How we made our sales training more effective by making it harder

Not too long ago, my company was the owner of ineffective sales training programs. We recruit, integrate and train representatives within a few weeks dedicated to tracking sales calls, reading call scripts, and learning to deal with objections. However, with the growth of the company, I discovered that individual sales methods were very different. Our representatives responded to the questions in an inconsistent manner, and the views were quite different. It has become increasingly clear that our random training model will lead to erratic recovery time, persistent problems in customer expectations, customer turnover, and turnover of employees.

Last year, however, we adopted the following four training methods, and since then, we have greatly improved our performance: Two months after the updated model based on my team practice, we increased our new sales by nearly 70%.

1. Include leaders in training sessions. Marketers need their leaders to model success for them. Research published in Frontiers in Psychology shows that when employees see their leaders as power and ability, they work more proactively.

Our team adopted a strict practice system. Each telecom salesperson started roles individually, using an artificial intelligence tool that simulated a potential client, and played the role in a face to face group on a weekly basis. The sales representatives began the newest and lowest performance in daily practice.

When we applied these practices, I jumped first into the warm seat. I acted like a seller while the sales training programs team threw the curves curve curve on my way for 45 minutes. If I’m not good at practice, salespeople are not good either. I keep jumping regularly to sales call practices to demonstrate this and communicate with the team.

2. Make practice more difficult than selling itself. Softball scenarios that make "probabilities" only a few easy questions are time consuming. Make this practice more difficult than a real sales call until salespeople prepare a conversation. Make actors train in front of their peers. Do not help them when they stumble; wait until they recover. Do not let them break their roles by giving them answers. Ask follow-up questions until you find the same solutions.

With this strategy, practice is essentially a type of exposure therapy. A study by New York University researchers gave participants small shocks as they were introduced to a blue square image to create an unconscious response to the image. After that, they removed fear by showing participants the image over and over, without causing any downloads.

Similarly, when salespeople engage in difficult sales calls without the pressure of a customer on line, they work to counteract automatic negative response to difficult questions. When this real sales call arrives, you will be ready to deal with it without panic.

3. March full sales cycle, not just the first call. All online sales training programs include the practice of initial sales calls, but the practice of following calls is less common. Spend some time reviewing the follow-up message, the second sales call and all subsequent calls. Great sales teams are excellent in all interactions, so practice clearly.

The principle in action is "over-clarification". Alaa Ahmed, associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, worked with a team to study how canceling the job would affect mission performance. By asking participants to use a mechanical arm frequently to move the cursor on the screen, they found that subjects made a simple effort to complete the task successfully during training. Even if it seems unnecessary to do daily tasks such as sending follow-up emails, consolidation makes the task faster and more successful with minimal effort.

Standardized practice during our sales team allowed our calls to become more consistent. Our representatives spent 60–65% spend their time talking to spend that part of time listening to expectations. This change in practice has helped to reduce customer turnover by 70% in just two months.

4. You have the best practice interpreters. Including even the best representatives in practice and in training efforts. While the calls of the most skilled salespeople are undoubtedly good, the real practice culture means that no one should be exempted.

Data Consensus: A study published in Quarterly Performance Improvement revealed that by controlling the sales and acquisition experience, a trained salesperson shows outstanding performance and represents 2.9% to 6.2% of the difference in performance among employees. We have also seen the impact of training in our work, as seen in our significantly improved sales rate.

The growth of a large company means just good sales calls and simple online sales training programs will not reduce that. Implement a comprehensive training program to help salespeople refine their skills to become clearer than ever before.

Hughes Global Education is the pioneer in providing the ‘Interactive Online Learning Platform’ for the working professionals to pursue an Online Executive Diploma/Certificate Programs.