6 Ways To Take Sales Training From Mandatory To Meaningful
Motivating reps and maximizing training relevance and efficacy
Sales representatives are perhaps some of the most difficult employees to pin down when it comes to participating in mandatory training. Not only do they feel their time is better served out in the field closing deals and earning commissions, but that’s also where you want them to be spending the majority of their time, too.
Of course, long gone are the days when sales training was an annual event, conducted as an off-site retreat. Companies have finally recognized (or perhaps admitted to?) the poor value they get from forcing representatives to sit through a week’s worth of sessions and sending them away with a big binder they’ll likely never look at again.
Instead, modern training is now delivered remotely, allowing representatives to participate in a place and time that works best for them. And, that certainly solves the presence problem. Companies can save a tremendous amount of time, money and resources by foregoing the big event, while keeping their representatives in the field where they should be.
However, despite its convenience, remote training still doesn’t make the content any more meaningful and memorable. In fact, we already know that sales representatives forget half of what they learned after just six weeks. So, what can we do to make training more relevant, memorable and able to be implemented immediately to cement new skills and behaviors into representatives’ standard operations?
Here are 6 tips to help maximize training efficacy and motivate representatives to practice what they have learned:
Sales representatives are perhaps some of the most difficult employees to pin down when it comes to participating in mandatory training. Not only do they feel their time is better served out in the field closing deals and earning commissions, but that’s also where you want them to be spending the majority of their time, too.
Of course, long gone are the days when sales training was an annual event, conducted as an off-site retreat. Companies have finally recognized (or perhaps admitted to?) the poor value they get from forcing representatives to sit through a week’s worth of sessions and sending them away with a big binder they’ll likely never look at again.
Instead, modern training is now delivered remotely, allowing representatives to participate in a place and time that works best for them. And, that certainly solves the presence problem. Companies can save a tremendous amount of time, money and resources by foregoing the big event, while keeping their representatives in the field where they should be.
However, despite its convenience, remote training still doesn’t make the content any more meaningful and memorable. In fact, we already know that sales representatives forget half of what they learned after just six weeks. So, what can we do to make training more relevant, memorable and able to be implemented immediately to cement new skills and behaviors into representatives’ standard operations?
Here are 6 tips to help maximize training efficacy and motivate representatives to practice what they have learned:
- Implement Training into the Workflow. Delivering the right training at the right time not only makes the content more relevant, but also allows representatives to implement what they’ve learned immediately. For example, integrate training with a CRM to serve up learning modules at specific points in the sales cycle or based on the product they’re selling or industry they’re selling into. Establish the triggers that make the most sense for your process or team’s experience level, and you get an automated, relevant, just-in-time training system.
- Personalize Training Based on Tenure. Seasoned veterans don’t need the same type of training as rookies, and vice versa. Tailor module delivery to representatives’ current position or their identified career path to give them content that makes sense and that they’ll actually be able to use in the short term.
- Implement Product Certification. Some representatives think they’re qualified to sell a product if they’ve simply been exposed to it, and in their desire to close the deal, will eagerly sell a product they know next nothing about. That puts your customer experience and your reputation at risk. Implement a system in which representatives must train, test for and achieve certification on every product in order to sell it.
- Tie Training to Commissions. Require representatives to complete training modules or achieve certification in order to earn commissions — an enticement that achieves your goal of a well-educated salesforce and theirs of a well-compensated one.
- Use Immersive Experiences. Using immersive 360-degree video as part of training modules creates a more realistic environment that makes the experience much more memorable. The opportunity to interact with the instructor and ask real-time questions replicates the “presence” of an in-person experience. Add role-playing scenarios for an even greater impact in which representatives can actually put their newly-learned skills to work in a simulated customer interaction.
- Deploy Gamification. Good sales representatives tend to have a natural competitive streak, so why not leverage that in the training workflow? Implementing a gamification system with leaderboard recognition encourages representatives to not only participate, but also to actually implement what they’ve learned. Tying training to results to achievement provides aspirational motivation for less experienced representatives while positioning veterans as mentors.
In order for sales training to be more meaningful and relevant, it must also be applicable. By streamlining and personalizing the delivery and tying successful completion and implementation to appropriate incentives, sales representatives will engage with training more deeply, internalize and apply the lessons learned immediately. This approach also absolutely requires that sales leadership be in harmony with the methodology, supporting representatives along the way with effective coaching to underscore the value of participation and leveraging what they’ve learned. T&D
Author Bio
Rory Cameron has over 15 years of experience in business development, sales, and sales operations across a range of technology sectors. At CallidusCloud, Rory runs the platforms group which consists of Litmos, CallidusCloud CX, and Datahug, highly disruptive platforms in their respective markets.
Visit www.litmos.com
Connect Rory Cameron
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