Understanding the Importance of Sales Training

The business is focused on sales. Always.

So, sales training, using learning management platforms like CleverLMS, is what makes your company more efficient in making money, and getting the maximum revenue out of your products and services.

Even if you don’t like the idea of trading in a bazaar, you actually produce something that will be used by someone. Then, you deliver your product to the end user, with all instructions about how to use it and with the idea that this product will make their life better. Nowadays, new innovations emerge every day, and it’s no wonder that the sales infrastructure is extremely large and constantly growing, with platforms like CleverLMS used to manage the learning process.

Nearly 13% of the U.S. jobs available are full-time sales-related positions, according to Zippia. The global retail market share almost reached a staggering $30 trillion, more than everything else, according to Statista. Moreover, many other jobs, such as content creators, writers, designers, and supports, are related to sales, directly or indirectly. No wonder this topic is so hot: according to Singh et al., the number of publications regarding sales training grew exponentially starting from the 1990s.

Let’s dive into some of these insights to evaluate their importance and how you can benefit from them.

Sales training: Programs and Strategies

We’ll start with different approaches.

Free webinars or quick courses with badges after the completion, in-depth exploration of the chosen industry and products, and interactive sales games, all can be combined in various proportions to reach the best result. Based on the HubSpot insights, there are free introductory programs that are good to see in the beginning and more advanced courses on various topics.

Here, we’ll quickly list the four common strategies for organizing the training.

• Product training is an in-depth education course dedicated to learning everything about the chosen product, so the staff becomes familiar with its advantages and disadvantages and how to present them correctly.
• Action games and simulations are interactive activities where one part of the salespeople plays the role of customers, while another part tries to sell them the product. Such gamification enables the practice in a safe environment and overcoming the psychological blocks, being very helpful.
• Microlearning with quick knowledge application is based on quick (1–5 minutes) videos, usually with demonstrations of what a salesperson must do to complete their objectives. After that, there are practical tasks based on these videos, so knowledge is quickly reinforced.
• Personal coaching can be used in companies where senior salespeople act as mentors for new ones. It increases team cohesion and motivation, despite requiring a high corporate culture standards, and morale to be successful.

Sales training software

All of that must be deployed correctly to work.

All educational materials should be hosted in a learning management system (LMS) of your choice. Their different features and specializations enable you to choose the one that best fits your situation. Let’s overview examples of features that matter most here.

• Task-organizing tools to assign tasks, schedule events, and track performance.
• Statistics and analytics to understand learning performance and make decisions.
• An organized knowledge base to access all needed materials and share them.
• Discussion tools are very important for sharing insights, best practices, and feedback.
• Badges and scores for motivation, with the ability to reward the best performers manually. 
• Regular video meetings are preferable here to ensure a close connection between team members and solve problems as soon as they arise.

Contact the chosen LMS’s support team and ask how they realize these features to know more.

Organizing online sales training

So, you have a strategy, and now you need to realize it in practice. Where to start? Let’s see.

1. Defining metrics and objectives is an important first step. Which are KPIs you need to improve? Usually, these are client retention, sales metrics, employee satisfaction, and revenues. By defining them, you’ll obtain a tool to measure your success.
2. Assess needs, write them consistently in a table, and choose an LMS based on them, so you’ll obtain a tool for hosting your courses.
3. Design the curriculum: the high-level course structure, its sections, learning weeks, and tasks/events necessary to conduct during it.
4. Search for materials and mentors that will teach exactly what you need. You can find a lot of video, text, and graphic materials based on your keywords and also connect with specialists via LinkedIn and invite them to teach your employees.
5. Develop a schedule with clear deadlines and tasks after each course element, so the knowledge will be reinforced and used right after learning. It’s especially important for B2B sales training, as employees should know which products other businesses use and how they improve their own metrics.
6. Create supplementary materials, such as webinars, sales playbooks, action games, and certifications to motivate employees even more and ensure continuous learning.
7. Generate reports, explore statistics, and plan future training based on how well your learners participate now and how your chosen metrics grow.

As mentioned, various LMSs provide different features.

Those of CleverLMS, for example, include the highly customizable interface, focus on learners’ motivation, creating customized tasks, and assigning badges for successful completion. So, your employees can learn the product quickly right during work and be rewarded for their mastery. In addition, another customized version may be created for your providers and customers, so they know how your product can improve their lives and buy it more actively.

Benefits

Time to review why all of this matters.

Launching corporate sales training increases efficiency, and team cohesion, and generates large revenues. Let’s see various statistics.

Almost half of employees leave their companies due to the absence of training, as they see a lack of opportunities for them. Meanwhile, companies with established training are almost 60% more efficient compared to those that haven’t. An approximate return on investment (ROI) for sales training is extremely high: more than 300%, which means that you’ll obtain three times more revenue compared to your training expenses!

Lastly, there is professional sales training focused on making people familiar with your products and services. Dealers who know everything about your products and are satisfied with them will sell your products much more efficiently. In addition, they’ll be able to access all product descriptions and metrics quickly using the learning management system, saving their time and reaching customers faster.

That’s how sales training improves everything, quantitatively and qualitatively.

The top sales training programs of the future

The future will be defined by innovations, and sales will be, too. The essence here isn’t to make someone buy something you need but to deliver something that will actually improve their lives.

While marketing always has some similarities to manipulations and propaganda, using similar techniques to grab attention and persuade people, their aims are drastically different. In sales, you need to realize your product for the sake of humanity, helping them live better for less price. And that’s the importance: it increases quality, ensuring that what you do actually helps customers, while your incomes rise.

Here are quick tips to make your sales programs better.

• Use online sales to increase your reach.
• Use personal communication to connect with people.
• Use consistent branding to be distinguishable and consistent.
• Use ideas that matter for making human lives better to inspire others.
• Analyze customer and employee behaviors to make data-driven decisions.

Good luck, and let it be the best!