Digital transformation: how sales managers can be champions of change
In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, digital transformation is no longer just a competitive advantage—it’s a necessity. However, while many companies have invested heavily in technology to transform their sales activities, ensuring successful adoption at the salesforce level can nevertheless be a challenge. Sales managers play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between strategic initiatives from top management and the daily operations of sales teams.
12/04/2024
5 min
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A recent *study sheds light on the critical factors that encourage sales managers to champion digital transformation efforts within their organizations. It also identifies key resources – both at the sales manager and company level – that facilitate this process, leading to increased support for digital transformation. In this interview with Deva RANGARAJAN, Professor of Sales at IÉSEG, we explore the implications of this research and delve into what sales organizations can do to leverage their sales managers’ influence to drive change.
You can listen to the full interview here:
A short (edited) version of this interview is available below.
What do we mean by digital transformation and what role do sales managers play in this process?
Digital transformation is very much a buzz word in the business world. It refers to the way that different types of digital technologies can completely transform an organization and the way it works. In a sales context, this means we are looking at how digital technologies transform the way organizations currently sell their products and services
It’s worth noting that a plethora of technologies are being used by sales organizations – varying from tools like CRM platforms, what’s app, social media, Microsoft teams and Slack, to learning management systems (LMS) for sales team training. Some experts have even suggested that a decent functioning organization needs its salespeople to have access to at least 10 different platforms.
A lot of previous research has looked at the impact of this process on salespeople, but interestingly not many researchers had focused on the key role that managers of these sales teams play in this changing environment. And how does this impact the way sales managers manage their teams?
One of my coauthors has highlighted in his work that sales managers can be seen as resource orchestrators. Their teams need their support when dealing with change and new digital tools. They might need training for example or additional resources or support – which the sales manager can provide.
The sales manager therefore plays a key role in finding those resources and helping the salesperson navigate a period of change. But who do they turn to when they need support? And do their organizations invest enough resources or effort in ensuring they can play their role effectively? These were just some of the questions we were interested in as we set out to study these managers who are at the front line of digital change for sales.
Two important elements you highlight for organization are “change communication” and “change mobilization”. Can you explain why these are crucial for sales companies?
Research by companies like Gartner has highlighted that digital transformation is in essence related to change management. Communication is a crucial element of change management.
Sales organizations that are undergoing digital transformation should remember that they’re asking for a significant investment from their sales managers. Therefore, it’s crucial that these managers clearly understand the objectives (of this change) and how it will affect the members of their team.
So, the ability for top management to communicate clearly why they are asking their sales managers and their salespeople to change the way they work using technology becomes vital. Failure to do so can lead to a lot of ambiguity and ultimately each manager may start implementing things differently which obviously can cause problems for the organization.
Clear communication should also be accompanied by training or support to enable sales managers to handle this change. If organizations cannot mobilize this support for their sales managers, they are essentially creating toothless tigers – i.e. managers who will not have the power or means to help their teams through this transition.
Similarly, organizations that offer training for their managers without communicating clearly on their vision and strategy will also face a problem – as managers will not understand why they are doing the training.
Therefore, communication and support for sales managers go together. Organizations that focus on both stand a much higher chance of convincing their sales managers to be effective champions of this process.
Another element the study highlights is the importance of psychological capital. Can you explain how this can be used to promote digital transformation?
Yes, it’s not a simple concept but basically this means that sales companies need to understand the inherent strengths that an individual sales manager might have.
This concept of psychological capital relates to positive psychological characteristics such as self-efficacy – a manager’s belief that they will be able to handle effectively different types of situations. Other positive character traits can include hope, optimism, and resilience. Having managers that are positive about going through change process can help of course, and any change process is likely involve some difficult moments, where people are going to have grit their teeth.
These human qualities are not always something that a sales organization can control. Of course, if you are recruiting people who have all these traits great, but a lot of times managers will inherit a team.
In this case, managers might want to turn to those members of their team who exhibit these characteristics, work with them first, and use their experiences to convince the other team members.
Could you summarize three key takeaways that may help organizations with sales managers who may be resistant to change?
I think one of the key takeaways for top management is to ensure your (sales) managers buy into the digital transformation (before rolling out change). They are the ones who are going to be coaching and supporting the people in the sales team. And you don’t want these managers to just nod their head and say, OK. They should be cognitively and emotionally ready. That means that they are willing to spend some time ensuring they really understand what is being asked of themselves and their team.
They need to clearly understand “why we are doing this” and “why we are asking you and your team to do this”. It is crucial also to explain what is in it for them. Some forward-looking organizations even brainstorm with their managers to ensure these factors are clearly communicated.
The second thing, of course, is then to make sure that you also provide your managers with the right kind of tools, empowerment, training and coaching for them to be able to deploy digital change with their teams.
Finally, if I’m recruiting new managers I would look to recruit change managers with a positive psychological capital. If this isn’t possible, I am not going to necessarily make the change in one go. I’m going to identify certain “early adopters” and leverage their positive attitude to help bring along other members of the team.
*Badrinarayanan, V., Rangarajan, D., Lai-Bennejean, C., Bowen, M., & Kaski, T. A. (2024). Digital transformation in sales organizations: antecedents of sales managers’ change readiness and championing behaviors. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
