Sales, like riding a bike, is not a simple “hop-on-and-cruise” endeavor. Being a great salesperson requires a deeper understanding of how the machine works, practicing with training wheels, achieving the art of balance, and then flying solo at increasing speeds while climbing new hills.
But how does a new professional entering an industry made up of almost 14 million people, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, evolve from one of the goods into a renowned great? In one word: training.
However, just like pitches, products and prospects, sales training can come in a variety of styles as the industry continues evolving to best fit current market needs and offerings. Tactical trainings, classroom-style settings, role-play scenarios, call analysis studies — each brings a nuance that rounds a young salesperson into an expert through the art of hands-on practice.
That’s why Built In NYC sat down with two sales leaders who have struck a sweet spot in their training styles and have the statistics to back up — or adapt — their methods as needed.
At small business insurance company Attune, Barton attributes the success of his sales training to tactical role-playing, which creates an interactive environment while also helping to internalize the material.
How often do you hold training sessions with your sales team, and what do those training sessions entail?
We host training a few times a month and it often falls into two categories. The first is tactical training that involves one or more different teams within our sales organization. Some of the topics include pitch practice, call breakdowns and objection roundtables. We’ve seen really positive results from our objection roundtable where we talk through and role-play a list of objections that we have documented. This training is also a good opportunity to add to this list as we get feedback from the team.
The second type is a more formal classroom-style training that usually involves our sales team bringing in members from other departments at Attune or even from a third party. Recently, we brought in team members from some of our strategic partners to help improve our knowledge across a few of the products we sell. While there’s always room to improve, we believe in the importance of balancing tactical, interactive training with more traditional classroom-style training.
What techniques or approaches have you found to be particularly effective when it comes to sales training?
I’ve always been a fan of incorporating role-play into training. This makes the training interactive, while also helping everyone involved internalize the material. It’s important to build strong muscle memory so that you’re prepared when the time comes to use what you’ve learned from the training. To me, the idea here is similar to how an athlete or artist would prepare for a performance. Practicing your craft is still a great way to ensure that you’re prepared when the stakes are higher.
It’s important to build strong muscle memory so that you’re prepared when the time comes to use what you’ve learned from the training.”
How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your training sessions, and how do you use that information to fine-tune your approach to training over time?
There are a few ways to think about this. Bottom-of-the-funnel metrics will always be important when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of training. We recently saw a series of trainings help contribute to a 12 percent month-over-month increase in top-line revenue for one of our core products. We’re happy with the early results here and have plans to repurpose the same training framework to other products we offer. That said, training can also help improve the various inputs that help drive those bottom-of-the-funnel metrics. I would still consider a training to be successful if it helps improve inputs as those inputs will likely lead to higher win rates over time.
According to Brown, trainings are most effective when broken down into 30-minute intervals on a biweekly basis at workflow automation platform Gooten. This allows trainers to emphasize how the information being taught truly matters for sales.
How often do you hold training sessions with your sales team, and what do those training sessions entail?
I hold training sessions at a bi-weekly cadence. This allows for flexibility in those off weeks for ad-hoc training for industry changes, feature updates and general housekeeping without taking sellers off the floor more often than needed. Biweekly training sessions are very structured and are based on a thorough training analysis of skills and topics. Training for us looks like discussions of best practices, and sessions are developed with the overall thought of the impact on revenue. We always ask ourselves, “Why does this matter for sales?”
What techniques or approaches have you found to be particularly effective when it comes to sales training?
Sales training is a constantly evolving specialty. I have found that training that is structured in a dynamic way produces the best results. These sessions also have the highest potential for measurable adoption and results.
Our team at Gooten, like most, consists of all the adult learner personas – the reinventors, scholars, change-makers and seekers. When tailoring training, we ensure there’s a clear agenda to set expectations, some form of engagement such as a poll or audience requested feedback, and additional resources. We use Gong to record and analyze calls and a content repository of supplemental material, for example. This has proven to develop a culture of ongoing learning and development.
The main techniques that I have found to be effective have been breaking training into bite-sized sections of 30 minutes at biweekly intervals. I also encourage our team managers and thought leaders to lead trainings while enablement facilitates to achieve the aforementioned goals. This not only increases the opportunity for first-touch adoption, but also fosters the internal desire for learning and development.
We always ask ourselves, ‘Why does this matter for sales?’”
How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your training sessions, and how do you use that information to fine-tune your approach to training over time?
We use Gong trackers to identify instances where a previous training topic was mentioned on calls. This assists with identifying whether true adoption has taken place or if we missed the mark. We also can’t negate the effect of using surveys after the fact for our larger-scale training, such as go-to-market efforts. We use all these results to not only adjust formatting but also to adjust our ongoing training analysis to identify skills, opportunities and topics where we can grow. Our overall goal always comes back to empowering our team with the content, training, tools and resources to sell effectively. Keeping that goal in mind as our North Star, our ability to pivot comes seamlessly and is a major part of our enablement strategy at Gooten.
