, reveal strengths and gaps, and help talent professionals develop low-competency areas. Consider the level of emotional intelligence within your sales organization. Are there customer satisfaction issues, personal conflicts, or tensions? It may be time to assess the team’s ability to understand and apply the power of their own emotions to improve sales performance and satisfaction.Want to learn more about emotional intelligence and sales training? Visit The Brooks Group blog for expert advice.

Emotional Intelligence: Why It’s Essential for Today’s Sales Professionals

Providing effective sales training is critical. But how can you ensure your programs are targeting the right skills gaps? In this webinar, you'll learn how to accurately assess individual and sales team strengths, pinpoint development areas, and deliver more effective training. Join us on August 27 at 2 p.m. EDT for a complimentary ATD webinar presented by The Brooks Group. In this session, you will gain actionable insight to improve your sales training programs.
Register to learn:

Strategies to drive meaningful performance improvement
How to benchmark competencies of top performers
Ways to use assessments to create personalized sales training roadmaps
Best practices for selecting reliable, predictive assessment tools
Whether launching a new training initiative or refreshing an existing program, attend this session to learn a powerful approach to enhance sales training effectiveness and bottom-line impact.

Primary Capability Covered: Consulting and Business Partnering
Participation in this event, either live or recorded, can be reported for one (1) professional development point toward initial certification or recertification requirements for the APTD or CPTD credential.

Mind the Gap: How to Address Sales Skills Gaps with High-Impact Sales Training

Recognizing the importance of sales professionals to the overall success of an organization, this webcast takes a deep dive into the current state of sales training, drawing on data from an ATD research survey of 227 sales enablement professionals. Specifically, this webcast focuses on the way that sales training is delivered, how salespeople learn best, and the frequency of training for sales professionals. The webcast will also discuss the average annual sales training expenditures as well as several of the top barriers to delivering effective sales training. Finally, the webcast will present recommendations for overcoming barriers and creating more effective sales training programs.
The key data points presented in the webcast are taken from the new ATD research report 2016 State of Sales Training, which will be available at www.td.org/sales2016 in August 2016.
 

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