Top 10 sales training techniques that will make your team unstoppable

If you have a business and your goal is to increase your sales, keep in mind that the professionals in your sales team should receive ongoing, quality training.

Moreover, it’s necessary to keep an eye on the best, most up-to-date techniques in the market. After all, having well-trained employees is key to the success of the business as a whole.

Sales training should take into account the changes the market has undergone. So if the consumer’s profile is constantly changing, sales strategies should also be updated.

Ideally, each business should have its own training in sales techniques based on their own values, product and market context.

If you’re already thinking about creating a course to help qualify those who work with you, check out these 10 practical tips that will help you develop an amazing sales training.

1. Understand the needs of your team

It’s important that all teams are made up of people who share common characteristics but still have their own differences and particularities.

You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the employees so you can explore their positive aspects and invest in the improvement of skills that need to be developed.

To understand these needs, an excellent strategy is to hold meetings with team members and alongside them, analyze the latest sales results.

The intention here is not to generate conflict, but rather to confront the strengths and weaknesses of team members, so you can determine what needs to be improved.

It’s worth noting that each team member may have distinct needs, though it’s possible that some may be shared.

It’s therefore essential to gather these needs. That way, you can provide answers for as many pains and barriers as possible.

2. Set a clear goal for your sales training

Before you even begin the sales training, you ought to have a comprehensive idea of the ultimate goals throughout the process.

What is the sales target for the period?

How soon should the strategies and techniques that have been learned begin to have an effect?

By setting clear goals and objectives, by the end of the training, you will be able to better understand the results obtained and you’ll manage to compare them with the previous ones.

Offering training without knowing its purpose is unfeasible. In fact, it’s possible that your sales staff may become even more confused about what they need to do.

3. Search for keywords related to sales

When it comes to sales, there are techniques and strategies that are applied worldwide.

It is no use to swim against the tide, the market dictates the rules to need to be followed by the sellers.

One of the factors that influence these techniques the most is the consumers’ behavior.

How do we understand these techniques and know which ones are best for a given moment? You ask.

One golden tip is to use keyword tools to understand which are the best topics related to selling techniques.

Check out what’s in, what the trend in your market is and what is not so useful anymore to be used as a sales strategy.

Keep in mind that techniques change constantly and that your business needs to keep up with market trends. Therefore, always analyze the period the market is at and your company’s timing.

4. Analyze the competition

It’s essential to monitor your competitors to understand the selling techniques that are being used.

Each company has a different approach and it’s possible to gather insights just by looking at what they’re doing.

In your analysis, find out if they offer courses to train teams.

Try to understand which topics are explored with more depth, the techniques that are used and passed on to sellers and any other important detail.

Key topics are usually grouped into categories, such as product knowledge, company and market awareness and specific sales techniques for each of the company’s products.

After analyzing the training profile offered by the competitors, start thinking about how to build your own course based on the characteristics and uniqueness of your business and your product.

The key is to explore the best of every training available in the market to create rich material that will add value to everyone who takes that course.

But keep in mind, even the best sales training needs to undergo constant updating. The market changes and the courses and techniques also change on a regular basis.

5. Choose the best method for your team

The format of the sales training should be chosen based on the sales team profile.

There are basically two types of training: face-to-face and online.

However, nothing keeps you from mixing the methods, with one part offered in person and another in digital format.

One thing to keep an eye on is that online training only works effectively when tools are made available for team members.

That is, there is no point in providing the best training without a follow-up and checking for indicators that the techniques and knowledge were effectively absorbed by the team.

Whether it is online or face-to-face training, it is worth offering a suitable structure, with enough support for the participants and the length of training needs to be compatible with their needs.

Very fast courses may not be enough to get all the information across. In turn, very lengthy courses could become tiring and boring for the participants.

6. Use real-life situations your business went through

To make sales training more interesting, a truly immersive experience, it’s interesting to explore real-life examples that have your business has gone through.

Talking about success stories, successful sales results, and techniques that have been correctly applied helps you to gain the team’s attention.

Don’t resort to business training just in theory, with content far removed from the reality of your business. If necessary, create examples that are close to the reality of your company.

By sharing a situation that has already happened in your business and telling employees how it was solved, you encourage your team and make them realize that they are equally capable of achieving those same results.

7. Focus on hands-on activities

An effective sales course should balance the right amount of theory and practice.

Remember that one of the primary goals of training your team’s salespeople with the right techniques is to get the most satisfying results on the market.

Therefore, hands-on moments should be part of the course. Only then will it be possible to identify the progress of what is being taught, the degree of immersion of the employees and the potential of transformation of the training.

And what is the best time to apply the techniques that were taught?

As soon as the theoretical course ends. Then, people can put into practice what they learned while information is still fresh in their minds.

That is why the course, besides offering quality information, should be motivating to encourage sellers to give their best when they start selling.

8. Invite sales experts to participate

One way to give a new face to your sales training by differentiating the course from others – which are often known to be boring, tiring and repetitive – is to invite experts to talk directly to your team.

In addition to sales specialists, it is worth investing in the participation of coaches, people who master tools and short-term transformation techniques. They can be better at developing the personality and vision of their employees toward success.

After all, as important as learning new sales techniques is, eliminating old habits and limited beliefs is also key, and coaches can help a lot in this process.

9. Promote interaction among the participants

A good sales course should promote interaction among all members. After all, selling is communicating.

Communication and interpersonal relationships are fundamental to the success of a negotiation. So encourage your team to interact and participate effectively in building knowledge.

They should feel like they can not only learn, but also add and enhance the sales techniques presented in training.

Find a way to break free from the traditional idea about training courses, which focus on raw information exposure. Make the course you’ve created fluid and dynamic.

10. Follow up your team’s performance and exchange feedback

To find out if sales training has worked, it’s important to keep a close eye on your team’s performance.

Know exactly what the pre-training data is so they can be compared to the results obtained after implementing the techniques taught in the course.

Asking for feedback from them helps you understand the degree of satisfaction with the course, what was good, and what can be improved for the next trainings.

And make it clear that they can give you honest feedback.

Even if they are critical, they are fundamental to reflect the real vision of the sales team regarding the course offered and thus you’ll be able to improve it in the future.

Create your own sales training

As we’ve mentioned, sales training can be done face-to-face or online.

The former format has grown a lot in recent years, given it’s dynamic, practical and the possibility of studying and learning in your own time and date makes it a safe bet.

For this type of sales training to work out well, you need to invest in a good Distance Education (DE) platform that provides adequate resources and results tracking tools.

If you like these ideas and are thinking of creating a sales training for your team, but still don’t know how to start, read our post that teaches you step by step how to create an online course and get started today.