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What Is A Good Sales Training Program?

A common thought about a good sales training program is that it can help you get up to date on trends, stay competitive, empower your team, and ultimately win more business. However, finding the right sales training program can be difficult. Here is what to look for when seeking the right sales training program for your team.

What is Sales Training Used For?

The quality of sales training is essential. According to SaaS Worthy, "An unfortunately high 26% of sales professionals claim that their sales training is ineffective." Sales training quality depends on several things. Often, the training covers one of two areas:

Overall Sales Training

If your team doesn't have a sales process or is following individual procedures, then an overall sales training program is where you should start. Doing a comprehensive program allows your team to have a common language, methodology, and way of thinking.

Targeted Sales Training

Your sales training should be more targeted if your team already has a sales process or approach. This type of sales training should look at your sales process as a whole and identify your team's strengths and where they could use some more help.

What Part of the Sales Process Should You Focus On?

A sales training program is a great way to improve the skills of your sales team. A good sales training program can help your salespeople close more deals and achieve their quotas by providing the tools they need to succeed. However, not all sales training programs are created equal.

To be effective, a sales training program should be tailored to the specific needs of your sales team. Ask yourself, "What does my team need?" By looking at your team's data, you can determine where their strengths and weaknesses are.

These could include prospecting, doing discovery, researching, doing demos, presenting, selling to large accounts, negotiating, managing time, managing territories, etc. You can get training on many skills, but you must pick one that your team needs to strengthen. This will allow you to create or choose a sales training program customized to their needs and help them reach their full potential.

With a good sales training program, your sales team can close more sales and reach their quotas.

Why are Sales Leaders Looking for Sales Training?

There are many reasons sales leaders look for sales training. For example, the sales team may struggle to close deals or not hit their numbers. They might not get enough opportunities, and/or the right salespeople might be in the wrong sales seats.


Typically, there isn't just one weak area within your sales organization. Looking at our Sales Operating System™, you'll see 7 factors. Within those are 24 subfactors. Consider, for example, that you want your sales team to do better forecasting. Well, Forecasting is just one little slice of the Process Factor. And Process is just one of seven larger Factors of your Sales Operating System™.

Sales training should ultimately equip salespeople to sell more effectively and hit their sales goals.

In addition, sales training can help sales leaders identify individuals with high potential and develop them into top performers. By providing sales training, sales leaders can invest in the future of their team and company.

How Often Should You Do Sales Training?

As many sales leaders know, sales training is essential to success. It can be challenging to make time for sales training, so having a regular cadence and keeping the time on everyone’s calendar is helpful. Many companies choose to conduct sales training at least annually or quarterly. This allows salespeople to continue developing their selling skills and the sales leader to reinforce best practices.

It is also essential to conduct sales training whenever a new product or service is introduced. This ensures that salespeople can maximally sell the new product or service. Many new product or service training focus on the features and benefits but miss training on the sales process and how the sales team will sell them. Ultimately, by incorporating sales training regularly, companies can ensure that their salespeople are continuously operating at peak performance.

Ways to Make Your Sales Training More Effective

Sales training is crucial; it can make a real difference for your team. The only problem? The Training Industry found that "84% of what was initially learned is lost within 90 days without systematic, ongoing learning and reinforcement." So how do you make sales training more engaging? More importantly, how do you create an activity that gets salespeople excited?

Here are a few things you can do to engage your team in sales training:

  • Focus on one skill: You can't learn everything about sales in just a few hours of training.
  • Set expectations for the sales training program: To ensure your team gets the most out of their sales training, you should set an expectation for the outcome.
  • Position yourself as the expert: Your team should see you as a resource on all things sales.
  • Drop the classroom style: Ensure the training has plenty of group activities to try out the concepts they are learning and practice in a safe environment.
  • Reinforce the concepts: You need to hold your team accountable for what they learned and help them apply their new skill.

The right sales training program can produce strong salespeople who will continue delivering lasting value for your business and growing your customer base.

In The End

A good sales training program will help your team improve their skills and knowledge to sell your product or service. It can also be used as a tool to enhance the overall sales process. When looking for a good sales training program, you must consider what part of the sales process you want to focus on and how often you should do the training. Then, find the right approach for your team to make your sales training more effective.

If you need help finding a good sales training program, our team at Pivotal Advisors is here to assist you. We offer customized sales training tailored specifically for your needs and goals. So reach out today and let us help you take your business to the next level!

About Gary Braun

Gary is a founder and co-owner of Pivotal Advisors. He has worked for 20+ years as a salesperson and sales leader. Gary has been a guest speaker for many groups such as Vistage, Allied Executives, CEO Roundtable, Sales Management Association, and more. If you want to find out more about Gary check out his profile here.

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