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 I forwarded redacted emails and unpublished case studies.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).


Top Virtual Sales Training | Good Virtual Sales Training | Factor 8

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What Is Good Virtual Sales Training?

Now more than ever the world needs good virtual employee development. Enablement leaders are scrambling to take face-to-face employee training programs online and sales leaders are stretching themselves thin plugging holes to engage their people, coach, and level up. But we’re all circling around a central problem:

Most e-learning sucks.

If you’ve ever let a recorded PowerPoint play in the background while doing email…

If you’ve ever clicked forward ten times to get to the quiz…

If you’ve wished that the “Fluff Narrator” could be set to 1.5x speed…

You get me.

For ten years I resisted moving Factor 8 curriculum online for these very reasons. It’s boring. It isn’t interactive. It doesn’t pertain to me and my job. And here’s why:

It isn’t how adults learn.

Even if you aren’t a training geek, you’ve probably heard of adult learning principles. In short, it means that as grown-ups we want to participate in our learning. We need to relate new information to past information and share our experiences. We want the Subway model (“more lettuce, no mayo”), not the Burger King model (“#1 please”).

If you are hunting for great virtual learning or building it yourself, allow me to share best practices I learned while converting our sales and sales leadership curriculum from face-to-face workshops to our virtual offering The Sales Bar.

#1 – Go Micro. “Microlearning” is a training geek term that means small bites or, “If I can’t participate in the learning, for God’s sake, keep it short.” Fifteen minutes should be the maximum time for any module (or learning chunk).

#2 – Vary the Modalities. The modality is the learning format. We use interactive e-learning (more below), video, activities, reading, cheat sheets, and actual skill demonstrations using audio or video. There are different types of learners out there and recorded PowerPoint and video don’t address them all. Kinesthetic learners need to touch it, type it, write it, sort it, and more. This is where most training fails. (BTW, everyone’s favorite feature is the real calls that show the good, bad, and ugly in real (redacted) sales calls.) Here’s a screenshot example of all the different modalities in just one module:

#3 – Make E-Learning Interactive. The reason we can let bad training play in the background is that it doesn’t require us to be present. Interactive training means the learner is choosing his own adventure and touching the content. At Factor 8 we never go more than five pages without interaction. For example, learners click to see more or hear a sample, drag and drop, slide the scale, make a choice, or type in an answer. Interactivity not only keeps learners present and engaged, it is the only way to achieve higher-level learning objectives (read on dear friend…).

#4 – Go Higher with Objectives. Bear with me and my training hat for a moment, but there’s a taxonomy or ranking of learning objectives called Bloom’s taxonomy. If you want learning to be applied on the job, you must get past “remembering and understanding” and get into analyzing, evaluating, and creating. This starts with good learning objectives/training goals and is achieved by getting learners to interact with the data. Don’t just recall it, roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty with it. (that last part may not be a technical term as much as my term). This is why a company selling you a series of videos as e-learning misses the mark.

#5 – Layer in Live Interaction. The interactive e-learning goes to the next level when you layer in live interaction. Here is where you customize, apply, practice, and role-play. We do this after every 1-2 online modules with a live virtual instructor course. We also do it by assigning activities before and after this live session. It might be to write their own sales messaging, record a good call, or count successful outcomes trying a new skill. It bridges the gap between theory and reality and it’s the only way to get learners to own applying and using the new skills – giving actual behavior change a real shot. Bonus note for trainers: this is how you can make your “generic” virtual training customized for different internal clients.

#6 – Involve Leaders. A Training Magazine study a few years ago researched deeply into what makes training stick or not. Answers #1 and #2 had nothing to do with the quality of the training and everything to do with what the learner’s boss said before the training (#1) and after the training (#2). “Forget what you learned, here’s how it really works…” is an example of this not going well. Involve the leaders not just by making them attend, but try having them partner to kick off the training, give input in the needs analysis to build the training, and by assigning them work after the training. We built Leader Toolkits to accompany every module that includes call coaching forms to grade the skill in real calls, a coaching cheat sheet to help them ask the right questions during call coaching, and even activities and an implementation guide to help them roll it out and keep skills alive afterward. Here’s a sample:

Ok, my top 3 tips turned into six, and I still feel like I’m just getting started. In the end, I’m enormously proud of what we built in The Sales Bar and I hope it’s helped you picture a new level of good for virtual instruction. If you’ve seen something here you like and you need virtual sales training for sales reps, sales managers, or sales leaders, click here to learn more about The Sales Bar for your team. It took us two years to build this and we’re not done yet. If you’re just starting, you can save time by outsourcing the sales curriculum to us and focus instead on getting your product, process, and new hire orientation curriculum online internally. 

Ready to partner with a top virtual sales training provider?

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


Why You Should Focus on Virtual Sales Training When You’re Not Selling

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Why You Should Focus on Virtual Sales Training When You’re Not Selling

I’ve loved hearing about leaders using this time of unreturned calls and stalled deals to sharpen the saw with their teams. Sure we’re all apprehensive, but so much is out of our control. These leading-from-the-front heads of sales are looking at their to-do list saying, “NOW I have the time I’ve been craving. What can we finally get to doing?”

Cleaning out the pipeline?

Managing dupes and updating CRM?

Building case studies?

(And my favorite) Train the team!

We so seldom come off the game field to the practice field, but I invite you all to join me here in the coming weeks.  

Now, how do you do it?

The goal here is team engagement, team learning, improvement, and team bonding. That means sending them a link to a (mostly) sales pitch webinar isn’t going to cut it. “Click, yawn, take the quiz, take it again” eLearning isn’t either. Don’t phone it in or give them housecleaning learning (you’ll finally pass the HR required learning!). Use this time to bond. Inspire. And practice for when it’s game time!

We’ve been training virtually for a few years now and we’ve learned a lot about what works.  Top tips:

Pick a topic and do it together.

Everyone attends. Meet fifteen minutes early and set expectations/goals for the training (what do you want to get out of it and why?)  Open a private chat channel during the training if it isn’t interactive. Then meet for 30 minutes after to collect best practices and insights. Even better, set goals for how we’ll try and apply the new goods in the coming weeks. Want an A+?  Issue a challenge (best-recorded call sent to me, cleanest pipe by Friday, best case study) and a contest!

Find interactive training. 

Most content houses and webinars are sadly one-way (and a little snoozy). Harsh but fair. Good training is interactive, short, fun and easy to apply to your job. Even online. When I set out to move Factor 8’s content online, I vowed never to have five slides go by without some sort of engagement (sort it, pick it, classify it, choose it). We used real calls and gave script samples for every class.  There should be activities to help apply on the job and a forum to share best practices (we call these Happy Hours). See what’s available to you from your company and associations, but preview first so you aren’t torturing the team instead of building them.

Blend team and on-your-own training.  

If you don’t have access to good virtual training, try a book club. Assign some reading on their own and have each person lead a discussion / chapter or section.  During the discussion be sure to cover how to apply concepts to your company/product/customers, give examples, and then an activity to go and do it. The best part of training is the application portion.  Leaders own this.

Talk about it.

Make sure your team knows your intent and strategy here.  Use the sports and playing field analogy if it helps, but resist the temptation to just assign and micromanage.  Each of my recommendations includes team discussion and sharing for a reason. Working together to build the best messaging and sharing wins along the way will bring you all together and make life much more fun.

If you don’t have access to good eLearning, Factor 8 wants to share a free class in The Sales Bar for you and your team. We know that now more than ever, you need training for your team. Interested? Email “I need training!” to info@factor8.com and we’ll hook you up. Or, hit me up directly if you have a special circumstance at lb@factor8.com

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Is it time for training?

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Is It Time For Sales Training?

Should we be doing more or less sales training right now?

Let’s talk about why some companies are doubling down on training right now (and some aren’t).

We’re all in brand new situations today, but our companies, our people, and ourselves are affected differently.  Some of us are:

  1. Facing layoffs and massive business downturns
  2. Ramping up amidst high demand
  3. Slowing down but staying the course

And many of us are moving between these three as situations change daily and we plan for the best (and the worst).  At Factor 8, we’re seeing some companies decide it’s time for more sales training and others are pausing. Here’s why:

Most of what we’re hearing is #3 – we’ve slowed down. Smart leaders here are focusing the teams on what is in our control and on positive production.  It may NOT mean calling the list/book for the fourth time. It might mean writing case studies, cleaning out the pipeline, and spending time developing the team.  

Not only are there some obvious team development needs right now, but we’re seeing some companies push beyond “WFH” topics to really improving call quality and efficiencies in preparation for the turnaround.  Some no-brainer topics to consider starting with are:

Sales Managers:

  1. Remote management – our front line managers may have it toughest right now
  2. Remote call coaching – now is the time to better engage through coaching
  3. Essential meetings – they can’t be ad-hoc anymore
  4. Developing your team – do’s and don’ts of team development
  5. Pipeline fundamentals – hey, we’re cleaning out the garage at home…you get it

Sales Reps:

  1. Weaving empathy into messaging – we all wish every vendor was teaching this! 😉
  2. Voicemails that get returned – now’s the time to leave better messages
  3. Conducting remote meetings – enough said
  4. Engaging customers – ditching the script and getting human
  5. Pipeline fundamentals – yup.

What gets me excited are companies that are digging in even further.  Working with teams on how to attack their books and leads when we’re back online.  Capturing new decision makers, getting strategic, practicing messaging for their introductions, writing better questions, using stories, overcoming objections, asking for referrals…you get the idea.  The blocking and tackling needs we all have skill gaps in but never have time to address.

Here’s the strange but apt analogy.  Factor 8 does training inside women’s prisons for the hundred of women doing outsourced calls on behalf of clients who hire Televerde. Really amazing program that meets a business need while changing lives. In talking with these women we’ve learned that the women who make it when they are out are the ones who spend their time inside preparing for the outside. School, studying, physical and mental fitness. Quarantine is starting to feel a little like the inside, right?

Like sports, when we’re off the game field, we go straight to the practice field.  Are college basketball teams all sitting on the couch right now because playoffs were canceled?  Hell no. They’re doing drills. They’re staying fit. They’re doing all they can to come back stronger and their coaches are doing all they can to keep the team operating as a team and spirits high.

Leaders!  Get your teams off the couch and focused on sales drills!  Let’s prepare for the comeback and stay positively focused!!

OK, now the other side.  We’re NOT training teams right now if:

  • We’re planning layoffs or cutbacks 
  • Leadership is still heads-down on the transition (connectivity, remote management, etc.)
  • We don’t have a rally strategy to get behind yet
  • All budgets are frozen and time is allocated in bridging the situation

All valid reasons my friends.  But if you’re swamped, I invite you to investigate ways your team can still rally and drill without you.  Delegate to a hopeful team lead. There are free resources, self-study, and programs available (we’ve offered shorter terms, discounts, and delayed payments at Factor 8).  Employees stick with leaders and companies that help them develop, and now may be a critical time to engage our people (and may also offer us more time to do so).

And if you’re ramping up, it’s tempting to get them a log-on or a script, but I hope that you too will find time eventually to train these folks if you want to keep them.  This rapid-ramp model works for a short period only. Can you weave in a schedule where they’re on the phones for a few weeks and then digging into skills training? Your customer experience and your employee retention numbers will thank you.  

If you’re using the free webinars and resources on the web, check out my next post to help you get more out of these and better engage your team during training.  And if you wish you had access to awesome sales and manager skill drills but your budget is frozen, we’ve got your back with assistance programs. Let us know you want to learn more and we’ll show you in a no-pressure meeting (info@factor 8.com). 

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Don’t Buy Training Until You Ask These Five Questions

First and foremost, kudos to you for investigating solutions to train your teams.  More and more studies show us that reps and leaders want development and career opportunities more than nearly anything else!  This is especially true in inside sales where we experience higher turnover. Now, how do we make sure that investment WORKS and delivers maximum ROI?

Regardless of the solution or vendor you’re investigating, here are five smart questions to ask to ensure what is delivered won’t be a disappointment.

#1 – What percent of the content is customized?

Unless you’re sending employees to a public seminar for new skills (great entry-level & low-budget option, but you’ll see less than 10% being applied back on the job), vendors will talk about customization.  It is what makes it faster and easier for attendees to apply the new skills to their world, and application is step one in getting better results.

Unfortunately, truly customized solutions don’t scale well and are hard to execute well.  I once paid a vendor nearly $10,000 for customized training that turned out to be three additional pages of content with a custom role play.  So, get specific in your questions, like:

    1. What content is customized?  

    1. Can you give me five examples of what is customized? 

    1. How many pages are altered from the standard?  

    1. What percent is this?

    1. What do you use to customize the training? 

BONUS:  have them explain exactly how 2 different packages differ. This will give you a feel for whether the same content is simply being marketed 2 different ways, or if they really get the difference between BDR, AE, and AM skills.

Net-net:  More customization = more expense. So, if you’re shopping based on price and learn that only a few pages or role plays are custom, you’re probably in the right ballpark.  If you have over 50 reps and are looking to make the custom training part of ongoing development or onboarding, on the other hand, I suggest spending the money to be sure every section references examples from your industry, your customers, and your product/service.

#2 – What is my facilitator’s background?

Truth is, some of the best classroom trainers are professional classroom trainers.  That is their background. But this doesn’t fly in tactical sales training folks – you may as well let your HR team teach your reps to sell.  If you want to see real results, you want a facilitator that has made the calls, coached the teams, and can deliver on-the-fly coaching on messaging and delivery.

It’s the training leader’s dilemma: 

    1. Do I hire sales people and make them trainers? 

    1. Do I hire training people and teach them sales?  

In my 20+ years of building sales training teams in corporate America and Factor 8, the right answer is ALWAYS #1.  

If you’re training reps or managers young in their careers, you should always pay for sales expertise.  If you’re training senior executives, facilitating massive groups, or teaching more generic / softer skills, a professional facilitator is a better investment.

#3 – Please share results from similar companies / situations.

If your provider doesn’t have case studies showing results, that means they probably aren’t getting any – or they aren’t staying engaged long enough to care.  There’s only one measurement when it comes to training sales teams and that’s sales results.  

Remember, different training targets different outcomes, and different outcomes require different timelines.  Look for:

Metrics – if your new skills will impact call volume, talk time, number of calls or longer calls, this can be measured the day after training (and again in coming weeks.)  Training excitement will wear off from an initial high, but you still want to see a sustained lift if new habits were built well and your managers are engaged in keeping skills alive.

KPI’s – Between metrics and quota sit Key Performance Indicators.  Perhaps you want to impact meetings booked, quotes sent, close rates within the funnel, pipeline built.  Look for these results 2 weeks to 2 months after training depending on your sales cycle.

Results – One month to one quarter after training (sorry, sales-cycle dependent again) is when results should be pouring in.  Absolutely this can happen faster (we’ve seen SDR/BDR results spike next day), but look for case studies that talk about actual revenue or quota impact.

#4 –   Who was your audience for your last 5 gigs? 

Because customization, experience, and application are so important (see earlier points), this question gives another look into where your vendor really plays.

We see a lot of “old school” curriculum companies now marketing to inside sales.  Literally zero change in what they train, but a lot of ads targeting the now-fastest growing segment of sellers.  There are also plenty of consulting companies touting training and vice versa. Try these follow-up questions:

    • Without company names, walk me backward through your last five clients. What industry were they in?  

    • What were their sales cycles and average deal size?

    • What were the company sizes?

    • What type of sellers participated (field?  BDR? Account Manager? Inbound?)

    • What else did you do for these clients?

The key here is fast answers.  If they don’t know the difference between an SDR and an AE we have a problem, right?  If sellers were largely face-to-face bag carriers, red flag number two. If the experiance was largely strategy design, consulting, or system implementation + some training it could again be a warning sign. 

You want a company that specializes in exactly what kind of selling you do.  And if it isn’t the bullseye of the dartboard, it should be no more than one ring outside.

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#5 – How do you make it stick?

One out of every five gigs we have the honor of replacing another vendor.  Number one reason for the change? “It was good info but nothing happened afterward.”  You may have felt the same way after telling reps what to do and watching nothing change.  Truth: There’s a big difference between edu-taining (like that? Entertaining education) and training, and it all comes down to the stickiness factor.  Great training makes the learning stick. Here is my shortlist of what makes the difference:

    1. Self discovery – Just like managing vs. coaching, the true Jedi masters get trainees to generate their own ideas while still arriving at the promised land.  Look for white space in materials, lots of group work in the schedule, and no death by PowerPoint. 

    1. Hands on application – Once they GET it, they have to USE it to have even a shot at being sticky.  This is covered in role plays or better, live selling time. Application in a real-world scenario is 10x more effective than a pretend one (again, why customization is a key). 

    1. Manager integration – Years ago, Training Magazine taught us that a trainee’s direct manager holds all the power in application with their attitude, communication, and involvement in the training.  Look for your vendor to include managers in pre-work, roll-outs, the class itself, and ongoing support. We learned at Factor 8 that just attending the training wasn’t enough. So, Managers now have required companion classes for every Rep class.  It’s that important.  

    1. Ongoing leadership support – Is your vendor willing to be involved in post-training certification, results collection, Manager Q&A, best practice sharing?  Are there tools, contest, follow up calls, or online support? If you want reps to stay focused, keep their boss focused.  

    1. Fun – If you want learners to buy-in, remember you’ll increase the odds dramatically if they are having fun.  Surely there are dozens of scientific studies about how positive emotions morph the hippocampus into longer recall…but let’s just trust logic instead.  Look for contests, activities, facilitator personality, and company culture fit. We purposely talk about drinking beer on our website so companies with a rigid culture won’t call us first…believe me it won’t be a fit!

Stay armed with this guide during your next vendor selection process and you’ll be ten steps ahead of the training “forgetting curve” and well on your way to guaranteeing more buy-in, more application, and bigger results.

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professional sales training courses

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5 Steps To Getting The Most Out Of Your Training Investment

If you’re thinking about investing in training your sales staff, you’re on the right track. 85% of best-in-class companies use a professional sales trainer or curriculum (Aberdeen).  To get the most out of your investment, there are 5 actions we recommend you do first. 

Tip: If you don’t do #3 you should probably not even spend the money.  If you do #2 and #5 you’re in the top 10 percent.

#1 – Do an onsite needs analysis that involves your team

Uncovering the root needs and gaps is the first step of any professional training program.  Not only will it help your vendor pick the right training modules and tailor them to your situation, but it builds buy-in to the solution.  

If possible, involve your trainer in the process by bringing them onsite to observe, ask questions, and get to know the team and form their own conclusions.  Not all managers are expert and diagnosing skill gaps yet. So instead of just ordering your prescription from the doctor, do a visit. 

Bonus: this will build credibility and excitement for the training, thereby ensuring a higher show rate, buy-in, and waste less time  “getting to know you” during training.

#2 – Collect baselines  

Decide what metrics, KPI’s and results you’d like to shift (be sure to include all three categories, ask your Factor 8 advisor for help here if you need it).  Metrics move quickly, KPI’s a bit faster, and results at end of month. The key is to move all three, but be specific about where and how.  

Focusing on the numbers before you start helps target the training to the right phase in the funnel and the right skills in the classroom.  For example, a class targeted at filling the top of the funnel won’t focus on closing and overcoming objections, but might impact talk time, number of conversations, conversion rate, and leads passed.  Grab these numbers by rep and team over the past 3-6 months and discuss where you’d like them to go by looking at averages and top performers. Now post-training collection and measurement is ready to go!

#3 – Get manager buy-in

An old study by Training Magazine taught us that the two most important factors to get behavior change after training are 

  1. What the trainee’s boss said before the training.
  2. What he or she said after the training. 

Seriously, all your vendor due-diligence and the front-line supervisor holds all the power.  If your management team is on board, your reps will be on board and you have a running start.  

To get buy-in, involve managers along the way – collecting needs, baselines, and vendor selection. Over-communicate the goals and be crystal clear on expectations (will they be attending?  Participating? Can they do email from the back of the room?) Show them the investment and importance at multiple levels.  

Bonus: Be sure managers get their own development.  If they haven’t learned how to do coaching yet, your rep training might be better done after a class for managers. 

#4 – Do a leadership kickoff

Get the highest honcho you can find, all the leaders, managers and reps on one or several kickoff events.  It can be in person or remote and last 30 minutes tops. This act alone will indicate the seriousness of your investment and how much you expect from them. 

Talk about the importance of investing in our skills, how important employees are to the company, results you hope to achieve and the impact it will make on the company.  Include your vendor, build their credibility and layout specific expectations about start times, participation, making live calls, etc.  

Bonus:  announce a contest between divisions, teams, or reps based on expected results (see baselines, #2).  Talk up the prize, give an outline of how it will be decided, and set a date it is awarded. This is great fodder for follow up emails and announcements to keep the buzz alive after training!

#5 – Pre-book your follow up with leadership  

Your vendor may offer post-training follow-up sessions (Factor 8 has three). We answer questions, check results, even listen to calls and certify reps.  Get these on calendars BEFORE training and let managers know they are required. .  

Also, book results follow-up sessions.  I suggest 1 week after training, end of month 1 after training, and also end of month 2, 4, and 6.  If you’ve already pulled baselines, an ongoing focus on the results from training will keep focus sharp and coaching new skills top of mind for leaders at all levels.  That’s key for sustained behavior change.   

Short on bandwidth but have the budget?  Do #1 – onsite needs analysis. While your Factor 8 Advisor is onsite, do the kickoff meeting and collect the baselines.

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8 Signs That Your Rep Onboarding Program Is Broken

Do you mind if I start with the obligatory story? I think it’s one you might recognize. It’s the one about a busy sales manager frustrated with the under-trained newbie reps she got as “graduates” from her training department.

But this story is about me. I was the “undertrained newbie” – and the boss. I was twenty-four, and was brought in from the outside to manage a team of 15 outbound B2B Reps in tech. I’m new. My team is new, and we’re all “graduates” of the company onboarding program and all 100% clueless. (Yes, of course we turned it around and were the number one team within a quarter – cue the Rocky music here – but this isn’t that story.)

This is the story of being frustrated that you can come out of a 2 or even 4 week program and still have absolutely no idea how to do your job.

Who do I call first?

What do I say?

Why isn’t anyone calling me back?

What’s the product SKU for an IBM Thinkpad again?

Sound familiar?

Brace for it–now I’m going to hit you with some stats.

  • One in five sales executives are satisfied with their Rep onboarding program (Sales Architects 2014).
  • Fifty percent of reps selling today need to be retrained (or removed) (Bain / CEB 2016)
  • Organizations spend an average of 3x more on rep tools than on rep development (Inside Sales.com 2016) and 25X on recruiting (Training Magazine)
  • Attrition can be cut in half by a good training program (Training Magazine)

So, are you an unwitting accomplice to rep abuse? Let’s find out. Here are some top signs that your new hire training might be broken:

1. The majority of your attrition occurs in the first five months.
They like the company, don’t mind the job, but they’re not ramping up fast enough to make money and they’re frustrated. Time to pull the ripcord.

2. It takes your business development reps over 3 months or your account managers over 6 months to ramp to target.
There will always be a ramp, but a great new hire training program can cut this in half (and significantly impact your attrition, too).

3. Average call length is about 1:30.
These are voicemails, every last one of them. If your reps can’t get people on the phone, keep them on the phone, and get calls back, they need better sales training.

4. Your program is under 4 days or over 4 weeks long.
The first is an orientation, the latter is a firehose. Get them on the phones after two weeks and bring them back for the rest of it! Check out my video on “Just in time” New Hire Training.

 

5. Your reps have no clear plan of attack for their lead list / book / and/or day.
Ask them how they decide who to call. If they say they start at the “A’s…” then you’re missing a cohesive sales strategy – or your training department isn’t training it.

6. You aren’t training any business, customer, or industry acumen.
Forrester taught us that over 60% of buyers found their sales rep added no value to the buying process. College isn’t teaching them how, and we have to.

7. You’re using the same training as the field.
I get it, you had to use something and your org is new. But it won’t work and frankly frustrates reps to try this old-school model in their new-school world.

8. HR is teaching your reps how to sell.
85% of the best-in-class use a professional sales trainer or curriculum. When’s the last time HR sold your product?

How’d you do? Some of these might take a custom report, but trust me: you’ll be glad you had it created. Your training department needs to be your partner like marketing is your partner – no, scratch that, recruiting is your partner…wait, I can do better…payroll is your partner.

In a recent model I completed with Microsoft, we found that they could add over $50 million back into revenue by cutting new hire sales ramp time down to best-in-class – and nearly double what they could save by cutting attrition to the same. If you focus and invest here, it will quickly be like having another 1/3 of your headcount to help you hit the number.

Ready to fix your oboarding program? Learn the components of a World Class onboarding program that you can steal immediately. Read the article here.

Want more? I did a quick video on what good sales training looks like. What are you going to change in your onboarding program?

This article originally appeared on SalesPop!

 

 

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