Sales training is a game changer for so many companies these days. But this needs to be done properly. Otherwise, the company cannot get the desired numbers.

The three mistakes a company should avoid while designing a sales training program are not teaching about sales targeting, having the same program for different employees, and not including senior sales employees in such programs.

Then, what should the sales training include?

• Sales targeting:

Sales targeting included in sales training is teaching the sales personnel how to find the correct prospects and then convincing them to buy.

Therefore, Sales training is different from product training because every buyer has different needs. You can’t just make him buy the product by telling him about its extraordinary features or how it’s better than the competitors. A person might not need them or have the budget for them.

The employees not only need to be elucidated about product features but also have to know how to recognize the right leads(sales targeting).

They should not be wasting their time on someone with no requirements. Hence they should be given a detailed description of the buyer demographics in the sales training program. A proper process should also be included in such programs so that the trainees learn how to select the right prospects and how to solicit them. If the wrong prospect is selected, a salesperson can squander time.

Such prospects also have to be canvassed in the right ways; e.g. someone might need the product, but he has not been contacted at the right time, and a competitor scores with him. There’s also the problem of who makes the buying decision in a household or a company, whether the salesperson has approached that person.

• Experience based training:

Similarly, all the employees can’t be given the same training because some have different needs as per their jobs and previous experience. The needs of the salespeople should be evaluated before training programs are prepared for them. This will help the company determine what skills are essential rather than serve them with a general sales training course.

The sales training modules also have to be designed in short modules. The sales guys just can’t digest the information in one long session. Just like Rome was not built in a day, nobody can make someone learn a new skill in a day.

Indeed, salespeople don’t have much time on their hands, but they can be asked to attend micro-learning sessions twice a week.

It’s also crucial that the salespeople are given knowledge checks to continuously make them remember what they learned in their last sessions. For this, they can be sent quizzes, and once they fail those tests, they can be given videos to supplement their knowledge. This way, the company can ensure that the salespeople perform just at the time when they are required to.

• Knowledge of the senior sales persons:

The sales managers should also be made to participate in these sessions to provide effective mentoring to the trainees.

The new team members must know how the company’s sales veterans have attained their targets year after year. They must have some tricks up their sleeves.

A company has to include the sales managers in such training programs because they can solve the sales trainees’ problems when they cannot understand the process. They also act as relevant subject matter experts for the program. The course content of the sales training programs must meet their approval before it is scheduled for elearning so that the program has the desired effect.

Finally, designing a program as per the current market scenario

The company also has to evaluate their expectations from a program. If the company has not based its ambition on reality, then the sales training program is definitely going to backfire, which no company wants.

The company won’t invest its money in a sales training program knowing that its employees can’t meet unrealistic targets; hence, research about the market conditions is necessary before launching the sales training program.

Last, but not the least, selecting the right candidates for such programs

It’s also important that the company chooses the right candidates for the sales training program. During the hiring process only, if it does not find any candidate suitable for a sales process, it must refrain from selecting him. Also, if some of the employees can only count in average numbers, it’s better not to include them in any training program. A sales manager knows which employees can be groomed to get better numbers and who can’t. That’s why it’s important to judiciously select the trainees of such programs.