Sales Training Best Practices: What are your 3 tips for successful sales training?

One general comment: Make sure that sales trainings are a well-embedded element of your overall sales enablement initiative. Assumed that there is a defined training landscape like that, I'd like to focus on three topics:

1. Define exactly what the training is designed for: First, it starts with the target group in sales e.g. new hires, certain sales teams working for certain industries or for strategic accounts, special types of sales reps as e.g. the net worker or the process guys, or different sales roles as sales manager, presales consultants or account managers.
Second, the offering, product or service to be trained and the corresponding life cycle stage should be defined: Is that a well established product to be pushed in a current campaign? Is that a new service to be launched with a task force first? Is that a problem product/service with specific challenges? Which cross-selling potential should be addressed and how?
Third, what's the purpose of the training? Is the training mandatory because people get certified, or does it belong to a major campaign, is the training designed for a task force to launch a new product or service? What's the expectation behind, order entry and revenue targets or even a profitability target in a given time frame?

2. Make sure that the training is balanced between the “WHAT” (portfolio view), the “HOW” to sell and the “to WHOM”!
It is mission critical that the product's technological benefits are translated into business value! And business value does not only mean “cost savings” - that's not the way to create sustainable long-term differentiation. The sales reps have to get a clear picture what the business value for their specific customer will be – explained and told from a customer's perspective in terms of their roles and responsibilities in a certain industry. People buy from people and people don't buy products, they buy business value – or rather their perception of the business value. Include a target customer profile and train the sales people to listen first and then to ask the right questions in the right language (industry and level)!

3. Make sure that you offer training methodologies for different kinds of sales people. There are sales people who might prefer to join a webinar, there are sales people who might prefer to navigate through the sales portal first and there are other sales people who might prefer to watch short videos, and there might be some other preferences out there. Considering these different methodologies it becomes even more important to be based on a well-structured, modularized, re-usable and “easy-to-customize” content landscape.

First, there has been some good advice offered above. I don't see a need to repeat what has already been said.

I get very concerned when the word "tips" and "sales training" appear in the same sentence. My firm studies sales training effectiveness and we know, for a fact, that tactical, event-based sales training (where reps skill-skim, taking away little more than tips and tricks) doesn't result in long-term sales performance impact. Sales leaders who seek tips around training or selling often don't understand the value of a strategic approach. Once they make the transition from tactical to strategic, they never look back.

With that in mind, I will offer three tips, but they're strategic and if adopted, will serve to--perhaps once and for all--contribute to real change in sales organizations.

First, perform as comprehensive and objective an assessment of the selling environment as possible. That includes how your customers buy, their options, their markets, their competitors, your competitors, the economy, etc. It is very difficult--in many cases impossible--for a sales leader to assess their own challenges and opportunities. They're busy, they're defensive because they're under the gun, they aren't analytical, they can't see the forest through the trees... There are many good reasons to look outside your organization for that assessment, however we strongly recommend not engaging with the sales trainer you are considering hiring to perform that assessment. In situations like that, trainers tend to find issues which they are uniquely qualified to solve. Some either don't see, or they aren't interested in overcoming, challenges with which they have no experience or knowledge. ESR can provide many real-life examples that have lead to costly and career-damaging sales training train wrecks.

Second, assess your salespeople before you do the training. ESR estimates that, depending on the industry, 25 to 33% of salespeople aren't suited for their jobs, and training won't help. What good does it do to invest in training 100 people when 25 of them are incapable of the behavioral changes required for significant improvement? Assessments based on past performance is only one dimension. I'm referring to any one of the highly effective psychometric assessment tools available on the market. Savvy sales leaders weed out those reps for whom the training won't have an impact before the training takes place.

Third. The most effective sales training (training that results in the highest levels of performance improvement) occurs when salespeople learn how to employ a sales process--in fact, when it becomes habit. If you don't have a documented, pragmatic sales process, driven directly from how your customers buy (see #1 above), you'll be left with training your people on a disparate set of skills, with no underlying backbone. Tactical training all over again. So this tip is: start with process first. Then train to the process.

From my perspective successful sales training must be:
• Unique
• Compelling
• Relevant

Unique
Any training that is simply the regurgitation of the same old stuff will cause you to lose the interest of 2/3 of your participants:
• Those with 7 to 12 years experience (who think they know everything)
• Those with 12+ years experience (who think they have seen or read everything)

Find someone who can bring a unique perspective to the best and most experienced members of your sales team and you’ll have fully engaged and eager participants.

Compelling
Almost every sales person I talk to wants to do only one thing – replicate their biggest and best wins.

The biggest and best wins are those where sales people end up with core, loyal, customers who are highly profitable, and will gladly provide the most treasured things in sales, testimonials and timely referrals.

Provide training that helps them replicate their biggest wins and no matter how much you invest in the training the return on your investment will be so great that you will want to hire that sales trainer to train your team again, again, and again.

Relevant
The third and perhaps most important element is the training must align with and support the organizations sales funnel, sales people, and sales process.

I think the best sales training does not try to replace the people, process and infrastructure you have already invested in, it takes what you have and makes it work a whole lot better.

Craig,

I know the question asks for the three best practices, but I'm going to concentrate on one--and it isn't even within the training event.

Company after company complains that sales training has proven to be an expensive waste of time and money. Unfortunately, studies have agreed that sales training has had less than satisfactory results in most cases.

The issue is how sales training has been bought and presented--as a single event, whether that event is an hour long or a week long.

There simply isn't enough time in a training situation for the participants to integrate what they've learned into behavior change. Consequently, sales training has been for the most part just information exchange, with little or no behavior change.

In sales information is useless unless it translates into behavior.

A growing number of sales trainers and companies are moving away from the stand alone training event and strongly suggesting--some even demanding--that the training event be followed up with long-term coaching for all attendees. It is the coaching that will turn sales training from a less than satisfactory expense into a sales team changing investment.

There have been a lot of good responses, I'll try to minimize repeating them.

1. As both Paul and Tamara imply, too much of sales training has been thought of as "separate" or an "event." Training needs to be thought of as a component of an overall system--each part fitting and reinforcing the other parts. This goes beyond just the sales enablement strategy, to include the overall sales/business strategy, priorities, culture, leadership styles, goals, etc. If the parts don't reinforce each other, then the impact is lost. Whatever training you put in place must compelement and reinforce your overall priorities and strategies, it must fit within your metrics, it must fit within your performance management and coaching strategies/practices, and it must be supported by your tools anr processes.
2. We refuse to conduct any training programs unless the leadership/managers are held accountable for both participating in the training, and coaching, reinforcing what is done on an ongoing basis. To the degree we can, we ask the sponsoring objective to include the ongoing coaching in the KPI's of the managers.
3. For some reason, people separate sales (skills, process, etc.) training from the product training. Product training is done much more frequently than sales training, and provides a great platform for reinforcing the sales skills/methodology. You can build product training that leverages what has been done in the sales training. This way, you reinforce and leverage the great sales practices you trained have trained on in the past.
4 (For extra credit). There are many vendors with great training and methodologies. Make sure when they sell to you, they are using their methodology, if they aren't, it must mean their methodology is not good enough for them. If it isn't good enough for them, then why should they expect it to be good enough for you. Believe it or not, I have had sales people from the major suppliers calling on me--not practicing what they preach. Now, turn that one more time, if management does not use the processes and methodologies (beyond just coaching them), then why should the sales people. Managers must practice what they preach!

I'll stop here, though I'm tempted to go on. I've already over-achieved my quota! Thanks for a great question.

Getting management involved with both the promoting and support of the training while it is going on and even more important the reinforcement and follow-up of the training after it is over are essential to a successful training program. Too many times I've watched sales training programs be run only to have everything learned in the training program be completely forgotten within a couple of weeks because management failed to follow-through. The best way to ensure all of this happens is by involving management in the development of the training content and having them attend the program. Sales people will be far more likely to listen to what their managers have to say about the training if they know the managers themselves have gone through the training.

There are many different titles that have been created over the years that utilize a technique for increasing your sales preformance. Spin Selling, Selling to VITO, and a host of others are insightful. But insight, like a sparkler, eventually burn out because of the day to day grind and our inability to remember large quantities of information. The most effective "Sales Training" (I hate that phrase by the way!) I feel involves the following:
1) A complete analysis of the entire sales system. Most companies do business by accident and really have no concept of where the business is coming from and how to measure the effectiveness. This analysis must involve everyone from management, sales, support and marketing. Yes, I said marketing. Only when you get the opinions of the rank and file do you get buy in to the changes that are coming.
2) The implementation process begins with the development of the sales tools and marketing touches needs to execute the recommended strategy. I believe that the leadership team's responsibility is to assist in the design of those tools so that there is a firm understanding and ownership of the new system/process from above that is larger than the monatary expenditure. Basically, you cannot lead if you do not understand the weapons needed in the attack.
3) The sales team and leadership team need to be trained on how to create their own personal branding to the process/system. Taking ownership is key to obtaining measurable success. To many sales professional communicate who the are vs. what they do. When the teams gain an understanding that their role is more that account executive or V.P. of Sales they are more likely to self police their progress and success.
4) Sorry, I'm dyslexic! Outside accountability to the execution of the new system/process! Scientist state that we only retain 10% of what we hear and 25% if we right it down. With that said, how can we as "sales trainers" (I hate this title too!) expect the leadership team to lead their women and men when they are armed with a maximum of 25% of the information taught? Crazy huh? That is the traditional model. Throw everyone in a room, train for three to four days and leave. The leadership team needs to be involved and eventually held accountable for the leadership role in executing the system/process. The sales team needs the accountabilty to the system and the activities needed to get the desired results from outside leaders.
In review:
1) Assess the situation, 2) Develop the tools, 3)Personally brand the system for the team members, 4) Accountability to the execution
Happy Hunting!

Great discussion and great answers... I will keep mine simple.

1. People need to understand the why. What is the purpose of this training and why does it matter for them, their clients and the company. Great sales training helps people connect to the importance of what they are doing, and helps them understand why it matters. To be great at sales you have to be able to connect to people emotionally, sales training should help you do that.

2. Engagement and ownership - Some parts of the sales training need to be open enough that those being trained can have input, say and ownership in the final process. People support what they help create, and great sales training needs to allow them to share their thoughts, ideas and innovative techniques.

3. Coaching, Support and Accountability - I agree training is not a one-time event, and people need to know this is important to the leadership, the leadership is engaged, and that they are going to get the coaching and support they need to be successful. They need to believe that when the session is over the training has just begun.

We're all hugely busy this time of year, so at the risk of sounding lazy, I'm going to keep my 3 tips short and very sweet:
1) Treat it as part of an ongoing process, not a one-off event. Otherwise you'll just see a quick spike in performance, if you're lucky, and then a reversion to the status quo
2) Make sure your people have done the pre-work and background reading before the training. Then you get the most value from the expert instructors because your people are applying the concepts they've pre-acquired to real deals, and real accounts
3) For goodness sake make sure the new behavior you're trying to inculcate is aligned to your current business processes, or update your business processes to fit the new ways of working. Then your people will know how to put the new behaviors into their day-to-day efforts

Hope this helps! Good luck.

3 Critical Missing Elements for Effective Sales Training:

[1] Role Playing:
Most Companies tell Trainees what they are supposed to say and then they release them on their Prospects and Customers and hope that they sound professional. Instead, I urge you to have them Practice, Drill and Rehearse. I tell you what to say, you tell me what I just said and then we Drill for Skill. Role Playing allows us to develop their Pronunciation, Enunciation, Pacing, Enthusiasm, Performance and Personality, to name a few.

[2] Attitude Adjustments:
A Trainee can have a great command of Sales Skills and a lousy Attitude and they won't develop their potential. Of course, the opposite is also true. The missing element in most Training is that we don't teach new Trainees to believe in themselves and how to become self-motivated. Instead, we teach them some Skills and Product Knowledge and then end up depending on Pep Talks, Spiffs, Bonuses, Contests or Threats to keep them Motivated.

[3] Refresher Training:
School is never out for the Pro. Even Companies that have a decent Initial Training Program drop the ball when it comes to Refresher Training. Most Salespeople need to be constantly reminded to use what they may already know. They need to have their Recorded Conversations critiqued to make sure they don't develop Bad Habits and fall into Ruts.

Have a "Fanta$tic" Future !
Stan Billue
www.StanBillue.com

1 Stop looking at sales training as an event and make it a program
2. Understand that the purpose of sales training is productivity improvement and not knowledge transfer. Sales training must lead to changes in behavior which must be reinforced (see point 1)
3. Design sales training to help sellers to provide more value in customer interactions and improve the customer's buying experience.

Sales training can be provided in different venues such as a classroom or in the field. For the purposes of this response, I will address training that is provided in a classroom type setting.

Make sure the training is relevant to the product, or services being offered.

Make sure that the presentations are interactive. a monolog becomes boring. Use practical exercises that allow participants to utilize techniques that are being taught.

Review training with participants in the form of a test to ensure comprehension of the subject matter.

At the completion of any sales training, the trainer should be interested in the applicable results. Simply stated, has the training increased sales productivity? I am a pragmatist. I expect increased sales productivity after a training session.