The sales function across sectors has seen several ships over the last five years. Today, the number of sales channels has drastically increased.
From engaging via emails, in-person meetings, and phone calls, sales team members now need to leverage a range of new channels to drive sales. These include social media, messaging apps, and remote meetings.
As a result, the dynamics of sales have completely changed. Today, salespeople must understand how to present themselves as effectively over a video conference call. They must be able to leverage technology to enhance presentations and meet sales targets in a competitive market.
If they work in highly regulated sectors, they also need to be aware of the new regulations that will impact their work and targets.
For salespeople to excel and stay on top of their game, companies must invest in ongoing training of their sales teams. To help with that, here is a snapshot of sales training techniques relevant to sales managers and coaching who are in charge of building up the training practice.
7 New-Age Sales Training Techniques
Below we discuss seven sales training techniques with the help of which teams can enhance communication skills, work on their strengths and weaknesses, build a collaborative culture and drive sales targets.
Offer Actionable Feedback
One of the key lacunae in sales training techniques is the lack of actionable feedback. Actionable feedback is outcome-oriented and comprises specific pointers that also explain the impact of actions or behaviors on sales outcomes.
Offer examples of alternative approaches to driving results and achieving targets.
Deliver Hands-On Training
Sales as a function are hard to teach merely in terms of theory. Sales team members need to continually improvise based upon various factors such as the personality of the customer, their challenges, and real-time needs.
One approach to preparing sales team members for all eventualities is to simulate live role plays where they need to think on their feet. Life simulations can also improve solving a real-world problem that needs to be collected the address.
Team members can also be divided into teams and be required to work collaboratively to address the challenges.
Build a Mentorship Framework
Sales jobs can be extremely rewarding. But sometimes, when one is just not able to complete the sale despite all the hustle and strategy, it can also be extremely demotivating.
Matching team members with mentors is a great way to help sales team members nurture relationships with seasoned sales professionals. They can access guidance and suggestions from them from time to time and be inspired by their stories.
Building a framework within sales team members meet with their mentors regularly and building an accountability structure enhances the success potential of the program.
Build a Culture of Self-Learning
One of the most effective tools to encourage sales team members to continue learning is to provide high-quality, on-demand resources which are accessible 24/7. Learning resources can be presented in a mix of formats video, audio, ebooks, and interactive surveys.
It is also equally important for sales managers to continually keep upgrading their skills and knowledge. By creating access to high-quality on-demand resources, which are updated at a regular frequency, sales team members and managers can continuously enhance their expertise.
Host One-On-One Sales Coaching
While general sales training is essential for all team members, intervention is sometimes needed to fix certain issues. This is where sales coaching can make a difference.
Sales coaching is a process in which where a sales coach meets with a sales team member one-on-one. They proactively generate a conversation to identify challenges, fears, and mind blocks team members face.
However, care must be taken so that the session does not turn into a counseling session. The ultimate aim is to help the sales team member improve their ability to write sales and meet targets. Hence it needs to be outcome-focused.
One or more follow-up sessions may be required to ensure that coaching is effective.
Gamify Learning with Rewards
Today, gamification is a major component of any form of corporate training. It can be a key driver of motivation to continue learning and trigger excitement around it.
One of the best ways to make learning addictive, effective, and outcome-driven is to design the journey with a reward structure. Rewards can be in the form of points, badges, hi-fives by team members, and entering new levels of the journey.
A leadership board can also be introduced to instill some healthy competition. Games can also enable team members to work in a team and build new skills together.
Enhance Measurability with Data
It is extremely important to have access to data that informs you on the effectiveness of your sales training.
Content distribution software enables businesses to track how sales team members engage around various online resources. With such software, sales team managers can gauge which content formats are popular and the key timings to update resources.
They can easily access various dashboards based on the insights they seek, publish reports, and share.
Leverage Tech to Enhance Training Delivery
Early investments in technology always help in scaling up sales training techniques. Onboarding all sales team members onto one unified platform with on-demand resources stored on the cloud, as well as video conferencing facilities, gives sales managers more autonomy to design and scale up sales training techniques.
A content distribution platform is one such example of software that enables sales managers to build a training framework for a larger number of individuals sans geographical barriers.
To Wrap Up
The quality, effectiveness, and scalability of sales training are growing concerns for companies in a world taken over by social media, messaging apps, and other sales channels.
With the right technological interventions, companies can bring engagement, measurability, and scale to their sales training operations. They can be relevant and profitable for the decades to come.
Partner with Kytes to leverage the right technology interventions based on your real-time sales training techniques and needs. You can expect 24/7 customer support from our team because the sales cycle is ongoing.
