The retail industry has been the major force in the economy for a long time now. There are however many challenges in sales. Therefore, companies must make sure that the end customers are able to buy their products. No business can survive without e-commerce now because customers don’t have time to travel and visit the stores. 

Coming up of online shopping:

The change in sales training Is also needed because of the advent of online shopping. Customers now no longer throng the stores, but instead visit the websites. Therefore, retailers also need to see that their products are sold online efficiently, timely delivery, etc. eLearning is the best way to teach employees about how to sell products successfully online.

With gamification included in sales training, it’s easier to complete it.

Hence this way companies have lower dropout rates for their sales training courses. 

Why is sales training needed?

• More technology savvy customer:

Technology has changed everything for customers who are more equipped with information than ever before. Therefore, companies need to pay attention to salespeople, who must have an LMS for accessible knowledge. Every day, a common person consumes a lot of information regarding products due to the internet.

Hence the salesperson can’t afford to stay behind and hence become the master of all the knowledge about the product. These days, nobody buys a product before getting all the information and reviews about it and the salesperson can no longer lie about the quality. 

• Standardized training:

The sales training must not be delayed. It must be given to everyone who joins the team. Here elearning in the form of sales training is of major use because it helps train a single person and not waste the time of all other members. And the best part is that the training is standardized. With sales training, members can be guided for all the information required.

• Fulfillment of targets:

Sales people become more confident in people who make purchasing decisions and are able to fulfill their targets. Talking to such leads is tough because they don’t have all the information about the product. But with proper training, sales people don’t fumble while talking to such customers.

For example, with B2B sales training, a seller becomes confident enough to talk to the CEO of the company. The salespeople also develop the patience to listen to the woes of the lead and then resolve them. 

How gamification helps:

• Need for practical experience:

The sales team must have practical experience in selling products. This can only help them in dealing with real customers. The customers can be unpredictable and no amount of theoretical knowledge can prepare sales person for that. Therefore, there should be animated videos for sales training. The sales team must be trained on how to answer the questions that the buyers might ask. Hence, they should be given clickable choices, so that they click on one choice and understand the situation.

The sales team must also be trained for situations when the customers compare their products to those of competitors. When gamification is included in sales training, it boosts the morale of the employees. It’s because they are encouraged to get their names on the leaderboards. Apart from them, the games ensure that employees have more retention power. 

They can easily handle perplexed customers on a call because they have done the same during a simulation in sales training. They don’t forget any feature and apart from that if a seller has a wrong habit, he refrains from following it during the real call. It is because, during the simulation, he is also taught how to talk to the customer like addressing the customers.

If he makes any mistake, he is given fewer points in the game which makes him remember this forever. Hence the sales rep is quite confident and there is no hanging up on calls either to get some information or forgetting to ask whether any more services are required. They also remember to guide someone to fix any error in the product and every other procedure like filing a technical complaint. 

• Salesperson attains perfection:

The seller is also able to handle training due to the presence of games otherwise they find it quite boring and a waste of time. When the salespeople have leaderboards available to them, they get a dopamine rush when their scores increase. They feel appreciation and hence get the zest to be a part of a role-playing session to score more points. It all depends on the sales training vendor on how he includes the games and simulations in the sales training to give a fun experience to the learners.

Perfection is only attained with continuous practice. Hence, in the same way, gamified sales training developed through AI can ensure that the salespeople become perfect at what they do. 

• Tracking performance:

But sales training is not enough unless and until it is tracked. How much time is spent by employees in gaming, all this is important for the L&D department of the company. Hence, they must be able to track the analytics through an LMS. The biggest problem before companies is that sales people leave the course in between due to unnecessary content. The sales training must have clear goals before it is developed and then it must be tracked for its effectiveness. 

Agility is now the most important thing for companies. It’s because there is so much competition in the world now. Apart from that with the recession going on, customers have become quite choosy. Hence you can’t miss out on the limited sales opportunities that you have due to lack of agility. For example, if someone makes an online inquiry about the product, it’s your job to answer it on time. Therefore, sales training has acquired very much importance now.