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Inside/Virtual Sales Training Tips

maximize sales training investment

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5 Tips to Maximize Your Sales Training Investment

After you’ve hired a sales training vendor, there are a series of questions you need to answer in order to ensure you’re getting the most out of your sales training investment, like:

  • How do I maximize sales training ROI?
  • How do I measure training success?
  • How do I get results FAST?

Having been both the vendor and the buyer in this equation, I definitely have some insight to share. I’ve made mistakes as the Training Director hiring a sales/sales leadership training vendor, and I’ve had clients do some really smart (and less than smart) things. 

Although I could write about this topic forever, I’ve narrowed it down to my top 5 tips to maximize your sales training investment.

1. Customize the Customization. Then customize that. Twenty years ago, I paid a vendor $15,000 extra to customize the training for my company. I spent countless hours sending them examples, marketing data, and websites. I forwarded redacted emails and unpublished case studies. I just KNEW they would get the “real feel” for how special our snowflake was. The result?

The vendor added one half-page sheet to the back of the workbook with two custom role plays. TWO! The pages weren’t even numbered with the rest of the workbook. Total afterthought! Literally, nothing else was custom.

Ready for the vendor flipside? Six years ago we up-leveled all our workbooks for Factor 8. This meant I couldn’t build custom workbooks from scratch anymore for clients (the downside of totally custom is a less professional look – even a few errors). Now each of our course workbooks of about 10 pages has around 15 sections in bold red font that our Advisors tailor prior to delivery. It might be the customer’s language, an industry example, a customer voice example, specific sales objections, etc. During the live interactions, our coaches play their sales calls, coach actual delivery, and will give custom samples/scripts of every skill. That’s customization!

Tip: Get an actual list of what is tailored to your organization, its format, and when/how it is delivered. 

2. Require Manager Involvement. Note: I didn’t say attendance. You need attendance AND involvement! Back when I was delivering training in an enablement organization, we were afraid to invite all the sales managers to our training. They were so busy and important (and let’s be honest, a little rude). As I gained more confidence, I would meet with them 1:1 after the training with tips on what we trained and what to look for. As I got busier, I would schedule a 15-minute meeting so I could do this all at once. When I was put in charge, I required them to come AND met with them for 30 minutes afterward.

Guess what? They still couldn’t coach the skills. Sure, they attended the training, but they didn’t participate. They didn’t come and play to win as if they, too, would be graded on their adaption of the skills. They half-listened, did some email, smiled and nodded, and stole the stage as often as possible to give sage advice.

Vendor Flipside: At Factor 8, we meet with managers before the training, require attendance at the training, train the managers on how to coach the skills after the training, give managers 3+ tools to make it easy to support and coach the training, then do a follow-up meeting with the managers on how skills went, AND certify the managers to certify the reps on the skills. It may seem like overkill, but trust me, it works.

Your ROI will be cut in half if your managers aren’t underlying the importance of using the new skills and coaching their execution. Go overboard making sure they are trained, incentivized, and supported by your vendor to do this! 

3. Measure Your Heart Out! If you aren’t crystal clear on the results, KPIs, and metrics that should be impacted by the training, then you’re not ready to outsource sales training. (Really, a vendor just said that!) In fact, ask the vendor what numbers they expect to move with this engagement (and don’t hire them if they don’t know!) At some point, you’ll have to show your sales training ROI, so define during the interview stage what success looks like and then go get a 3-6 month baseline on these metrics. As a training manager, I was nervous early in my career to do this. It only took one sales leader saying, “You are not solely responsible for the 35% uptick in XYZ…!” for me to start backing down and measuring success anecdotally or with smile sheets. As I grew in my career, all I did was add two words: “contribute to.” If we measure pre and post, we can all SHARE the credit! 

Vendor Flipside: I love a case study. Number one reason I don’t have one on every client? They don’t provide us with their reporting. The leader pulls the trigger on the contract and then sales managers or the enablement team are left to execute and the ask never bubbles to the top. In fact, I’d love to take contracts based on the up-side (we get paid when you improve) and have offered it many times in the past, but the baseline metrics and results weren’t available from the client.

4. Get Leadership Involved (more than they are). How do I know they aren’t very involved? I’ve had about 3 clients out of 300 who were. As a training leader, I had about none. Why is this critical? Because your attendees determine how important the training is based on what the leader says, does, and spends money on. Even if you have to write the script for the VP to kick off the meeting and send over the questions they need to ask in their 1:1 meeting afterward, take the time and do it. Otherwise, you may be the flavor of the month. 

Vendor Flipside: They’re my favorite three clients ever. And when they ask for anything extra, they get it. I’ve helped them get jobs 10 years later, spoken free at their conferences, and featured them on our blogs. When a leader lends their time, voice, and stature to training, it will literally change the organization’s culture. Help convince them they’ll get more ROI by being involved. Make it easier on them with cheat sheets and reminders. These clients get double their money’s worth.

5. Focus on Long Term. Ever met with an internal client who wants you to train 5 things in 20 minutes? Me too. Try every single sales leader ever. Here’s why: Most people don’t know the difference between telling and training. That’s why their people don’t change their behavior after being told. Folks, if you want people to change what they’re doing, the training will take 5x longer than you want it to AND the support “tail” for the training will be months, maybe even years. Don’t make training an event – studies show they’ll remember about 30% of what is taught. The best leaders get this fact:

Training isn’t something you did, it’s something you do.

Vendor Flipside: Events are fun. They’re low risk and high reward. We often would have better selling days during training than normal days (live calling during training). Lots of energy, buzz, and results. But if that’s all your vendor is doing, reconsider. What about keeping skills alive? Pulling the buzz forward? Seeing skills move from the classroom to the sales floor? 15 years ago we offered a 1-day post-training follow-up. Then 90 days virtual. Now we do one-year contracts. It’s the right thing to do and the right way to do it. Doesn’t fit the SKO? Hire a speaker instead.

If you’re evaluating sales training, we’re here to help. Fill out the form or email info@factor8.com and let us know how we can help.

Want more information on how to maximize your sales training investment?

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


good inside sales rep training

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Inside Sales Training: What Does Good Training Look Like?

Whether you’re shopping around for external inside sales training vendors or working with your internal training department, knowing what good inside sales rep training looks like is the first step to ensuring your training is checking all the key boxes.

We’ve outlined a few of the most important considerations to keep in mind when choosing an inside sales training partner.

Decide What Good Inside Sales Training Looks Like

This shouldn’t be a surprise to any sales leaders out there — but what makes good inside sales training is results. You’ll be able to know whether or not sales training worked simply because it moved the needle.

These “results” look different depending on your company, team, and goals. It’s important to go into the sales training and decide on what those goals are to you — whether it’s sales units sold or market share gained.

READ: How to Measure Sales Training ROI

This is even more important when partnering with an external sales training vendor. The vendor should understand your goals as well as your sales process, product, customers, industry, and competitors. There is so much specialization in the market today, don’t let a vendor bring SDR training to your team of AEs.

In order for sales training to be considered “good”, it must achieve your goals. Outlining what these goals are, and what success looks like, beforehand is a surefire way to get what your team needs out of their training.

We recommend identifying metrics, behaviors, KPIs, and overall results that you expect to shift during and after the training. Metrics and behaviors should lift immediately showing you’re on the right track, and KPIs are early indicators that the results are on the way. Identifying metrics or results only can lead to a miss.

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5 Characteristics of Good Inside Sales Training

After the goals are set, here are a few more tips to ensure you’re maximizing your training investment:

1. The Sales Training is Customized

Really great sales training is customized to your industry and product/service.

This ensures your reps aren’t left trying to figure out how to take a broad theory and apply it to their job, customer, or service.

While it’s true that customized sales training is more expensive, the ROI is up to twenty-fold when you consider how much your reps are actually retaining, and how much they can apply immediately to their practices.

Use public seminars and events to help someone get a tip or two. Use custom live training to move the needle on results.

2. Get a Professional Sales Trainer

Aberdeen reported that 85% of the sales teams that are considered “best-in-class” utilize professional sales trainers or resources.

Don’t try and turn your managers or reps into trainers. Let’s face it, they’ve got enough on their plates. Plus, even really good managers and reps have no idea how to train — it’s just not their job! They might be excellent at sales, but they have no expertise in training.

Even worse, don’t let your HR department teach sales. They’re great at training and professional facilitation in many areas of your business, but their bailiwick is in company orientation and sexual harassment training — not sales and selling. They may be excellent at training but have no expertise in sales.

See where we’re going with this?

Make sure to bring in someone who is an expert at both training and sales. That’s the secret to good inside sales training, and it’s what the best in class are doing.

3. Make Sure the Training Has the Right Focus

If you’re training your inside sales reps, make sure they’re attending an inside sales training. It sounds simple, but oftentimes well-meaning sales team leaders are duped into thinking “sales training” is enough. Shoe-horning your company’s existing field training for your inside team may actually do more damage than good.

Most popular sales books and training curricula deal with a very narrow view of selling: The conversation between Person A and Person B. Anyone who has been working in inside sales for a while can agree that the true issue lies in getting that interaction in the first place.

If your reps are struggling with connecting with decision-makers, getting callbacks, finding the right people, figuring out who to call, and capturing attention at the top of the funnel, then conversation selling and overcoming objections will miss the mark.

Make sure that your inside sales reps are being coached on topics like:

  • Leaving compelling voicemails that will be returned
  • Capturing a prospect’s attention in the first 30 seconds
  • Leading with value
  • Creating engaging conversations vs. script reading
  • How to get a callback or bridge to the next call
  • Finding more decision-makers in the company
  • Dealing with gatekeepers

It’s important to make sure other aspects of the strategy are covered as well, so the reps can rely on their managers less for questions such as:

  • Who should I call first?
  • How often should I call?
  • Should I leave a voicemail message?
  • How often?
  • Now, what do I do?
virtual sales challenges
4. Sales Training NEEDS to Be Hands-On

Theory stinks.

During the training, make sure reps are getting on the phones. There’s no reason that training shouldn’t be stopped so that the reps can go try out the skills they’re learning, and role-plays don’t really tell the whole story, do they?

Live calls to live customers using the training guarantees that these training methods are going to be applied. Live calling in a safe space leads to more rep buy-in and builds confidence. When reps see the tactics work in real-time they adopt, apply, and try more often. Training fall-off (the forgetting curve) has the odds stacked against it now!

Make the training stick by actually making calls and building pipeline during training.

5. Make Sure Your Managers Get Involved in Sales Training

Put managers in the reps’ training, and when possible make sure they have their own version of the training class tailored for their needs. Managers need to learn how to recognize the new skills in action, when to coach, how to coach the new skill, when to celebrate it working, and how to keep the momentum alive when the trainers leave. Behavior change lives and dies with the management team, and their buy-in, involvement, and use of the new skills are critical to success.

Ask your vendor how the managers will be involved in retaining the new skills.

READ: Tips for Enablement Leaders to Increase Sales Coaching Focus

Good Training is Ongoing Training

You got it, training is a process, not an event. Reps reported a “Lack of Development” as a top 5 challenge every year for the past five years as reported by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals. Aberdeen also reported missing development opportunities as the number one rep-reported reason for leaving companies.

Deciding to invest in rep development is a smart choice, but be sure you don’t assume that it is “one and done.” Your teams want ongoing opportunities to learn, grow, and advance their careers.

READ: Why Event-Based Sales Training Falls Short

Training Magazine reported an average number of development hours/year/employee at about 48 hours – or four hours/month. Is your internal training team ready to provide this? Most corporate training teams get quickly maxed by providing new hire orientation and onboarding. Manager coaching can fill some of the gaps, but if you’re talking with learning vendors, check their ongoing offerings as well.

Ongoing training will often nurture and advance skills taught onsite – helping check the box of retaining new skills and providing the ongoing development reps crave.

The easiest way to accomplish this is with vendor-provided online skills training or inside sales training courses after their session to brush up on their skills, hone in on their weak spots, and keep skills in practice.

When evaluating sales training software, look for interactive resources such as:

  • Recorded call libraries
  • Sample scripts/messaging starters
  • Interactive micro e-learning modules
  • Printable cheat sheets
  • Manager coaching
  • Team activities
  • Videos
  • Sales certifications

Reps want skills on-demand. Learning should be easy, fun, interactive, and flexible. The old days of long-form narrated slides and sales training videos are over. Anyone who has clicked their way through to the final test (or let it run in the background while doing email) can attest to the fact this isn’t engaging or effective.

Again, look for sales training software to engage your management team as well as the learners. New skills and a culture of development live and die on your front lines. Does the software provide manager resources?

How about fast-reference cheat sheets, coaching guides, or contest ideas? Is it nimble enough to allow quick reference before a big call or team meeting?

Get your sales managers involved in testing your top choices.

Are you looking for the best inside sales training programs?

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


best sales coaching questions

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The Best Sales Coaching Questions Ever

Learning to be a great sales coach is hard – really hard. It’s the hardest thing we teach new managers who were formally reps. Now, it’s not as hard as climbing Mt. Everest or teaching your grandma how to order presents online, but it’s rough. 

It’s the #1 skill that most new managers struggle with. If you’re a naturally phenomenal coach, congrats (seriously!), but the rest of us are struggling. Why? We don’t often know what defines great sales coaching. So let’s break it down…

The Difference Between Presenting vs. Facilitation vs. Coaching

The lines are often blurred between presenting, training, and sales coaching, especially when we don’t have staff and resources dedicated to each. Why does it matter?

Well, does this sound familiar?

“I’VE TOLD THEM 100 TIMES!!”

We’ve heard it from managers and VPs (and parents 😉 ). It’s rough, folks. If people aren’t retaining what you’re telling them to do, they obviously aren’t going to do it. So we have to back up a few steps and make sure it gets in their brain and sticks.

What is presenting?

We define presenting as…Introducing new information through speech often using slides/visual aids.

Watching a webinar? You’re listening to someone presenting. Sitting in a lecture hall in college? That’s presenting.

Now the downside to presenting is something called The Forgetting Curve. If you’re in sales enablement or training, you’ve likely heard of it. It shows us that by the end of the day, reps have lost 50% of what you taught them. In a week, they’ve lost 90%. So it’s pretty obvious why they aren’t doing what you told them to do – they can’t even remember it!

There are two ways you can beat The Forgetting Curve.

  1. By utilizing great facilitation or training. The better (and more interactive) the training, the more likely the skills will stick. The more often reps actually do something, the more likely they’ll remember it and the more likely you’ll get results. 
  2. Through coaching. All you have to do is tell people what to do and then 1:1, 4x throughout the week, go and coach them on the same skill. You’ve got time to do that, right? 😐 Nope! That’s why good facilitation is the better option.
The Forgetting Curve
What is facilitation?

Folks the name of the game to get people to do what you need them to do, to get results, to get commission checks is: RECALL. They can’t do it if they can’t remember it.

In order to obtain recall, you need to have good facilitation or training. Unfortunately, most facilitation is broken. You can’t just tell someone to do something and expect them to do it perfectly, they need to practice.

Grab a sheet of paper and draw a picture of the Statue of Liberty based on memory. Assuming your side hustle isn’t as an artist, it’s probably going to look like something a child drew. Why? Well, when was the last time you drew something? Drawing is something we did a lot as a kid until other things became more exciting or interesting. We quit practicing, and when we quit practicing, our skills freeze. 

For many of us, teaching is also a skill frozen in time. We think of teaching and we see ourselves sitting in a lecture hall with someone talking at us, telling us what to do. And we know that’s not how people learn.

That’s why we’ve got to redefine teaching and facilitate instead. 

We define facilitation using the acronym CUP. It stands for…

  • C = Connect. If you want people to remember things, apply them, and do what you tell them to do, you have to help them connect with the information (it’s called Adult Learning Theory). It basically says that adults have filing cabinets in their heads. If you tell a kid something new, they’ll accept it as fact. Adults won’t even log it until you help them find the file folder. That means you’re helping them connect with it.
  • U = Use. Great training takes longer because we’re facilitating them actually getting their hands on it. I’ve watched people do systems training where their team is just sitting and watching. Totally hands-off, and totally a waste of time. If we want people to understand, we have to get them to use it.
  • P = Practice. We absolutely, positively have to practice. End of story.

By using the CUP method for facilitation, that’s how we beat The Forgetting Curve. Expect 70-80% recall. Get some buy-in along the way, a little practice and roleplay, synthesis with what they do on the job, and you’re looking at 80-90% recall. Plus, you’ll create new habits.

What is sales coaching?

Everyone does it a little differently, but a lot of people confuse sales coaching with leading, but with a few questions sprinkled in. 

We define sales coaching as… Ongoing development method used by leaders using questions to inspire and deliver personal feedback on skills.

Pay attention to the bolded words. If you’re just giving people advice or there are 25 people in the room, that’s not coaching. When you’ve got a team of reps in the room, what you’re really doing is presenting.

ACTION: Go and CUP check your virtual sales training. If you’ve got a lot of videos and little practice, people aren’t doing what you tell them to do. Leaders, if you do a lot of announcing without any coaching, follow-up, or roleplays, they’re not doing what you tell them to do. And when it’s something critical like learning how to sell and be successful in new hire onboarding, you’ve got to do all 3.

READ: Why You Need a Sales Training and Enablement Budget

The Power of Sales Coaching

If behavior change is critical, start with the 1-2-3 punch. Begin with the presentation, then facilitate, and then coach. Now, coaching alone CAN be powerful (but not how you think…)

Great coaches have 1 thing in common: they motivate people. Motivation is the key to everything. It affects recall (information + caring = recall).

READ: Tips for Enablement Leaders to Increase Sales Coaching Focus

Our job as managers and coaches is to ensure our reps leave our coaching sessions feeling like superheroes. That’s why we teach the 5:1 method – share 5 positives and 1 area for improvement. It’s also the #1 mistake new managers make. Why? We hear the laundry list of things that went wrong on a sales call and can’t help but tell them every single one of them. 

The power of sales coaching is in the questions you ask. Said in another way:

“Leaders who ask more, get more.”

That’s why we coach in questions. It’s called “Instinctive Elaboration”. It’s the secret behind the Factor 8 SWIIFT℠ intro where we’re literally hijacking the brain of the prospect to answer our questions even if they didn’t mean to and it’s why it works to get them talking.

It works like this: how old are you?

Did a number pop in your head? Now it’s halfway out of your mouth. 

The brain stops what it’s doing and starts answering questions whether it wants to or not. 

Here’s more proof: how much do you weigh?

I know you didn’t want to share it, but you thought it, didn’t you? 🙂 

DOWNLOAD: 20 Ways to Increase the Sales Coaching Focus at Work

The Best Sales Coaching Questions Ever (and Why!)

We’ve spent years mastering the art of coaching and have compiled the best sales coaching questions ever (and they’re backed by science).

1. “Tell me about a time you had to do something similar?”

This helps them connect. Unfortunately, not all of us have the time or tech to do the CUP theory. We use a lot of video, but do videos actually teach? We don’t think so (read more about that here.)

2. “Why are you so good at this?”

You can ask this to anybody in any coaching session and something happens in the brain called “Confirmation Bias”. If you ask them a ‘why’ question, they’ll look for the reason that it’s true. This instantly boosts motivation. 

3. “What happens when you knock this out of the park?”

This question builds confidence by creating mental imagery, scientifically known as “Functional Equivalence.” You’ve probably heard it with Olympic athletes where they picture themselves doing their gymnastics routine perfectly in their head and it fires the neurons as if they’re doing it. If you can get your reps to picture success, they’re more likely to achieve it.

There’s also something called the “Pygmalion Effect” which says that if your manager believes in you, you’ll believe in yourself more. Read differently:

“Leaders who expect more, get more.”

4. “What are you most proud of on that call?”

If anybody has reps that beat themselves up a little bit, this question is for you. The brain will search for an answer and find it – guaranteed.

5. “What should we do next?”

This is all about active recall; going in and finding the information in the brain. The other question we ask is “what was the customer thinking?” This is out of our head and our noise and puts ourselves into the shoes of the customer which is what we’re trying to do. It shortens ramp time, folks. Ramp time isn’t about me not knowing it, it’s about me not knowing when to use it. And if we can burn the pathways in the brain to recall the information we need at the right time, that’s how we get people to learn and apply skills faster.

6. “What one thing is most important to work on?” 

You can use this in any coaching interaction anywhere and the science behind it is called “Implementation Intention.” Studies show that if you work on one thing and put a plan in place, it’s 2-3x more effective. 

Coaching your team is more than just sharing information with them—it’s about really changing the way they think and act. By incorporating presenting, facilitating, and coaching, you’ll move from just talking at your team to actually sparking real behavior change.

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best inside sales training company

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How to Find the Best Inside Sales Training Company

Are you looking for the best inside sales training company? With all of the noise out there and everyone claiming to be the best, how can you tell when a training vendor is truly great and different from the rest?

Allow me to introduce Factor 8. Unlike most training companies, we were built by people who get sales. And we try really hard to not be apples. In fact, let’s call this the apples to…um…beer…comparison. 🙂

Here’s why you should drink beer with us instead of buying apples from them (this is getting better and better!):

THIS ISN’T YOUR DAD’S SALES TRAINING

We teach digital sales/phone sales/inside sales/telesales/voice-to-voice sales… however you and your company phrase it. If you run a team that doesn’t primarily sell by knocking on doors, setting up face-to-face meetings, or giving live PPT presentations, we’re your vendor. Not sure the difference? Go ask any inside rep who’s been forced to attend the field’s training. We hear horror stories about this about once a month. We’ve all tried it. It. Doesn’t. Work. And in addition to wasting precious selling time, it makes your inside reps feel insignificant. Instead, teach them strategies to get people to call them back, start a call, navigate phone trees…you get it.

DOWNLOAD: Sales Training Vendor Partner Checklist

GET ON THE PHONES

Don’t want sales downtime? Sick of skills not getting applied? We got you covered baby. In every Factor 8 class, we teach a skill, practice the skill, and then go back out onto the floor and get on the phones to try that skill! No kidding. Nobody else does this. Here’s why you should care:

  • You may get better sales results during a training day than on a regular sales day. Yes, that happens a lot.
  • You may pay for the sales training before the training is over. Again, really common.
  • If you’re paying for new skills, why not make sure your people can actually do them before your trainers leave?
  • When reps try the skill, see it works, and get results, “training fall-off” is really a non-starter. In the wise words of a recent rep who came back to class over fifteen minutes late, “This Factor 8 shit really works!” He was asking the prospect questions and just couldn’t get him to stop talking to get back to class in time! High-class problem, right?

CUSTOMIZED TRAINING

This is a really big deal. Even if you don’t consider using us, ask vendors to show some specific examples of their materials customization. If your reps have to “translate” the generic sales theory in their heads to figure out how to use it, well, they’re not going to use it. I think this is the number one reason we see fall-off from training application. They can spit back a “right answer” right after training because it’s in their short-term memory. But they don’t know how to use it and aren’t using it post-training so no wonder they can’t remember it a month later. Our workbooks include messaging examples, references to your product, your customer’s top objections, and even recorded calls from YOUR reps. Seriously, we’ve never taught the same class twice. Don’t practice selling a widget. Get experts to help you practice selling your services to your customers in your industry. THEN it sticks.

Quick Note: you guys, this is why most of you haven’t heard of Factor 8. It’s really HARD to customize each class. It’s not uber PROFITABLE to customize each class. It certainly isn’t SCALABLE to customize each class. This is why the big dogs don’t do it. They’re in the business of selling workbooks. Pre-printed, mass-produced workbooks. That’s why their idea of customization is a one-page role-play at the end of a chapter. Not bad, but not good. Kind of like comparing apples and beer. By the way, it IS super EFFECTIVE to customize each class. That’s why most of you came to us by referral.

EXPERT COACHING 

Here’s my last thought. Every Factor 8 Advisor has made the calls, coached the calls, and probably even run the team. My facilitators are ex-reps, ex-managers, ex Directors, and ex VP’s. ALL from Inside Sales. And in every class, we coach live calls and recorded calls. Don’t let an adjunct professor or HR employee teach your people how to sell! Anyone can read a facilitator’s guide, how many can add value to messaging and delivery right on the spot?

Bottom line 

Your sales training should get immediate results. By providing the right training with customized materials with live practice and expert coaching, we get SPIKES in performance. Account managers uncover millions in the pipeline. Hundreds of new buying contacts are added to the database. Triple the voicemails get returned. Close percentages double. These are pretty standard Factor 8 results. Check out the case studies!

Thanks, ya’ll. This has been a lot of fun. When I’m talking to prospects on the phone, it isn’t polite to throw up values and differentiators! It certainly isn’t helpful to LIST them all! (We teach your reps to never “stack” values, we teach them to ask questions and then pick the differentiator and value that best matches!). But man it’s fun when you just get to brag.

We’ve built something amazing over here. We’re not trying to be the biggest, just the best. That’s why each year over 50% of our business is from referrals. I hope you’ll use these differentiators to demand more from your own providers. And if they can’t deliver…we’ll be right here waiting for you. With a beer!

Looking for the best sales training company?

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


increase sales coaching

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Tips for Enablement Leaders to Increase Sales Coaching Focus

This one is for the enablement folks. Truth: I’m an enablement leader in my heart and soul.

I was just talking to an enablement leader friend who was really frustrated that they spent so many months building a robust training program – rolled it out beautifully – and had to hand their baby over to the sales manager to keep those skills alive. Which did not work…

I’m here to tell you why it’s not their fault.

READ: Why You Need a Sales Training and Enablement Budget

I’ve been both an enablement leader and sales manager and can tell you that sales management is the busiest job in the world. We spend the bulk of our day fighting fires and there’s never been a learning emergency.

So if you’re an enablement or training leader and you’d like some tips to get sales managers to coach more often and keep rep skills alive, keep reading.

WATCH: Creating A Coaching Culture

I’ve got 20 tips to help you increase the sales coaching focus at work. Below are my top 3 (get the rest at the bottom of this article).

#1 – Don’t expect them to do more work. As I said previously, sales management is the busiest job in the world. If you want them to coach, you’ve got to fit coaching into their jam-packed schedule. What meetings do sales managers have often? Rep performance 1:1s, pipeline meetings, team meetings, and sales huddles. You’ve got to find ways for your managers to keep rep skills alive during their existing meetings. 

At Factor 8, we’ve built manager toolkits that have activities a sales manager can run during a sales huddle to keep skills alive after training.

#2 – Make it easy. If they need to build a deck, it’s not going to happen. If they need to create a process, it’s not going to happen. If they need to go on a scavenger hunt to find different information for the coaching session, it’s not going to happen. You’ve got to make it fast and easy for managers. 

At Factor 8, we’ve created coaching guides for various rep skills that managers can easily use for skill reinforcement. They combine a cheat sheet of what “good” looks like, which questions to ask during coaching, and a ready-to-use worksheet that coaches both the will and the skill with an easy grading form.

#3 – Most managers don’t know what “coaching” means. Sure, they understand the definition, but they don’t know what it means to actually coach a rep and they definitely don’t know what “good” coaching looks like. That means you get a lot of things like this…

“Hey rep, let’s work on this deal.” You’ve been coached. ✔

“Hey team, what’s the forecast?” You’ve been coached. ✔

“Let me get on this call and help you close it.” You’ve been coached. ✔

Folks, this isn’t coaching. As enablement leaders, we know that.

READ: How to Increase Sales Coaching Frequency

So, in training hundreds of sales managers over the last few years, I’ve learned that it’s a tough skill, it’s not natural for sales managers, and they’re too nervous to do it (though they’ll never admit that last one out loud).

Just put yourself in their shoes. Imagine going to a top player and saying “Let me listen to your call and give you feedback on how to do it better.” Sounds terribly nerve-wracking, right?

That’s why we’ve got to address it and build confidence in their sales coaching, call coaching, and rep skill coaching skills.

If you haven’t taught your managers how to coach to build up their own confidence, it’s probably no surprise that you think they can be doing more coaching.

If you’d like to talk about more specific strategies or a particular issue you’re dealing with in making that connection with sales leadership so they really get behind enablement, I’m here to talk. Email me at LB@factor8.com. 


Want more tips to increase the coaching focus at work?
Download our guide on “20 Ways To Increase Sales Coaching Focus At Work.”

Are you looking for sales training?

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


ramp sales team

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How To Ramp Your Sales Team 10x Faster

Ramping new reps to hit quota faster is every sales leader’s dream, but it doesn’t have to stay a dream. With the right approach, you can accelerate your team’s learning curve, helping them hit the ground running and reach their targets sooner. Here’s how to turbocharge your onboarding process and get your reps to quota 10x faster.

First, incorporate recordings into your training and play the pause game. This technique builds wider neural pathways, which speeds up how fast reps can remember and use new knowledge. It’s not just about listening—it’s about active engagement that sticks.

Next, ditch the boring “subject matter experts” and lifeless videos. If your training is one-way, it’s a dead-end. Instead, build in interactivity, and you’ll see your reps applying what they’ve learned much sooner. Make sales training a two-way street where participation is key.

Lastly, stop treating sales skills like they’re separate. In the real world, multitasking in sales is constant, so your training should reflect that. Teach skills together, not apart. By integrating different aspects of the sales process, your reps will develop a more holistic understanding, allowing them to pivot seamlessly between tasks.

Watch the video for more detailed advice on applying these tips to ramp your sales team fast so they’re hitting quota sooner!

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sales training techniques

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Sales Training Techniques: Telling vs. Teaching

When I first started as a sales manager, I used to think that telling my team was enough.

I knew what to do, so I could tell them what to do.

Job done, right? Not quite.

The problem was I felt like I was telling them over and over again, and yet nothing changed…

“I’VE TOLD THEM 100 TIMES.” (sound familiar?)

Well, it wasn’t until I became an enablement professional that I learned various sales techniques, including that there’s a HUGE difference between telling vs. teaching.

READ: The Best Sales Coaching Questions Ever

At the heart of that is something called Adult Learning Theory, a framework that outlines the most effective ways adults learn, considering their distinct experiences, motivations, and learning preferences (NEIT).

Part of Adult Learning Theory explains that as grown-ups, our brains are organized like file folders.

You can tell a kid something new and they’ll buy it, believe it, and retain it better than an adult.

When you try to get ME to change a behavior or learn something new, you’ve got to relate it to the folders that are already in my brain

READ: Associative Learning: Why It’s the Best Sales Training Technique

The way we do that is by interacting with each other.

You ask me questions, you let me tell stories, and you let me pull files out of my brain and relate them to what you want me to do.

That’s using Adult Learning Theory to get me to retain new information.

Why’s it important? Because great facilitation = great results. 

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sales enablement best practices

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 8 Sales Enablement Best Practices to Partner with Revenue Leaders

This one is for my sales enablement and training pros.

Have you struggled to connect with your revenue leaders?

If you’re in enablement and getting rapid-fire requests or getting ignored by leadership, it’s because…

They don’t get it.

READ: How to Find the Best Inside Sales Training Company 

When I was hired to run global sales training years ago, I thought my job was to build training to onboard new salespeople in the digital world.

I was wrong.

Instead, I spent a year traveling the world and meeting with sales leaders to talk them out of what they thought would work.

I had to teach them how people learn. I had to learn their language and build the bridge between revenue and enablement.

WATCH: Sales Enablement Secrets: Actionable Sales Training Tips, Trends, and Advice

So here are 8 effective ways sales enablement can forge a better partnership with revenue leaders:

  1. Keep meetings short and fast. Confirm meetings the day before via text if possible. Revenue leaders have packed schedules, so respecting their time is crucial. By keeping meetings brief and confirming attendance the day before, you ensure that your interactions are efficient and prioritized.
  2. Get three or more follow-up resources – top, middle, and struggling sellers, as well as a go-to Sales Manager. Understanding the perspectives of sellers at different performance levels and involving a reliable Sales Manager can provide comprehensive insights. This helps tailor training programs that address varied needs within the team.
  3. Uncover root causes by questioning results, metrics, challenges, sales cycle stages, and KPIs. Dive deep into the data and ask probing questions about the results and challenges. Understanding the intricacies of each sales cycle stage and key performance indicators will help pinpoint the real issues that sales training needs to address.
  4. Get five or more recorded call or video examples so you know where to insert new skills and role-play ideas. Recorded calls and videos are invaluable for identifying where sales reps need improvement. They also serve as great tools for developing role-playing scenarios that target specific skills gaps. Save these recordings to help develop future reps, showing them the good, bad, and ugly.
  5. Move mountains to get going fast but set expectations up front for build time and class time. Sales leaders often expect rapid results, but it’s important to manage these expectations by clearly communicating the time required for developing and delivering effective sales training programs.
  6. Appoint a sales liaison to shadow sales, attend meetings, and translate insights. Ask for the same in return. Having a dedicated liaison who understands both sales and enablement can bridge communication gaps. This person can provide real-time feedback and ensure that training initiatives are relevant and aligned with sales goals.
  7. Always document deliverables, expectations, and commitments in a client “contract.” Clear documentation of what’s expected from both sides helps prevent misunderstandings. A “contract” outlining deliverables and commitments ensures accountability and clarity throughout the training process.
  8. Measure results post-training at two weeks, four weeks, and eight weeks. Raise flags if no movement is detected. Consistent follow-up on sales training effectiveness is essential. Regular check-ins at defined intervals help track progress and identify areas where additional support may be needed. If there’s no improvement, it’s crucial to address the issues promptly.

READ: How to Measure Sales Training ROI

By incorporating these strategies, sales enablement professionals can build stronger, more collaborative relationships with revenue leaders. It’s about speaking their language, understanding their challenges, and providing tangible value that directly impacts sales performance. When both sides work together seamlessly, the entire organization benefits from improved alignment, communication, and results.

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video sales training

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Why Sales Training Videos Don’t Work

Calling All Leaders Training Sellers! 

There’s something wild happening in the sales training industry right under our noses, and it’s severely impacting the skill level of your front-line sellers. Truth: Sometimes I’m part of the problem.

Riddle me this, my friends:

If it takes 8 meaningful interactions for a buyer to take action (Salesforce) or 900 digital touches before a major purchase decision (Google), then…

Why do we expect sales reps to try a new skill after watching one video? 

Video learning is as passive as it gets (not that anyone ever checked email while playing a training video) and yet we’re “training” sellers with this single touch (not even eight touches like SFDC says we need. Video alone should take hundreds, right?)

Getting a seller to try a new skill = getting a buyer to make a purchase. 

And a 30-minute training video = a single commercial.

In other words, sales training videos alone don’t work – they’re not effective in teaching skills. In fact, I’m going to climb up a little higher on my soapbox and say… 

Video-based sales training is NOT ACTUALLY TRAINING.

It’s entertainment. “Edu-tainment” at best. In our marketing vs. sales analogy, training videos would be the equivalent of content marketing. Its purpose is to brand, to “passive touch”, and to warm a prospect. 

READ: 10 Signs Your Sales Team Needs Sales Training

Unfortunately, not a lot of leads convert from content alone. Especially from a single blog or ad. This is where marketers share the stat that it takes eight “meaningful interactions” before someone will take action. And sales leaders get that “meaningful interactions” are best driven by the sales team – things like asking the right questions, qualifying, customizing the pitch, applying the solution to their world, showing value, etc.

Training works the same way. What we’re selling is a behavior change – the breaking of one habit and the installation of another. Let’s say the goal is to stop sellers from prematurely pitching as an example. We want to replace the habit with a new one like asking prospects 5 questions before delivering a custom pitch.

A great webinar or video on the subject will at best introduce this concept or maybe passively gain some attention or buy-in to the idea. Great first step!

READ: What Makes Good Inside Sales Training?

But as leaders, it is irresponsible of us to leave it there. We left off the entire rest of the learning cycle!  If your training is only (or primarily) video-based, then your learners are missing:

  1. If and how the idea applies to them
  2. When in the sales cycle it’s happening
  3. Which behaviors they do today that they need to stop
  4. How to write better questions
  5. When to ask new questions
  6. What to do when they get the answer
  7. How to ask the questions confidently
  8. How to bring up the pitch
  9. When to bring up the pitch
  10. Practice and support doing this over and over until it’s a habit

The most important parts of training to gain behavior change are missing. Don’t even get me started on maintaining that behavior (heard of the forgetting curve?)

Here’s the hard truth: If your training does not include an opportunity to try the skill, customize the application of the skill, share examples of the skill being done in different situations, practice using the skill, or feedback on the execution of the practice, then I’m sorry to tell you that you’re not training. You’re entertaining.

READ: How to Level Up Your Team with Sales Training

It’s gotten harder to influence buyers to take action with all the “noise” out there, right? Your sales teams are right in the middle of all that noise, and the younger generation is accepting video training as complete. It’s up to us to do it better. It will be a competitive differentiator for those who do.

Please do yourself, your managers, and your salesforce the favor of checking. Here are some questions to ask your training/new hire/enablement team:

  1. What percent of our new hire (or ongoing/career path) training lessons are video-based? 
  2. What do we do after the video?
  3. When do they customize and practice the skill?
  4. Who gives feedback on the execution of the skill?
  5. What actions are being done to keep it alive?

Sales enablement leaders and trainers, I know you feel me. You’ve been preaching this for years, and you could chart out where video lands on Bloom’s taxonomy and how much real estate is between a video and the confident application of the skill. Need some buy-in? Send this blog, and then go ask your sales leaders these five questions:

  1. What are you doing to teach new hires basic selling skills?
  2. How much of their training is video or webinar/zoom-based (aka a “talking head”?)
  3. What percent of their time in training is spent listening to live calls or practicing the skill?
  4. What tools do the managers use to reinforce the training?
  5. Have you taught managers how to coach and reinforce the skills?

READ: How to Find the Best Inside Sales Training Company

Let’s all do this better. There are too many young salespeople failing out of sales. Very few get to sit next to a rockstar to soak in how it’s done. It’s up to the sales and enablement leaders to demand better skills training! I’d LOVE to share how we built 10-15 interactive touches into our training at Factor 8. If you have teams of front-line digital sellers or managers, please let us show you our methodology and our results.

Want more information on why sales training videos don’t work?

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


sales training buy-in

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How to Get Sales Training Buy-in From Salespeople

If you’ve been in sales training and enablement for a minute, you’ve encountered this challenge: How do you engage those who don’t wish to be there? 

Sometimes the “crusty experts” who resist training are the longest-tenured, sometimes the highest performers, often just a random non-believer or egoist. So how do you handle them? I have three sure-fire solutions that work like a charm when it comes to getting sales training buy-in from your reps: 

1. Let them go. No, really. Nowhere in your job description does it say your job is to sell the Kool-Aid to the non-thirsty. Are you graded on attendance? This approach ends one of two ways:

    1. They’re grateful to leave and the rest of class is happy to see them go.
    2. They realize they’re being unprofessional and backpedal themselves right into your front row. 

DOWNLOAD: Sales Training Vendor Partner Checklist

Here’s what to say (at first break/quiet work opportunity): 

“Ethan, do you have a moment? Pop into the hall/breakout room with me? Hey, I feel like I’m wasting your time. I’ve heard a few comments about my approach and your busy schedule, and I just want to remind you that this is optional. If ongoing training isn’t for you or this doesn’t work for you, I’m the last person who is going to keep you.”

If the backpedaling begins in earnest and you really want them gone, try this:

“Actually, Ethan, what I’m suggesting is no longer a choice. The disruptions are now affecting the whole class and I’d appreciate it if you’d grab your stuff and maybe try next time this is offered. Appreciate it.”

Be careful to stay cool. You don’t need to offer lots of evidence he’s being rude, just let him know you noticed and give him the out.

If you want to keep him, then try something simple like:

“Hey, I get busy. You’re welcome to stay but I need you to really be here and act like a role model to…” There’s some good stuff here and I’d love your input if you can get present and stop the commentary maybe?”

2. Stroke that ego! As soon as you see the attitude, assume they’re a top performer superstar and pull their story and tip for the class. “Jane, what do you think about storytelling during discovery, have you seen it work?” 

Note: For this to work, we want to pick something where Jane will agree AND give her narrow guardrails, OK? Otherwise, you’ve handed Jane the stage to derail you in front of the entire class on nearly any subject she chooses.

DOWNLOAD: How to Partner with Busy Sales Leaders Checklist

What NOT to say:

“Jane, What do you think” 

This invites her to wax on about nearly anything. Good luck getting the spotlight off her and her amazing self.

Try this instead:

“Jane, have you ever tried using the second step of the objections process? I bet you have a great story”

This should give her a headstart in proving your point. Assume she will agree with you, give her a narrow focus, and specific instructions so she knows how long she has the green light. One of two things happens next:

  • “Thanks, LB. Yeah, I’ve totally seen this work…this one time I was a hero…”
  • “Nope, in my experience this happens instead…”

If I get the latter, I get a few details and then interrupt (stop her momentum before it gets worse) and ask the class, “Do you all agree? Raise your hand if there is no second step of this process? What happens instead?” Now quickly organize into a positive direction. You don’t want ten individual stories, you want a vote so you know where to go. Follow up with, “OK, how can we pivot these four steps to work in this situation?”

READ: How to Measure Sales Training ROI

In other words, be ready to pivot and engage their expertise. Maybe Jane is actually right! If she isn’t, the class will shut it down and pop that inflated ego balloon.

The second benefit of this approach is the learning we do by abandoning script/trainers’ notes. Your credibility will soar with your ability to zig-zag your way to a custom solution the class experts endorse.

3. Option three is best or a 1:1 coaching approach vs. classroom. It’s two steps:

  1. Enroll their help
  2. Call them perfect

This approach combines a little of the psychology of options one and two, and almost always lands with the resistant egoist shifting into reverse and backing right into helping you out! Here’s how it works:

Adam: “Do we really need to do this? I’ve got so much to get done.”

You: “No man, we totally don’t! I’m 100% not here to tell you how to get better. You’re the best there is! I was more hoping you could show me what it should sound like in a few of these areas. Talk me through the ultimate demo. How do you kick it off?” 

How to Find the Best Inside Sales Training Company

Let the ego stroking ensue – smile, nod, clarify, maybe even a few ooohs and ahhhs – then go in for the kill:

“Would you be willing to do some coaching on this? I’d love to have some of the new guys hear this. Maybe we can book a session with 2-3 guys and have you do some role plays?”

He’s taken the bait, now it’s time to reel him in!

DOWNLOAD: Maximize Free Sales Training Resources

In front of the group, find an opportunity to call Adam perfect. You’ll have to move out of his way he’ll be shifting so fast. 

Try this:

“Group, this is Adam and he’s one of our top 10% around here. 10%?! Probably 1%! I heard his demo kickoff and asked him to share it with you all. Seriously, ya’l’ need to keep your eye on this guy. Adam, you must literally be the perfect Account Executive.”

Wait for it…

Adam’s reply will sound like, “Oh, gosh no. I’m far from perfect! I’ve just been doing this a while.”

I’m humble and fabulous, and terribly good-looking.

Now you have a chance to ask what he’s working on and his brain will search for and find an answer in front of the group (or 1:1). 

Try something like, “Whatever, humble! No, I really love that even the best are always striving to be better. That’s what makes the greats great right? Tell us about the skills you’re focused on improving right now?” 

Pretty soon he’s a coaching role model, assistant coach, and your best friend.

WATCH: Sales Enablement Secrets: Building A Manager-First Approach To Empower Your Team

Have you found a theme? There are plenty of people who may not believe in sales training and coaching and it’s usually ego-related. They’re feeling under-recognized for their skill and maybe a little insulted someone sent you to teach them anything. As soon as we reverse this and give them some spotlight, recognition, and control, the defensiveness deflates and they shape up. They will also become a big YOU fan and you can count on them to help and sing your praises.

Most of the time. (Then I recommend choice one!) 

Good luck! 

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