METHOD 1: EXTERNAL SALES TRAINING Definition: Hiring a professional sales training firm or trainer to create a systematized, regular sales training program for your inside sales force. Training will be systematized Typically very high value training material and content Does not time burden your managers Expensive Often generic, off the shelf training that isn t tailored to your sales reality Sometimes reps resist external training programs forced on them Never hire for one shot, or even short term sales training events and programs. To generate substantial returns, this has to be a long term upskilling campaign Thoroughly vet your potential sales training firms to find the best one. Interview the trainer(s) just like you would a job candidate. Final notes: This is a very valid approach for companies that have a well of resources to spend on sales training and development programs, and who are time strapped themselves. The goal is to find a program that is as close to your type of sale as possible.
METHOD 2: INTERNAL SALES TRAINING Definition: Utilizing internal staff to create a systematized, regular group sales training schedule, curriculum, and program for your inside sales force. Less directly expensive Higher likelihood of having custom, tailored training specific to your sales reality Lower degree of rep resistance to the program Significant time burden on managers, if they are tasked with it. If they are not, you need to hire a dedicated internal trainer, which means overhead Training may fall through the cracks more often, due to manager s other responsibilities Internal employees are typically less skillful trainers and teachers : Systematize as strictly as possible Better to train on 5 skills repeatedly over several weeks than 10 skills once each time. Repetition is the driver of mastery Final notes: If you are going to go this route, commit to it. Systematize a set training schedule, agenda, and curriculum that you stick to come hell or high water. Once you skip it for higher priority activities, the precedent will be set.
METHOD 3: SYSTEMATIZED, ONE ON ONE MANAGER TO REP COACHING Definition: Regular, scheduled one on one coaching sessions with reps, and their direct line managers. This can include listening to call recordings, pair selling and giving feedback after the call, live monitoring, and individual, one on one teaching sessions. Extremely effective if you can strictly systematize, and make the time commitment Makes group sales training programs stick Reps receive individual attention, accelerating their skill development Extremely time consuming and demanding on managers Rarely gets executed to the degree it should Inefficient, meaning you are developing one rep at a time. Should be paired with group training Combine this with a form of group trainings for maximum effectiveness Schedule one on one coaching sessions for the same time/day every time to ensure it becomes ritualized and ingrained into your sales culture Use all one on one coaching methods: call recordings, monitoring, pair selling, role playing, and individual training sessions. Final notes: Sales coaching is what makes sales training stick. Research shows that 87% of all sales training is forgotten by reps within 30 days. Systematic coaching programs are what makes the training stick, and generate behavioral changes.
METHOD 4: LEARNING RESOURCES Definition: Giving reps free access to sales learning resources such as LMS content, e books, audio programs, etc. Reps have access to a myriad of some of the world s best sales education If consumed, reps will drastically increase their skill levels over time Zero time commitment as a stand alone, and very little financial resources need to be invested, relatively Reps often don t do it it is often dependent on an individual s motivation to learn, and their perception that the content will help them achieve their goals Difficult to systematize, unless used with an LMS Scattered learning instead of mastery of one skill or method at a time Always combine with coaching and training programs Best to give access to education that aligns with your sales process, etc. i.e. If your organization follows The Challenger Sale methodology, don t give access to a bunch of random sales books and audiobooks. Focus on the one methodology. Final notes: In a perfect world, this would be a great option for upskilling your team. Unfortunately, most reps have to be cajoled into taking advantage of free learning resources. So, best to combine this with the above methods, rather than relying on it.
METHOD 5: TWO SIDED SALES ROLE PLAYING Definition: Reps engage in an active role play, acting out sales scenarios, playing both the sales rep, and the buyer. This will help ritualize key sales behaviors The muscle memory will carry over into their live sales calls quickly Reps will learn a lot about what works in sales by playing the buyer in these role plays Reps often view this as awkward, and resist accordingly The buyer actor often does not act how an actual live buyer would respond in a real sales call Difficult to systematize This shouldn t be stand alone, but rather a part of a coaching or training program Be sure reps play the prospect just as often as they play the rep. They will learn a lot from the buyer s perspective of a sales call Final notes: Probably the greatest value here that is overlooked is the paradigm shift reps often get from playing the buyer. It becomes surprising at how much of what a salesperson is saying is glossed over, and they begin to realize what actually resonates with buyers by thinking from their perspective.
METHOD 6: CONVERSATION IMPROVEMENT TECHNOLOGY Definition: Software that utilizes both call recordings, and speech to text transcriptions of those recordings, and intelligently analyzes the call for coaching, training, visibility, and reporting purposes. (see: http://conversature.com ) Gives sales managers and leaders a mass level bird s eye view of their inside sales organizations conversations helping them understand sales calls at scale. Ability to pinpoint training needs across the sales force, a team, or an individual Ability to track behavioral progress over time Makes one on one coaching significantly less time consuming and burdensome Inexpensive, relative to other methods Ability to identify objective commonalities between unsuccessful and successful calls, so you can replicate the successful behaviors across the team Training and coaching are still needed this is not a stand alone. Does not work for all types of sales process You often need to have call recording in place beforehand Evaluate based on the following criteria: Can the technology intelligently identify key sales behaviors automatically? Does it significantly streamline my manager s one on one coaching sessions via call recordings? Is the technology custom made for sales? Or is it also used for customer service, etc., making it generic? Does it give sales leaders meaningful visibility without them having to actually listen to call recordings? Does it do more than just make listening to call recordings easier? Does it provide useful analytics? Final notes: The driver of improvement in anything is visibility. Without visibility into your team s conversations at scale, it s near impossible to improve them.
Conversation analytics and improvement technology, when paired with coaching programs, gives inside sales managers extremely high leverage in yielding consistent performance improvements across the board for their team. To learn more about conversation analytics and improvement technology, go to: http://conversature.com/inside sales conversation analytics demo/ and request a demo. Or, go to http://conversature.com