Sales training: 5 techniques to improve your team’s performance 

You decided to create an online course, invested time and resources in the development of great content, with the potential to be a real success and generate income for an indefinite period, but there is a caveat, you have to sell the product first. And that’s where good sales training makes a difference.

If you intend to go after your customers alone or have a team to help you, one thing is for sure, everyone needs to know what they are doing. After all, convincing someone to invest money in your product is not the easiest task, and it often takes more than good material.

5 Ways to Improve Your Sales Training

The best salesperson isn’t always the smoothest. Depending on the customer, the sales technique may simply be knowing how to listen. 

A common mistake of the inexperienced seller is to talk too much and in a hurry, answering questions that were not even asked. 

As the Greek philosopher Epictetus so succinctly explains, “You have two ears and one mouth – you should use them in proportion.”

Active listening is truly the silent sales skill. Throughout the sales cycle, prospects will drop hints about what they’re thinking, how they’re feeling, or issues they need to address. How you handle it can make or break your sale. That’s why it’s important to know how to listen.

– 8 techniques to improve customer experience

Selling is like any other profession, talent helps, but a lot of study and training is still needed to have solid and lasting results.

If you are a beginner or want to educate and develop your team, check out some strategies that will improve your sales training.

Bet on online courses

A commercial team is usually always on the move and gathering everyone in the same place to pass on sales training can be quite complicated and mean prejudice to your business. 

For this reason, using an online course that your team can access from anywhere and whenever they want is already a solution adopted by many companies.

You can create different courses to train your team and improve your results. One can be focused on product presentation and explanation, for example, and another focused on sales training, passing on updated techniques and tips.  

Bear in mind that starting with a detailed presentation of the product is fundamental, because if the seller does not have complete knowledge of what he is selling, he will hardly be able to convince anyone of its advantages and why to make the purchase.

Another advantage that online courses offer for corporate training is the ease of updating the content.

If your company decides to launch special offers or payment conditions, for example, or if there is news about the product, just enter this information in your course and your entire team will receive the update automatically.

– Benefits of Online Corporate Training 

Use short and focused training

A report released by Sales Performance International warns about the extent of sales training that many managers usually prepare. 

In the rush to develop a highly competent sales team, the material can become too extensive, which is a waste of time and money, as approximately 50% of the learning content is forgotten within five weeks.

Additionally, over-training can be detrimental to your salespeople’s natural talent, affecting their confidence. 

A more effective solution is to send reminders and encouragement via email or smartphones. This keeps knowledge fresh without overwhelming sellers.

You could even set up a virtual number for employees to separate their work-based and personal texts. That way, they know whether the text is urgent or related to their training course.

Again, online courses can be a good option. You can create short modules, with the content divided by topics. This not only helps to organize the course but also allows the user to better absorb each subject.

This way of organization also makes it easier if the seller wants to review, consult or clarify doubts about a specific topic.

Create a goal and reward plan

Salespeople are used to achieving well-established goals, which makes a sales training program based on achievement and rewards an excellent option.

A very effective strategy is to reward employees who reach the target or show good performance with some bonus. It can be extra money, days off or other awards that demonstrate recognition. You can also order personalized custom gifts, which will definitely boost employees’ motivation.

Many sales coaching programs operate on a goal-based system backed by analytics as it allows coaches to see where improvements can be made. This data-driven approach will enable you to monitor KPIs that directly affect your business’s growth.

As always, knowing your target audience is critical to the success of the action. Know the profile and interests of your employees to offer a plan of goals and rewards that arouse interest and cause a positive impact.

Remember to set attainable goals that fit your team’s current capacity. Over time, you can revise these goals or gradually increase them, always in proportion to the prize given, of course.

Be clear and correct with your team, don’t propose something they can’t achieve and neither can you fulfill.

Do a field training

Field training is essential for the manager to be able to assess the performance of each salesperson and provide the necessary feedback for improvement.

For this to be done correctly, a competent mentor needs to listen to the salesperson’s calls/interactions with the customer, analyze their service, and provide timely and specific feedback.

Despite all the theoretical training and incentives, it’s the analysis and feedback a person receives that really impacts and makes them think about how to improve.

In this age where digital business dominates and so much customer service is done online, you can access conversation logs to analyze your employees’ performance.

Ideally, however, promote mock sales calls, in which a manager or mentor pretends to be a potential customer and guides the agent through their sales process.

Regardless of the online courses or any other type of sales training you offer, your reps are going to have a hard time closing deals or managing customer retention without hands-on experience.

– How to retain customers for your online course

Customer satisfaction surveys about the service and support provided are also excellent indicators of how your team is performing and what points need to be improved.

Getting all this information is the best way to develop an increasingly assertive and personalized sales training for your business needs.

– 10 tips to improve your customer service 

Share success stories

It’s not new that employee engagement is reflected in the way they serve customers, which has a direct impact on sales. 

Microsoft data shows that for 95% of consumers, the service they receive is important to brand loyalty. Bad service also counts, being considered worse than none. 

There is a significant discrepancy in the perceptions of companies and buyers when it comes to service quality, as 80% of companies believe they provide great customer service, but only 8% of customers agree.

To prevent this from happening to your business, sharing experiences and success stories during sales training is a good strategy, as it encourages and promotes a greater sense of team among employees, which encourages them to work with more enthusiasm and smarter.

Use positive stories to teach and engage. Remember that encouragement is always a better teacher than criticism.

That said, be aware of your salespeople and yourself as a professional to notice both where there are flaws and opportunities for improvement, as well as what is working and is worth sharing with the rest of the team.

Create your sales training with Coursify.me

There are a huge variety of techniques that can be used in sales training, and none of them are right for every company or team. 

There are always new strategies, better roadmaps, new objections to overcome, new problems to resolve, or another competitor entering the market that you and your team will need to learn to deal with.

Therefore, our advice is that you experiment with different formats to see which you get the best results and what works with your team structure.

For example, if you’re an early-stage startup with a small sales force, organizing some short interactive courses or running face-to-face workshops can be a great way to build your employees’ skills.

With a well-trained and confident team, selling your course online is an easy task. 

– Practical guide to create and sell online courses

Complete eLearning platform, Coursify.me is the ideal solution for anyone who wants to create, sell and promote courses on the internet.

Serving businesses and professionals in more than 60 countries, the platform is a dynamic and customizable Learning Management System.

– Whats is a Learning Management System

We have three plan options for you to decide which one best suits your needs.

Visit our website, test the platform and start to create your online training right  now.