How to Structure Sales Training Programs for New Hires to be “Sales Ready” Faster

Introduction

"Ready, Set, Sell! How quickly can your new hires start closing deals?" This question keeps many sales managers revamping techniques to implement the best sales training programs.

When an organization invests in a well-structured sales training program, it equips the sales team and improves the business’s retention rates. 94% of workers say they would remain with a firm for a long if management prioritized their professional growth and development.

As the sales team begins to ramp up, you must train them on:

• The businesses of your clients
• How to identify and solve needs
• How your products and services solve customer requirements
• The general market
• Your business and value proposition
• Your competitors and how you stand out

A best sales training program should be in place to cover all these subjects and equip one to represent the business better. The risks are high while developing a sales training program, but the potential payoff is great. You must keep that in mind as you work out the details of creating effective sales training programs. Here, we’ll discuss designing the best one from scratch!

The Importance of Structured Sales Training Programs

The market for product-based sales training will experience significant growth between 2023 and 2028. The CAGR is projected at 6.91%, reaching a substantial value of USD 2.45 billion.

That means there’s an increasing recognition of the importance of sales training programs in the business world.

Having said that, it might seem your new hires take forever to learn the ropes. But if you bring in the best sales training program, your new sales reps can start selling immediately. Below are a few ways it can benefit your team.

1. Impact on revenue

When you offer a comprehensive sales training program to your new sales reps, you can outperform your competitors by 57% in terms of sales effectiveness. Moreover, these sales training courses produce a 50% increase in net sales per employee.

So, there’s a direct link between quality training and enhanced revenue generation. Here’s how quality training impacts your sales team and revenue:

• Level up, faster: The best sales training courses get your recruits selling quickly, which means more money for the company and a bigger paycheck for them. Studies show companies with structured training see a 353% increase in return on investment. It's a win-win!
• Sales skills that win: Training doesn't stop at onboarding. Continuously developing your team's professional selling skills can boost sales by 50% per person. They'll learn to adapt to new situations and meet customers' wants.

2. Employee Retention

About 50% of turnover can occur in the first 18 months without effective training, so new hires need a solid start. When you do that, you’ll see the following results.

• Engaged team: Training shows your team you care about their success. This keeps them motivated and less likely to leave. 70% of sales professionals say they don’t receive structured training! A good sales training program lowers turnover and keeps your A-team intact.
• More money, less hassle: Sales training motivates and engages your team. Happy employees are productive employees! Plus, by reducing turnover, you save a ton of money on recruiting and re-training.

Given its prominence, setting up a structured sales training program can benefit you and your sales team to a larger extent.

How to Structure Best Sales Training Programs

Having the correct expertise and abilities for your sales force is essential to achieving rapid growth in sales. So, where exactly do you start? Here's a step-by-step guide to help you structure the best sales training program.

Step 1: Understand the customer

The real benefit of sales training is in shifting your sellers' viewpoints and stories. They should be more concerned with your customers than your product itself. They have to pick up on and understand the viewpoint of your buyers and the issue they must resolve. When that happens, your sales professionals should describe how your product resolves the problem.

For that, you need to provide them with your ideal customer profile.

a. Ideal customer profile

An ICP is a list of businesses or customers who will use and benefit from your product and become your most valuable clients.

There must be reliable data and firmographics to support an ICP, and these include:

• Company size
• Revenue generated per year
• Employee count
• Industry firm size

These profiles help sales reps identify and target the right audience. Creating detailed ICPs enables sales teams to focus on high-potential leads, improving conversion rates and sales efficiency. Here’s a sample of Hubspot’s customer profiling templates.

b. Customer journey mapping

By creating a customer journey map, sales representatives can better grasp the various stages a potential customer goes through before completing a purchase. This map covers the stages of

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Purchase
• Service
• Loyalty expansion or renewal

Insight into this journey allows sales teams to deliver relevant information and assistance at every step, improving the client experience and maximizing the chances of a sale.

Step 2: Share product and market knowledge

The basis for designing the best sales training program is understanding products and markets!

Consider this Moz example, where Rand Fishkin uses Keywords Explorer to guide the viewer through the process. A sales representative with such extensive product expertise would be well-positioned to gain a prospect's confidence and close them as customers.

Here's how to train your staff to become authorities on the market and product:

a. Deep dive into products

Go beyond surface-level features! You must invest in comprehensive product training to turn your reps into product experts. You can use interactive workshops, explainer videos, or even provide access to a dedicated product knowledge base.

This in-depth product knowledge will help your team to:

• Confidently present your offerings: They can easily explain features, benefits, and technical specs to build trust with potential customers.
• Articulate the value proposition: Your team will be able to communicate how your product solves customer pain points and drives sales success.
• Handle customer inquiries like a pro: Your reps will confidently address any questions or concerns. They’ll come up with quick solutions!

b. USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

What makes your product or service the "chosen one" in a crowded marketplace? It’s important to explain your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). To do this, you must equip your team to understand and articulate your USP clearly and concisely.

As a result, your team can:

• Differentiate your offering from competitors: They'll be able to confidently explain why your product is the better choice, highlighting its unique strengths.
• Target ideal customers: A clear understanding of your USP helps your team identify prospects who will truly benefit from your product's unique value proposition.
• Craft compelling sales pitches: Knowing your USP allows your team to tailor their messages to resonate with specific customer needs.

c. Competitive Analysis

It's not just about your product but how it compares to others. Competitive analysis equips sales managers and sales teams with the information they need to navigate the marketplace effectively.

This might involve:

• Identifying key competitors: Who are the big players in your industry?
• Analyzing competitor strengths and weaknesses: What are their USPs? Where do they fall short?
• Positioning your product for success: How can you leverage your competitive advantages to win over customers?

Answering these questions would give you a clear idea of the analysis.

Step 3: Educate on different sales processes and methodologies

Sales methodologies are tried-and-true structures that provide your representatives with a systematic way to convert leads into devoted clients. So, we'll take a look at a few well-known sales methods and see how incorporating them into your sales training might help your team:

a. SPIN Selling

Developed by Neil Rackham, SPIN Selling focuses on four questions: Situation, Problem, Implication, and need payoff. This method helps other sales professionals understand customer needs and build value for their solutions.

• Situation questions: They aim to gather background information to understand the customer's context.
• Problem questions: These identify the customer's challenges or pain points.
• Implication questions: These explore the problems' consequences to highlight a solution's urgency.
• Need-payoff questions: These help the customer see the benefits of your solution.

b. Sandler Selling System

The Sandler Selling System, created by David Sandler, focuses on a mutually respectful relationship between salespersons and customers. It involves the following processes.

• Bonding and rapport: Establish a strong relationship with the customer.
• Up-front contracts: Set clear expectations for the sales process format.
• Pain: Identify the customer's pain points and challenges.
• Budget: Discuss financial aspects to ensure the customer can afford the solution.
• Decision: Understand the customer's decision-making process.
• Fulfillment: Provide a solution that addresses the customer's pain points.
• Post-sell: Ensure the customer is satisfied and address any post-sale concerns.

c. Challenger Sale

The Challenger Sale, introduced by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, encourages sales representatives to take control of the sales negotiation by teaching, tailoring, and taking control. This methodology delivers insights and challenges the customer's thinking to add value.

• Teach: Provide unique insights and educate customers about opportunities and risks.
• Tailor: Customize the sales approach based on the specific needs and situation of the customer.
• Take control: Drive the sales conversation towards a solution that benefits the customer while maintaining assertiveness.

Step 4: Introduce technology and tools

When it comes to sales, technology is a huge deal. If you have the right tools, you can automate tasks, increase sales productivity, and gather useful customer information. Providing these resources enables your sales team to work smarter rather than harder.

a. CRM systems

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions are vital for overseeing communications with both present and prospective clients. They support sales teams with lead management, customer data tracking, and process streamlining.

Well-known CRM programs like Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and HubSpot provide extensive capabilities that improve sales productivity. They can benefit your team in the following ways.

• Automate activities, track interactions, and provide a clear view of the entire sales pipeline management.
• Generate valuable sales reports and insights, allowing your team to tailor their approach based on customer data.
• Allow sales reps and sales managers to collaborate seamlessly on deals, share customer information, and ensure everyone is on the same page.

b. Sales enablement tools

Tools like content management systems, training platforms, and analytics tools are all used for sales enablement, and they equip sales teams with the resources, information, and content they need to sell more effectively. These tools

• Provide easy-to-use templates and resources.
• Let your reps personalize their outreach and connect with prospects on their preferred channels.
• Help automate tasks and streamline content creation, so your team can close deals quicker and more efficiently.

Step 5: Incorporate practical training techniques

Sales training can benefit greatly from practical sales techniques that offer real-world experience in a controlled setting. Sales representatives can hone their abilities, communicate more effectively, and gain confidence using these sales techniques. Here's how you can apply these techniques effectively:

a. Role-playing and simulations

Let’s start by understanding how role plays and simulations work in sales training settings. A role play is a scenario in which your sales team learns techniques by participating in hypothetical scenarios. Simulations factor in critical selling behaviors, pricing negotiations, and unexpected customer objections to providing a truly immersive sales training experience.

Role-playing different sales scenarios

Engaging in role-play allows individuals to experience a realistic situation. Using this activity in the interview process helps interviewers better grasp each applicant's response capability while observing the candidate's approach to various situations.

However, role-playing is equally applicable when your sales staff is being trained and brought on board. When executed properly, role-playing can significantly enhance sales performance, even though only 21% of sales teams actually employ it.

Why it works?

✔ By role-playing different scenarios, your reps can hone their skills in active listening, objection handling, and effective communication in a low-pressure environment.

✔ Whether SPIN Selling or Challenger Sale, role-playing allows your team to practice applying these frameworks to real-life sales conversations.

✔ The more your reps practice, the more comfortable they'll be navigating challenging customer interactions.

b. Mock sales calls

To prepare for a real sales call, sales managers and interviewers often use "mock calls," in which they act out a virtual selling scenario with a salesperson and evaluate their sales performance, provide them with practice, and point out where they can improve.

Why it works?

✔ Mock sales calls train salespeople to think quickly on their feet and adjust their strategy in response to the virtual customer's behaviors, which improves their critical thinking skills.

✔ Sales reps can receive personalized coaching and development by using simulations to identify their areas of weakness.

✔ The more reps practice, the less nervous they'll be about facing real customers, leading to smoother and more impactful sales conversations.

Tips to implement mock sales calls and role-playing in your online sales training programs:

• Create detailed scripts for both the sales rep and the role-playing customer. These scripts should include common objections and questions customers might have during the virtual selling.
• Allow trainees to switch roles between the salesperson and the customer to understand both perspectives.
• After each session, provide immediate feedback to discuss what went well and what could be improved.
• Make it fun! Encourage healthy competition and celebrate customer successes to keep the training sessions engaging.

c. Shadowing and Mentorship

Shadowing and mentorship are great ways to take your sales training approach to the next level. They both focus on improving the new salespeople’s core selling skills through real-time interactions with experienced ones. Let’s see how that works.

Shadowing

Through shadowing, new hires can see experienced sales representatives in action and learn about real-world sales interactions. This in-person training helps new employees quickly learn how sales work and how the business handles customer relationships. It allows sales reps to:

• Observe real-world sales interactions: They'll witness firsthand how experienced reps handle customer calls, sales presentations, and objections.
• Gain insights into the sales process: Shadowing provides a behind-the-scenes look at the entire sales cycle, from prospecting to closing the deal.
• Ask questions in real-time: New hires can gain instant clarification and learn from experienced reps' on-the-spot decisions.

Mentorship Programs

Mentorship programs go beyond a one-time shadowing experience. They create a long-term relationship between a new hire (mentee) and an experienced rep (mentor). Effective mentoring involves routine one-on-one encounters in which mentors offer guidance, constructive criticism, and inspire mentees. This allows the mentee to:

• Receive ongoing guidance and support: Mentors provide valuable advice, answer questions, and offer encouragement throughout the new hire's journey.
• Gain career development guidance: Mentors can help set goals, identify areas for improvement, and offer insights into sales career growth opportunities.
• Build a trusted confidante: Mentorships provide a safe space for mentees to discuss challenges and receive confidential advice.

d. Interactive Learning

You can boost knowledge retention, motivate your team, and supercharge their sales skills by incorporating video-based learning, interactive modules, and gamification. Here’s how.

Video-Based Learning

On average, people remember 95% of what they see in a video, but only 10% of what they read in text. Video learning has transformed eLearning, making it far more interactive and engaging than a passive reading experience.

💡Tips to make your video-based learning interesting:

• Microlearning videos: Short, bite-sized videos on essential sales skills or product features keep your team's attention span hooked and information easily digestible.
• Expert interviews: Tap into the knowledge of industry sales leaders and top performers through video interviews to provide real-world insights and inspiration.
• Customer testimonials: Showcase real customer success stories to motivate your team and reinforce the value proposition of your product or service.

FreshLearn is a platform that lets you design, create, and promote your online sales training content in your preferred video style. It can be sales training courses, webinars, or cohorts - you can involve your sales team in engaging and learning.

Interactive modules

Some sales training interactive modules use VR and AR to provide students with fully immersive learning environments. These tools allow students to experience authentic sales situations, handle consumer contacts, or delve into intricate product details.

For instance, companies in the healthcare and automotive sectors train their employees on crucial and complicated operations using immersive learning technology to prepare them for real-world applications.

💡Tips to make your interactive modules work:

• Case studies: Incorporate real-world case studies to expose your team to real-life sales challenges and modern sales strategies so valuable insights can be applied in their own interactions.
• Knowledge checks: Add quizzes and assessments after video lessons to help your team solidify their understanding of key concepts and identify areas needing further review.

For example, FreshLearn lets you add quizzes to check your learner’s understanding. With this, you can identify if the rep needs further guidance on your processes.

Gamification

Gamification in e-learning uses gaming ideas and essential components to fulfill learning objectives. It uses people's basic needs to connect with others, learn new things, master strategic selling skills, compete, achieve goals, get a rank, express themselves, help others, or feel complete. It increases player engagement through rewards for completing tasks or competitions.

💡Tips to make your gamification  work:

• Role-playing scenarios with rewards: Award points for exceptional communication skills, effective objection handling, or exceeding sales targets during role-playing sessions.
• Badges for completing training modules: Recognize and celebrate achievements by awarding badges for completing specific sales training modules or mastering new selling skills.

FreshLearn helps incorporate engaging content and gaming components to keep students engaged and inspired to finish your course. With FreshLearn, you can incorporate design principles and gaming mechanics to enhance the fun, motivation, and engagement of your sales training!

Step 6: Offer ongoing development and support

Sales training is not a one-time learning. Your team must undergo frequent reviews and updations to retain the information they’ve learned. That’s why it’s your priority to provide ongoing support and development to your trainees. We’ll break down this process here.

a. Regular feedback and assessments

Reps can find areas of strength and room for progress when they receive regular sales performance reports and knowledge assessments. This helps people improve their strategic selling skills and apply theory to practice. Regular check-ins could be:

• Open communication channels: Encourage your reps to contact you with questions or concerns at any time. An open-door policy fosters trust and allows for continuous learning.
• Weekly one-on-ones: Schedule regular meetings with your reps to discuss goals, challenges, and sales opportunities. This allows you to provide personalized coaching and address any concerns early on.
• Sales coaching sessions: Go beyond basic feedback. Invest in dedicated coaching sessions where your reps can receive in-depth guidance on specific skills or challenges. For instance, FreshLearn lets you implement a cohort-based course that requires no coding skills. This cohort-specific platform allows you to oversee a class while monitoring each student's sales development and activities.

b. Continuous learning opportunities

Many sales organizations invest in giving their sales teams access to webinars, industry conferences, and advanced sales training sessions to stay competitive and improve their selling skills.

These chances for lifelong learning are vital for individual growth and essential for keeping up with the fluctuating technological world and market trends. This can be done in a few ways.

• Sales enablement content: Organizations often equip sales teams with ongoing access to essential sales enablement content such as buyer personas, talk tracks, email templates, and case studies.
• On-demand learning: Many sales organizations provide resources that help employees learn at their own pace and according to their needs. Sales workers want flexibility to accommodate their diverse schedules and learning methods.
• Peer-to-peer learning: Many successful sales teams leverage the expertise within their ranks. Veteran sales reps are encouraged to share their knowledge and sales strategies with newer team members, fostering an environment of continuous peer-to-peer learning.​

You can start with FreahLearn’s masterclass platform to create advanced sales training sessions. All you have to do is get an industry expert to share insights. The platform will handle the rest; no coding knowledge is needed.

c. Building a learning culture

Within an organization, developing a culture of learning that encourages knowledge sharing and peer learning is essential to improving employee satisfaction, developing new ideas, and developing key skills. Today, companies are successfully creating these kinds of environments by using the following approaches:

• Creating knowledge-sharing platforms: Implement internal wikis, forums, or communication channels where reps can share best practices, tips, and learnings from their experiences.
• Organizing community-based training sessions: Encourage reps to share their expertise on specific topics with the team, building peer-to-peer learning and collaboration.
• Recognizing and rewarding knowledge sharing: Acknowledge reps who actively contribute to the team's learning culture and motivate others to do the same.

FreshLearn makes it easy to let your team members interact with each other and learn collectively. It’s like social media exclusively for learning. You can also set pre-determined rules to streamline access and control.

d. Measuring Training Effectiveness

Let's assume you've invested time, resources, and energy into crafting a stellar sales training program. To know if it's actually generating a return on investment (ROI), you must measure sales training effectiveness — the impact of your training on your team’s sales performance.

KPI's And Metrics

Here are some crucial KPIs to consider:

Leading indicators

These metrics provide early signals of training effectiveness and include:

• Training progress metrics: Course completion rates, quiz scores, and time to proficiency.
• Activity metrics: Number of meetings scheduled, call-to-meeting ratios, and time to the first deal.
• Coaching assignments: Sales performance in simulated scenarios, such as recorded role-play exercises, helps gauge the practical application of learned skills in real-world settings.

Lagging indicators

These metrics reflect the final outcomes of the sales training efforts and include:

• Sales revenue: Increases in revenue post-training indicate the direct financial impact of the training program.
• Sales cycle length: A reduction in the time it takes to close deals helps improve sales effectiveness and efficiency.
• Customer satisfaction: Higher customer satisfaction scores post-training can signal better customer interactions and service quality

You can gather sales data for a set period before your training program begins. This is your baseline. After completing the training, you must track the same KPIs and metrics over a comparable timeframe. Analyze the data to see if there has been an improved sales performance.

It’s important to look for:

• Increases in quota attainment – effective training gives reps the selling skills to consistently close deals.
• Reductions in the sales cycle – improved communication and sales negotiation skills can streamline your sales process.
• Higher customer satisfaction scores – training focusing on building rapport and understanding customer needs leads to happier customers.

Adjusting Training Programs

If sales training programs are to stay effective and relevant, they need to be improved continuously. Here's how to make this happen:

• Identify areas where your sales training program might fall short based on your analysis.
• Get feedback from trainees through surveys or one-on-one conversations to understand their experience and areas for improvement.
• Refine your sales training content, delivery methods, or assessment techniques based on your findings.

For Example:

• If data shows reps struggle with a specific product feature, revamp the training module to provide more in-depth explanations and practical application exercises.
• If feedback reveals a preference for online sales training modules, consider offering a blended program that brings together traditional classroom sessions with on-demand content.

That’s it — you have it all! With the six steps mentioned above, you can create an effective sales training program that aligns with your organization's product/service nature and goals. You can further tweak and modify certain aspects(if needed) to better align with your requirements.

But - BEFORE EVERYTHING!

Before everything, have a detailed pre-training session to start! - Pre-traning? - Yes, you will have to give a heads up about what it would look like to work for you, what they can expect from your company culture, the ins and outs, and everything that's in between.

Pre-Training Preparation

1. Onboarding essentials

An effective onboarding program ensures your new hires feel welcome, informed, and ready to contribute from day one. Here's how to create a streamlined onboarding experience that maximizes their potential:

a. Introduce company culture and values

The first step in an effective onboarding process is to familiarize new employees with the organization's core principles and culture. This makes them feel like team members right away and helps them comprehend the unspoken policies and practices that guide decision-making inside the company.

How can you do this?

1. You can pass on handbooks to share onboarding plans, reducing new hires' information overload. They can guide new hires through company culture, policies, perks and benefits, and team integration.

Houston, an Australian firm, offers this handbook to new hires. It is relatable and effectively introduces company culture and guidelines.

2. There’s a better way, too: Onboarding video course! Employee onboarding videos work great to start the onboarding process and help your new worker feel more like a part of the sales training company.

According to 69% of people, videos improve the onboarding process. Adobe, a massive computer software player, released an onboarding video. In it, employees from many backgrounds identify themselves as Adobe. Then, executives discuss Adobe and its mission.

b. Overview of products and services

New sales hires must thoroughly understand the company's products and services. This gives them the information they need to make a good sales pitch. Therefore, you must find interesting ways to train your reps on your products.

How can you do this?

• Product training: You can discuss each product or service's features, usage, and competitive advantages in depth. Hands-on practice and realistic examples help improve comprehension and recall.
• Service familiarization: Ensure new employees know about all available services, such as help or after-sales services. This will increase customer relationships and allow sales executives to offer complete solutions to clients.

Asana provides brief video tutorials to help people comprehend the program's features and operation. For convenience, they have integrated them within their assistance center. The search box simplifies locating each of the briefs.

2. Setting Clear Expectations

Successful onboarding requires clearly defining expectations from the beginning. A clear and detailed job description is crucial. It outlines responsibilities, objectives, and key sales performance indicators– like sales quotas or customer satisfaction ratings – so new hires understand what's expected and how they contribute to the company's goals.

A detailed 30-60-90 day plan can be your sales hires’ roadmap to customer success. Here's how it streamlines onboarding and sets your new hires up for wins:

The 30-day plan:

The first month is all about building a strong foundation. This includes:

• Culture & policy immersion: Integrating new hires into the company culture and familiarizing them with policies (think vacation time or dress code).
• Tech savvy startup: Training them on company-specific platforms like intranet systems, collaboration tools, and communication channels. It can be something like completing online sales training courses to get them up to speed.
• Building the network: Introducing them to key stakeholders like team leads or clients, fostering positive working relationships.
• Introduce the team to the sales training program: Provide a high-level overview of their upcoming courses and training modules.
• SMART start: Creating a personalized development plan with SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). This plan should include metrics and KPIs to track progress.

The 30-60 day plan:

• Teamwork: Encouraging collaboration with other sales teams to build stronger work relationships and gain broader experience.
• Course correction: Identifying any challenges or roadblocks they face in the sales training program and working together to address them.
• Feedback loop: Scheduling regular check-ins with sales managers to receive feedback on progress and voice any concerns. Frequent one-on-one meetings offer support and build trust, making new hires feel comfortable seeking guidance.

The 60- 90 day plan:

• Mastering the craft: By the 90-day mark, new hires should be well-settled, proficient in their fundamental sales skills, and on track to achieving their SMART goals.
• Independent action: They'll work more independently on projects, take greater accountability for sales performance, and become more proactive within the organization.
• Continued growth: Regular meetings with sales managers guarantee consistent feedback and KPI tracking for ongoing development.

Wrapping Up

It’s not just enough if you invest significant time and resources to get sellers to operate at a high level. You must create a curriculum that gradually develops skills to minimize the time sales reps need to spend onboarding.

New salespeople should learn key team abilities, reinforce them, learn more at specified intervals, and be held accountable for applying them. A well-designed sales curriculum has the dual benefit of reducing onboarding time and pushing sellers to become top achievers.

You can use FreshLearn to design world-class sales training programs. FreshLearn offers built-in and customizable tools for making and selling digital products, online courses, and more.

With FreshLearn, you can add brand features to your sales training courses for refined and standard sales presentations. The extensive statistics on the platform demonstrate how far the students have progressed and how engaged they are. This lets you monitor the performance of your online sales training courses and make data-driven modifications.

Reach out to FreshLearn to create extensive sales training programs to make your team sales-ready immediately!

FAQs

1. What should be included in a sales training program?

A sales training program should cover product knowledge, understanding the company’s sales processes, customer engagement strategies, sales negotiation skills, strategic account management, and using sales technologies such as CRM systems. Some sales programs also incorporate role-playing scenarios to practice skills, feedback mechanisms, and continuous learning opportunities through virtual training workshops, webinars, and advanced training sessions. These include KPIs to measure progress and adjust the training as needed.

2. How much does it cost to train a sales rep?  

U.S. companies collectively spend over $70 billion annually on sales training. The cost of training a sales representative can vary widely, ranging from $400 to $3,000 for reputable sales training programs. This cost variation depends on factors like the depth of the sales training, the prestige of the trainers, and whether the program is customized for specific business needs. Also, free training options are available, which can be a great resource for those on a tighter budget.

3. How many types of sales training are there?

Sales training can be categorized into several types, including:

• Onboarding training for new sales hires to get them up to speed with product information and sales processes.
• Ongoing training to help current sales staff continuously improve their skills.
• Product-specific training focuses on providing detailed information about new or updated products.
• Technique-specific training that focuses on methodologies like SPIN Selling or Challenger Sales.
• Sales coaching involves one-on-one personalized training to address specific strengths and weaknesses of the sales roles.

4. What is the sales training cycle?

The sales training cycle involves several phases, including assessing training needs based on current competencies and gaps. It then moves to designing and improving sales training courses tailored to these needs. The next phase is the delivery of training, which can vary in format from in-person workshops to virtual selling sessions. Following sales training delivery, the effectiveness of the training is evaluated against predefined metrics, and feedback is collected to refine the training process.

5. How to build a sales training program?

You can build effective sales training programs through several steps:

• Define goals: What do you want your reps to achieve (e.g., higher conversion rates)?
• Craft a curriculum: Include product knowledge, sales roles, methodologies, communication skills, and tech proficiency.
• Engage your learners: Utilize interactive training tools, e-learning modules, microlearning, and mentorship programs.
• Deliver the program: Choose the best method (in-person, online, blended) based on your needs.
• Measure success: Track key metrics like sales performance and customer satisfaction to gauge program effectiveness.
• Continuous improvement: Gather feedback and adapt your program to stay relevant and impactful.

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