How Do You Make Sales Training Effective?

Great sales instruction can equip sellers with confidence, technique and the product information necessary to dominate in their territory.  Sellers use training programs to learn the company culture, adjust to required technology or software, and master methods for handling clients.  Sales leaders can use the following five tips to design programs that make sales training effective.

Administer a Sales Personality Assessment

Don’t waste time and superior training sessions on a person who lacks the basic personal skills to make it in the competitive world of sales. Not everyone has the innate motivation, sales personality, endurance quotient or work ethic to succeed. So, before training or on the first day of training, give each seller a sales aptitude test to verify that each person has the character traits necessary to excel in their job for the long haul. If the assessment shows a seller is not a good match for the company or the sales job, the sales leader can decide to cut that person from the team since natural ability cannot be taught.

Use Role Playing

Games that utilize role playing, or situational training,  to teach sellers how to handle difficult scenarios with prospects can make learning fun, give sellers practical experience and make the overall team feel bonded and prepared. It also gives the team a break from reading, listening to lectures and passively watching sales videos or presentations.  It also gives sales leaders the chance to study their sellers in action in a dynamic situation where the outcome can go in multiple directions depending on how well participants can think on their feet and innovate. Try to create scenarios that sellers are most likely to encounter in the field.  Have every team member commit to performing his or her roles as realistically as possible.

Lesson Reinforcement

Few people can learn skills successfully without proper reinforcement.  Giving team members binders of information during training and having them read the information will not be effective. Presenting information may not be wholly effective either, even when props and media are used. Learners must have some form of repeated engagement with the information in order to reinforce skills and make the skills their own. Make sales training effective by allowing sellers to reinforce lessons by doing group activities, taking quizzes, competing with each other in review games or participating in a question and answer phase. Spread the reinforcement over several days and give a few short home assignments.

Take a Gradient Approach

Make sales training effective by presenting information a bit at a time, with each lesson building on previous ones instead of overwhelming with a lot of information at once. If possible, test for comprehension at regular intervals, such as at the end of each chapter or unit, before proceeding to the next area.

 One-on-One Personal Coaching

Balance group training sessions with individual coaching sessions. This allows a sales leader or instructor to assess the deficiencies of a particular seller and provide individualized advice and a tailored action plan.

Above all, remember that training is not a one-time job. It’s continuous. After the initial instruction phase, meet with the sales team regularly to make sure they are constantly improving and setting new goals.