Invalid Date
All companies want to have vital sales training programs. As you’d probably expect, organizations with better methodology in sales and training achieve more in terms of quota than those who don’t.
However, In 2018, CSO found out that an astonishing 43.6% of organizations still don’t have a formal sales methodology in place, and only 18,7% considered themselves to be at the “best practice” level of sales methodology maturity. It’s high time companies implemented sales training that will increase revenue in a matter of several short months.
We strongly recommend starting this topic with our first two articles summing up what the subjects of your sales training should be and in what forms you can deliver them. This article focuses on creating a system of it all, starting with proper months-long onboarding and concluding with regular sales and other training cycles.
The preboarding process begins after you shake hands or sign a contract with the sales newbie. This period before they start working can easily take up to several months. You can let the soon-to-be colleagues do some homework and self-study to boost them up for their first days. That’s when their training starts.
Onboarding, known and taken care of usually better than preboarding, is the process of integrating a new employee into your sales team and company.
Sales preboarding and onboarding require a lot of planning, especially if you plan to include your sales team with their “I am so busy” schedules. Yes, you don’t have to do the entire onboarding training by yourself. Have your whole team deliver the individual sales training.
Give the newbie access to all materials so they can always get back to it. For all activities, set clear expectations so that they can be later measured and evaluated.
🛒 MARKET
Who buys from you and why
Size of your market, where your opportunities are, and who your customers are Each sales representative needs to understand the customers’ world to be able to find the right fit in your solution.
👍 SOLUTION
What pain does the solution solve, and how
They’ll benefit greatly from having answers to technical questions, and being able to differentiate from the competition.
Not knowing these two, in the potential customer’s eyes, the sales representatives will look highly unprofessional and lose their relevance.
💼 SALES
Give them the means to hit the quota
Most salespeople educated themselves, meaning they received no formal education. They don’t follow any sales methodology in qualification.
It’s necessary to give them your know-how, approach to market, and terminology.
🖥️ TECH & SYSTEMS
To be effective at the job
Quite often, the tech stack means having just a CRM in a company. But there are many other tools that can help the sales representatives monitor customers and competition, automate Linkedin, etc.
Being effective with tools means more time for clients.
Btw, being effective in CRM is also a big topic.
You should touch all these core sales competencies in the first 3 months (or, let’s say, during your onboarding, should it be shorter or longer).
Divide the onboarding process into milestones: 1st Day, 1st month, 2nd month, and 3rd month in terms of what should be accomplished.
While more experienced Account Executives will probably have some foundation in sales, the juniors may need more training.
Anyway, don’t take any representative’s words for their know-how and make them go through each training to see how advanced in sales they actually are.
We introduce the new sales representative to their buddy, the leader, and other team members they need to know as they’ll be training them later. Then we jump straight into the onboarding/sales training plan - getting to know the company, its vision, self-study and presentation preparation, tools introduction, etc.:
☀️Morning
9:00 - 9:45
Team meet, Orientation, Coffee/Tea & Light Breakfast
9:45 - 10:30 Led by Jakub & Michal
SALESDOCk @ Banana.bi - Story & Vision & Team
10:45 - 11:45 Led by Buddy Martin
Team meet, Orientation, Coffee/Tea & Light Breakfast
11:45 - 12:30 Team
Team Lunch & Table foosball/chill
⛅️ Afternoon
12:30 - 13:00 Team
Our Industry executive summary - presentation
13:00 - 14:00 Led by Jana
Tools: Intro, Login & Setup
The Office & Equipment; Email; Google Drive; Documents; Asana; Slack; Chrome; LinkedIn
14:00 - 14:30 Led by Buddy Martin
Our Organization
Week by Week; Roles; Metrics; Career plan
14:30 - 16:00 Led by Antonín
Our magic CRM intro
16:00 Team
Team Happy Hour
By the end of the day, the sales representative should know what we do, why we do it and for whom, and have a rough overview of the tools we use.
In the first month, the newbies learn high-level information about the company, product, and services. They should already have fundamental knowledge in the 4 core areas.
Don’t make the first month just theory; let them apply all they learned doing real work as soon as possible.
They’re the core of every business developer. These are immediately followed by the mockups and practical parts; creating templates and emailing clients, making a call script and calling clients, building a network, and posting the first post on LinkedIn.
THURSDAY
Your first day!
FRIDAY
8:00 – 8:30
Team
Morning Stand Up
8:30 – 11:30
Jakub
Industry Training & Customer Inteview
11:30 – 12:00
Team
Lunch & chill
12:30 – 15:30 Jakub
Industry Training & Customer Inteview, Competitive Landscape
15:30 – 16:30
Jana
Recap, Tools & Admin
16:30 – 17:00
Buddy Martin
Sales Team Stand Up
MONDAY
8:00 – 8:30
Team
Morning Stand Up
8:30 – 12:00
Martin B.
Cold Call training & Call Scripts
12:00 – 13:00
Team
Lunch & chill
13:00 – 15:00
Martin M.
Mockups and Objections
15:00 – 16:30
Martin M.
20 Customer Calls
16:30 – 17:00 Jakub
Sales Team Stand Up
TUESDAY
8:00 – 8:30
Team
Morning Stand Up
8:30 – 12:00
Martin M.
Mockups and Objections, 20 Customer Calls
12:00 – 13:00
Team
Lunch & chill
13:00 – 16:30
Matúš
Cold e-maily Training
16:30 – 17:00 Jakub
Sales Team Stand Up
WEDNESDAY
8:00 – 8:30
Team
Morning Stand Up
8:30 – 12:00
Martin B.
LinkedIn Setup & training
12:00 – 13:00
Team
Lunch & chill
13:00 – 14:30
Martin M.
Mockups and Objections
15:00 – 16:30
Martin M.
20 Customer Calls
16:00 – 16:30 Jakub
Inbox & Asana Zero & Team Stand Up
In the following weeks, we need to stay flexible - if we see that a person is struggling with a specific area, we add extra training sessions or roleplays.
The onboarding process doesn’t take up as much time as in the first month. As the developer’s sales deals progress, the training progresses, too.
In the second month, they will most likely talk to many people about the solution, so we need to train them on:
By week 6, there’s a lot of new information for the sales representative to absorb, so we slow down and deliver further training bi-weekly. We focus more on practicing and role-playing.
By the time of finishing the 3rd month, the sales representatives should be able to their job in the whole specter.
The last month of onboarding is an excellent opportunity to reflect on what went well and what didn’t and add any pieces of training they should need to repeat.
This is also the time for you to decide whether to keep this person on board - are they on their way to fulfill your and their goals? Are they coachable?
If you stay aimlessly wondering whether this person is the right fit for your sales team, the answer is most probably no. If they can’t absorb crucial information, it’s better to let them go.
To keep things simple, we add just two complex training to the onboarding process:
Rapport building training - The beginning of any meeting needs to have a smooth and natural opening. We strive not to talk about the weather, so we show our sales representatives where and how they can get interesting information to talk about before they jump to business. By doing rapport, they can then easily read and match the other side’s energy.
💡 TIP
Set regular 1:1 meetings for you (the leader) and each sales representative. It’s not just the onboarding thing, where it gives you the space to check up on the newbies’ progress and coach, but they’re to be kept in your calendar infinitely; even experienced salespeople need to pick up your brain.
Make sure you have an ongoing training system to make sure you’re moving your sales representatives forward. Internal career advancement is a great motivator when it comes to training.
Let’s say that, to move from business developer to account executive, there are specific milestones to hit (like flawless sales or training delivery, hitting quota a few quarters in a row, etc.) This will prepare them for the new step.
You should give the sales team all possible means to help them progress - education budgets, additional training, opportunities to practice, tools, etc.
🎓 On top of individual focus, create training cycles for everyone in the company. They can be on any topic coming in handy to everyone, like training on:
Schedule one topic every 3 to 6 months, and have the trainer deliver it in chunks so that each of these time frames goes on in the spirit of a particular topic. Some topics may be too new or too complex for your organization to deliver, so invite external coaches.
In our case, the sales team can deliver all the training in onboarding and most training cycles. However, external coaches bring fresh energy, experience, perspective and free you from the training preparations and delivery. Though inviting external coaches in-house can cost a pretty penny, do the math and see whether you (or anyone else who could be delivering the training instead) could invest your energy more wisely.
If your sales team members excel in specific topics, make them their ambassadors. Over time, they become specialists on the subject and follow trends around it. Ensure they’re the ones delivering this know-how to newbies and also the team. Peer-to-peer sales coaching is very effective as the trainees benefit from seeing how more experienced sales team members authentically do things.
Wrap up
Sales training is obviously a lot of work, especially if you’re designing them for individuals’ needs. But remember to get help from your top performers so that the weight doesn’t entirely fall on your shoulders.
Still, make sure you (or a designated sales buddy) coach the newbies to speed up their learning curve. By having the team deliver various types of training, you support the coaching culture in the company overall.
If you’re serious about setting a training system in your company to improve your sales, don’t let the complexity discourage you. Once set, the training will be repeated afterward, and thus, it will get easier to deliver.