10 Techniques for effective sales team training

Successful organizations know that training isn’t a one-and-done thing, especially when it comes to sales. Consumer behavior, market trends, and the competitive landscape are ever-evolving, and training equips salespeople with the skills and knowledge needed to adapt to change.

To kickstart your training journey, we’ve compiled the 10 most effective sales team training techniques for you and your teams. Before diving into these techniques, let’s first explore the definition and benefits of sales team training to help maximize the impact of your training efforts. 

What is effective sales training?

Understanding how the product can help customers, knowing how to sell it to them, and having the skill to manage your organization’s interactions with customers are important aspects of becoming an effective salesperson. Successful sales training should allow your team to master these skills, but it should also go above and beyond to create a lasting impact.

Sales training is effective when it lets your teams achieve sales excellence. But sales excellence goes beyond simply equipping your team with the technical training needed to sell your brand. It’s not just about developing their skill sets. More importantly, it’s about shifting their mindset.

In this industry, sales soft skills hold as much value as hard skills. But it’s not given as much attention. So what sets a sales team apart? It’s the distinctive mix of attitude, values, and motivation that turns a good team into an exceptional one.

Salespeople create the crucial first connection between your brand and your customers. They represent the culture of your organization. That’s why it’s so important for sales training to align their core beliefs and values with the mission of creating real value for your target market.

Benefits of sales team training

It goes without saying that your sales team is instrumental in generating revenue. But beyond that, here are more reasons why it’s important to invest in training your salespeople:

• Encourage collaboration - Sales training encourages your teams to work together. This positively impacts performance and improves work culture.
• Foster innovative thinking - In the ever-changing world of sales, equip your team with the ability to generate new and brilliant ideas through training.
• Attract and retain customers - When salespeople offer customers value for their money, they’ll retain loyal customers and attract new ones to keep the business thriving.
• Maintain a competitive edge - Outperform competitors by giving your teams the advantage they need to stay ahead.
• Boost employee morale and confidence - Let your team know that you value their growth through training. This way, they stay motivated and confident in delivering sales.

In this article, we list down the top sales team training techniques that can amp up your game and help your teams reap all the benefits.

Sales team training technique #1 - Seek top-notch providers

Creating and planning sales team training can be tedious and time-consuming. Thankfully, there are a lot of expert providers ready to handle the hard work for you.

You can hire the services of in-house trainers who whip up customized sales training programs tailored to your organization’s needs. But you can also leverage online LMS software like SC Training (formerly EdApp) to deliver ready-made training to your doorsteps.

Online sales training offers a level of flexibility that in-house training just can’t match. With SC Training, courses are carefully designed by instructional designers who sometimes partner with industry experts and authorities to guarantee quality.

The last thing you want when planning and investing in sales team training is for your time and resources to go to waste. So it’s best to track down trusted training providers and tap their services for your team’s benefit.
Close more deals with the best sales team training provider. Join SC Training today!

Sales team training technique #2 - Incorporate communication training

There are an overwhelming number of sales training topics, but among the most important ones to incorporate into your training is communication, the backbone of sales.

Communication is essential in understanding the customer’s needs and conveying how a product or service can fulfill that need. The language of sales is one that an employee needs to master before they can reach their full potential in the sales industry. It’s crucial in successfully cultivating trust and navigating tough situations.

From planning to creating tension in sales calls, SC Training has courses that can teach your teams to strategize and handle sales conversations. What’s more, these training courses are editable so you’re free to adjust them according to your business needs.

Sales team training technique #3 - Try spaced repetition

For salespeople, training is a continuous process. Spaced repetition is a helpful learning technique for retaining information through spaced-out training sessions. Your team can use this technique for consistent improvement and effective retention of sales strategies.

Luckily, neither you nor your training manager have to manually schedule reviews or training sessions. Reinforce knowledge and automatically repeat unlearned concepts using SC Training’s Brain Boost (by request only).

This spaced repetition tool cuts training time in half using a science-backed approach without having to create a new course every time. It automatically repeats key content until your teams can correctly remember it.

Sales team training technique #4 - Build mentor relationships

Offer guidance and build confidence among your employees by incorporating mentorship into your sales team training. Aside from gaining industry insights and knowledge from a seasoned member of the team, mentoring also improves rapport and expands the network of all parties involved.

Embed mentorship and team learning into your work culture through SC Training’s social and peer learning feature. This way, your team can readily communicate with their peers and seniors to solve problems, get clarification, and ask questions.

Sales team training technique #5 - Master the tools in hand

Have existing documents and tools in place? Make the most of your customer relationship management (CRM) software, sales engagement platforms, and sales proposals. Orient teams about maximizing their benefits through training to enhance efficiency and productivity.

Guarantee that important information is easily accessible to employees who need it by storing files in SC Training’s Briefcase. It’s perfect for documentation of promotional sales, technical documents, and processes. So your teams can reference them whenever and wherever they need to.

Sales team training technique #6 - Use real-world scenarios

Bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and its application in unpredictable situations by using real-world scenarios in sales training. Practicing in real-life scenarios develops negotiation and objection-handling skills and helps salespeople understand the context in which their training applies.

It also improves how sales teams manage their emotions, especially when dealing with customers. Lastly, it allows for immediate feedback so they can identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Sales team training technique #7 - Gamify sales training

Gamification paves the way for a more dynamic and interactive training environment that helps teams remain motivated and engaged. It also encourages healthy competition, leading to increased performance levels.

There are many ways to gamify training. But one of the most effective and easiest ways to do it is by using an LMS platform with in-built gamification features to help your teams achieve their goals.

For example, SC Training eliminates the “boring” in training with gamified, bite-sized corporate sales training courses and more. This goes beyond simply making training enjoyable as it’s also scientifically proven to help teams retain information better.

Sales team training technique #8 - Include progress tracking

The only way to know if all the sales training techniques you’re using work for your teams is by tracking if progress is made. More than that, this also allows you to tweak and improve sales training methods as you go to make them more effective and suitable for your organization.

SC Training boasts a powerful reporting and analytics dashboard that gives you all the metrics you need in the palm of your hands. Track completion rates, individual activity, and comprehension through learning data and custom performance reports available under this feature.

Sales team training technique #9 - Reward with certificates

Build your team’s portfolio and motivate them to stay up-to-date with the latest industry standards by rewarding training with certificates. Certificates are valuable for an employee’s career advancement and it’s also a great way of recognizing their efforts and letting them know that you value their professional growth.

Some online training providers like SC Training offer certificates that are easily customizable to suit your branding. In its admin experience, you can see who’s completed their courses, so you can download their certificate, and award them for their hard work.

Sales team training technique #10 - Develop soft skills

Technical sales skills are important, but they’re nothing without essential soft skills such as empathy and relationship building. Soft skills training allows your teams to take a customer-centric approach to their work as they learn how to prioritize the customer’s needs, emotions, and preferences.

Soft skills are also necessary for problem-solving as they train salespeople to navigate difficult circumstances and adapt to changes. But most importantly, it significantly impacts customer experience, leading to repeat business and referrals.