A Brief Primer On Knowledge Management For Sales Teams

Published by George Denby on

The sales teams of today have access to a lot more tools and information than their predecessors, so it should be easier to understand the audience and offer them the type of products and services they want.

 

And yet, some sales teams struggle to keep up with customers’ demands. As it turns out, one of the main reasons salespeople may have a tough time is the lack of a knowledge-sharing culture within the company.

 

For your sales team to perform at its peak, you need to provide them with the right tools and support. This often includes knowledge sharing, which is why knowledge management is such a big thing right now.

 

Today, we’ll have a look at what knowledge management is and the benefits it can bring when implemented correctly.

 

 

What is Knowledge Management?

People tend to share knowledge when they meet and discuss topics of common interest. In a company, this can happen during meetings, office events where teams from all departments get to mingle, or sales training sessions.

 

When knowledge sharing happens between departments, the entire organization wins since it helps with productivity and employee motivation.

 

However, top performers don’t have that much time on their hands, and some don’t like sharing their hard-earned knowledge willy-nilly. A knowledge management solution can help solve this conundrum by storing your teams’ collective knowledge in a centralized repository that can be made available to any authorized user at any time.

 

In short, knowledge management is a solution that helps companies with the capturing, storing, and sharing of knowledge.

 

However, there isn’t one platform or solution that can meet every organization’s needs. Plus, depending on needs and preferences, knowledge management solutions differ. For instance, one of the most popular knowledge management solutions is Notion, a productivity and organization tool that allows teams to take and share notes and collaborate.

 

Still, this doesn’t mean Notion will fit the needs of every company. Luckily, Nuclino’s alternatives to Notion show us there are lots of other tools that can provide similar features. Moreover, your company may need other types of solutions, such as:

 

  • Systems that support the decision-making process
  • Data warehousing and mining
  • Systems that help manage content
  • Artificial intelligence tools
  • Electronic document management systems

 

In summary, knowledge management is a combination of practices, tools, and systems that help companies make the most out of their knowledge capital.

 

Why Your Sales Teams Need Knowledge Management

Proper knowledge management comes with a series of benefits for organizations, such as increased productivity, lower training costs, and better time management. Here’s why this happens:

Less Time Spent Searching for Answers

A recent study found that employees can spend up to 3.6 hours per day looking for information. Whether it’s a contract that needs to be dug out from years of digital files or a report from marketing with the latest data on website visits and users’ behavior, salespeople are often put on hold because the information is not readily available. And customers or leads don’t like to wait!

 

To avoid all this and help your staff spend less time frantically searching for information and more time working on customers, all it takes is a centralized knowledge base that’s well-organized and searchable.

 

This type of base helps organize all sorts of digital assets and organize information based on a wide range of criteria. This way, every member of your team will be able to focus on more complex tasks and better manage their time.

Make Communication Between Departments Easier

Today’s customer is educated and demanding, so it takes more than one department to put together a convincing sales pitch. Not to mention that data processing and working with AI-based tools may not be a salesperson’s strongest skill.

 

This is why companies work hard to create a cohesive work environment where sales, marketing, IT, and customer service (to name a few) can work together. This process is called alignment and can’t be achieved without well-established communication lines between departments.

 

Lower Training Costs

Training newcomers is a costly task, especially considering the fact that young workers like to hop from one company to another. Plus, it’s not a guarantee that every new hire will fit the team or that they’ll be able to perform as well as expected.

 

However, companies that have a well-organized knowledge base and/or a knowledge management solution have seen significant cuts in the time and money spent with new trainees. That’s because the onboarding process can be automated (or parts of it, anyway), so there’s no need to have an in-person supervisor by their side all the time.

 

For instance, you can ask top performers in your sales team to create bite-sized videos explaining how the process works and how to get better using the available tools and resources. You can also create tutorials and easy-to-process lessons based on knowledge gathered from other departments.

Wrap Up

The saying “knowledge is power” is more real today than it ever was in the past, but we have to modify it a bit. The only way knowledge can become powerful is if it’s well-organized in a centralized base that’s easily accessible and searchable.

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Categories: Sales