Want To Develop A Successful Sales Training Program For Your New Recruits?

A sales manager hired a new set of sales development recruits…

He was hoping that the sales reps would be smart enough to run the show themselves. A new joiner with cold calling expertise, client objections handling experience, understanding of sales and marketing strategies, etc., is what the sales manager was expecting at the time of onboarding.

But that isn't how it happens in the real world!

On the contrary, 16% of the newly hired sales rep take more than seven months to become fully productive, even after training!

Any sales manager needs to present a robust sales training program to newcomers that helps the reps with the necessary skills to ace their sales numbers and earn incentives.

Now, here's the guide you need to conduct a successful sales training program–one that your reps would love to be a part of!

In this post, we’ll be discussing:

Want to take your sales training program to the next level? We can help.

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What is a Sales Training Program?   

A sales training program is a process of upskilling sales reps with information, knowledge, and recent industry trends to perform well.

Whether it's a beginner or an experienced sales rep, B2B sales training program helps them upgrade their knowledge based on the recent industry trends.

The core objective of a remote sales training program is to enhance the rep's understanding of the company’s products/services to get the desired ROI and serve prospects better.

An effective sales training program focuses on improving the sales rep's behavior. It teaches them the exact techniques they need to learn to excel at selling company products/services.

Imagine your rep sharing false information and misleading the prospect to buy a product that they don’t need. That’s where the sales training comes in and teaches the ethical and right selling techniques.

Though virtual sales training programs are tech-dependent, ongoing training has shown to give result in higher net sales per salesperson by 50%.  

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Components of an Effective Sales Training Program                

A sales training program combines multiple elements that add value to its overall objective. Below are six of those components you should be taking care of!

Work on Mindset

Participants in the sales training program come from different backgrounds–each one of them was raised in a different belief system. You’ll find some sales reps having wrong presumptions about selling.

It's critical to eliminate those limiting beliefs from their mind. That's when they'll be able to deal with the challenges in the sales process.

The sales process requires reps to have a tremendous amount of patience–prepare to face rejections at any stage. Only proper guidance can help to inculcate the right approach.

Sales leaders must focus on working on a sales rep's mindset. Because that’ll pay off heavily in the long run!

Have Them Understand Prospects

The baseline of any sales strategy is to understand the audience, and sales teams need to have a thorough understanding of the target audience.

One of the significant components of a sales training program is introducing reps to the company's target audience, their pain points, interests, likes & dislikes, and platforms they hang out on the most.

It's undeniable that the more in-depth understanding sales reps have of the target audience, the better they can try to solve their problems.

Knowing each step of the sales process is crucial for reps to help the prospects whenever they need it. 

Introduce Reps to the Sales Process

The sales process is a well-defined set of steps defined by companies to achieve their sales goals. Depending on the objectives of the company, companies design different sales processes.

Introducing reps to the sales process makes it easier to understand what the company intends to achieve and easy for them to work on it.

The sales process is exclusive to each company. Including sessions in the training programs to introduce reps to sales processes are essential. It will help them stay aligned with the company's vision and mission and improve their sales performance.

Assess Each Rep Individually

The one-size-fits-for-all scheme doesn't work. Each person is unique. Each rep owns a few strengths and a few flaws. Sales leaders need to understand that before training reps.

Sales training sessions must implement activities to know reps individually. It could be to check their communication skills, language, critical thinking abilities, problem-solving skills, etc.

When you know about their strengths and weaknesses, you can assign them tasks they're good at, which will assure their growth in the process.

Knowing each rep's unique selling point will accelerate the company’s sales quota achievement.

Implement Gamification

Not all team members would actively participate with the traditional sales training approach. But when a task at work is gamified, 89% of people say they feel competitive and more eager to complete it.

Sales training can be monotonous, and it could be a painful experience for reps to survive in the hour-long, old-school sales training sessions. Sales training gamification is the new approach companies implement to make the training process more intriguing and enjoyable.

In this approach, sales reps need to participate in various sales training games such as Sell the pen, the Ugli Orange, etc. that teaches reps the core sales concept in a less complicated way.

Introduce Reps to Product, Industry, And Market

The biggest and the most crucial task is to introduce reps to the company product.

They need to have a thorough understanding of what solution the company provides and what problems they are trying to solve.

Also, they need to learn about competitors in the market and the approach to dealing with them. Sales reps should be aware of the industry trends that would shape the company's future. 

One Sales Industry Trend Every Salesperson Should Follow in 2022: How to Sell With the Help of Videos?

Last but not least is the market understanding. Sales reps need to understand the market behavior. It's essential because they must try and test various sales strategies and see what works best. They'll need to make crucial decisions based on those insights.

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Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Successful Sales Training Program

Once you understand the essential components of building a sales training program, you need to implement steps to run a virtual Sales training program.

Here are 5 steps you need to implement.

Define Objectives

First, you need to clearly understand what you aim to achieve from the sales training program. Your sales objective could be one of the following:

• Increasing sales quota
• Increasing customer engagement
• Increasing customer retention rate
• Improving rep's productivity 
• Increasing conversion rate

Please write down your objectives and why you aim to achieve them. Mention whom you're targeting and what's your expected outcome.

Also, share the objectives of a sales training program with reps so that both the trainer and the rep are on the same page throughout the training period.

Set Goals and KPIs

Having well-defined goals help you to accomplish your motives efficiently and faster. Define your goals and set a timeline to achieve them.

Setting goals isn't enough. You need to have a well-defined sales plan to achieve it.

Your goals could be one of the following:

• Expand existing accounts 
• Increase average sales volume
• Increase win rates for new business proposals
• Increase revenue with new accounts
• Accelerate the sales process
• Achieve favorable sales terms
• Increase the hiring success  

Set goals and track the progress hand in hand. Measure the key performance indicators (KPIs) that'll give you an idea about what's working and what isn't.

Know the Areas of Improvement

Keep in mind that the training goals and objectives can change from time to time depending on the requirement. 

You need to assess each sales rep from time to time to observe the pace at which they're progressing, how much they've improved, and what further improvement they need.

Need help with Sales Tracking? - Read More

Create Referenceable Material

It's practically impossible to remember everything reps’ will learn in the training program.

A great practice is to create valuable materials for reps to keep with them and refer to whenever they want.

Besides, an average sales rep requires 1.5 years to master sales skills. So, you need to equip them with valuable self-paced learning material and resources they can go through independently.

Those materials can include cheat sheets, guides, templates, ebooks, checklists, etc.

Materials from the training program will help reps understand and implement the essential concepts with ease.

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Convin provides a set of ebooks that addresses specific skills such as leveraging videos in sales, sales tips, and tricks.

Evaluate & Modify

Last but not least, Analyze the sales training program and think about what could be improved. It can be in terms of tech, sales material, or sales rep's performance.

Observe the growth rate of your sales reps. Make necessary adjustments to the program when needed. It’ll allow you to improve the process and get ahead in your journey constantly.

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Are you Ready to Take the Leap Towards Creating Better Sales Training Programs?

We're here to help you!

Convin is an AI-powered conversation analytics platform that helps salespeople record, transcribe, analyze, and share sales conversations with teams.

Our solutions include sales training software that assists virtual selling for high velocity and high-value sales!

Wish to learn about Convin a little more?- Yes, let’s get started!