Innovative Sales Training Techniques Managers Are Adopting in 2018

Sales is a dynamic industry. It’s always changing and evolving. There are always new strategies and technologies to adopt and new connections to be made. Innovation is the key to succeeding in sales. For 2018, there are some particular sales training techniques that managers are adopting to stay relevant and competitive.

Online Training

One of the sales training techniques managers are adopting in 2018 is online training. Training is necessary to ensure your sales team has necessary product knowledge, as well as knowledge of best practices for selling. 

However, traditional in-class training is not efficient nor time sensitive, and, thus, it isn’t effective in helping reps succeed. This is why companies are now turning to online training instead. 

With online training, your sales team can access training modules whenever it is convenient for them. They can also access them when they have problems or questions they can’t solve on their own. Answers are now at their fingertips—and so is success.

Pair up Team Members

Another technique is to pair up new or junior sales team members with senior reps. This is beneficial for two reasons. The first is that it ensures your new or junior team members are learning the necessary skills to succeed at their jobs. They can ask questions of the senior member, watch and learn best practices, and more. 

The second benefit? It gives your senior team members a chance to grow their managerial and mentoring skills. When the new or junior sales team members start to succeed, it reflects well on them, which is something they can take pride in.

Short Training Sessions

Gone are the days when sales training existed solely in the classroom for a full day’s worth of training. One of the best sales training techniques being used today is to keep sales training sessions short.

Having short training sessions, known as microlearning, means they happen more frequently, which means learning is always on your reps’ minds. It also means your team members will retain more information because they’re not overloaded with information at one time.

Analyze Data

Inbound sales training should always include data analysis. Data is constantly being produced: every time your reps make a call or move a deal forward. How many people did they talk to? How long did they speak? What percentage of leads turned into sales? What percentage of leads want more information? What questions are people asking most often? The list goes on.

Decide which information is important to your sales training and start tracking it. When you have enough data, analyze it. This data can help your sales strategy evolve, your team succeed, and your company grow.

Continuous Learning/Development

There is more to sales training than simply training your reps for the jobs they currently have. People are working in jobs that didn’t exist ten years ago and they’re working in industries that didn’t exist ten years ago. 

It’s important, therefore, for your sales people to be continuously learning and developing their skills. You want your employees to be advancing and developing professionally, and you want to be invested in their career development. That’s how you retain employees and how you keep your employees up to date in this quickly changing world. 

When you invest in your team, you invest in your company.