Sales Progress Blog

After a long weekend, most people find it a struggle to get back into the work grind. The same can be said about training. Weeks after a seminar or workshop, employees find it difficult to change their day-to-day work. So, managers need to put training reinforcement and coaching into place.  The two methods are different, but both employ the same types of techniques.

Training reinforcement involves practice. Managers can use techniques such as group, one-on-one, peer-to-peer and self-directed practice. During each session, sales reps should be asked to demonstrate something that they have learned. They can involve themselves in role-playing and “teach-the-teacher”, which asks the rep to show how to use a product or demonstrate how they would leave a voicemail. The most important part of training reinforcement is the continuation of learning.  Employees need to be improving their skills, and this can only be done with reinforcement.

Coaching, on the other hand, focuses more on measuring improvement. When managers meet one-on-one with their employees they should be marking down where they see improvements and where they see a need for change. They can use the teach-the-teacher method to see how well employees comprehend what they are learning. They can also use the self-directed learning technique. Each week managers can ask their employees to write down three ways that they used seminar training throughout their workday; then, they will see that their sales rep is actually improving.

Training reinforcement and coaching are two techniques that managers can use to help their sales reps enhance their performance.

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When it comes to sales, the person with the best pitch, the most product knowledge and the highest level of confidence will usually be the one that makes the close. Becoming a great salesperson takes time, and it requires constant learning and practicing. Salespeople need to pick up different tips, tools and techniques that they can apply to their day-to-day work, and these can often be found in a sales seminar. Furthermore in order to retain that knowledge and garner confidence, managers need to set up a training reinforcement program that allows inside sales teams to practice their skills and increase their confidence. Typically, the first part is accomplished by sending a team to a one-day event, but that no longer needs to be the case. There is a new tool that is rapidly taking over the training world, and it is important to catch on.

Webinars are a great tool for training reinforcement. While most people typically use them for their initial sales training, the technology can be used to keep learning sustainable through practice and coaching.

Use the tips in our newest whitepaper to find out how to apply webinars to your traditional sales training. Click here to download your free whitepaper.

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“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction”
-John Kotter

In business, it is important to have a strategy that will take your business to the top, and managers need to be the ones stepping and taking charge. Training reinforcement needs to be part of that sales strategy. In order for any inside sales team to be successful, they have to possess knowledge of the product, the skill set to sell it, and the right behavior and confidence. All of these things can be tailored and cultivated by any sales manager.

There are seven steps that managers can take with sales training if they want to see their sales progress.

1.    Include the three main tiers into any sales training.
Those three tiers include: knowledge, skill and behavior. If any sales person is going to go from average to great, then they need to have the confidence that they can successfully perform in each area. Managers may have to tailor sales training around one specific area or around all three, but before they start coaching, they need to define which area a specific employee is having trouble in.

2.    Make sure sessions are short and engaging
Most people have short attention spans, and you do not want to spend money on something that an employee is not going to be able to sit through. So, make sure that seminars are short, two to three hours at maximum. Encourage reps to participate during events. If they are engaged and attentive, they are going to learn more and apply more.

3.    Set up dedicated practice times
Dedicated practice sessions refer to time put aside at the workplace for employees and managers to review what they have learned after training seminars. They engage employees in activities that will help reinforce key points of a seminar, and they simulate and practice for real world application. The sessions should last about 30-40 minutes, and throughout the dedicated practice sessions, sales reps should be assessing themselves and their performance.

To read the rest of the seven steps to sales training, download our FREE whitepaper , and pick up some tips and techniques for successful sales training.

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When it comes to sales training, it’s convenient to take the easy way out, but that typically does not solve the problem. Instead, it wastes the company’s time and money. Training seminars, workshops and e-learning sessions are a great way to kick off sales learning. However, it takes more than just a one-day event to get employees on track and motivated. We have said it many times before (just to reinforce your learning), people forget half of what they learned in a training seminar in just a month, and that’s a fact.

So, what can businesses do to make sure that their money does not go to waste and their employee’s performance enhances? To create a sustainable learning environment, managers need to step up and help reinforce training. Hold group meetings so that everyone can share what they learned that week or what they did to improve their sales. Another technique that works is one-on-one coaching. By sitting down with an employee, a manager can see exactly what they issues are, coach them through their problems and keep track of any problems or setbacks the employee has. Not only this, but a one-on-one meeting also allows for instant feedback so that the sales rep is not continuing their bad habit over weeks or months.

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Download our FREE whitepaper to learn more tips and techniques.

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22% vs 88%

That’s the difference coaching and training reinforcement can make on a companies ROI when it comes to sales training.

It goes without saying that practice and reinforcement are the keys to any success. You can’t just practice your baseball swing for one day and think you’re going to win the home run derby. The same theory applies to sales. You can’t expect to be a great salesperson if you don’t keeping practicing and improving your skills. Practicing once will not make you salesperson of the year.

Training reinforcement is the key to success. Seminars help employees learn new selling techniques and new ways to stay in front of customers, but a study conducted by Sales Performance International found that participants in sales training forget half of what is taught within 5 weeks. Managers need to take it upon themselves to implement regular training sessions so that employees can keep up what they learned.

Here are some things managers can do to make sure that their inside sales reps have sustainable sales training:

Read on…

Click here for a FREE whitepaper.

Sign up for our FREE training reinforcement webinar.

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When managers send employees to training seminars, how do they know what their employees are really getting out of it? And how do they know if they are learning the right material? Most workshops should be designed to help your employees develop in four different areas: skill sets, behavior, knowledge and creativity.

The Four Tiers of Learning :

Skill Sets - to be able to perform or do something specifically.
Sales training sessions should be able to help employees improve in certain activities, such as cold calling or prospecting. If you notice that your sales representatives are struggling in specific work aspects then send them to a tailored sales training event.

Behavior - to execute without fear or anxiety and consistently without thinking.
While employees may have the skill set to cold call, they may lack the confidence, and that can seriously deteriorate sales. So, it is important that sales training seminars help workers overcome some fear of sales that they may have.

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With millions of companies out there, how do you make yours stand out? You need to have a competitive edge. Sure, you can have flashy promotions and expensive advertisements to draw customers, but it is going to be your employees that make or break a sale.

Sales without Customer
Service is like stuffing money
into a pocket full of holes.
-DAVID TOOMAN

Managers need to make sure that sales reps have extensive knowledge of product, but not only that, they need to be personable, friendly and there for their customer’s needs. Higher-level management should provide sales teams with constant coaching so that they can land more clients. When it comes to sales training, there are four steps that managers need to take in order to be successful:

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Click to receive a FREE whitepaper or powerpoint

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The old method of using cold calling to prospect is well on its way out, and you don’t want to be left behind. While your inside sales team had to have excellent communication skills to engage with someone over the phone, they need to be even more refined online. They need to be able to connect with friends and clients and post blogs and whitepapers to get their company in front of potential clients. Managers need to become business coaches and teach their inside sales teams to harness the new social media tools for their own benefit.

Most of us know the outstanding stats when it comes to how many people are actually involved in sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but did you know that 41% of all businesses receive leads from social media? This is huge for most sales teams. However, not everyone knows how to take social media and turn it into profits. Managers need to step in and tailor sales training to the new tool. Social media is a great tool for sales people.  It can help easily gather information, increase lead generation, allow for warmer introduction calls and much more. The trick to successful use of social media in selling is to remember that despite the new channels of communication, you are still selling. You still have to get the right message to the right decision maker at the right time.

There are three main social media sites that can be used to increase sales and create more leads:

Click here to read more.

Click here for a free powerpoint and whitepaper.

admin Sales Training business coaching, cold calling, communication skills, effective coaching, Facebook, inside sales team, lead generation, linkedin, management leadership training, prospecting, Sales Managers, social media, social networking, training reinforcement, Twitter

Throughout most of our blogs, we have discussed the importance of learning reinforcement. It important to know as much information about your product as you can, and it is equally as important to learn new techniques that are arising in the sales world. We have always stressed that you should constantly be learning, and it has become apparent that this old adage is necessary as more and more younger generations come into the workplace.

We all know by now that there are four generations working side by side in most businesses, but what does that mean from a learning standpoint?

Generational Learning Requirements

As a society, we have slowly progressed into an era where technology is starting to become the forefront of most industries, and as this transition is happening, generation X and generation Y are being taught how to successfully harness the tool. Veterans and baby boomers should be given online training because technology is second nature to the younger generations, as professional speaker Garrison Wynn puts it,

Read more and win Summerfest tickets…

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