Sales Training Overview

"How To Choose The Right Sales Training For Your Team"

I

am often asked, "What is the best sales training for my team to teach them how to sell?"  There is no one right answer to this question.  It depends you what you are trying to sell, to whom, and what your team's existing skills, knowledge, and experience are in relation to this sales engagement.  You know you should be developing your sales team but it is very easy to throw a pile of money at the problem without delivering any tangible results.  Sales training can be a fabulous investment or a major waste of time, effort and money.

Where should you start?  How much should you spend?  What should you focus on?  Who should be involved?  These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered before you can positively impact your sales team.  

It is always best to start is with an assessment or your team and situation.  Starting with your sales people, look at the multiple areas of individual sales readiness needs including product and organizational knowledge, level of skill and their ability to learn.  Next, look at your situation including customer requirements, competitive issues, market conditions and any historical factors that impact your ability to sell.  This analysis provides you with an initial understanding of the ares you need to focus on.

Also understand there are two ways to focus training.  The first is to teach areas where people are weak and need additional skills or knowledge.  Identify the deficiencies and design a program to address them.  The second, often-overlooked, area of development is to focus on enhancing the current strengths of individuals and organizations.  Develop an individual's particular and inherent strengths is often easier, more productive and you see more immediate results. 

There is an old adage, "Never try to teach a pig to sing.  It wastes your time and it annoys the pig."  This can be the case with training.  Make your training enjoyable but also germane to what your team needs both from a participant's weakness and a strength perspective.

Why Sales Training is Important

Properly designed and implemented, effective training improves your company's success.   Without a basic sales process and methodology, sale people are left to their own devices.  That leaves management without a standard way to review pipeline, project trouble areas and predict success.  Improved sales benefits every part of your company.  And most important, sales training should lead to better salespeople which leads to more sales and better profits for your company.

Teachable

Are you addressing "teachable" topics?  As simple as it may sound, your training has to be about something that will not only add value to your sales efforts but also something that is "teachable". Everyone has characteristics that are ingrained in them.  They have certain ways of responding, different ways of relating, and different strengths and weaknesses.  Understanding this helps you get the most out of your training and to tailor the sessions. 

Different Areas of Sales Training

Sales training can address multiple areas involving personal and interpersonal skills, business knowledge, and sales process and methodology.  Each area has specific value and delivers different benefits to help individuals to be better.  As a manager, it is up to you to decide what training is most needed for you and for your team.  Below is a list of areas to consider: 

People Skills

• Conversation
• Coaching management
• Questioning
• Presentation
• Relationship building
• Team building and leadership
• Management
• Negotiations

 Selling skills

• Prospecting
• Qualifying
• Discovery and investigation
• Solution development
• Closing
• Implementation

 Business and product knowledge

• Business acumen
• Product information
• Market knowledge
• Financial acumen
• Industry training
• Organizational infrastructure

 Strategic and planning skills

• Call planning
• Opportunity planning
• Account planning
• Territory planning
• Channels planning
• Alliance planning
• Implementation planning
• Program management and project execution

How to deliver sales training courses to your people

There are multiple ways to deliver sales training courses .  The standard convention has been instructor lead training (ILT), which has been historically the most effective way to deliver training courses.  ILT allows for the sharing of best practices, for direct feedback and emphasis from the facilitator, and it builds teamwork among the participants.  In addition it provides for better control of the delivery because the participants are with you in a classroom and not distracted during the delivery.  The problem with ILT is that due to travel, lodging, meal and  venue expenses associated with the training, it is also the most expensive.

An alternate to ILT, is virtual ILT (VILT).  This method uses a live facilitator to deliver the training via a web based delivery.  These are often linked into a Learning Management System (LMS) and can require unique qualifications for the individual delivering the ILT because of the added requirement of manipulating a web based meeting system.  The LMS supports areas like registration, tracking participants, building reports and monitoring test results.  VILT can be an effective way to deliver sales training courses and sales training seminars.  It is often difficult to keep participants attention for more than one or two hours at a time.  For this reason VILT is often broken down into smaller modules delivered over a longer period of time.

In addition to sales training courses you might also consider sales training seminars as an alternative to complete training courses.

Deciding which delivery model is best for your organization is never easy.  You have to factor in your goals, budget and timing.  

Measurement of ROI

Being able to measure the effectiveness of training is sometimes difficult.  Training impacts four domains; attitude and feelings, knowledge, skills and results.  Measuring the results of training in the four domains involves using different techniques.  Donald Kirkpatrick has developed a four level evaluation model to help you determine the effectiveness of your training.  Those four levels are:

• Reaction of the student - what do the student think and feel about the training
• Did the student learn something new - was there a resulting increase in knowledge or capability
• Was the student's behavior modified or enhanced - owes the extent of behavior and capability improvement on implementations and applications
• Were there new results that were measurable - over the effects on business or environment resulting from the trainees new performance

Measuring all four areas is recommended for a full and meaningful evaluation of learning success in your organization.  Be advised that the ability to measure results usually increases in complexity, and cost as you goes from level one through four.

Budgeting

When budgeting for your courses or, consider the "whole" cost.  All of the these areas may impact your cost and should be considered when you are budgeting:

• Intellectual property fees
• Cost of the venue and infrastructure for delivering
• Travel costs
• Tailoring and consulting costs
• Facilitator requirements
• Translation requirements as needed
• Hard copy, handouts, and workbooks
• The cost of time taken away from active selling
• Meals, and lodging
• Miscellaneous expenses and entertainment
• Set up and preparation costs
• Invitation and LMS costs
• Feedback, and reporting costs
  

Conclusion

Sales training is an important part of a sales manager's responsibility.  Having the proper training in place helps ensure the success of your sales goals.  When putting together your sales training program, consider how it interacts with your marketing, technical, customer, and product considerations.  Make sure you tailor, integrate, deliver, and measure your training appropriately.  Be sure to read the other articles on this site for more information on how to improve your sales effectiveness.

Related Articles

• Sales Training Accountability
• Sales Training Coursese
• Sales Training Seminars

Return From Sales Training Overview To Home