Throw-in-the-water learning may work in some professions, but in sales it is risky for new salespeople and the entire company. New salespeople need to be trained carefully and their onboarding should have a clear structure, goals and a long-term plan. In the article, we summarize how new members of business teams are trained by professionals.
4 main areas of training
In order for your business and customer base to grow, your people must first grow. Regular training of salespeople in these 4 areas is important:
- Market and customers – explain to your marketers how big a market you are or what part of it you operate in. Enable them to understand why and to whom they are selling, what their customers need and what they can offer them.
- Product and competition – clarify why you are selling the product or service, what problems it solves for customers, but also how it works or what its value is. If the marketers do not know the product they are selling perfectly, they cannot present it well to the customers. At the same time, they should know who your competition is and how you differ from them.
- Sales – Teach your salespeople tactics and procedures on how to pitch and sell or how to behave in meetings. Focus on developing qualities such as empathy, the ability to listen or present well in front of clients.
- Technology and tools – so that salespeople can spend as much time as possible with customers, teach them how to work well with the tools that enable them to do so and make their work more efficient.
We described the individual areas of training in detail in the article on Sales Driver.
4 effective formats of education
There are different ways to educate marketers. Everyone is comfortable with something different and different formats are suitable for different areas. Moreover, in addition to passing on know-how, you also need to consolidate and train knowledge.
Therefore, try different formats and use them according to what you need:
- Presentations, lectures or seminars are great for an initial introduction to a certain area or topic.
- Peer-to-peer learning works great for salespeople to put the knowledge they've learned from the training into practice in the field. They first look at everything from an experienced partner and then try it themselves with his support.
- E-learning lends itself to regular repetition. It does not require the presence of a trainer and everyone can go through the training at their own pace, when it suits them and they have time for it.
- Webinars, blogs, podcasts and newsletters are a non-violent way to draw inspiration and learn new things. Share interesting articles and episodes among colleagues that could move them.
Read more in a separate article.
3 rules for effective salesperson training
So that the training is not boring and salespeople do not see it as wasted hours of time, stick to three rules: just enough information - just for me - at the right time.
I.e:
- do not try to get everything into the training at all costs, focus only on a certain area, or divide the issue into several shorter trainings,
- tailor the training to the needs of your salespeople – so that it is relevant to what they will use and makes sense to them,
- time the training so that salespeople can immediately use it in practice, i.e. if they are expected to call clients, for example, focus on cold calling training.
Salespeople Education Schedule for the First Year
While education is an important part of a salesperson's entire career, it is understandably given the most attention in the first year. You need to introduce newcomers to the product you offer and to the whole company and the processes set up, to pass on as much know-how as possible.
To get your merchants off to a good start and become successful as soon as possible, set up a working onboarding. You will have an overview of what the new colleague can already do and what is still waiting for him, you can easily evaluate how he is progressing. And when you recruit someone else to the team, you can easily repeat the whole process.
For greater clarity, create a schedule according to which the training will take place. It might look like this - adjust the individual phases according to how it works in your company:
- 1st day (week) – the newcomer gets to know the team, gets a partner, goes through the individual departments of the company and learns to use the tools he will need for work.
- 1st month – the salesperson gradually learns the individual processes, gets educated in the 4 areas we write about above, tries out all the learned things and you give each other feedback.
- 2nd month – the new colleague is already dealing with clients, so he learns new tricks, adds business know-how and practices various situations.
- 3rd month – there is a review of what the colleague can do, what he is less good at and what he needs to focus on in the following months. However, both parties know whether the newcomer has been successfully integrated into the team, whether he will remain in the company and continue to receive regular training.
Learn more about how to set up your first-year merchant training schedule in our Education Hub.
4 final tips
In order for your training to bear fruit, pay a lot of attention to it and try to make it as good as possible - in conclusion, we have 4 tips for you to succeed:
- Take advantage of available technologies, platforms and train online – give marketers the space to educate themselves when they have the time, inclination and energy to do so. They will do better.
- Focus on soft skills – to be successful, salespeople need to be able to listen, communicate or master time management. Everything can be taught or at least supported, so make it possible for them through training.
- Be hands-on – people learn more when they try something for themselves. Therefore, in the training of salespeople, include as many activities as possible, through which they will put knowledge into practice. Let them play salesman and customer, present a product or create a business case in the new CRM.
- Gamify – reward completed lessons, give points for each training session, let colleagues climb the ranks and compete with each other to learn more in a year. Encourage playfulness in them and you will see that the winged play school really works.
Training of salespeople from RAYNET
We regularly share business know-how and how to use RAYNET CRM on our website, YouTube or at trainings or webinars.
