When it comes to digital transformation, many businesses suffer. This is frequently due to their concentration on the technology and tools necessary. It is no longer sufficient to have the most up-to-date software or to employ cutting-edge technology as part of your digital strategy. To fully change your company, you will need to develop a digital mindset and acquire the crucial digital skills needed to expedite your transition.
Your marketing and sales departments, as the face (and income source) of your company, hold the key to becoming digital. Do they, however, have the expertise and talents to lead your organisation to where it needs to go?
Let us have a look at five easy and efficient techniques to upskill your marketing and sales employees to attain digital dominance.
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Recognize where your mentality and talents are lacking.
Digital is no longer an option for your company; it is now a need, and that mindset must start at the top. To establish and maintain a digital culture that is integrated across the organisation, your company requires leaders that understand the relevance and effect of digital.
Understanding the present attitude is crucial to attaining this. Consider the following questions:
- Are your staff hesitant or fearful of utilising digital technologies?
- Are teams aware of the digital technology and processes in use across the organisation?
- Do your teams use digital platforms to interact and exchange information?
- Are your staff aware of the digital activities that occur within the organisation?
- Do staff comprehend and are aware of the company’s objectives and goals – KPIs, revenue, and so on?
Taking the effort to figure out where your staff stand in terms of business understanding will help you set up practices that promote openness and information exchange, ensuring that everyone is on the same page.
This thinking flows into your company’s abilities. To become digital, you do not have to employ every channel and every piece of technology available. It is all about picking the correct ones for your company.
But do you have somebody who can assist you with this? Are you confident in your ability to use crucial digital platforms to spread your message? There are a plethora of digital abilities that can benefit your company, but driving digital transformation requires a strategy that is unique to your company.
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Encourage cross-functional collaboration.
It is pointless for your sales and marketing teams to function in silos. To engage prospects and convert leads, they must collaborate to ensure that your company’s message is clear and consistent.
Encouraging cross-collaboration takes into consideration all knowledge and abilities. It enables workers to interact with and explore new technologies while also allowing them to share ideas to maximise the activities in your firm. It also aids in the installation of a single vocabulary and knowledge of digital to facilitate future and cross-departmental thinking.
This not only empowers workers and delivers fresh information, but it also pushes teams to think outside of their areas of expertise and provides opportunities for new hires to become acquainted with the organisation. It is all about allowing marketing and sales to work together to achieve development and success.
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Provide ongoing professional development
According to MIT Management, companies who invest in the proper experience for their employees and plan for the future outperform their competition, generating 19 per cent more sales and 15 per cent more profit.
“They are also more inventive, better at cross-selling, and provide a considerably better customer experience,” said Kristine Dery, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research.
You must future-proof your workers’ jobs to prepare them for the demands of the digital age. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programmes offer a means to give current and relevant learning for a variety of fundamental and specialised skills.
CPD has several advantages for both your employee and your company, and it does not have to be difficult. Many specialised businesses, including DMI, provide easy and effective ways to acquire new skills and earn CPD points, such as reading an ebook, taking a short course, or listening to a podcast.
Once you have identified your company’s skills needs, you can customise your in-house training and CPD programmes to address them.
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Create a reward system to encourage learning.
Learning might be challenging for your employees to fit in between all of their other commitments. It might be beneficial to design a system of incentives to inspire and reward learners to encourage them to study.
- Provide dedicated training time – this allows employees to disconnect from work and focus on learning. It might be done once a week or once a month.
- Praise workers who take the time to learn in public – publicise employees who take the effort to learn through internal networks or at meetings.
- Spot awards – a ‘learner of the month’ gets rewarded with a voucher or a day off from work.
- A monetary bonus is a cash bonus or more money in a paycheck that is given out quarterly or annually.
- Provide certificates – providing a recognised certification is a wonderful approach to certify learning that can be shared inside the organisation and on social media.
- Incorporate gamification – If you are using a learning management system, consider adding badges or leaderboards to foster healthy competition.
Develop a peer-to-peer programme in which employees join together to exchange information and skills as another approach to incentivise learning. This may be done at any level to guarantee that team leaders and members benefit from one another’s expertise.
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Offer relevant training and hands-on learning opportunities.
Although it may seem self-evident to provide suitable training, many businesses nonetheless fail to do so successfully. You may already have a learning management system in place, but is it current with today’s skill requirements? In terms of knowledge, does it mirror the outside world?
Examine the abilities needed in the industry and match them to the training you provide. So, if you require a social media expert, provide training in that area so that other members of your staff can keep up.
It is also critical to provide training that encourages functional learning and ensures that your employees are “work-ready.” To perform certain digital duties, you need your staff to have abilities that are instantly adaptable and relevant across business domains.
One of the difficulties with digital, whether it is digital marketing or social selling, is that it is always changing. This means that talents can soon become obsolete, necessitating the acquisition of new skills.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a variety of methods for improving your digital abilities to stay up with digitalization. It is all about getting to know your company and your workers. With this you can offer unique and useful experiences that help people advance their careers.
Your marketing and sales staff are precious assets that must be fostered to ensure that they perform well and stay with the company. After all, it is a tough job market for employees. It is easier to teach existing employees the skills they require than continually hire new ones.
