.png)
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
20 Best Sales Training Ideas to Improve Your Sales Process
For your business to thrive, your employees should be top-notch. They have to keep doing their best constantly, but it is also essential they are satisfied with their job. To accomplish that, you have to invest in them and make them feel valued.
Investing in sales teams is especially important, as they directly impact your revenue. By offering your sales reps continuous opportunities for learning and improvement, you avoid ending up with miserable workers who are doing their jobs poorly.
You can approach sales training differently, but one of the best choices you can make as a sales leader is to invest in a sales training platform.
Wonderway is a sales training platform based on machine learning that helps you create a customized training program for your sales reps. Our software gathers data from managers and workers and detects which skills your sales reps must have or improve to increase the number of closed deals. Time is money, so do not waste any of it, as you can immediately schedule a personalized demo and learn how to create a digital training program with Wonderway.
In this article, we will cover the best sales training ideas to help you further improve your sales process and explain how Wonderway enhances your sales reps’ efficiency.
How your business benefits from sales training
Sales representatives are changing jobs more than workers from other industries. Businesses lose a lot of money by not retaining their workers. They also lose additional time by onboarding new employees and integrating them into the company.
Solid sales training software helps you reduce these costs by providing onboarding training to introduce your new hires to your sales process. You can also improve the sales skills of your existing sales reps and keep them up to date with changes in your products, services, processes, or procedures.
Online sales training platform has no downsides, but the benefits are many. Some of them include
- Lower turnover rates
- Decrease ramp time
- Training consistency and availability
- Training remote workers
- Advanced analytics and performance measurement
- Higher revenue
If you are still not convinced that your sales team needs training, let’s look at what can happen if they are not well trained.
What happens if you don’t train your sales team
The success of your business depends on your sales team. They are calling the prospects and presenting your product or service. They are responsible for getting new customers and retaining the old ones.
Some people are born to sell. They will instinctively know what to say and do. These salespeople are rare since most sales reps need coaching.
Employees cannot immediately know about every process you have or every detail of your product or service. Not investing in their training can cost you a lot, as employees who are not properly trained usually make many sales mistakes.
If you do not have a solid sales process, one leveraging data and technology, your employees will often waste time speaking with prospects unsuitable for your company. At the same time, even if you have a solid process but don't train your sales reps properly, it will negatively impact your revenue.
Let’s see what stats show us about sales training and why it is necessary.
What stats show about sales training
Image source: Really Simple Systems
Current stats on the benefits of sales training clearly show why having sales training in place is necessary:
- According to Forbes, 55% of salespeople lack fundamental sales skills
- The return on investment for sales training is 353%
- Sales training improves sales reps’ performance by an average of 20%
- 65% of employees think that training and learning opportunities make a positive impact on them and their engagement
- Most successful sales organizations are twice as likely to offer their employees ongoing training
- employees do not remember 84% of what they learn through initial training
The benefits of sales training are not always easily measured. By providing employee training, you are cultivating an environment where learning is appreciated.
Create a culture of learning with consistent feedback
A company's culture is critical to its success. Employees thrive in an excellent environment, and those who become loyal employees are not ready to leave quickly.
According to one research, the second most important factor for satisfaction in the workplace is the learning opportunity. Employees want to keep learning new skills and enhance their existing ones. They are more ready to change their jobs if they are not growing their knowledge.
By providing them training, your sales reps will be more engaged in the sales process and more fulfilled, feeling they are constantly making progress. Providing them a feeling of constant growth will make your workers more loyal to you.
By cultivating a healthy environment where learning is valued, you will improve the lives of your employees but also give your company an edge over competitors. A good workplace will make a significant impact on your revenue.
Now we can go into ideas you should consider when implementing sales training.
20 best sales training ideas to consider in 2022
Not every sales training is equally efficient. To get the most out of sales training, you have to think of many options that are before you, among others:
- should you provide training just for new hires
- should it be a one-time or ongoing training
- what kind of curriculum do you need
- what type of content you should use
- which kind of data you should base your decisions on
In the following sections, we will give you the 20 best sales training ideas and show you how software based on machine learning, like Wonderway, can do wonders for you and help you design an impeccable sales training program.
1. Create an onboarding process for new hires
New employees do not know how to do everything perfectly right away. With the right onboarding software, like Wonderway, you can introduce them to your sales process in the shortest period.
You should create a training program with specific goals for your new hires to assist them in becoming productive employees. For instance, you could require that each new salesperson closes a sale during the first month of employment. You will accompany them on that journey with a thoughtfully planned development program that facilitates their integration into your sales team.
2. Create a sales training curriculum
Wonderway provides a Sales Enablement Consultant who can assist you with importing and improving your existing onboarding program. It also allows you to re-use your training docs as it integrates with G-Suite, Office 365, Loom, Confluence, and similar.
You can transform your basic training program into months-long ongoing training by utilizing Wonderway pre-existing training templates produced by sales experts, which can drastically shorten ramp time.
In addition to onboarding, Wonderway provides training for your existing sales reps to improve their current capabilities. With the help of upskilling software, it is possible to identify employee skill gaps and design training that focuses on building sales qualities necessary for success.
3. Offer virtual training sessions for remote employees
During COVID-19, remote work became a norm, and many workers decided to never return to the office. You need to follow this type of change by adjusting your sales training.
Wonderway allows you to train your remote workers by offering them virtual training sessions. It is still essential for employees working outside of the corporate headquarters to be involved in every learning process and keep up to date on all company changes.
4. Incorporate real-world scenarios into sales training
With Wonderway, you can design training programs for each sales cycle stage. You can also incorporate scenarios from the real world, which will make sales reps better equipped for overcoming challenges while working with prospects.
For instance, if they are in the middle of a negotiation process with a prospect, Wonderway will guide them through each step they should take to have the highest chance of closing a deal. Your salespeople will benefit from training since they can use what they learn to advance existing open deals and convert prospects into paying clients.
5. Utilize technology advancements
Technology can be far more neutral than people’s judgment, which is often subjective.
Wonderway uses machine learning and advanced analytics to inform you what sales skills your sales reps lack and help you create a personalized training program to improve their results.
Wonderway skill profiles enable companies to identify the characteristics of their most successful employees and use that information to tailor training for underachievers. You can track all results thanks to Wonderway integration with your CRM. You can also assess feedback from your sales managers and reps to see where you can improve.
6. Create KPIs for each sales rep
With software like Wonderway, you can create goals for each employee and track their progress over time. By comparing their performance and through revenue and quarterly bookings, you can see who your top sales reps are and what skills they have.
Additionally, less productive workers can see where they lack and work on improving their performance. Wonderway offers your sales reps an opportunity to assess their development and identify the next milestones in their career.
7. Add interactive elements to make training engaging
No one wants to commit to boring and unmotivating training. Your employees deserve exciting content and lessons to provide the knowledge that will stay with them for a long time.
With Wonderway, you can incorporate interactive elements into training, like videos and quizzes, to keep your sales reps interested and engaged. At the same time, trainers and managers will not have to waste their time repeating the same training but can focus on providing valuable feedback to each sales team member.
8. Keep reps up-to-date with your product or service
With Wonderway, you can keep your employees updated on any process changes or new details about your products and services. The sales certification feature allows you to track updates and messages you send to employees and get notified once they see them.
Sales certification also allows you to qualitatively and quantitatively assess your workers’ knowledge. It is an excellent way of getting your sales team on the same page.
9. Teach your reps how to network
The sales process is based on networking and acquiring new contacts. Most successful sales representatives have to know how to work with their colleagues, but also how to communicate with existing and potential clients. They have to learn how to network inside and outside the company and share their best practices with each other.
10. Use video to train and close more deals
Sales professionals do not only communicate with words. It is also important how they use their body language and present themselves and your company to prospects. You can visually train your workers using video content, showing them how they should behave once they reach out to a client or negotiate.
11. Develop and train cold calling skills
Behavior, vocabulary, and attitude can be of immense importance when contacting people who have not expressed an interest in your product or service. It is more complex than talking with someone already willing to hear you out.
To have successful sales training, you must incorporate cold calling scenarios to build your sales reps’ confidence and prepare them for all random questions prospects might ask.
12. Teach reps how to run effective sales meetings
Reps must take this opportunity seriously because their poor performance can result in missed opportunities or lost business. Once they meet with a prospect, your sales representatives must be prepared to close the deal.
At the same time, they must be aware of possible challenges to prevent them. Every sales meeting has to have its natural flow and should bring you an additional client if everything goes well.
13. Improve communication skills with role-playing
Wonderway can help you introduce role-playing into sales training. With role-playing, reps will get simulations of real-world situations they can find themselves in.
They will get an opportunity to practice their communication skills and learn how to adjust their words to suit different personalities and contacts. This flexibility will induce trust in prospects and increase their willingness to become your clients.
14. Train your sales reps in negotiating skills
Given that it has the power to affect your company's objectives directly, negotiation is a crucial step in the sales process. With solid sales training, you can teach your sales professionals how to bargain and negotiate, making contracts that bring you the most profit.
15. Train your sales reps to be better listeners and observers
Your sales training needs to integrate certain content that concerns listening skills. An effective salesperson must be a great listener to understand prospects' needs and wants. By listening and observing, they will build a trusting connection and be more equipped to promote your product or service as a solution to customers' problems.
16. Help them learn how to handle objections
When communicating with various people, sales reps will undoubtedly get a few opinions that will differ from your company’s objectives. They must be prepared to answer these objections calmly and respectively. They should carefully listen to prospects and respect and consider their opinion after presenting your product or service as a solution to their needs.
17. Show your reps how to effectively use CRM tools
You can integrate CRM with Wonderway to enable your sales representatives to learn how to store and handle customer information. CRM can track all customer interaction data to help you see if there is room for improvement or upselling. For example, sales reps can find out that often customers turn down the offer twice before they accept it.
18. Analyze real-time data
By integrating CRM and sales reps’ performance reviews, Wonderway lets you get insights into when and how you are getting deals. It will help you see your team's potential and in which segments they need further improvement to increase your revenue.
19. Recognize and reward great performance
You can separate top performers from low-performers based on data that Wonderway tracks and analyzes. It can not only help you improve the productivity of your low-performing workers but can also help you reward excellent workers. Rewarding workers is of essential value, as the recognition they get will give them the motivation to excel.
20. Celebrate wins together
Your employees should feel that they are working not only for you but for themselves. You should celebrate and share each success with employees and reward them for their hard work and loyalty.
Success has never been closer than with great sales training platforms like Wonderway.
Sales training ideas: Wrapping up
In this article, we provided you 20 best sales training ideas you should have in mind if you want to create a top-notch sales team that will achieve your sales goals. If you want your company to succeed, you need to implement sales training in your overall sales process. It can significantly improve the efficiency of your workers and bring you higher revenues.
The best solution is to sign up for an online sales training platform. The quality of sales training platforms varies tremendously because some only provide a few basic sales training without advanced personalization features. The best platforms provide highly customized training that can significantly enhance an employee's productivity and results.
Wonderway is a sales training software providing highly customizable training programs that rely on advanced analytics and machine learning. By turning your workers into lifelong learners, Wonderway helps you cultivate a motivating environment and excited sales representatives that will increase your revenue.
To see how Wonderway works, schedule a personalized demo today!
Sales training ideas: FAQ
What should be included in sales training?
Sales training should be offered to all your employees, no matter how long they have been working with you. It should include training for each sales process step (e.g., prospecting, discovery, negotiation, etc.).
How can I improve my sales training?
Your content should be interactive and entail real-world scenarios so your workers can apply their knowledge immediately. You should leverage data and use machine learning software to detect which skills your workers should improve.
What are the four major sources of sales training?
Significant sources of sales training are on-the-job training sponsored by companies, certification programs, training by suppliers (usually about the technical aspects of a product), and courses offered by universities.