How To Make Sales Training Process More Effective

Sales training programs are conducted in pretty much every organisation.  After all, sales is a prime function. And if you are unable to sell your product or service, there’s not much any other function will ever get to do!

This makes getting your sales skills training programs right extremely important. And that’s what I’m going to give you some valuable tips on today.

·      Practice, practice, practice – Your sales training program should give your sales executive plenty of opportunities to practice. This could be anything from mock cold calls to greeting etiquette demonstrations to how to close the sale. For its only when they get their hands dirty will they realise what they are good at and where they need to put in more effort.

·      Teach them something new – Although this is a standard for all training sessions, its especially important for a sales skills training program. Why? Because of the personality type that most sales executives belong to. They love learning new things and implementing them on the field. So, give them something fresh to play with. A new sales skill, concept or information. And see how kicked they are about giving it a try! 

·   Tell them stories – We all love hearing success stories. It raises our spirit and gives us the horsepower to go that extra mile. They are therefore a great way to make your sales training programs more effective. Especially when sales are the function where sales executive have to face the maximum amount of rejection! Which also brings me to my next point…

·    Teach them how to manage their emotions – Now this is one of those things that every sales training program requires but most tend to miss out! Teach your team how to be confident, strong and resilient. And I’m not just talking about the confidence you get by looking or speaking better. You have to develop true inner confidence that comes by working on your thoughts and emotions.

·     Follow up – Last but not the least, build in a solid follow up to the sales skills training. Conduct mystery audits and see how each individual is faring. Provide them on the job coaching where needed. Be there to answer their queries. Help them constantly upgrade the sales process they are following. Ask them to make a list of the typical objections they face and how they will tackle them. In short, be sure to invest time and effort with a good corporate training company to bring your sales team up the curve. Trust me, it’s worth it!

5 Components Of A Successful Sales Training Program

I was creating a virtual sales training program yesterday. We already have an amazing 4-day classroom sales workshop in place. Therefore, I was picking up bits and pieces from it, and seeing what I can use successfully in the online session.

While doing my pick and chose activity, I did come across one or two activities in the classroom sales training program which I realised could not be delivered in the online format. However, contrary to my earlier apprehension, most of it could!

And this brings me to my topic today. The components of a successful sales training program delivered in the classroom or online. So here goes…

1.       Practice – Practice is one of those things that a sales training program or any skill related or behavioural program for that matter, can’t do without! It has to be an essential part of the session and should come post teaching a new skill or behaviour. This, however, can tend to get a little difficult when it comes to a virtual session as the participants are not physically next to one another. Nonetheless, its worth putting in the effort to figure out how best you can do this based on the options available on your online platform.

2.       Awareness – Every sales professional has their own strengths and areas of development. And no matter what level they reach, its important that they know about them. It is therefore essential that every sales training program or sales management training gives the sales executive or manager insights into these.

3.       Market Standards – Now this is one area that I have always seen participants being inquisitive about. And they make it a point to ask the facilitator in every sales training program what their competitors are doing or in general what practices are being followed by others in sales. And if you ask me, its amazing what insights they pick up and start applying from the same. Which also brings me to my next point…

4.       Newness – For executives who are attending their first sales training program, they are definitely going to learn something new. But for a Sales Manager who has attended many programs before, its important that the Sales Management training teaches them something new. For example, you can teach them how to manage their sales team rather than just managing the sales pipeline.  This will surely be a value add for them.

5.       Holistic – A corporate sales training program must cover all the aspects of sales. Right from grooming to attitude to etiquette to managing numbers. After all, all of these together create a great sale and should therefore not be left to chance!