Sales Training + Development

sales training adoption

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How to Make Sales Training Stick: Lessons From Enablement Leaders

We recently gathered a small group of senior enablement and revenue leaders for a private roundtable with one rule: no pitch, no slide marathon, just an honest conversation about what happens after training is delivered.

The group spanned cybersecurity, enterprise SaaS, e-commerce, cloud, and manufacturing software. Some lead enablement for teams of 50, others support thousands of sellers worldwide, and a few are departments of one.

Here’s what struck me most: the challenges were nearly identical across all of them.

Before the session, we surveyed the group. Half named adoption, the first gate any training has to clear, as their single biggest challenge after rollout. When we asked how confident they are that training is creating lasting behavior change, the average answer was 2.4 out of 5. Not one person chose “very confident.”

sales training adoption

That set the agenda. Here’s what we learned from each other.

Great sellers don’t automatically make great trainers

One of the first discussions tackled was who actually delivers training. In our broader research this year, only 4% of reps rated their company’s training best-in-class, and the group had a theory about why.

A director of worldwide enablement at a global software company put it plainly: leaders assume expert doers are the best trainers, and they usually aren’t. Being great at selling doesn’t mean you can translate it. In fact, for top sellers it’s often an art rather than a science, which makes it even harder to teach.

The group’s consensus was that you almost always have to teach facilitation. Grab your subject matter experts for their knowledge, then invest in making them facilitators, or pair them with one. One leader shared a model that worked: enablement built the content and the pre-work, coached the managers on what a good session looks like, and let managers deliver with strong support. The key word is support. Handing a manager a deck and saying “have a good one” is how training dies.

READ: Why Your Sales Training Isn’t Driving Revenue (and How to Fix It)

Reinforcement turns adoption into habit

Adoption ensures skills get used. Reinforcement keeps them used. When we asked what’s actually working on both fronts after rollout, three practices stood out.

First, required AI role plays. A VP of global enablement shared that every training at her company now includes AI-powered practice, and reps submit their best attempt to their manager. Here’s the part I loved: reps voluntarily run the role play five or six times before submitting. Practice happens because it’s private, safe, and required. She was clear on that last point, and our own AI partner confirms it: role play tools are consistently the least-used feature unless you make them mandatory.

Second, leaders with a speaking part. A sales effectiveness director shared that she assigns her senior leaders specific slides during workshops. Not to facilitate, but to reinforce. When a leader personally delivers the two or three points that matter most, the team hears “this is real” instead of “this is corporate.”

Third, best practices sourced from the floor. One revenue enablement director built his entire program from what his own top performers were already doing, then aligned it to the stages in Salesforce. His argument: for adoption purposes, sellers have to believe the playbook came from them.

One participant summed up the whole discussion in six words: people don’t do what isn’t inspected. Another added the corollary: salespeople do what’s rewarded. If your comp plan fights your training, the comp plan wins every time.

The manager problem (yes, again)

Every conversation about adoption and reinforcement eventually lands on managers, and this one was no exception. What managers say drives adoption up front, and what managers coach determines whether the change sticks.

Here’s the data that framed it. A well-known training industry study found that the biggest predictor of training success isn’t the content or the facilitator. It’s what the manager says before the training. The second biggest? What the manager says after. Yet in our pre-session survey, only 25% of this group said sales managers get ongoing development at their company.

The group named the root causes fast. The player-coach problem came up first: managers get pulled into deals, and coaching is never the thing on fire. Deal reviews and forecast calls have standing meetings, but skill coaching doesn’t. As one leader put it, an undefined 1:1 defaults to pipeline review.

What’s working: coaching toolkits that make the job fast and easy (cheat sheets, feedback forms, exact questions aligned to what was just trained), e-learning that teaches managers how to give actionable feedback instead of “good job,” and calibration sessions where managers score the same call together so “good” means the same thing across the team.

A few teams are going further with AI, using it to track how often managers coach, how long, and how well, then serving up prep and insights so a busy manager can walk into a coaching conversation ready. The best framing I heard: make the insights self-serving for the rep and time-saving for the manager, not a big-brother report card.

READ: Why You Need Training for Sales Managers 

AI is a supplement, not a substitute

Speaking of AI, the group was enthusiastic and clear-eyed at the same time.

The enthusiasm: AI role plays, coaching dashboards, call analysis, and just-in-time job aids are saving real time and surfacing real insights.

The caution came from one of the sharpest comments of the hour. AI only captures what already happened, one enablement director warned. If we put all our eggs in the AI basket, we risk building an echo chamber that reinforces yesterday’s behavior instead of developing tomorrow’s skills. Judgment, consultation, listening, and strategic thinking still have to be trained.

My take: AI can’t replace training, but it’s a powerful layer for reinforcement, guardrails, and analysis. An AI prompt suggesting discovery questions is just an interactive script if the rep was never taught to have the conversation.

Training that never stops requires ownership

We closed on the idea we call Everboarding: development that lives in every stage of the employee lifecycle instead of dying after an event.

Almost nobody in the room had seen it done, and the few who had all pointed to the same ingredients. It was part of the culture from day one. Leadership believed in development and funded it year-round, not with leftover budget. Enablement, operations, and sales leadership shared a brain on goals and metrics.

The group also pressure-tested what a lasting training system would need: a real competency model underneath (if the foundation is weak, modular content is just modular weakness), an internal champion to keep it alive, and integration across the whole organization so skills show up in coaching forms, career paths, and onboarding rather than living in a binder.

That’s the future we’re building toward, and this group sharpened our thinking more in one hour than most quarters do.

DOWNLOAD: Sales Enablement Playbook

What’s next

We’re making this roundtable quarterly, and attendees are voting on the next topic now. If you lead enablement or revenue and want a seat at the next one, fill out the form below and we’ll let you know when we schedule our next roundtable.  

Training only counts when it changes behavior. Thanks to this group for an hour of honest conversation about how to make that happen.

Want to join our next Revenue Enablement Roundtable?


Blog Images - Factor 8 (4)

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Why Your Sales Training Isn’t Driving Revenue (and How to Fix It)

Organizations spend millions of dollars each year on sales training. They bring in experts, launch new programs, and ask managers and sellers to carve time out of already packed calendars.

Creating training content has never been easier. AI can generate courses, videos, guides, and playbooks in a fraction of the time it once took. Yet despite producing more content than ever, many organizations are seeing the same disappointing outcomes.

The training itself often goes well. People participate, feedback scores are strong, teams leave energized and optimistic.

Then something happens.

A few weeks pass, managers get pulled into the next priority, sellers fall back into old habits, and performance looks remarkably similar to what it looked like before the training ever happened.

This scenario plays out in organizations of every size and across nearly every industry. The problem is rarely the quality of the content itself. The problem is that training alone does not create behavior change.

Failed adoption is expensive. Training budgets come under scrutiny, managers lose confidence in enablement initiatives, and organizations miss opportunities to improve pipeline, productivity, and quota attainment. Revenue leaders are not frustrated by a lack of training. They’re frustrated by a lack of impact.

Training doesn’t drive revenue. Adoption does.

Organizations that consistently improve pipeline, conversion rates, and quota attainment have figured out something others haven’t. They don’t treat training as an event. They treat it as an operating system that reinforces, measures, and continuously develops skills long after the workshop ends.

WATCH: How to Make Sales Training Stick and Drive Behavior Change

Why Sales Training Fails After Rollout

Training initiatives generally break down in a handful of predictable ways.

Excitement is usually highest during launch. Teams attend workshops, take notes, and leave with good intentions. Unfortunately, good intentions do not create new habits.

The gap between the classroom and the sales floor is where training initiatives typically fail. Sellers return to their inboxes, customer demands pile up, and old habits quickly reappear. Without reinforcement and accountability, people naturally gravitate toward what is familiar.

Organizations frequently measure training success by attendance, completion rates, or satisfaction scores. Those metrics may indicate whether people liked the experience, but they reveal very little about whether behavior changed afterward. The real measure of success is whether sellers are applying new skills consistently enough to influence business outcomes.

Several factors consistently show up when training fails to stick:

  • Training is treated as an event rather than a system
  • Managers are left out of the reinforcement process
  • Executive sponsorship fades after launch
  • Training is too generic and disconnected from the business
  • Learning relies on passive content instead of application and practice

The encouraging news is that these challenges are remarkably predictable.

After nearly two decades of helping organizations improve sales performance, we found that adoption issues tend to fall into the same categories repeatedly. That led us to develop a framework called BLISS.

READ: Why Event-Based Sales Training Falls Short

The BLISS Framework: Why Sales Training Doesn’t Stick

BLISS is a simple way to diagnose where training is breaking down and identify the barriers preventing behavior change.

B: Buy-In

Training adoption starts with leadership.

Executive sponsorship is far more than approving a budget. Leaders need to communicate expectations, attend kickoffs, talk about progress, and visibly reinforce why the initiative matters. When leaders disappear after launch, managers and sellers often interpret training as optional.

L: Learning

Content still matters.

Many training programs rely heavily on videos, webinars, and one-way knowledge transfer. Sellers may complete the training, but completion doesn’t automatically lead to behavior change. Training should be designed around adult learning principles and help sellers understand not only what to do, but why it matters.

I: Interaction

Watching is not the same as doing.

Skill development requires practice, role-play, discussion, and application. Sellers need opportunities to try new techniques, make mistakes, receive feedback, and refine their approach before they are expected to use new skills with customers.

S: Systems

Training cannot operate in a vacuum.

Compensation plans, CRM workflows, manager routines, and quality scorecards all influence behavior. One conflicting system can undermine an otherwise excellent training program. Training works best when it reinforces the processes and tools people already use every day.

S: Supporting and Seeing Results

Training needs reinforcement after the workshop ends.

Coaching, recognition, certification, and measurement are what turn learning into sustained behavior change. Organizations that consistently improve performance do not simply deliver training. They create systems that reinforce it over time.

Training initiatives rarely fail because all five areas are broken. More often, one or two weak links undermine everything else.

Train Managers Before Reps

Organizations often invest heavily in seller training while assuming managers naturally know how to reinforce it.

They don’t.

Manager coaching consistently ranks among the weakest skills in sales organizations. Frontline managers are juggling priorities, putting out fires, and managing performance. Very few have been taught how to coach effectively or given the tools to do it consistently.

This matters because managers are the reinforcement engine of any training initiative. They determine what gets coached, what gets celebrated, and what gets repeated long after the workshop ends.

That’s why we train managers first at Factor 8.

Managers need their own enablement before reps ever attend training. They need coaching frameworks, reinforcement plans, and practical tools that fit naturally into existing one-on-ones, huddles, and pipeline reviews.

When managers are equipped to coach, training stops being an event and starts becoming a system.

READ: Why You Need Training for Sales Managers

Stop Teaching. Start Facilitating.

One of the biggest misconceptions in sales training is the idea that information automatically creates skill.

It doesn’t.

Research consistently shows that people forget information quickly when it isn’t reinforced. Roughly half of new information is forgotten within a day, and the majority disappears within a week. Training initiatives that rely on one exposure and hope for lasting behavior change are fighting against how adults actually learn.

At Factor 8, we use a facilitation approach called CUP.

C: Connect

Tie concepts to the seller’s real world.

Why does this matter? Where does this challenge show up in customer conversations? How would improving this skill help them hit their goals?

U: Use

Apply the concept immediately.

Sellers should use new skills in realistic scenarios, live calls, or customer situations that mirror what they experience every day.

P: Practice

Practice until the behavior becomes natural.

Role-play, coaching, and feedback loops are where confidence develops. Videos may create awareness, but practice creates skill.

Training becomes significantly stickier when people connect, use, and practice new concepts rather than simply hearing about them.

The Goal Isn’t More Training. It’s Everboarding.

High-performing organizations approach learning differently. They don’t think about training as a one-time initiative or an annual event. They build systems where development exists throughout the employee lifecycle.

At Factor 8, we call this Everboarding.

Development becomes part of:

  • New hire onboarding
  • Ongoing skill development and upskilling
  • Performance improvement plans
  • Career progression and leadership pathways
  • Recognition and certification programs

Training shifts from being something employees attend to something employees experience continuously throughout their careers.

This approach creates an environment where learning becomes part of how the organization operates rather than another item on the calendar.

Manager coaching is built into every level. Development is introduced, reinforced, and expanded over time. Skills compound because learning never really ends.

That’s the goal. Training should live everywhere, not in isolated events that disappear after rollout.

Results-Focused Training Starts with KPIs

Training should never exist simply because a topic sounds important. Every initiative should connect directly to a business objective.

For example:

  • Low outbound activity often points to prospecting confidence and phone skills
  • Weak Stage 1 conversion rates frequently indicate gaps in discovery and customer engagement
  • Heavy discounting usually reveals opportunities to strengthen value-building skills
  • Long sales cycles may require better commitment-setting and call-closing techniques
  • Low show rates may indicate a need for stronger call planning and commitment-setting

Revenue is the lagging outcome.

Successful organizations also measure the smaller behaviors that lead to revenue improvements. Metrics such as outbound activity, average call time, conversion rates, lead acceptance, and manager coaching activity often improve first.

Those smaller wins are frequently the earliest indicators that training is working.

Revenue leaders are not asking whether employees enjoyed the workshop. They are asking whether performance improved.

That question should shape every training initiative from the beginning.

READ: How to Measure Sales Training ROI

The System Behind Adoption: The Factor 8 Results Engine

Over nearly two decades of implementation work, we found that organizations need more than great content. They need a repeatable system for turning learning into behavior change.

The Factor 8 Results Engine consists of six stages:

  1. Analysis and skill assessment
  2. Customization
  3. Buy-in and kickoffs
  4. Coach the Coach manager training
  5. Blended rep training
  6. Support and results reviews

The sequence matters.

Organizations often want to jump directly into rep training. That approach frequently skips critical work upfront, including identifying skill gaps, aligning stakeholders, preparing managers, and establishing measures of success.

The strongest implementations begin with analysis and customization. They create buy-in before training begins. They equip managers before reps. They reinforce learning through coaching and accountability. Then they continuously review results and adjust the plan.

Training initiatives rarely fail because people lacked good intentions.

They fail because there was no system designed to sustain behavior change.

DOWNLOAD: Sales Training Implementation Guide

The RETAINED Model: How High-Performing Teams Make Training Stick

Sales training should be designed as a behavior change system rather than a one-time event.

At Factor 8, we use the RETAINED model to help organizations build programs that drive sustained behavior change and measurable business outcomes.

R: Results-Focused

Tie every skill to measurable business outcomes and agreed-upon KPIs.

E: Executive Sponsored

Leaders remain visible through kickoffs, monthly check-ins, and results reviews.

T: Tactical

Move beyond theory and give sellers practical language and behaviors they can immediately apply.

A: Application Accountability

Build reinforcement into existing manager rhythms such as huddles, one-on-ones, pipeline reviews, and coaching sessions.

I: Interactive

Replace passive learning experiences with discussion, practice, and active participation.

N: Nuanced

Customize training around your products, customers, calls, and business realities.

E: Embedded

Integrate skills into existing tools, coaching forms, QA scorecards, and workflows.

D: Deliberate Duration

Focus on one skill at a time over weeks and months rather than cramming multiple concepts into a single event.

Taken together, the RETAINED model reinforces a simple idea: training isn’t something you deliver. It’s something you operationalize.

Training doesn’t fail because organizations need more content.

Training fails when there isn’t a system that helps people adopt, reinforce, and apply new skills consistently enough to change outcomes.

The organizations seeing meaningful improvements in pipeline, conversion rates, deal size, and quota attainment understand that distinction. They involve leaders, equip managers, reinforce skills, and measure progress.

Ultimately, they recognize something that many organizations still miss:

Training isn’t an event. It’s a system.

Are you looking for customizable sales training?

Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).


sales training ROI

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How to Measure Sales Training ROI

Training geeks will tell you there are four traditional ways to measure sales training ROI and the impact it has on an organization. It’s called “The Kirkpatrick Model.” In my experience, this model only includes two measurements that sales leaders actually care about. I’d like to add a few alternate levels to consider.  

Level 1 is Learner Feedback. The smile sheet has more to do with liking the trainer or getting fed than the impact, and the quiz results are more about short-term memory than anyone’s understanding of how to actually apply skills.

Level 2 is Observation. What happens on the job? It’s observed behavior change, and it’s subjective. “Manager, did Bob use his new skills?” Manager: “Um, I haven’t been listening to Bob all day long, boss. I have 14 people and 200 emails to read…” You get the struggle.

Level 3 is Information Retention. New skills should be fresh in their minds and easy to execute the day after training, but what about 2 months later? 6 months? 1 year? Over time, people are known to fall back into bad habits. Truly valuable training provides easy-to-use (and memorable) skills that stick with the learner over time. 

Level 4 is ROI. Calculate sales training ROI by taking the results that went up and dividing by the cost of the sales training. Naturally, there are flaws here, like, “When do we stop measuring?” “What about soft costs of missed revenue?” “What if results fall off?” and “Training wasn’t all we changed that quarter!”

When I advise sales training leaders, I help them solve it all with two little words:

“Contributed to”

Last quarter, new vendor training contributed to a 25% increase in meeting close rates and a 34% increase in show rates. Extrapolated over the period of a year and using our standard meeting to deal close rates, that means an additional 245 meetings and 66 closed deals or $3.1 million in revenue. That’s a 31x return on investment of the $100K training investment. (That’s also expressed 3,100% folks and it’s BIG. It’s also a real case study, BTW).

So, sales training ROI is a big deal. When calculating, the bottom line is nearly always revenue or profit, but there are little wins along the way. Look for bumps in any of the following (and celebrate!):

  • Talk time
  • Conversations over 2:00 minutes
  • Close percentage
  • Show rate
  • Pipeline velocity
  • Average deal size

Combine these as I did over a time period of a year and the numbers get big fast. Even a modest increase in a close percentage or deal size will bring double-digit ROI.

Now for the new stuff. In today’s climate, there are 5 more sales training ROI measurements I advise you to start tracking:

  1. Applicant increase
  2. Tenure
  3. Promotion rate
  4. Employee satisfaction (a KPI to tenure)
  5. Ramp time

Yes, nearly all of these are about helping show the link between the career development you offer the new generation of sellers and how many of them come to work for you and stay.

If you’re offering ongoing development, a training budget, a certification, or a partnership with a premier vendor, ADVERTISE THAT (you’ll attract the new generation of sellers!). Then start tracking the average number of applicants over the previous months, but don’t compare pre-COVID (that’s apples vs. bacteria).

Great development keeps people in companies longer. So count what percentage of promotions are now happening internally and whether your investments are moving the needle of employee satisfaction. 

There’s a direct correlation between employee engagement (and happiness) and their performance. If they’ve been with your company for 6 years and are consistently meeting or exceeding quota, chances are they’re happy in their role and less likely to leave. Have they missed quota a few times now, or are they not as engaged with their customers as they once were? Then it might be time for a 1:1 to see what is going on behind the scenes. 

Finally, my holy grail: ramp time. How long does it take a new hire to get to quota? This critical number not only impacts revenue right where it counts but also determines whether a rep stays or not. Here’s an insider tip:

People who feel successful at work will keep coming back to work.

No, not Earth-shattering, but it might be if you reverse-engineer it. 20 years ago I revamped a new hire sales training program for a computer manufacturer. It was taking reps 9 months to hit their goal. Ouch. (Best practice is 3-6 months and it’s getting longer – we’re now approaching 9 months again) Yes, we took out a bunch of filler courses and implemented my “Just in Time” training approach, but we also did something a little sneaky. We lowered the bar. The VP of Sales and I saw the mass exit happening at six months and we worked together to get reps PAID if they were on track by this point in time. The result? We cut the turnover in half.

Help people win, and they’ll stay and keep winning.

Long story long, employee development has an impact on more than just revenue. There’s a reason training investments are up over 30% as an industry over last year. And if you don’t already have your enablement team running regular reports on these new stats, I suggest you get started or you’ll be late to the party. It may feel like we’re in a war for talent, but I assure you this is only the battle. Use your training investments strategically to attract, keep, and promote your people because this precious resource will become only more scarce.

Want more information on how to measure sales training ROI?

Contact us today to request information on our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).


sales metrics to track

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60+ Sales Metrics to Track: Role-by-Role Guide to Activity & Performance

Sales metrics are your early indicators, your coaching roadmap, and your proof of sales training ROI.

They show you what’s working, where your team needs help, and whether your sales training investment is actually paying off.

But not all metrics tell the full story.

Activity is easy to measure and quota attainment is easy to celebrate. But by themselves, those numbers don’t tell you if reps are building skills, progressing deals, or gaining the confidence to hold real sales conversations.

That’s why we’re breaking down the top sales metrics to track by role.

Because every sales position contributes to pipeline and revenue in different ways, and tracking the right metrics helps you spot success earlier, coach more effectively, and tie enablement wins to revenue.

Here are the roles we’ll cover:

Let’s take the guesswork out of performance and start measuring what matters.

BDR/SDR Metrics

Confidence shows up in activity. Skill shows up in conversion. That’s why the best BDR metrics don’t just tell you how many calls they made, but what actually happened after they hit “dial.” You won’t measure all of these, but pick 2-3 that are easily reported in your world. Focus on quantity and quality.

Here’s what you can track:

  • New hire ramp – How long it takes to meet quota. Measure training effectiveness against past class baselines or use a control group. Four to six months to goal is average.
  • Dials – Baseline activity matters, especially with newer reps. Just don’t stop here. Outbound BDR/SDR should average 50-100 dials a day.
  • Dial-to-connect rate – Are they reaching humans? If not, it’s probably a data issue. Look for a 3-10% connect rate.
  • Average talk time – Measure by call or daily total by rep. Good top of funnel calls are 2.5 – 10 minutes in length and focused reps should spend at least 2.5 hours/day on the phone. 
  • Connect-to-conversation rate – If a call lasts more than 2 minutes, that’s a human connection worth tracking. If you’re below 25%, reps need help with skills. 
  • Daily conversations – An average number of quality conversations per day (over 2 minutes). Aim for 3-5 conversations/day.
  • Positive outcomes – A less common stat that can add “small wins” like accounts qualified, referrals gained, or follow-up meetings scheduled – anything that’s not quite a meeting. Aim for 25% plus. 
  • Meetings booked – Conversion from connect to meeting booked. Cold calls convert 2-5% on average, top reps and situations closer to 33%. Always pair with the next metric.
  • Meeting show rate – AKA “hold rate.” Are these meetings actually happening? 50-60% is a good starting point, top performers come in around 90%.
  • Percentage of qualified meetings – AEs will help you define what “qualified” means here and they’re always pickier than the SDR team. If more than 50% are being accepted, you’re winning. 
  • Lead to opportunity conversion – What percent of meetings actually wind up in the pipeline. An average is 1-3% of leads being added to the sales pipeline.
  • Inbound calls – SDRs should be leaving messages, and good messages get returned. Great messages plus consistency will get up to 25% of calls returned.
  • Call quality scores – This is where skill execution lives. Use your coaching rubric to track growth.
  • Call engagement scores – A new AI feature from your conversational intelligence tool. No industry benchmarks yet, but like call quality scores, a smart add to your balanced scorecard.

These metrics help you go beyond the mindset of “more dials = better rep.” You’ll see who’s dialing scared, who’s winging it, and who’s actually applying the skills from training.

Skills That Move Metrics (and how to track them):

  • Call intros and brush-offs – A great opener gets the prospect talking within the first 10 seconds and keeps them after an initial brush-off (it’s like an objection, but not). If they’re engaged, your talk time and connect-to-conversation increase along with your positive outcomes, and meetings booked. Take SWIIFT℠ Introductions That Work and Overcoming the Brush-off.
  • Voicemails and prospecting planning – If callbacks and connects spike post-training, reps are implementing new and improved voicemail messages and email/social messaging. Take Messages That Get Returned and Planning for Prospecting. 
  • Deal qualification – When reps find the right people and pre-qualify leads by asking the right questions, the percentage of qualified meetings and meeting show rates spike immediately with lead-to-opportunity conversion following. Take Capture Contacts and Qualify and Categorize.
  • Discovery – When reps improve questioning and engagement techniques vs. script reading and survey-taking, customers engage, and results show up in connect-to-conversion rate, daily talk time, positive outcomes, and meetings booked. Take Question Like a Pro to improve sales call discovery.
  • Closing – SDRs lacking confidence struggle to have real conversations and ask for meetings. Reps improving in confidence and closing will show improvement in positive outcomes and meetings booked. Take Transitioning to Close to help close every call.
  • Call quality – Not sure what to track in the conversation itself? Step one is using a standard coaching form so you can track progress.

When BDR/SDR training is working, reps get more voicemails returned, keep prospects on the phone longer, and confidently set next steps. These are your first signs that sales training or coaching is making an impact.

READ: How to Keep Prospects on the Phone

Inside Sales Rep Metrics

Inside Sales Reps do it all: prospect, qualify, demo, and sometimes close. That’s why tracking ISR performance requires more than just activity. You need to know if they’re creating pipeline, overcoming early objections, and setting up seamless handoffs (or closes). 

Here’s what to track:

  • New hire ramp – how long it takes to meet quota. Measure training effectiveness against past class baselines or use a control group. For ISRs six months is pretty average.
  • Activity rate – Like SDRs, ISRs need a healthy outbound routine. Look for fewer outbounds than SDRs as ISRs balance demos, longer conversations, and orders, but insist on at least 10 outbound calls and 3-5x total activities including email/social per day. 
  • Initial call/lead conversion – Good initial calls convert into leads and follow up meetings. In addition to longer calls and talk time, top reps will convert above 30% of initial calls to a discovery call. Newbies and cold calls under 10%.
  • Opportunities conversion – The conversion from discovery call into actual pipeline ranges from 10-30% on average. 
  • Demo conversion rate – Wherever “show and tell” falls in your cycle, watch what percent of opportunities progress past this stage. Benchmarks vary from 20-60%. Use your team’s history.
  • Win rate – What percent of total opportunities in pipe ultimately close? Standards vary by industry and tenure from 15 to 50%.
  • Follow-up attempts – Persistence matters, especially in a full-cycle role. Leads not getting at least five attempts are wasting money. Well-qualified leads should show 10+ attempts.
  • Average sales cycle length – Are those opportunities moving forward? Or stalling out? Dividing the total number of days it took to close all the deals by the number of deals gives you baseline velocity.
  • Pipeline generated – What is the average dollar amount added to pipeline per rep per period?
  • Revenue/Profit – Actual revenue or margin closed. Use historical data for baselines and watch out for cyclicality. 
  • Average deal size – ACV/AOS depending on industry (average contract value/average order size). 
  • Quota attainment – Percent of goal achieved.
  • Number of deals – Watch for efficiency and hustle by not just measuring dollars closed.
  • Call/Demo quality scores – Customer engagement and rep skills are even more critical as deals progress. Measure standard discovery, communication, objection handling, demo, and closing skills. Keep coaching forms consistent between reps and teams.

*SaaS companies will track a few additional standard metrics like Customer Acquisition Cost, Lifetime Customer Value, MRR, and Customer Churn.

These metrics show you how effectively ISRs are turning conversations into qualified opportunities and moving deals through the pipeline. They help pinpoint where in the sales process training can create the biggest lift.

Skills to watch (and how to track them):

  • Discovery and qualification – Reps who listen and adapt during discovery ask better follow-ups and surface real business pain. You’ll hear it in call recordings, and you’ll see the impact in higher opportunity conversion, shorter sales cycles, and higher pipeline revenue generated. Go deeper than SDR discovery with SWIIFT℠ Discovery Dialogue. 
  • Customer engagement – Great ISRs can lead a conversation and follow the customers’ lead – all while driving deals forward. That means next-level rapport, listening, and acting like a consultant. Mid-funnel engagement pays off in opportunity conversion, average deal size, and overall win rate. Focus on skills found in, My Role as a Consultative Seller.
  • Demo/presentation – ISRs that give the same demo multiple times a day likely have low conversion rates. Great interactive presentations will pay off in call quality, demo conversion, average sales cycle, and pipeline generated. Take Demos That Don’t Suck to see lift here. 
  • Proving value – If you’re getting to the close but aren’t seeing conversion, we aren’t building enough value during the sales cycle. Reps who do this well have higher win rates, larger number of deals and faster sales cycles. Take Proposing with Value to help. 
  • Objection handling – Seasoned ISRs hear it all, from “This isn’t a priority right now” to dead silence. Tops performers will have higher follow up numbers, win rates, and quota attainment. Take Overcoming Objections and Selling With Stories to sharpen skills.

When ISR training is working, you’ll hear better discovery calls, improved demos, stronger objection handling, and confident next steps. And you’ll see it in stage-by-stage conversions in your pipeline. 

READ: Call Bridging 101: Paving the Way for a Follow-up Sales Call

Account Executive Metrics

AEs get judged by the number, but that doesn’t tell the full story. You can close a big deal and still be losing pipeline behind the scenes. That’s why it’s critical to track not just what they’re closing, but how they’re progressing deals, and where they’re getting stuck.

Here’s what to track:

  • Opportunity-to-close rate – A high rate means reps are moving qualified deals across the finish line; a low rate can reveal gaps in qualification or closing skills.
  • Stage conversion rates – Show where deals are moving forward and where they’re getting stuck, helping you target coaching where it’s needed most.
  • Days in deal stages – Longer times in a stage can point to stalled opportunities, poor follow-up, or hidden objections.
  • Win rate – Indicates overall effectiveness at closing deals compared to total opportunities worked.
  • Forecast accuracy – Builds trust in the pipeline by showing whether reps are correctly predicting which deals will close.
  • Deal size and margin – Reveal whether reps are consistently landing high-value business or leaning on discounts to close.
  • Pipeline coverage ratio – Highlights whether reps have enough in the pipeline to stay on track for quota.
  • New opportunities created – Tracks how much pipeline reps are sourcing themselves versus relying on handoffs.
  • Follow-up attempts per opportunity – Shows persistence in advancing deals and staying top of mind with prospects.
  • Average sales cycle length – Gives insight into deal velocity and whether reps are moving opportunities forward efficiently.
  • Call/demo quality scores – Reflects the strength of rep communication, objection handling, and ability to progress deals during live interactions.

These metrics give visibility into each stage of the sales cycle so you can see where deals are progressing smoothly and where they may need coaching or additional support to move forward.

Skills to watch (and how to track them):

  • Discovery and uncovering customer needs – Great AEs don’t ask generic questions. They dig until they uncover the real business pain. When this skill is sharp, you’ll hear deeper conversations in call recordings and see more accurate opp qualification, faster stage movement, and fewer stalls after demos. Take Question Like a Pro to learn advanced questioning techniques that turn scripts into real, value-driven conversations.
  • Demo/presentation – A strong demo isn’t about showing every feature, it’s about telling the right story. Great AEs tailor the conversation to the prospect’s needs, show the exact value they care about, and make it easy for them to see themselves using your solution. You’ll see this reflected in higher stage conversion rates, stronger call/demo quality scores, and more stakeholders engaged after the call. Take Demos That Don’t Suck to learn how to engage, adapt, and close more deals from your presentations.
  • Demonstrating customer value – It’s not about pitching, it’s about showing how your solution impacts their business. If reps are demonstrating value well, you’ll see less discounting, stronger deal size, and customers pulling in stakeholders instead of ghosting you. Take What Customers Care About to map buyer motivators to your solution and propose in a way that resonates.
  • Driving deal momentum – If deals are sitting in the pipeline, it’s not because they’re bad deals, it’s because they’re not being worked. AEs who drive momentum confirm mutual next steps, secure time on the calendar, and keep the deal moving. You’ll see this in shorter days in stage, cleaner notes in the CRM, and fewer “stuck” opportunities with no recent activity. Take Getting Deals Moving to keep deals advancing and commitments in place.
  • Handling objections – Objections at this stage often signal deeper unaddressed concerns. Reps who respond effectively keep deals alive and increase win rate. Take Overcoming Objections to apply a proven four-step process that addresses concerns and moves the conversation forward.
  • Consultative selling – AEs who operate like business advisors uncover more opportunities and face less pricing pressure. Look for this in higher-quality CRM notes, increased stakeholder engagement, and higher ASP (average selling price). Take My Role as a Consultative Seller to sharpen your business advisory approach and build trust faster.
  • Proposing with value – When done right, proposals clearly connect your solution to the customer’s goals. Look for higher proposal acceptance, fewer stalls, and improved close rates. Take Proposing with Value to create compelling proposals that drive decisions.
  • Closing confidently – Reps with strong close skills don’t beg for business, they ask with clarity and confidence. You’ll hear it in recorded calls and see it reflected in win rate, number of deals, and reduced discounting. Take Closing Confidently to find your go-to close statements and build muscle memory for asking.

When account executive training is working, you’ll see cleaner pipeline stages, stronger discovery, and tighter forecasting. It’s less “I think it’s coming in” and more “Here’s where we are, here’s what’s next.”

WATCH: How to Fix the Top 5 Mistakes Made During Sales Demos

Account Manager/Customer Success Manager Metrics

Account Managers and Customer Success Managers are the face of your brand after the deal closes. But renewals and growth don’t come from check-in emails and good vibes. These reps need to earn trust, uncover new opportunities, and consistently demonstrate value. That’s how you keep customers, and grow them.

Here’s what to track:

  • CSAT (customer satisfaction score) – Tracks how happy customers are with your product or service. However you measure it, monitor changes over time by rep to spot trends and coaching opportunities.
  • NPS (net promoter score) – Measures customer loyalty and likelihood to refer you to others. A higher score can indicate strong relationships and a healthy base of brand advocates.
  • CLTV (customer lifetime value) – Shows the total revenue a customer is expected to bring over the course of the relationship. Helps you prioritize and protect high-value accounts.
  • Customer retention rate – Indicates what percentage of customers stay with you over a given period. High retention signals strong account management; declining retention may point to service gaps.
  • Churn – Tracks the percentage of customers leaving. Monitor closely to flag at-risk accounts early and take action to prevent turnover.
  • Renewal rate – The ultimate retention metric. Shows how often contracts are successfully renewed and can highlight patterns by rep or segment.
  • Expansion revenue – Measures revenue growth within existing accounts. A rise here means reps are finding and closing new opportunities in their current book.
  • MRR (monthly recurring revenue) growth – Tracks the increase in monthly recurring revenue from existing customers, indicating steady, predictable account growth.
  • Average purchase value – Look at the average transaction size. Growth here often signals effective upselling and cross-selling strategies.
  • New SKUs – Measures the number of purchases in new product or service categories, showing whether accounts are broadening their adoption.
  • Active buyers – Counts the number of individual buyers within an account making purchases. Growth suggests successful expansion to new departments, teams, or locations.
  • Customer health score – Combines product usage, engagement, and satisfaction into a single view to identify accounts at risk and those ready for expansion.
  • CES (customer effort score) – Tracks how easy it is for customers to get what they need from your team. Lower effort correlates with stronger loyalty.
  • Activity-to-engagement ratio – Compares how much time you spend with customers versus the quality or impact of those interactions. Reminds reps that more meetings don’t automatically mean more value.
  • Time to renewal/expansion opportunity – Measures how long it takes to uncover new value and growth potential in an account, helping you assess how proactive your AMs/CSMs are.

These metrics provide a clear picture of account health and growth potential, helping you spot risks early and identify where strategic conversations can open new opportunities.

Skills to watch (and how to track them):

  • Gaining referrals – Loyal customers don’t just renew, they advocate. If reps are asking the right way (and at the right time), you’ll see an uptick in warm intros and referral opportunities logged in the CRM. Take Gaining Referrals to build confidence and a proven process for turning satisfied customers into your best lead source.
  • Uncovering new opportunities – Great AMs don’t wait for customers to raise their hand. They ask smart questions, connect dots, and bring proactive solutions to the table. Track this by monitoring qualified expansion opportunities created and account mapping activity. Take Uncovering Sales Opportunities to uncover needs and position solutions that drive account growth
  • Increasing wallet share – If reps are building trust and delivering value, you’ll see increases in upsell, cross-sell, and product adoption across existing accounts. Take Growing Account Revenue to create targeted growth plans and confidently expand within your book of business.
  • Customer engagement – Great AMs create value in every interaction, not just touch base calls. Measure follow-up rates, meeting conversion, and customer survey comments. Take Engaging Your Customers to build excitement and keep customers invested in the relationship.
  • Consultative selling – Top AMs bring insights, not just checklists. Listen for strategic questions in call recordings and look for greater opportunity conversion and deal size. Take My Role as a Consultative Seller to elevate customer conversations and earn trusted advisor status.
  • Business acumen – AMs who understand the customer’s industry, org structure, and goals hold better conversations. You’ll see longer calls, better engagement, and more strategic expansion plays. Take Business Acumen to speak the language of executives and lead more impactful discussions.

When account manager training is working, you’ll see AMs running stronger account reviews, finding new revenue inside existing customers, and proactively addressing risks before they become churn. They’re not just retaining customers, they’re growing wallet share, keeping renewal pipelines clean, and avoiding last-minute surprises.

READ: How to Ask Existing Customers for a Sales Referral

Sales Manager Metrics

Good managers build great reps. That’s why your manager scorecard should go beyond team quota and focus on how well they coach, develop, and retain talent. The best metrics show whether their reps are getting better, faster, and sticking around. You don’t need all of these, but pick a few that help you measure both leadership impact and team performance.

  • Ramp time – How long it takes new hires to hit quota; use past averages or compare trained vs. untrained cohorts to track manager impact.
  • Percentage of team to goal – The percentage of reps consistently hitting their number; a sign of strong leadership and accountability.
  • Promotion rate – Tracks how many reps are promoted from the manager’s team; high rates show strong development and bench-building.
  • Retention and engagement – Use surveys or attrition data to gauge whether reps are staying and thriving under their manager.
  • Forecast accuracy – Compares manager forecasts to actual revenue; accuracy indicates strong deal coaching and pipeline visibility.
  • Team skill improvement – Use training assessments, call scores, or certifications to track rep skill growth over time.
  • Consistency of performance – Measures if the team hits quota quarter after quarter vs. riding the rollercoaster; stability = good leadership.

These metrics measure a manager’s impact on team development, consistency, and overall performance, giving you insight into both leadership effectiveness and team health.

Skills to watch (and how to track them):

  • Coaching – A strong coaching culture improves rep performance and morale. You’ll see the impact in faster ramp time, higher call quality, and consistent team skill improvement. Take Call Coaching 101 to build a positive, interactive coaching style that leaves reps confident and ready to apply new skills.
  • Time management – Burned out or reactive managers cancel 1:1s, skip coaching, and lose focus. Look for low coaching frequency, weak consistency of performance, and manager survey scores to identify this early. Take Own Your Day to prioritize what’s important over what’s urgent and create space for high-value management activities.
  • Goal setting – Managers who translate team targets into clear daily expectations drive better accountability and percent of team to goal. You’ll also see more consistent performance over time. Take Driving Performance with Goals to break big goals into actionable milestones and behaviors that stick.
  • Having tough conversations – Strong leaders don’t let poor performance slide. This skill shows up in better team retention, improved engagement, and shorter time-to-improvement for struggling reps. Take Having Difficult Conversations to gain a framework and confidence for handling the hard talks effectively.
  • Developing talent – Growth-minded managers build the bench. High promotion rates, better rep retention, and higher engagement scores are clear signs this skill is in play. Take Developing Your Team to learn practical ways to inspire and grow your people between training events.
  • Strategic deal planning – Managers who support reps with territory, lead, and deal strategies improve forecast accuracy and drive stronger quota attainment and rep confidence. Take Sales Strategy Meetings to guide reps through targeted, high-impact planning sessions that move deals forward.
  • Hiring & onboarding – Smart hiring and strong onboarding reduce early attrition and shorten ramp time. Track first-90-day performance and how often their hires stick. Take Hire Like a Rockstar to build a best-practice interview and selection process tailored to your team.
  • Meeting effectiveness – Organized managers who run purposeful meetings drive stronger consistency of performance and better engagement. Check for cadence completion and team survey feedback. Take Essential Manager Meetings to create a proactive meeting cadence that keeps your team on track and engaged.

When sales manager training is working, you’ll see faster ramp times, stronger forecast accuracy, and more reps hitting quota consistently. Team skills improve quarter over quarter, retention goes up, and promotions happen more often. Great managers coach with purpose, run effective meetings, and keep their teams performing without the burnout rollercoaster.

READ: Build Your Sales Manager Cadence (& Save Time and Stress)

Tracking the right sales metrics isn’t just about managing performance, it’s how you prove what’s working, where to coach, and when your sales training is actually paying off. Whether you’re investing in new training programs or reinforcing skills with your current team, these metrics are your clearest window into what’s driving real behavior change and revenue impact. Because when you can connect skill development to pipeline movement, you’re not just improving performance, you’re proving sales training ROI.

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scale inside sales team

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How to Scale Your Inside Sales Team

In the past decade, inside sales has been out-pacing field sales by a 10-15x ratio. Scalability is a challenge inside sales leaders will continue to face for years to come.

While I normally focus on building your process, today my job is to talk about the people angle. Although, a good half of my people’s suggestions are process suggestions! Allow me to highlight the top 3 common pitfalls we have all faced when trying to scale your inside sales team and a few outside resources that can help.

Pitfall #1: The success of a massive growth number will live or die in a rep’s ramp time.

Ramp time means something different to each company. It could be time to quota, paying for their overhead, or something unique to you. Whatever your ramp goal, you’ll be creating projections to hit a 1.5x, 3x, or even 5x number and you’ll be doing it with a new headcount.

That means your success hinges on the ability of your headcount to:

  • Be hired on time
  • Be trained on time
  • Hit goal on time

Really dig into your new hire training program, and start doing it six months before your first hiring wave. If you haven’t onboarded recently, check out our sales rep onboarding best practices. And if your offices are still remote, brush up on virtually onboarding new sales reps

Pro Tip: Hire a sales-focused training leader NOW. Most new hire training programs need a LOT of work, and the good ones can cut your ramp time by HALF.

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Pitfall #2: We don’t change our hiring process.

Even if you previously onboarded an awesome team that is still with you today, your process likely needs a few tweaks before being pressure-tested during scaling. We usually see breakdowns in two key places:

  • The pool isn’t as deep any longer. We are in a hiring crisis, folks. Many companies stole great talent when they were new on the scene, but now they’re competing for headcount like everyone else. So even if the number of candidates and job postings are similar, you may find the depth of talent more shallow.
  • The hiring and onboarding process wasn’t built for volume and is probably too dependent on your managers (but the slew of new hires on the floor will need them more too!) At launch, these managers had all kinds of time to hire. If you triple your model (then double it for the shallow talent pool), think of how many hours per day they will be in interviews. Ouch!

Pro Tip: Pull hiring out of HR and to a recruiter – even if you need to re-appropriate a sales headcount. You need someone doing passive recruiting on the front end, AND who can handle a phone screen for sales. It’s the only way to free up your managers’ time. Make sure you tie the recruiter’s compensation to the RIGHT hires that align with your goals, instead of fighting a recruiting company’s goal of straight-up bodies. I’ve seen way too many new hire classes filled with “live bodies” by recruiters only to have to rehire a replacement class a month later. Sales leaders make no mistake, the need to retrain or rehire is how your hiring goals will be perceived in a culture of scale.

Also, check your hiring process. It should look like your pipeline, with your managers involved only toward the final stages. Oh, and let them hire their own team, OK? (Managers, you can send your cash directly to the Factor 8 HQ for that tip).

Pitfall #3: Develop your managers, NOW.

I’m watching a friend’s floor triple in size right now. They’re super successful and swimming in leads. They need a headcount to maximize the revenue. What they’re missing is strong leadership, definitions of what ‘good’ looks like, and consistency among the management team. And folks, it’s being held together with duct tape and rainbows right now. These managers are SO (say it like a teenage girl) green. Everyone runs different reports, they all manage a different sales process, there are seven disparate call methodologies, no one can forecast because pipelines are atrocious, teams are mixed and matched constantly (because managers are leaving the chaos!) and no two are managed the same. I’d say they’re all marching to a different beat, but no one remembered to hire the drummer.

Pro Tip: Hire a drummer…as long as that drummer is a series of documented processes (management cadence, performance improvement, sales handoffs, sales process to name a few). Then, TEACH your managers how to execute against them. You and I both know these people were reps five minutes ago. They need training. They need help being better leaders (or you’ll quickly wind up back at #1 hiring even more bodies). Reps join companies and quit bosses, right? New managers are going to FLAIL in a rapid-growth environment, and your reps will be confused, frustrated, and complain about a lack of development (which also happens to be the number one reason reps leave).

So, save yourself some time and a headache by updating your training program, and getting the professionals to help you with hiring, and developing those managers! I promise, the work now will be worth it once your sales floor is full (and stays that way!).

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sales trends

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Top Sales Trends and How to Thrive in an AI-Driven World

Sales is changing fast. AI is accelerating everything, buyers are harder to impress, and mediocre selling is getting exposed.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is also simple: the teams that win are going to be the ones who get clear, get current, and double down on human skills that actually move deals forward.

Here are the trends I’m seeing, and the practical moves to make right now if you want a strong year.

1. Get crystal clear on your goal (because nobody is coming to save you)

We’re living in the noisiest time in history. Tools. Tactics. Hot takes. EVERYONE SHOUTING (😉).

If you wait for clarity, you’ll be waiting forever.

Set your own clarity:

  • What is the actual outcome you want this year?
  • What do you want to be known for?
  • What do you want your next role to be?
  • What’s the one skill you’re unwilling to be mediocre at?

Then act like you mean it. Put it on your calendar. Build your plan around it. Stop drifting.

2. AI is not replacing you, but it is replacing “entry-level effort”

AI will absolutely wipe out a lot of low-level tasks. Anything that looks like copying, pasting, summarizing, basic research, first drafts, list building, and “good enough” outreach is getting automated fast.

So here’s the play:

  • Use AI to get efficient
  • Use humans to get effective

If you’re a rep, AI can help you research, organize, and prep.
If you’re a frontline manager, AI can help you spot trends, clean up pipeline signals, and prep for better coaching conversations.
If you’re a sales or revenue leader, AI can help you scale what’s working, identify risk earlier, and make better growth decisions without losing visibility into the human side of performance.
If you’re in enablement, AI can help you reinforce consistency in skills and training, but it should not define what “good” looks like. 

READ: The Ultimate AI Toolkit for Sales & Enablement Leaders

3.The human side of sales just became the differentiator

As marketing and automation go further “digital,” the moment a buyer finally talks to a human matters more than ever.

Which means sales has to feel less like a pitch and more like a helpful consultation.

If your selling is still built on:

  • Generic sequences
  • Shallow discovery
  • Long demos that say everything and solve nothing
  • Follow-up that’s basically “just checking in”

You’re going to feel the shift.

The bar is rising. Thank God.

4. Prospecting is getting harder and more important at the same time

AI has made outbound louder. Not better. Louder.

So prospecting wins this year when it’s:

  • More personal
  • More relevant
  • More direct
  • Less “spray and pray”

Practical upgrades:

  • Personalize to the problem, not the person. “Saw you went to Ohio State” is not value.
  • Lead with a point of view. “Here’s what we’re seeing in companies like yours.”
  • Have a real reason to reach out. A trigger. A change. A risk. A missed opportunity.
  • Keep it short. Make it easy to respond.

And yes, pick up the phone. Calls are weirdly becoming a differentiator again because fewer people are doing them at all, or well.

READ: Best AI Tools, Tips, And Prompts For Sales Prospecting

5. Discovery and conversation skills are the new conversion rate

Buyers do not want to be pitched at. They want to feel understood quickly.

Your edge is better discovery:

  • Ask sharper questions
  • Listen harder
  • Connect pain to impact
  • Create clarity, not confusion

A simple standard: if the buyer can’t clearly explain the problem and the stakes after talking to you, your discovery wasn’t discovery. It was a tour.

READ: 4 Steps to Asking Better Sales Discovery Call Questions

6. Demos are changing: shorter, tighter, more customized

The era of the 45-minute “power demo” is fading.

Teams are moving toward:

  • Micro-demos
  • Self-serve exploration
  • “Show me exactly what I asked for” experiences
  • Recordings that help buyers sell internally

If your demo is still a feature parade, you’re doing product theater, not selling.

Make demos:

  • Smaller
  • More specific
  • Tied to their use case and decision criteria
7. Call bridging is one of the fastest ways to prevent ghosting

Ghosting isn’t new. Buyers disappearing mid-deal is basically a sport now.

One of the simplest skills that helps is call bridging: setting up the next step while you still have them, with clarity and agreement, so follow-up isn’t chasing.

Quick example language:

  • “Before we hang up, what needs to be true for you to feel good about moving forward?”
  • “If we’re aligned, what’s the next best step on your side and mine?”
  • “Let’s lock the next conversation now so we don’t lose momentum.”

It’s not pushy. It’s professional.

READ: Call Bridging 101: Paving the Way for a Follow-up Sales Call

8. Pipeline and forecasting are finally getting help (but your CRM can’t be garbage)

More teams are leaning on AI for forecasting. That’s a win.

But AI can’t save you from messy inputs.

If your CRM stages are fuzzy and everyone has their own definition of “qualified,” you’ll still get bad forecasts. They’ll just arrive faster.

Team move to make:

  • Define clear stage gates
  • Decide what must be true to move forward
  • Build the habit of updating reality, not optimism
9. The skill plan matters as much as the tech plan

Most organizations spend way more on tools than training.

Tools are coming. Skills are what will separate teams.

If you’re a leader or enablement:

  • Budget time and money for skill development
  • Build an ongoing cadence so training isn’t a one-time event
  • Make practice normal, not rare
  • Don’t rely on video alone and call it “training”

People don’t change from watching. They change from doing.

READ: The Secret to Scaling Sales Team Revenue: Your Managers

Role-based game plan (so you actually use this)

If you’re a rep

Put these blocks on your calendar weekly:

  • Research + personalization time
  • Call time
  • Follow-up time
  • Skill practice time (one skill, not ten)

If you’re a manager

Protect your calendar or you’ll burn out:

  • Weekly group pipeline time (group, not endless 1:1 firefighting)
  • Weekly coaching block (deeper coaching, not drive-by feedback)
  • Monthly strategy and career development conversations
  • Quality checks (quality over quantity)

If you’re a sales or revenue leader 

Scale without losing control: 

  • Weekly visibility into pipeline health and risk, not just totals 
  • Clear definitions for stages, forecasting, and “what good looks like” 
  • Regular inspection of skills, not just numbers 
  • Investment in both systems and people, not one or the other

If you’re in enablement

Speed is the name of the game:

  • Build the muscle of a training cadence first
  • Then swap topics in as the world changes
  • Keep humans defining what “good” looks like
  • Use AI tools to spot patterns, not replace coaching

READ: 8 Sales Enablement Best Practices to Partner with Revenue Leaders

This year is going to reward the people who stay current, build real skill, and show up as humans.

Use AI to get faster. Use your people to get better.

And please, for the love of all things, don’t let a robot set the standard for your customer conversations.

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customized sales training

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Why Customized Sales Training Delivers Better ROI

When I became the Global Head of Enablement at SAP, I was given one monumental task: launch outbound virtual sales training FAST.

I had no team.
No curriculum.
And a deadline that did not care.

In four weeks, 37 reps were scheduled to sit in a classroom in Barcelona. And I had nothing. No content. No internal resources. No time to build it all from scratch.

So I did what most enablement leaders in that situation do. I started shopping for sales training.

What I found was the same thing you still see everywhere today. A standard two day workshop. One version for Sales 101. One for Sales 201. One for managers. One for leaders. A little pre-work, maybe a little post-work, but essentially a one-size-fits all experience that was not designed for our motion or our customers.

When I asked vendors for customized sales training, I paid an extra ten thousand dollars and got two role plays printed on paper and shoved into the back of the workbook.

That was the “customization.”

It was not just frustrating. It was unusable. I did not want a vendor. I needed a partner. I needed content that actually fit our inside sales training reality and that my team could reuse, adapt, and build on, not a one time event.

That experience stuck with me. It shaped how I think about sales training, and it is a big reason I am on a mission to make customizable sales training the norm instead of the exception.

DOWNLOAD: Sales Training Vendor Partner Checklist

Why One Size Fits All Sales Training Fails

If you have ever sat through generic sales training, you already know why it fails.

Most programs are built for delivery efficiency, not real world application. They are designed so a trainer can fly in, deliver the same deck to a different audience, and fly out again.

On paper, it looks like this:

  • One standard curriculum
  • One format, often a two day workshop
  • One path, regardless of role or segment
  • One moment in time, then it is over

In reality, this creates three big problems.

#1 Engagement

Reps and managers are busy and overloaded. The human brain is always scanning for reasons not to change. The second they hear an example that does not match their buyers or their sales cycle, they check out.

“This is for field sellers.”
“Our buyers are nothing like that.”
“This feels like theory, not inside sales training.”

#2 Application

Even great ideas die if the rep has to translate them alone. When training is generic, you are asking each seller to figure out how to apply it to their role, their accounts, and their conversations. A few high performers will do it. Most will not.

#3 Retention and ROI

We know from learning science that people forget the majority of what they hear in class within days if they are not actively recalling and using it. If there are no real calls, no role specific activities, and no coaching built around the new skills, the investment evaporates fast.

That is why truly customizable sales training matters. Not because it sounds fancy, but because relevance is what keeps reps engaged long enough to try something new, and trying is the first step toward results.

The Real Build vs. Buy Dilemma For Enablement Leaders

If you run enablement or revenue, you are caught in a familiar trap.

Option 1: Build your own sales training
  • You control the message and the motion
  • You align to your process, customers, and tech stack
  • You can design role specific paths for BDRs, AEs, AMs, and managers

But you also run into the reality:

  • It takes months, sometimes years
  • Your team already has a full time job
  • Internal credibility can be uneven
  • Content gets outdated faster than you can update it
Option 2: Buy external sales training
  • You get outside expertise
  • You get something faster
  • You get a facilitator with instant credibility
  • You get structure you did not have to build

But the tradeoffs are real:

  • Content is often generic and one size fits all
  • It is hard to plug into onboarding and ongoing development
  • You often do not own the materials
  • Two years later the playbook and slides are still sitting where you left them

Enablement leaders live in that tension. You want the speed and quality that comes from buying, but you also need the control and customization that comes from building.

Revenue leaders feel it from a different angle. They see the price tag and ask if this sales training will move pipeline, conversion, and quota attainment. The answer depends almost entirely on whether the content feels relevant enough to use and simple enough to apply quickly.

That is the heart of the build vs. buy dilemma. It’s not about training for training’s sake. It’s about behavior change, time to impact, and whether the organization will actually adopt what you invest in.

Why Customizable Sales Training Matters For Both Enablement And Revenue

This is where customized sales training and modular sales training become a strategic lever, not a “nice to have.”

For enablement leaders, customizable sales training means:

  • You can align content to your stages, roles, and motions
  • You can plug modules into onboarding, everboarding, and refreshers
  • You can keep building on the same foundation instead of starting from zero every year
  • You get a shared language for managers to coach to

For revenue leaders, inside sales training that is truly customized means:

  • Faster ramp and shorter time to first meeting and first deal
  • Higher adoption because reps recognize themselves in the examples
  • Less rework and less “shadow curriculum” created by individual teams
  • Better visibility into what “good” looks like on actual calls

At its best, sales training is not a one time event. It is a system that combines short, tactical learning, manager coaching, live call practice, and reinforcement activities over time.

Generic content cannot support that system. Customizable sales training can.

DOWNLOAD: What Best-in-Class Sales Training Looks Like Checklist

What Customized Sales Training Actually Looks Like At Factor 8

This is exactly the gap we’re filling at Factor 8.

Instead of a single, fixed workshop, our inside sales training is built from more than 40 mini modules that we mix and match based on real data about your team. We start with an assessment. We listen to calls, review metrics, talk with leaders and reps, and identify where deals stall and where confidence breaks down.

From there, we design a custom enablement plan that often includes different paths for different roles. A BDR, an AE, and a manager should not all sit through the same day and hope to extract what they need. Each role gets the skills and scenarios that match their reality.

Customization shows up in the delivery too. The decks do not talk about “selling ice to Eskimos.” They use your buyers, your stories, your competitive landscape. Activities, role plays, and even customer logos are built around your sales motion. Reps often bring real calls into the room. We give feedback on actual conversations, not hypotheticals.

We also use a blended learning model that puts application at the center. Reps take short eLearning first to learn the core concepts. Then they complete customized homework that applies those concepts to their world, for example writing their own intros or value statements. When they come to the live workshop, they are already working from their own talk tracks and we coach them up from there.

After class, we keep going. Reps and managers come back together for accountability sessions where we review recorded calls, give next level feedback, and layer in more advanced tips. Managers then meet with us separately so we can calibrate what “good” sounds like and make sure they are reinforcing the skills in one on ones, huddles, and team meetings.

That is customized sales training in practice. It is inside sales training that is specific to your world, built to be used, and supported by your managers, not just a trainer.

Now here is where the model really shifts for enablement.

We heard the same thing from leaders again and again. They loved the training. They loved the outcomes. And they wanted more control. They wanted to keep building on the content with their own voice, their own products, and their own expertise.

So we created the All Access Sales Training License.

With All Access, you still get the full Factor 8 experience, including the assessment, the modular curriculum, and our trainers. But you also get the editable soft copies of our workshops and materials, along with train-the-trainer support and LMS ready files.

That means:

  • You can license customizable sales training content that already works
  • You can brand it, adapt it, and plug it into your own LMS or run it in ours
  • You can build role-based paths for reps and managers without starting from scratch
  • You can keep content evergreen by updating it as your motion evolves

In plain terms, we help you solve the build vs. buy dilemma.

You get the speed, expertise, and credibility of buying outside sales training. You get the control, flexibility, and ownership of building your own. And your reps get inside sales training that finally feels like it was made for them.

If you are tired of choosing between generic workshops and year long build outs, this is the middle ground. Customized sales training that is modular, practical, and actually yours to keep.

Are you looking for customizable sales training?

Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).


invest in sales training

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10 Signs Your Sales Team Needs Sales Training

Your budget is limited. Your needs are not. So when do you know it’s time to invest in sales training for your team?

READ: New Funded Sales Training Program

Here are some easy benchmarks and warning signs to help determine if your sales team needs sales training:

1. Your New Hire Training Doesn’t Include Sales Training

I know, you hired for sales talent. You shouldn’t need to train them. If I had a nickel every time I heard that… Trust me, they need training. Why? Their old company did it differently, the sales motion was slightly different, they love a different methodology, and maybe they were loyal sellers but not great ones. I’ve had 15-year sales veterans in my virtual sales skills classes and often their learning curve is the steepest. (Head here for more info on what good virtual sales training looks like)

virtual sales challenges


2. The Last 4 Classes Were Product Related

If you’re thinking: “I do training all the time!”, I invite you to check the content. Reps are used to getting product/service updates and company updates, but not skill refreshes. Sales skills should be taught in onboarding AND at least once a quarter ongoing.

Think of sales calls as “game day.” How often did you practice before then?

3. There’s Been a Strategy Change

About half of our clients come to us because it’s been a struggle to change behaviors now that ______ has changed. Sometimes it’s a go-to-market strategy, client coverage, or an addition of a product or service line. You get it. What seemed simple in the boardroom can prove crazy-making when trying to align 50 junior reps and their managers. Just remember, telling them in the meeting only opens the door. Most employees don’t have the capacity nor the inclination to then translate how this will change their approach, their conversations, their goals, etc. Tell, TRAIN, then coach.

4. You Just Listened to Sales Calls and Your Ears Are Bleeding

If you’ve recently implemented a conversational intelligence tool like Gong, Chorus, or ExecVision, you probably thought it would be fun to listen to the customer’s voice. By the ninth call recording, I’m willing to bet you summoned your team leads and training liaison and had a serious talk about rep skills. Enter professional sales skills training.

5. You’re Losing Gen Z or Millennials

If the last 3 exits or thanks-no-thanks job rejections were Gen Z or Millennials, check your training package. A recent article cited “opportunities for development and advancement” as the number one requirement for these job seekers. New hire product and systems training won’t cut it if you want to attract and keep today’s talent.

Are you considering alternate hiring pools and need to teach former teachers, retail workers, vets or tradespeople how to sell?

Assign this task to the professionals, your HR trainer is probably not equipped for that heavy overhaul. Alternatively, congratulations on your brilliant strategy. Great training programs will open multiple hiring pools to you that won’t be open to your competition, and I love finding behavioral traits in an existing hire rather than teaching the skills to someone new!

6. It’s Playbook Time!

If you’ve grown to the point where it’s time to capture best practices and “how a bill becomes a law” at your shop, I’m guessing you have more than 10 reps but under 50 and you’ve been selling between 1 and 3 years. It’s time to document! Before you do, grab some new best practices from a professional sales trainer. The perfect time is after draft one and before it’s finalized. Invariably, clients who just finished their playbook have gone back to update it with our skills and strategies. If you’re not sure which to do first, I do recommend starting the playbook so that what’s already created can be standardized and uniformly improved with training.

7. Flat Growth

If you’ve used the same conversion ratios the last 2-3 times you’ve done headcount projections, it’s time for some training. In other words, rep staffing isn’t always a quantity equation, you should bank on quality improvements as well. Not sure? Ask yourself how many heads you could save in your budget with a 15% improvement in your top-line conversion metric (whatever that may be). We regularly clock 30-70% improvements allowing sales leaders to lower sales headcount! Shift that spending to your “want” list instead!

Now let’s check in on manager training. Most companies invest in new hire training, then ongoing rep training, and maybe finally manager development. Makes sense, there’s only one for every ten or twenty reps, right? Unfortunately, most reps we promote to manager fail in the first 24 months (50-70% according to the Corporate Executive Board), and they can take down great customers AND reps with them. Here are three signs to check:

8. Your Turnover Is Over 65% or Increasing

If you don’t have annualized employee turnover/exit rates on your dashboard, get them – and by manager. Your star sales managers are keeping their teams and promoting reps rather than suffering high attrition. This is a red flag that you have a struggling manager – perhaps one who hasn’t been taught how to lead people yet.

9. Low Employee Engagement Scores

Consider this a leading indicator KPI of attrition. It is NOT a buyer’s market anymore and if you have a great rep they are actively being recruited out. New generations demand ongoing development opportunities, so be sure you have a line item in your budget every single year. If not, you simply won’t be able to compete for talent.

10. You’ll Be Scaling in the Next 18 Months

If you’ve proven your concept (product fit and funding or even the voracity of digital sales vs. field selling), you’ll be planning to add headcount. When doubling (or more) in size, the critical path is your management team. Sales management training helps provide a consistent rep experience (teams will juggle), a consistent sales process, a consistent definition of what is a good call, consistent performance evaluation, and consistent hiring. I think you’re getting the keyword here. Consistency will allow for a smooth scale. Without it, you’re trying to replicate the Wild Wild West and you’ll experience a spike in rep (and manager) attrition 3-9 months after your hiring waves.

Bonus: Before you scale is also the right time to upgrade your onboarding experience. You’ll need a standard curriculum, testing, wave-based hiring, sandbox systems, and a professional sales curriculum. Do this before tripling the team’s volume in class!

If you’ve found a few signs that your team needs sales training, I hope you’ll reach out and have a conversation. We’re happy to help you decide what skills would help most even if you don’t ultimately outsource to us.

Ready to invest in sales training?

Contact us today to request information on our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).


sales rep onboarding

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8 Sales Rep Onboarding Best Practices

By now you’ve heard that the sales rep onboarding experience is a major factor in how they ramp to quota and ultimately affects how they feel about your company.  

There are about 3 million moving parts in an onboarding program since it happens across so many departments, mostly outside of sales. Because of this, it’s easy to lose our way during onboarding. One of the most important hindrances is the lack of investment — both in effort and money — in onboarding.

Insidesales.com did a study that found organizations spend an average of 3x more on rep tools than on rep development, with the average rep having between 5-10 tools. Similarly, Training Magazine found that organizations spend on average 25x more on recruiting than development. 

Moreover, Training Magazine tells us that a good onboarding program can cut ramp time and attrition by 50%. If we focus more time on crafting an onboarding program that will help retain the reps we recruit, we save time, money, and energy down the line.

So let’s do this! Here are 8 best practices you can dive into fixing right now.

Integrate These 8 Best Practices Into Your Sales Rep Onboarding

  1. “Just-in-time” training
  2. Leverage sales (not HR) professionals
  3. Balance software and traditional training methods
  4. Continue onboarding long after the rep is “ready”
  5. Adopt the six critical components of a training program 
  6. Use ample multimedia resources
  7. Create a formal, but flexible, rep training program 
  8. Set realistic, data-based expectations 

Let’s dive a little deeper into why and how to integrate these tips into your onboarding.

1. “Just-in-time” Training

When building an onboarding program, it’s tempting to start by listing all the things “Johnny” may ever need to know and start from the top. Instead, try slicing off only what Johnny needs to know in month one.

It can be tempting to dive deep into company waters with things like histories, organizational charts, and other detailed and specific areas. It’s more effective to shift this information to the backburner for the time being and focus only on what the new rep needs in the first month to be successful. After all, how often does a customer quiz your rep on key events in the company’s founding?

Onboarding training should mirror what a rep’s day-to-day activities will look like once training is finished during the first month on the job (and only that first month).  This ensures reps don’t feel like a fish out of water when the time comes to execute the tactics taught in training.

Why stop at month one? Because we want our reps to come out of onboarding feeling confident! We want them ready to pound the phones and execute what they learned! If we start introducing them to all the sales process complexities, advanced products, and deep conversations, then we run the risk of scaring or overwhelming them.  

This is a time when “you don’t know what you don’t know” is a good thing. If your reps will likely spend that first month talking to existing happy customers or cold calling and leaving a lot of voicemails, stop training there. Bring them back later for the rest. 

2. Leverage Sales (Not HR) Professionals 

Aberdeen reported that 85% of the sales teams considered “best-in-class” use professional sales trainers or curriculum. But the majority of us outsource our onboarding to HR.

This absolutely does not mean that your sales managers should be the trainers. It means that as a sales leader, you have sales managers and a sales training manager reporting to you (or at least attending your meetings). It could also mean that you have a sales manager who acts as a liaison to training.  

But what it definitely means is that you and your sales team all know what is being taught, agree with the how, and are thrilled with what reps can do when they graduate from the onboarding training.

Some companies shy away from investing in an expert for new hires due to the high turnover rate. But, by investing in good sales training and following best practices, companies can reduce new hire turnover rate and save money in the long run.

3.  Balance Online and Classroom Training 

What we use to teach reps is another balancing act between digital learning and resources and traditional training methods. 

Best practice? Use technology for about 30% of your overall curriculum. Much more and we’re missing the opportunity to engage new reps and ensure their first month is lonely and, let’s face it: boring. 

Online learning is easiest to leverage for one of the following areas:

  1. Rote knowledge that isn’t likely to change. This includes policies, laws, company history, and unchanging products.
  2. Already-created, third-party curriculum. Commonly this is from technology vendors like Salesforce or basic Microsoft how-to assets
  3. Trusted adviser curriculum. If you’re working with social, sales, or marketing experts already and have adopted their methodologies, ask about online resources to onboard new reps. 

Leverage your training department’s learning management system with whatever you’re doing. You’ll want to track what reps have and haven’t done and add a layer of accountability with reporting and testing.

4. Don’t Let It End! Continue Training Even After Onboarding

Rep development should be ongoing. Don’t ever fall into the trap of “They’re trained! My job here is done.” That’s akin to the NFL putting players in preseason camp and then stopping practice when the regular season begins.  

Development is an ongoing sport.  

At Factor 8, we’re huge champions of sending new reps to the phones early and often. But that is with the assumption that they’ll come back to the classroom to address the gaps they find while out on the harsh streets of your sales floor. It’s also assuming that managers are closely keeping track of rep progress and development needs.

How do you facilitate this?

Try to organize the curriculum into three levels:

  1. Level 1 maps to onboarding – the foundational/month 1 skills.  
  2. Level 2 is “just in time” after reps master level 1 and get 6-12 months under their belt. They’re ramped to quota, and it’s time for ongoing development to keep growing and do the whole job well.  
  3. Level 3 maps to the mastery of the job in years 2 to 3 — more advanced skills to help them be superstars.   

Between each level we add exercises, activities, assignments, and refreshers to keep the skills top of mind, show new ways to try certain tactics, and help managers engage reps in 1:1 and team skill development. The Sales Bar helps us make all of this accessible on-demand so teams can learn what they want to when they want to while still keeping track. We also drip new content monthly and use leaderboards to keep things fresh and different so users want to log back in.  

Use this as an example of the microlearning and ongoing development young reps crave. Millennials expect a certain percentage of learning to be in the classroom and online, and they expect opportunities to develop themselves long after onboarding.  

Offering blended learning, leveled learning, and ongoing learning checks all those boxes.

5. Adopt the 6 Critical Components of a Sales Training Program

If you’re just starting to build your program or you’re going in to assess yours, start by evaluating what’s being trained. It’s easy to go deep into systems and products, but those are just two of the six components of well-rounded onboarding training:

  1. Systems and tools — Your CRM, intranet, engagement tool, dialer, etc. 
  2. Product and service — What you’re selling. Tip: Focus on “how to sell it” versus a full rundown of product history, speeds, and feeds. This harkens back to best practice #1 and maintaining training relevancy. If your product people are teaching this, chances are your reps don’t need half of it and are using this time to snooze.
  3. Sales — Even if you hire for experience, reps need to be taught how to sell your services to your customers in your industry over the phone.  Haven’t met a new hire yet who doesn’t.
  4. Process — Think of how your leads and orders get processed internally and who a rep goes to for the top customer questions. In other words, how do you get stuff done at your company?
  5. Acumen — Sorry folks, they’re not coming out of school with business acumen and certainly not industry and customer acumen. This is a big gap, and filling it will drastically shorten ramp time.  
  6. Manager integration — this is where tip #5 really comes to life, both during and after onboarding. Reps need to see their leaders often, and training needs input and oversight.

6. Utilize Ample Multimedia Resources

No two reps are identical when it comes to learning style. Make sure you’re meeting every new hire where they’re at by using a mix of helpful resources. 

This includes but is not limited to:

Mixing up these methods not only appeals to reps with different learning styles but also helps keep training exciting and fresh. Who wants to sit and listen to someone else make calls all day and slap a “training” label on it? 

7. Create a Formal, but Flexible Rep Training Program

If you’re not putting all new hires through the same rep onboarding process, how can you ever tell if what you’re doing is working?

As we said: Different reps have different learning styles, so it is important to remain flexible to an extent. Just make sure you have some core pillars of onboarding training in place so all new hires are experiencing the same process.

This helps you measure KPIs and tweak your processes if weak spots surface.

8. Set Realistic, Data-Based Expectations for Your New Reps

How many times have your managers set sky-high call quotas for new reps? How many times have they failed to reach it? But, most importantly, how many times has this been documented?

The only thing more frustrating (for both rep and manager) than someone consistently underperforming on quotas, is for there to be nothing in place to fix it moving forward.

Make sure when you’re setting expectations and KPIs for new hire reps that they are based on data. Once you have a fleshed-out onboarding process, it will be easier than ever to keep track of this information.

Find a Tool That Works for Your Onboarding Needs

What if we told you there’s a tool that complements in-person sales training, allows managers to monitor new hire learning during onboarding, and offers a wide variety of inside sales resources?

It’s not magic — it’s The Sales Bar. Fill out the form below to learn more.

Want more information on our sales rep onboarding programs?

Contact us today to request information on our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).


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