Training A Sales Team

In sales, similar to other businesses, it’s important to scale and take things to the next level. You’ll have to figure out how to work ten times harder than previously or train a sales team to help catapult your business.

Training a sales team is a huge investment, but not every investment is guaranteed to pay off. Many intricacies go into training a sales team, and when executed properly, your investment can pay off astronomically.

While it may seem daunting, training a sales team doesn’t have to be complicated. The key is to break things down into manageable steps. Before moving forward, the question is, do you actually need a sales team?

Do You Need A Sales Team?

The first question you need to answer is whether or not you need a sales team.

It’s definitely cheaper not to have a sales team for a few reasons. One, you won’t have to spend numerous amounts of hours in a day training your reps. Two, you won’t have to pay any salaries, and three, you wouldn’t be spending extra money on sales leads for your team to cold call.

Many factors go into this decision, but one of the most important is your product. If your product is simple and easy to sell, you might not need a sales team and could get by with a couple of great salespeople.

On the other hand, if your product is more complex or takes longer to sell, you might need a sales team to increase your sales productivity.

The next question you should ask yourself is whether or not you’re mentally ready to manage and began training a sales team.

As we just mentioned, training a sales team can be time-consuming and costly, so you need to make sure that you’re ready for the commitment before moving forward.

If you’re not sure whether or not you’re ready, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Do you want to increase your sales and take your business to the next level?
• Are you willing and able to manage multiple people at once?
• Do you have the time to train and manage a sales team?
• Are you able to handle the extra costs that come with a sales team?

If you answered yes to all of the above, you might be ready to take this on.

The next step is putting together a training program to set your reps up for success.

How to Train Your Sales Team

Training a sales team the correct way is essential for success.

You need to make sure that you’re investing the time and resources into training your reps so that they can sell effectively.

• The first step is to hire sales reps who are a good fit for your company.

You want to make sure that you’re hiring people who are coachable, driven, and have the ability to build relationships.

• The next step is to create a training program that will set your reps up for success.
• Teach by example. Your reps will follow your lead in how hard you work. If you are clean and on point, they will follow. If you are sloppy and disorganized, they will be as well.
• You want your training program to be an eye-opener for your reps. In other words, you want them to realize that what you’re teaching them is the way of the future and the way for them to achieve their wildest dreams.
• You want to set the tone that they’re working in a high-energy field where hard work and productivity are key.
• Set an optimistic and positive aura in the office. Your reps need to feel and see that they are in a place of success.

What Should Sales Training Include?

There are a few important tips for creating a training program. This will help your reps grow into strong and productive salespeople.

Start with the basics.

The first step is ensuring your reps are up to speed on the basics. This includes product knowledge, understanding your target market, and your sales process.

Train them in your sales process.

After they know the basics, you need to train them on your specific sales process. This includes everything from how to qualify a lead to how to close a deal.

Make sure they understand your target market. They need to know who your ideal customer is and what their pain points are. This way, they can sell more effectively to them.

Teach them to be organized

If you’re using a CRM, make sure that your reps are trained on how to use it. This is a crucial tool for sales success, and they need to know how to use it correctly to be productive.

Invest in their development.

For your reps to be successful, you need a hands-on approach to help them master their craft.

Provide sales leads.

Your reps will need specific resources to be successful such as sales leads. If they’re prospecting and cold calling old leads that they cannot get contacts from, they can not get better and won’t be able to produce.

How Well Do You Know Your Team?

Many sales trainers overlook the smaller things with their sales teams, such as building rapport with them, finding out their goals, and becoming the battery in their back to produce for you, and in return, help grows their careers.

This is what separates the good sales trainers from the not-so-good.

Getting to know your sales reps is time-consuming, but it’s necessary for building an environment of productive sales reps.

The better you know your sales team, the more effectively you can manage and train them.

Make sure you’re taking the time to get to know your reps personally while keeping it business. This will help you understand their motivations, strengths, and weaknesses.

When you know your team well, you can give them the personalized attention they need to succeed.

Eleven Sales Training Methods

1) Number one and, most importantly, train by example.

When training a sales team, set an example of how you want your sales reps to act and sound. If you want them to be high energy, set the tone and show them through your actions what that means.

If you want them to present to prospects in a particular way, show them hands-on how that looks. This will help raise their standards in sales and give them a model to follow.

2) Have them memorize their sales pitch.

Once they know their pitch in and out, they can put feelings and emotions in their words rather than sounding like they’re reciting it for the first time.

3) Break their shyness/Make them more outgoing.

The best way to do this is by having one sales rep on one side of the office and another on the opposite.

From there, have them yell their pitch to each other while everyone else looks at them.

This exercise will do two things. Help them speak more powerfully and help break their shyness and become comfortable with speaking in front of large groups of people.

4) Role Play.

Role-play with your sales reps individually and have them role-play with each other.

When you role-play with them, you can point out what they need to do better and when they role-play with each other, they will get familiar with their pitch and become comfortable before going live.

5) Objection Handling.

Play games with them where you give them a random objection, and they have to immediately respond with the proper rebuttal.

This will help them think on their feet and properly handle common objections when objections come up in real life.

6) Sustain healthy competition amongst your reps.

This could be done in many ways, such as giving out prizes for whoever closes the most deals in a week or month, keeping a scoreboard of who’s leading in sales closed, or simply giving out verbal recognition.

The competition will make them work harder, pay attention more, and try to be the best.

7) Use positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement is critical when training a sales team. When your reps do something good, make sure you let them know in front of everyone. By doing this, the other sales reps will see how to do things the right way.

The same goes for something that is done incorrectly. When you’re correcting a sales rep from doing something wrong, tell them something they did correctly, and at the same time, tell them what they did wrong.

This will help keep your sales rep feeling loose and happy to learn more.

8) Record your presentations.

Have your sales reps present to you while you record them. This way, when you go over it with them, they can hear exactly what you’re correcting them on and what you’re congratulating them on.

They will know what and how to sound moving forward when you are not around.

9) Give motivational talks

Let them know that things can be tough, but it’ll all be worth it when you fight through and prevail.

10) Take them to lunch.

Get to know your sales reps on a personal level.

This will help build trust and make them feel more comfortable with you as their leader.

When they feel like they can trust you, they will be more open to you and do whatever it takes not to let you and themselves down.

11) Learn Hands-On.

The best way to learn is by actually doing it. This is the fastest and most effective way of learning because they will experience anything that can happen and adjust accordingly.

Remote Sales Training

Training a sales team remotely is very similar to everything we just went over. Other than being able to take your sales reps out to lunch, everything can be applied the same way.

When doing remote sales training, you want to make sure that everything is done over video call so they can see your facial expressions and body language.

The last thing you want is for there to be a disconnection and have your sales reps feeling lost.

By following these steps, you will have no problem successfully training your sales team and having them close deals like a pro. Be consistent with this, and you will eventually have a team of sales reps consistently closing deals left and right.

Conclusion

Training a sales team is a lot of work, but when done correctly, it will pay off in a big way, and you will see your business and sales skyrocket.

Make sure you are consistently training your sales reps and giving them the proper tools they need to succeed.