subject: Sales Training Ideas For Your Company [print this page] As you know, sales training is a career-long process. There is always something to improve upon in any organization, no matter how strong the sales strategy. But how can you go about improving the training offered in your company?
1. Set up a mentoring program in your organization.
What is the most important element of your sales strategy? The people who implement it, i.e., your sales team. Make sure that your junior employees are given every chance to develop to their full potential: match them up with a senior staff member, ideally from your sales management team, who will meet with them on a regular basis once a week or twice a month to discuss issues that theyve encountered, problems that they may have had, etc.
A mentor from your sales management team can help a protg:
prioritize their accounts
hone their presentation skills
set sales objectives that are ambitious but realistic
identify decision-makers
measure their success and reevaluate
seek out additional sales training if necessary
2. Make a sales training library of books available to your salespeople.
Is there room in your employee lounge or lunchroom for a bookcase or two? Entrust a junior member of your sales team with the task of compiling a sales training library. Encourage them to solicit the opinions of the senior members of your sales management team. This will encourage good relationships within your organization, and help expose the more junior members of your team to good practices.
N.B. In this day and age, your sales strategy library doesnt have to take up any space in your office. You can make a regular practice of downloading the latest e-books to share with everyone on your team.
3. Declare theme weeks.
Is there an aspect of your sales strategy that is flagging? Host a series of brown-bag lunches on the topic. Send out an email discussion. Put up motivational posters in the office. Challenge each member of your sales management team to propose a solution to the problem.
4. Bring in outside help.
An organization can make a regular practice of calling in an outside consultant for sales training sessions to keep the sales team inspired and up to date on the latest practices.
5. Provide your trainers with training.
Your sales management team knows how to sell, but do they know how to teach? Make sure they do, by sending them for training in providing sales training.
These are just some of the many techniques at your disposal to improve the sales training in your organization. Experiment and dont forget to evaluate your results.
