Five Things To Look For In All Top Sales Training Programs

We’ve all heard it before: the best advantage a business can have is a strong, motivated sales force.  Effective sales training seminars and programs are essential for improving and motivating that sales force.

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, about 12.5% of all jobs in the US are full-time sales positions, and as a result, choosing the best program to provide your team with the right tools for future success becomes more important than ever.

Here are five things you should be looking for in a top sales training program:

Role Playing

The ability for a sales person to relate to a customer is the building block of every sale. Role playing is an invaluable tool in assessing and understanding a customer’s needs and being able to ‘close the deal.’ A top sales training program will include extensive role playing to explore the customer’s experience and the sales person’s responses. Coupled with constructive feedback, this will improve the employee’s ability to use what they learned to engage and make the sale.

Easily Understandable

The best sales training program in the world wouldn’t do much if the intended audience doesn’t understand the content. The costs associated with training a sales team, not to mention the amount of time involved, makes it paramount that the employees can retain the information they are given. Sales training should be presented in clear and concise language. Having great course reference guides and online resources to reinforce previous training can dramatically increase the end results.

Real World Applicability

Everyone loves good, rousing speeches full of jokes — but sales training programs likely aren’t the best place for them. The most effective sales training programs will be concerned with real world issues salespeople deal with on a regular basis and offer tools to better interact with customers and improve selling ability. We all like to be motivated, but a trainer who brashly quotes the coach’s monologue from his favorite football movie isn’t likely to improve your bottom line anytime soon.

Dynamic Presentation

It’s plain to see that a training program isn’t going to make much of an impact if your sales force isn’t interested in the content or how it can improve their performance. Listening to someone speak at length on complex issues for hours is a sure fire way to lose the crowd and a simple PowerPoint slide presentation can only help so much. Top sales training programs will mix up the format with role play, audience participation and games in addition to a lecture. And don’t forget to include breaks!

Customized Programs

No two businesses are exactly alike and sales trainings should reflect this reality. The best sales trainers seek out those unique factors in your business and build a sales training program around them. They incorporate direct feedback from the employees and listen to their experiences, creating a dialogue that speaks directly to the needs of your business.

Before making an important decision that could have a big impact on your bottom line sales like selecting a corporate sales training program, make sure you’re picking the best one to fit your company’s needs.