Are you giving your team the best sales training possible? Unlock their potential for selling with these straightforward strategies.
You run a small team of sales professionals in your company. They’re young, eager, and working towards one singular goal: landing clients and closing deals. But it takes more than ambition and hard work to influence sales growth.
What’s the secret? Investing.
You have to invest in your team. Invest in growth. That means providing the best sales training you can muster. If you give them the right tools, education, and skill-building strategies, you will see a noticeable difference in performance.
Streamline the sales process by integrating CRM technology
Technology plays a huge role in sales these days – and we’re not talking about Excel spreadsheets or emailing. CRM software makes prospecting, onboarding, and retention a lot easier.
However, there are many different CRM companies out there. Which one will work for you? We know quite a bit about what makes CRM software perfect for users, so let us share a few tips for picking the right one.
Here are the main features you need to look for:
- Mobile and cloud-based integration: Sales professionals need to have access to their CRM from anywhere, at any time, to follow-up and close opportunities on-the-go.
- Automated follow-ups and processes: One of the main benefits of using a CRM is to automate your sales funnel. That includes instant responses, emails, and tracking deals.
- Sales management and oversight: Give yourself the ability to track your team’s progress with deals and make sure no prospect falls between the cracks.
Create value for your clients: know your audience inside and out!
Training often focuses on bottom line sales development: learning the product or service, building confidence, and maintaining organization.
But there is a need for every salesperson to research their prospect’s industry, pain points, and needs.
John Barrows, one of the leading corporate sales trainers in the U.S., wrote about the need for sales professionals to build stronger business acumen. You may train your team on product knowledge, but how will they relate that product to their prospect’s needs? Where is the context?
Give your salespeople the power to close more deals. Schedule a free demo of our lead management software today and see how Blitz Lead Manager brings in more business!
The solution: train your teams to understand target audiences. Focus on building value with your clientele. Train your team to think like expert marketers. If they understand the market, they will see why your services or products are valuable to the market. Hint: valuable benefits sell!
Train your team throughout the year
A study conducted by CSO Insights and sponsored by Sales Performance International shows that “sales events” are typically not worth their expense. Why?
- Too much information overloads sales teams too soon.
- On average, participants forget half the content of a training event after 5.1 weeks.
- The training approach is fragmented and fails to address specific types of learning.
In other words, putting up a lot of money for a five-day event doesn’t result in better performance. Instead, focus on training your team with “micro” workshops throughout the year. Don’t overload your sales teams with information—balance out your best sales training tips throughout the year.
Diversify your services with add-ons, upsells, and cross-sells
Trying to sell one product to everyone is like forcing a square peg into numerous round, triangular, and octagon-shaped holes. Every prospect is unique—they have specific needs, wants, desires, problems and pain points. Yes, some are similar, but no one is the same.
All of these differences may sound daunting to the average salesperson, but the opposite is true (if you’re prepared with several solutions). With a diverse set of offerings, your sales team can upsell, cross-sell, or add on services. Why is that flexibility important?
- More opportunities to add value to your services, brand, and products
- Better customer service through intelligent and beneficial solutions
- Increased channels for revenue and profit
- Several options for combating sales objections and unique issues
Allow your sales team to focus on one thing: selling!
Sales teams should have a singular goal of prospecting and closing deals for your company. The less they have to manage administrative tasks, marketing forecasts, and client information, the better.
In an interview with Elise Gilbert in 2015, she explained how her sales support services team “creates capacity for sales” within Iron Mountain Inc. She works to lessen the administrative burden that kept the company’s sales teams from doing their jobs. Creating this team has significantly helped to attract top sales talent.
Explaining the benefits of a sales support team, Gilbert says, “When a sales professional is evaluating companies to work for, we can now, in a sense, say ‘Hey, we’re better than any other company in the sales opportunities we offer. Look at the level of sales support you have at your disposal.’ Sales professionals don’t want to do administrative tasks or have the responsibilities of a proposal specialists. They want to sell. Iron Mountain enables our salesforce to do just that.”
Make it easier for your team to sell. Give the support they need to do the job. The best sales training focuses on the core aspects of the position: prospecting, onboarding, closing deals, and customer retention.
Give your salespeople the power to close more deals. Schedule a free demo of our lead management software today and see how Blitz Lead Manager brings in more business!
What’s the best sales training tip you have to offer? Share your experience in the comments!