Sales Training Software

What is Sales training?

Sales training helps you impart the necessary skill set your reps to need at every part of the sales strategy. With sales training, you onboard your sales representatives to the tools, strategy, and team culture. It gives your salespeople an idea of the expectation you have set for them and prepares them for success.

A study by Accenture states that for every dollar a company invests in training, they receive about $4.53 in return. That is a  353% ROI!

Sales training isn't a one-time thing, it is a continuous process. The best sales training program lets you include your historic wins and revisit the lessons your team learned from their losses.
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Starbucks' $6 million sales training

Not many companies out there deliver a great experience that customers keep wanting. Starbucks has been exceptional at selling its premier coffee experience to customers globally. But when the brand was struggling during the economic slowdown in February 2008, the CEO,  Howard Schultz decided to close down its U.S stores for 3.5 hours.

Why? Because if the store was going to deliver an experience, the baristas must be good at their primary skill, making a good cup of espresso. The unprecedented move cost them $6 million in revenue. But it was necessary for uplifting the image of the premium coffee house. The CEO,  Howard Schultz used the training as an opportunity to highlight that while there are machines to make the espresso, the barista is ultimately the artist.

As we dive into a world of customer experience, companies require a well-conceptualized sales training program in place. It not only helps you train your sales reps but also helps you set up a customer-oriented process that sets up your team to win.
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Why does your sales team require sales training?
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For your business to thrive, you need customers. Your sales team is the bridge that convinces your prospects to take a leap of faith and buy. And while the ultimate goal is to persuade prospects, sometimes, the process can go on for days depending upon the sales cycle.

According to Forbes, more than half (55%) of people working in sales lack sufficient empathy to ever succeed.

Your sales team engages with your prospects via different channels to build trust, nurture them and turn them into your customers. One lapse and the time and effort your team invested become futile.

With sales training in place, your sales reps:

• Acquire in-depth knowledge of your selling strategy
• Apply the right selling tactics based on their interaction and win deals.
• Identify if the prospect is sales-ready or requires more nurturing
• Know what information to collect during their interaction and deliver a personalized experience.
• Reduce the time taken to turn a prospect into a customer.
• Discover unique up-selling and cross-selling opportunities while interacting with existing customers.
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Benefits of sales training

With sales training, you impart your value-added skills to your sales reps. These skills improve the quality of the interaction your sales reps have, thereby shortening the sales cycle.

But what does sales training mean to your sales team? Today, sales reps have the ability to connect with prospects from all over the world. In 2020, most brands switched to phones and video calls as a primary sales channel as a result of the pandemic.

Bringing your sales team together under one roof has been the challenge. With sales training, you can bring your entire team up to speed from anywhere.

Not just that, firms where salespeople use the company’s methodology and get consistent coaching to see 73% quota attainment.

Sales training brings a key asset that helps your team redefine selling. It brings in immeasurable benefits not just to your salespeople but to your organization as a whole.
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◼️ Proactive listening

Active listening is a trait that sets good sales reps from the rest. A sales training program that focuses on proactive listening helps your sales team drive more sales. How? Prospects churn when they interact with sales reps who ignore, frequently interrupt, or talk over. With active listening, your sales team tries to glean the prospect's needs, their tone and empathize with them. This is key to offering the right solution to the prospect's pain points, establishing trust, and driving the conversation towards a sale.
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◼️ Effective storytelling

Stories are viral and they play a great role in influencing your prospects. Stories help in making an idea stick or improving brand recall. Your sales reps, who are on the front line should be able to tell a good story that your prospects buy. With adequate sales training, your reps know what your business is and the impact your solutions create. They will know how to hero your solutions and sell them convincingly.
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◼️ Identifying prospects

The goal of your sales training program isn't only to upskill your team. It should also help them be clear-sighted and discerning. Your reps shouldn't spend a lot of time identifying prospects from your sales pipeline. With adequate knowledge about the business, the solution, and your target audience, your reps should be able to gauge if the prospect is sales-ready or not. This ensures that they do not spend time going after leads who will not convert and instead focus on engaging with leads who will convert.
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◼️ Being resourceful

To crush the sales quotas, your sales team shouldn't aggressively sell your product right from day 1. It is important to respect a prospect's time, figure out their pain points and align your solution around their needs in a timely manner. This is where patience is a skill that's worth developing. The salesperson needs to restrain and also create an experience that will warm up the prospect. By aligning your solution to the prospect's needs, your team can ensure a smoother transition and build a delightful experience at the same time.
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Sales training techniques to create a powerful sales team

Curating a sales training plan requires effort and past experiences in order to create an impact. The training should be tailored in such a way that it not only is easy to consume but must be easy to apply in their day-to-day responsibilities.

Here are some sales training techniques that will help you create a strong sales team.
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◼️ Eating your own dog food

The first step to becoming an amazing sales rep is to empathize with a lead. When your sales team uses your product/solution, they become familiar with the problems your business solves. They also become aware of the shortcomings in it. This prevents them from overselling or putting out false expectations. It also paves for insightful interactions where the sales rep can help resolve technical queries instantly.
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◼️ E-learning modules

When you harness the power of technology, training can be engaging and powerful. By incorporating videos and interactive sessions, you break the monotony associated with sales training. Enrich your sales training sessions with product videos, expert analysis to help sales reps grasp things faster. According to Forrester, employees are 75 percent more likely to watch a video than to read documents, emails, or web articles. Add pop-quizzes at the end of the modules to assess how much your team understood and give proactive feedback to help them improve.
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◼️ Shadowing other sales reps

Once your sales reps finish their theoretical session, it's time for them to pick up some tips and hacks from seasoned experts. Having your sales reps shadow seniors will help them get a glimpse of what happens behind every sales call. It helps them assimilate the tone of voice, the information they need to gather, the objective, and how to handle on-call rejection.
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◼️ Peer-to-peer role play
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Once the learning is over, it doesn't mean your sales reps are ready to interact with prospects. Peer-to-peer role-play helps your reps test what they have learned during the training session. It helps them apply it on a call, provides opportunities for mentors to coach them on what went wrong. Having a mock role-play session improves the confidence of your sales reps. It prepares them for real-time calls, how to handle situations and how to deliver an amazing on-call experience.
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How to create an effective sales training program for your sales team

Your sales training program should be the source of truth for your sales reps to refer to. It should cover three important things:

1. What is the product/service you are selling

2. Sales call etiquette

3. Best practices

In today's age of remote selling, your sales training should help you onboard reps faster. It should focus on replicating what the top-performers do consistently. Your sales training program should define what is a win, how to achieve it along with real-time examples. And that is where sales training software comes into play.
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What is sales training software?

A sales training software collates your sales calls, helps you identify winning strategies that new team members can learn from. With sales training software, you get insights into what works on a call, what doesn't and discover opportunities that a rep can tap into.

A sales training software with the power of AI, like Convin, helps your team to sift through calls, identify strengths and opportunities easily. Your team doesn't have to listen to each call manually anymore.
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How Convin helps you create a superior sales training experience

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With convin as your sales training software, keep a pulse on all your sales calls automatically. Identify the best strategies, 1:1 trainable moments, and make sales training fast and effective.

1. Create the best sales training program much faster

With Convin, your team doesn't have to manually pick calls, analyze them, and include them as a part of your training. Discover the best sales calls, transcribe calls automatically and discover more time to train your team. With AI on your side, review calls faster, offer real-time feedback, and help your reps close more deals.

2. Provide active feedback and prevent deals from slipping away 

 Find out how your sales reps are handling a call. Provide on-the-spot feedback to your reps while the deal is still active. Help your reps with the right coaching to turn a near-loss into a definite win.

3. Create your winning playbook and win as a team

Your top performers have a winning strategy. Don't keep that a secret anymore. Compile a list of your biggest wins and add it to your sales training program. Inspire new reps with the confidence they need and the tips they should know to crush their sales targets right when they start.

4. Don’t rely on opinions, train with real insights

With the power of AI, uncover conversational insights that tell you what's working on a call and what is preventing a prospect from engaging further. Guide sales reps with data-driven recommendations based on their calls, offer 1:1 coaching and help them enhance their sales game.

With more visibility into your sales calls, Convin helps you create an effective sales training program for your sales reps. Surface real-time call insights, identify the wins, discover areas of improvement automatically.

Deliver feedback to the sales rep after a conversation and help them retrospect their performance easily. Convin brings the power of AI to automate call reviews and help your team turn every sale call into a deal.