Build Your Own Business Sales Training Program

Cookie cutter business sales training programs may not work for your company. In this post I will give you a few pointers for how you can “build your own training” for your staff, whether you intend to deliver it yourself or use a third party such as Asher Strategies to do the teaching work.

Main structural components for a successful business sales training

To build one of the top sales training programs, you need to begin with some sort of curriculum. And the sky’s the limit here, so I won’t get into what to teach in this post – as you will determine that based on the unique needs of your team. But here are the basic components I recommend no matter what you actually teach:

• Schedule: Develop a schedule for each day and stick to it. If time allows, dry run a part of your business sales training seminar each day to determine if you need to adjust the time for each segment. Make enough time for breaks and lunch. The maximum time between breaks should be an hour and a half. Anything longer and you will notice most of your audience impatiently checking their watches or phones.

• Visual Aids: By this, I refer to PowerPoints, slide projections, drawings on a whiteboard, or, best of all, video. Mix it up to keep things interesting.

• Interaction: Ask your audience questions, and allow them to share their stories. One caveat: an innocuous question might turn into a long discussion which you must table to keep things on track. Also, if anyone tends to hog up Q & A time, offer to answer their questions after the day’s sessions or via email so everyone else gets a chance.

• Role Playing: People learn best by doing. Have attendees partner up and enact common scenarios, using the material you are teaching them to handle the situation. It is best to have everyone do this simultaneously, rather than put a student on the spot by calling them up to demonstrate to the whole group.

• Storytelling: Always try to relate the material to real life by telling stories. The benefits are threefold: stories draw audience members in, help them understand concepts, and promote retention.

• Handouts: Give attendees workbooks or at least sheets with the main points spelled out. Some people need to doodle or take notes to maximize learning, so help them out. Handouts also help them review lessons later, and can be useful for one-on-one coaching.

• Snacks: While you don’t have to buy everyone lunch, providing some coffee, fruit, and some baked goods will go a long way to keeping your audience focused on you, rather than their rumbling stomachs.

Let Asher Strategies help design your training course

We offer several solutions for customized sales training:

1. If you do not want to go through the all the hard work and invest the time required to put together your own business sales training program, Asher Strategies can customize our offerings to your specific industry and company.

2. If you are determined to produce your own 100 percent original course, we can consult on the curricula and the structure.

3. A hybrid option would be to roll out an internal corporate sales training program based on our coaching and basic processes and skills training, and adding your customizations. In other words, you would license our material and deliver it to your team as a white label solution.

For more information, contact an Asher Strategies custom business sales training specialist today.