The sales team is at the heart of a business. If you don’t make sales, you don’t get revenue. And when you don’t get revenue, you cannot continue your business. However, selling something to a potential lead and an existing customer can be challenging. Hence, you must ensure your sales team is efficient by training them appropriately.
This training is vital for standing out from the competition. Data shows that there are millions of sales representatives in the US. According to Statista, there are around 1.57 million sales representatives in the manufacturing sector alone. Thus, training your sales team will help you gain a competitive advantage over other businesses as your employees can increase sales.
Give Them a Clear Goal
Before you begin, make sure your team has a clear goal. Even if you’ve been training for years, defining the goal is essential before starting. They must also understand that they should not worry about other people’s goals or compare themselves to them. Their own goals should be ambitious but realistic.
For example, let’s say your sales team sells gym memberships with an initial purchase price of $30/mo for 6 months ($180). Your goal could be, “Our team will sell at least 1 new member per day and earn $2,100 in commission per week.” This way, you have something tangible to shoot for every day instead of just saying, “do better!”
It is also crucial to have an achievable goal. Similar to the advantages, goal setting has some disadvantages if not done correctly. For instance, a study published in the Frontiers journal shows that people who fail to achieve their goals get demotivated and lose self-esteem and motivation compared to those who achieve their goals. Hence, it is best to set clear goals.
Record Calls and Review Them
You can also use recordings to help salespeople improve. Record calls and then review them with the salesperson. This will help you discuss areas of improvement, which you can address in a one-on-one coaching session or group training class.
To ensure your recordings are helpful and effective, focus on how the rep interacts with customers, how they speak, and answer questions rather than what they say about their products or services. You want your reps to avoid selling so much that they neglect demonstrating empathy for their customers’ needs.
You can also use recordings as a training tool by showing them how you’d like them to talk to customers, handle objections, etc., so that everyone understands where they need improvement.
Call recording software can record the calls for further analysis and discussions. But don’t just go with any solution. Opt for a call recording solution to maintain call compliance alongside the basic recording features. This will help you avoid any legal consequences. The call recording software should also be able to sync outbound calls and activities with your CRM.
Find Out What Kind of Training They Prefer
Training is essential for every sales team but especially for those who work in a B2B setting. To get the most out of your training sessions, you’ll want to determine whether your reps prefer reading or listening, doing or watching, and so on. This will help you tailor your training methods more effectively to their learning styles.
For example:
- Some people learn best when they read something and then try to put it into practice by doing an activity such as taking a test or quizzing themselves on the material. These people prefer a book instead of hearing someone else talk about the material or watching a video.
- Others do better when they listen while someone else speaks because this allows them time to process information before attempting any hands-on activities on their own time. These are often auditory learners who would benefit from audio recordings explicitly related to sales strategies rather than videos that show different scenarios happening live within companies across various industries worldwide.
Offering customized learning will motivate your sales representatives to learn quickly. This will also showcase that you are putting efforts into employee training, which can help retain top talent. In fact, according to the American Upskilling Study, around 65% of employees say that training and development is one of the biggest perks they look for when considering new opportunities.
Make the Training Simple
A good way to make sure your training is practical is to keep it simple. When you’re training a sales team, especially for an important event like an annual meeting or trade show, it can be tempting to include too much information in your presentation. But remember, you want your team members to retain as much of what they’ve learned as possible.
If you have visual aids, use them. The more clearly you can explain a concept or process, the more likely people will understand and apply what they’re learning. Visual aids can include storyboards, flowcharts, checklists, graphs, or charts illustrating sales figures over time, whatever works best for your situation.
Encourage Daily Micro-Training
Micro-training is a great way to reinforce the big picture. It’s short, frequent training that focuses on one or two specific things your salespeople should do or say more of in their day-to-day interactions with customers. The goal of micro-training is for your reps to walk away with an actionable takeaway, something they can immediately apply on their next sales call or meeting with a client.
To ensure it works for you, it is recommended to do micro-training at least once per week. You can do this in person or remotely. Either way, having a dedicated person on your team whose sole responsibility is to deliver these short bursts of information throughout the year is recommended. This will help everyone stay on track and get what they need from each session.
Micro-training or micro-learning is effective in the long run. This is the same for both students and employees. When anyone learns about a single concept at a time, it becomes easier to remember. Studies have also documented the efficacy of micro-learning. A recent study of 108 students concluded that those taking the micro-learning approach had 18% better learning outcomes than others.
Conclusion
We hope these tips will help you train your sales team for glory. Plus, remember that there are a lot of other ways to go about it. This is just the tip of the iceberg regarding all the things you can do to ensure that your employees have what it takes to succeed.
