Sales training techniques to create a powerful sales team

Sales are the lifeblood of any company, and it is the most crucial skill for the company to have. 
Without it, you don't have a business!

You can have the most excellent products and services in the world, but if you don't have the right people to sell them, then the business will not be successful. Salespeople are one of the most difficult jobs to fill as they need to have a certain skill set and mindset. 

How do you then even start with creating a powerful and successful sales team? 
Here is how – by giving them sales training

Your sales team The training they receive will form the basis of how they will sell products and services to customers. So, you need to train your sales team the right way. Here we will take a look at sales training techniques to help you create a powerful sales team.

Now without further adieu, let us define the elements of sales training that you need to focus on for your sales team:

6 Sales training component

If you want to know the definition of sales training, just click here.

Now let’s get into the components of sales training that you need to focus on during the training.

#1. Call scripting and engaging customers in the meeting

It is the most important aspect of sales– going to a sales meeting.
But without knowing how to approach the customer and engage them in the conversation, your salespeople are just lining themselves up for a failure.

That is why training your sales team about how to create a sales script that prompts the customer to engage and take action is vital for the success of your company as well as your account executive.

Training salespeople in:

• How to give a sales demonstration?
• How to draw up a proposal?
• How to negotiate?
• How to close the deal?
• And finally, how to onboard the customer?

These are a few elements that salespeople have to deal with in their everyday meeting, so before a new sales rep starts working for your organization, doesn’t it makes sense to coach him on these techniques?

#2. Giving personalized customer experience

A study by Salesforce shows that nearly one-fourth of companies saw a spike in revenue higher than 20% due to personalization. And personalization can be accessed by exercising empathy and let’s understand what we mean by exercising compassion.

The most valuable trait for a sales representative to develop is empathy. To cultivate empathy in your sellers– your sales training program should consist of modules that help reps understand what the customer experience is like from beginning to end. 

Sales representatives who put themselves in their customers' shoes will be better able to close deals and give their customers what they want when they want it. By exercising empathy for your customers, you will make them feel special and important, which would directly impact the overall sales experience for your customers.

#3. Product and Market knowledge

If your sellers do not know:

• What is your product?
• Features of your product
• The unique value proposition of the product
• Market stand and need
• Competitors, etc.

How can your salespeople even pitch your product benefits to your customers?

As part of product training, invite the representatives to test out your products themselves. Also, encourage software developers and product engineers to come in and talk with the new representatives. These developers are already familiar with some of the less-advertised features that can make all the difference during a sales pitch. 

Having this knowledge at their fingertips will allow new representatives to connect buyers with the right resources during each customer interaction. 

It's also beneficial for them to become familiar with your marketing content library so that they can connect customers interested in specific products or services to relevant literature on those topics as needed. At a later date, have them perform a mock sales pitch for you so that you can provide constructive feedback about how well they're able to navigate your content as well as how successfully they connect it to prospective clients' needs.

#4 Company’s sales process

In every house, the living lifestyle of everyone is different. So, why would the processes in every company be the same?

The sales process in every company is different. In some, there might be an inbound team present, and in another, it might be absent, and sales reps might have to qualify leads independently.

There are many different processes you can use when it comes to sales. Some companies have a unique one they prefer, while others enjoy tweaking and adapting their current strategies. 

When a new hire with any experience in sales begins working at your company, it’s important to ensure they leave training with a clear understanding of the specific process you prefer over others, even if that means making adjustments before starting training depending on what the employee already knows.

You should teach your methods in detail by looking at real case studies. It will be easier for the trainees to understand your instructions that way, and you can be sure that they won't miss a step when practicing what you have just told them. 

For example, if you tell your trainees to qualify prospects but decide not to give any specific examples of how this is done, then they're going to have a hard time trying to figure out just how they're supposed to accomplish these tasks on their own. 

Role-playing with past successes can help trainees learn how exactly they went about working through a situation and allow them to use that experience for their own training.

#5. CRM and other sales stacks

Using CRM software is an essential skill for modern salespeople, and they need to have training that is specific to your company’s processes. Although training materials provided by the CRM vendor can be a helpful starting point, more customized training will be a lot more effective when it comes down to honing their skills and making sure they grasp any nuances of the software you currently use in your business for assisted selling.

For example, you might use different tools to record sales calls, evaluate sales conversations, and track sales performance. Your sales team should know and learn every nuance of this software so that they leverage them and even customize them for their advantage.

#6. Teamwork and cross-functional collaboration

‍

As new hires settle into the process, incorporate activities that will help them bond together as a team. Team exercises should be spread throughout the training. Ideally, it is good to break up the groups so that your fresh-faced recruits can get to know as many of their fellow workers as time allows.

They should also be made to mingle with other departments so that they can collaborate with each other for every deal stage.

Bored of reading?

Check out this video instead on how you can improve your sales training ROI

Now that you know about the sales training components, it is essential to check if your new and old sales reps have these skills and knowledge. And that is why a thorough skill and knowledge evaluation has to be done before you can even start honing your seller’s skills.

If you have successfully evaluated your seller’s knowledge and skills, then it’s time to get into sales training.

4 powerful sales training techniques

Anybody can sell, at least that’s what we saw in the epic show “The Office”. On scouring through the internet, we found this epic video, inspired by the show by Alex Berman on how to sell anything to anyone. 

Sales Closing Strategies from ‘The Office’ on How to SELL ANYTHING TO ANYONE

If not, continue reading here:

#1. Sales playbooks and success storytelling

Everyone loves a good story. Both kids and adults alike appreciate a good narrative because it helps them to understand the world around them better. The art of storytelling also allows us to take our imaginations to places that we might never have seen otherwise. 

So if you want your sales team to perform at their highest potential, make sure you give them an epic narrative tale to live out! 

Stories are often very simple in nature, with certain twists here and there in order to add some much-needed variety, but the basic premise remains a constant - someone overcoming some type of challenge, conquering something odd or unusual, and achieving a goal that may otherwise seem impossible. And add to this magic by topping your story with successful sales playbooks. 

Sales playbooks can contain your successful call plays starting from reaching out, demonstration, negotiations, closing of the deal, to onboarding the customer.

#2. Use games for sales training

If you're going to get sales training right, you need to make sure it's going to work or else it won't help your business in the long run. 

Gamifying is often a great way to do this. It will help increase the effectiveness of your sales training because it can improve confidence. And even decrease the time it takes your salespeople to overcome objections, so they are better at cold calling, which is vital for outreaching and making contact with new potential clients!

#3. Roleplaying 

A great way to make sure that your salespeople are up to date and learning everything in the sales training program is by having them go through role-playing scenarios.

By role-playing one-on-one with each person, you will be able to understand better the various ways in which they specialize to make use of their strengths and overcome their weaknesses (if any). 

It's best if I avoid asking them questions during these training sessions but instead allow them the freedom to perform and try out the different strategies in a way that may be most suitable for them.

#4. Giving specific homework for the “takeaway” approach

A company can try to improve sales by having their sales team members use the "takeaway" method more often. 

One way to ensure that this happens is by assigning tasks for each of those sales representatives that apply only to implementing the "takeaway" method into their actual work. Let's find out how this would work in practice: let's assume during some role-playing, a representative demonstrated to use of the "takeaway" technique during his sales calls. 

The rep could then be assigned making a certain number of calls where he uses the takeaway approach during his next meeting with clients. Every time one of its employees participates in a training session or seminar, the company makes sure they walk away with an actionable task that they have to carry out right away or work on it as an assignment.

Sales training is an ongoing process.

Sales training techniques start with training your sales team on how to identify their customers. Once identified, your sales team can use effective techniques to fulfill their customers' needs. If you want to learn more about sales training techniques and sales training solutions, you can visit the page Sales training by Convin.