Sales Training is a Strategy for Winning
Originally contributed to LTEN’s Focus on Training Magazine.
By Steve Gielda and Kim Catania
Sales training and related learning and development (L&D) programs are not “nice-to-haves” or “check-the-box” activities – they are essential for talent growth, retention, and competitive advantage. And, perhaps most importantly, they directly impact your sales team’s ability to consistently meet and exceed revenue goals and create lasting customer relationships built on credibility and trust.
Why Does Sales Training Matter Today?
Talent development
Well-designed sales training programs develop and retain talent, boost bench strength, and boost morale and engagement. When salespeople feel valued and empowered, they are more likely to be dedicated, motivated, and productive.
Innovation and problem-solving
Good, engaging learning programs foster a culture of innovation by encouraging employees to be agile, think critically, experiment, and develop new solutions to emerging challenges.
Regulatory compliance
Industries like life sciences operate under strict regulatory guidelines. Clear, ongoing training ensures that employees understand and adhere to these regulations and ethical standards, mitigating the risk of costly non-compliance.
Supports strategic alignment
Oftentimes, companies fail to align L&D to the business outcomes their sales and marketing teams are striving to achieve. Consequently, sales training programs are quickly designed to plug a hole in the dam or take up a spot on the annual sales kickoff (SKO) agenda, instead of supporting the critical knowledge, skills, and processes needed to help the sales team achieve their critical business outcomes and meet customer needs.
What Should Salespeople Be Trained On?
There is a wide range of core skills and behaviors that align with key competencies for each sales role, as defined by specific organizations. Essential L&D includes:
Industry and product knowledge
Focus on ongoing products, industry trends, and current competitor strategies.
Power skills
Hone key skills like emotional intelligence, collaboration and communication, having a growth mindset, collaborative problem-solving, leading without authority, and strategic networking to create a powerful culture for success.
Sales Leadership Development
Identify and develop your emerging and future leaders for consistent culture and organizational growth. Sales leaders have a passion for developing and supporting others. It’s a very different job from “carrying a bag” and identifying your salespeople that are a fit for future sales management roles (vs. just elevating your “highest performers” takes rigor and planning.
However, how do you decide the priorities and goals of your sales training? Do you simply fill the greatest gap of the team, or should you train on the skills and knowledge that support the sales goals and strategic metrics the sales organization is striving to reach in the next 6, 12 or 18 months?
It’s easy to argue that filling the competency gaps makes good sense, but what if those specific competencies don’t support the strategic imperative of the sales team, like preparing for a lower-cost competitor or driving greater adoption of a solution?
As sales training professionals, we must understand that our customer is the sales organization. Our goal is to help the sales team perform better on the job, which often means helping them better execute the sales strategies being put forth by the sales leadership team.
What Does Impactful Sales Training Look Like?
First, no sales training should ever be “one and done.” Ever. It is not a check-the-box activity.
So often, companies roll out sales training and expect that everything will change right away; the box was checked, and they expect the learners to walk away ready to implement whatever was shared.
But lasting behavior change does not happen from a one-time event. Training must be an ongoing process to ensure that employees continue to develop and reflect on new skills, change behaviors, share successes and struggles, and enhance their competence. Consider implementing a process where the L&D department’s sales training team meets with sales leadership regularly to create a continuous feedback loop. Enhancing the collective understanding of the sales strategies that the sales team needs to execute to drive tangible results starts with uncovering what’s working, what’s not, and why.
For example, if objections are not being handled properly and deals are stalling, is there a need for another objection-handling workshop, or perhaps the leaders need to implement additional coaching and modeling to pull the learning through effectively?
A Framework for Sales Success
Sales alignment meeting
Meet with the sales leadership team to align organizational goals for the upcoming year, the related skills required, and the unique sales strategies that the team is executing that will drive success.
Needs assessment
Identify current strengths and the specific skills and knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to support the achievement of desired sales results.
Learning objectives
Clearly define and demonstrate alignment of how the desired learning outcomes from the training support the business outcomes of the sales team.
Program design
Develop a sustained sales training program that is engaging, relevant, and aligned with both sales strategies and the identified learning objectives.
Delivery methods
Consider multiple modalities to roll out and maximize learning impact. Include components like pre-work, live and/or virtual training, self-directed e-learning, coaching, peer share sessions, and on-the-job activities. Ensure coaching and sustainment pull-through guides are available for leaders, trainers, and mentors to guide learners to successful implementation.
Evaluation and Evolution
Get direct learner feedback on and measure the effectiveness of the training programs to identify areas for improvement and ensure it is achieving the intended goals. Course-correct as needed.
Instructional Design and Training Models
There are many – let’s focus on the simplest, impactful one: discover, practice, and apply.
Simply stated:
• Discover: Train learners on a new topic.
• Practice: Engage learners with one another to practice implementing what they just learned.
• Apply: See how this new skill or information is applied in the real world to drive the behaviors needed to support the expected outcomes.
Then, it is critical for trainers, leaders, and mentors to pull through the learning for ongoing development, growth, and sustainment. This includes check-in sessions, sharing key insights, peer sharing sessions, coaching, and modeling what “good” looks like.
What’s It All Worth? Measuring the Impact of Sales Training
Evaluating development and growth requires ongoing assessment of progress, skill development, impact on business outcomes, and engagement. Incorporate learning goals and progress into coaching sessions, evaluations, and self-assessments. The most accurate measure of the effectiveness of continuous learning can be observed in professional development, improved productivity, and the successful attainment of sales results.
To measure the effectiveness of training and development programs, it is essential to track key metrics, such as:
Learner confidence
Measure learner confidence through pre-event and post-event surveys for each skill trained.
Knowledge retention
Conduct ongoing knowledge checks and implementation evaluations (such as field visits and coaching sessions) to assess how well employees retain and incorporate the information learned.
Skill enhancement and behavioral changes
Observe whether the training has led to improved skills and competence for continued growth. And ensure your sales managers are regularly modeling and coaching to the skills and behaviors being taught in training
Business outcomes and KPIs
Evaluate the impact of the training on longer-term business metrics such as prospecting effectiveness and meetings booked, productivity, salesperson goal attainment rates, deal win rates, products sold per customer, average deal size, customer NPS, referral rates, and more. Include organizational metrics such as employee retention rates.
The Bottom Line on Sales Training
Investing in ongoing sales training programs that equip sales teams with the key skills and mindset to change behaviors and up-level competence and confidence will ultimately create a more engaged, skilled, and innovative workforce – one that is invested in the future success of the organization. In turn, it leads to organizational goal achievement and long-term sales success.
Steve Gielda is the co-author of Ignite Your Sales Strategy: A Field Guide to Accelerating Your Pipeline. You can purchase your copy here or wherever books are sold. Follow or connect with Steve here on LinkedIn.