Onboarding

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

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

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

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

Then something happens.

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

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

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

Training doesn’t drive revenue. Adoption does.

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

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

Why Sales Training Fails After Rollout

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

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

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

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

Several factors consistently show up when training fails to stick:

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

The encouraging news is that these challenges are remarkably predictable.

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

READ: Why Event-Based Sales Training Falls Short

The BLISS Framework: Why Sales Training Doesn’t Stick

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

B: Buy-In

Training adoption starts with leadership.

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

L: Learning

Content still matters.

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

I: Interaction

Watching is not the same as doing.

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

S: Systems

Training cannot operate in a vacuum.

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

S: Supporting and Seeing Results

Training needs reinforcement after the workshop ends.

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

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

Train Managers Before Reps

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

They don’t.

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

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

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

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

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

READ: Why You Need Training for Sales Managers

Stop Teaching. Start Facilitating.

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

It doesn’t.

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

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

C: Connect

Tie concepts to the seller’s real world.

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

U: Use

Apply the concept immediately.

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

P: Practice

Practice until the behavior becomes natural.

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

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

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

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

At Factor 8, we call this Everboarding.

Development becomes part of:

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

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

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

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

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

Results-Focused Training Starts with KPIs

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

For example:

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

Revenue is the lagging outcome.

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

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

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

That question should shape every training initiative from the beginning.

READ: How to Measure Sales Training ROI

The System Behind Adoption: The Factor 8 Results Engine

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

The Factor 8 Results Engine consists of six stages:

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

The sequence matters.

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

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

Training initiatives rarely fail because people lacked good intentions.

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

DOWNLOAD: Sales Training Implementation Guide

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

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

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

R: Results-Focused

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

E: Executive Sponsored

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

T: Tactical

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

A: Application Accountability

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

I: Interactive

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

N: Nuanced

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

E: Embedded

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

D: Deliberate Duration

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

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

Training doesn’t fail because organizations need more content.

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

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

Ultimately, they recognize something that many organizations still miss:

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

Are you looking for customizable sales training?

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


scale inside sales team

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How to Scale Your Inside Sales Team

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pitfall #3: Develop your managers, NOW.

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

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

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

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customized sales training

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Why Customized Sales Training Delivers Better ROI

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

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

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

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

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

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

That was the “customization.”

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

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

DOWNLOAD: Sales Training Vendor Partner Checklist

Why One Size Fits All Sales Training Fails

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

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

On paper, it looks like this:

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

In reality, this creates three big problems.

#1 Engagement

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

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

#2 Application

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

#3 Retention and ROI

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

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

The Real Build vs. Buy Dilemma For Enablement Leaders

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

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

But you also run into the reality:

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

But the tradeoffs are real:

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

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

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

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

Why Customizable Sales Training Matters For Both Enablement And Revenue

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

For enablement leaders, customizable sales training means:

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Customized Sales Training Actually Looks Like At Factor 8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now here is where the model really shifts for enablement.

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

So we created the All Access Sales Training License.

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

That means:

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

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

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

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

Are you looking for customizable sales training?

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


sales rep onboarding

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8 Sales Rep Onboarding Best Practices

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

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

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

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

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

Integrate These 8 Best Practices Into Your Sales Rep Onboarding

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

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

1. “Just-in-time” Training

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

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

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

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

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

2. Leverage Sales (Not HR) Professionals 

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

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

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

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

3.  Balance Online and Classroom Training 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Development is an ongoing sport.  

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

How do you facilitate this?

Try to organize the curriculum into three levels:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. Utilize Ample Multimedia Resources

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

This includes but is not limited to:

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

7. Create a Formal, but Flexible Rep Training Program

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Find a Tool That Works for Your Onboarding Needs

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

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

Want more information on our sales rep onboarding programs?

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


hiring salespeople

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How to Hire and Retain Top Sales Reps and Managers

Help! I’m hiring salespeople, but where do I find them? Well, probably not in the stack of resumes from your recruiting department. Or maybe you already know that and hence the Google search bringing you here. Great sales talent is near impossible to find these days and will continue to be difficult in the coming years thanks to shifting employment rates, aging demographics, and increases in sales hiring. Your ideal candidate profile with a few years of experience in your industry and a college degree isn’t coming to you. So, what do you do?

Here are a few creative strategies and tactics to consider when hiring salespeople:

Get Ready to Win

It’s a seller’s market, not an employer’s market so every candidate you do happen to find will be comparing you to other potential offers. You are competing with other companies, so make sure now that your…

  1. Website reflects a great culture
  2. Glassdoor reviews are positive
  3. Employees and customers have posted good things
  4. Website reflects diversity (they won’t apply if they don’t see it)
  5. Your process moves 2x faster than it used to. If it takes you 4 weeks to hire, they’ll accept elsewhere
  6. Social presence is engaging, recent, and active
  7. Pay and benefits are at, or above, market rate
  8. Company social causes exist and are enticing
  9. Job descriptions aren’t wish lists. Keep them short to fill the funnel (key for females)
  10. Career growth and development opportunities are plentiful

More than ever, employees are shopping employers and the new generations care less about pay and more about career growth, development opportunities, and social causes. Ask yourself: How would they look to their followers if they joined your company? Will their friends think they went back to the dark ages? Or will they have FOMO because the company is totally GOAT?

(If you don’t know what either of these terms mean, it’s OK, I had to look up one of them too. But maybe get a 20-something in recruiting to do the social checks for you 😉)

Get More Candidates

OK, got this all delegated and you’re ready to win the battle? Now it’s time to fill the pipeline. Like any smart sales leader, you know better than to have just one source. Here are some great actions to try this year:

  1. Repurpose a sales headcount to shop LinkedIn for passive candidates
  2. Start a program at local colleges BEFORE they graduate or go to career fairs
  3. Partner with sales colleges to volunteer to speak or judge role plays
  4. Grant a massive bonus for referrals
  5. Comp (or measure) managers for finding their own talent
  6. Go talk to employees in service, marketing, product, delivery who might try sales
  7. Try community college or tech school career fairs (is a 4-year degree totally necessary?)
  8. Use social networks to post (e.g. is there a local mom’s group?)
  9. Try advertising a contest, scholarship, or other promotion for sellers/leaders and use it as a marketing funnel (it’s a lead list! Call it!)
  10. Find your favorite person each week (Restaurant server? Your kid’s teacher?) and recruit

If these seem like desperate measures, then I’ve hit the mark. This is not a time for passive recruiting. Anyone great at selling who isn’t employed already is probably not your hire.

Improve Your Selection

Got folks in the funnel but need help choosing a better fit?

Listen, I made some HORRIBLE hiring decisions my first year in every new position. Bet you have too. It’s critical to remember that your hiring process needs to be a documented and rigorous pipeline just like your sales funnel. Here are a few questions to help:

  1. Is the screening aligned to the job (e.g. phone screens for phone sales?)
  2. Do you have defined gates to pass to the next stage?
  3. Are you involving multiple decision-makers?
  4. Are you looking for experience and skill? Or behavior and aptitude (pick the latter)?
  5. Who’s doing the heaviest lifting and how can you put less on your managers?
  6. Do candidates have a great idea of what to expect? Could a job shadow help?
  7. Are your managers aligned on the definition of a good candidate?
  8. Can managers hire their own teams (trust me, don’t do it for them)
  9. Do your screening tools help you increase the pool vs. decrease (your resume screener or profile tool may be weeding out today’s definition of good)
  10. Have you trained managers on how to interview?

I know, overwhelming – especially with your rag-tag group of new and tenured managers (just guessing). I got your back on this one with our new Sales Bar eLearning course, “Hire Like a Rockstar”, that will help your entire team define good, create a rubric of criteria, and align interview questions + scoring to make consistently better hires. You’re welcome. 🙂

SALES TEAM RETENTION [INFOGRAPHIC]
Keep the Talent You Find

Finally, we can’t address keeping your sales team afloat if there’s a hole in the boat. The best way to staff your team is to keep the ones you have. Remember, you make your number every month on the backs of your B players. Work like hell to keep your A, B, and C players coming to work and grow. Here’s what’s most important in this fight:

  1. Monthly sales training opportunities. That’s right, several hours a month is table stakes, and a pass to LinkedIn learning isn’t impressive anymore
  2. Monthly call coaching. Yes, monthly. Make sure your managers are trained on how to do call coaching well and are doing it consistently
  3. A documented career path with clarity on how and when they’ll move up
  4. Opportunities to move up within 18 months (average lifespan of a new rep)
  5. Access to leaders. Manager meetings, skip levels, feeling close to executives
  6. Company social causes. Volunteering together or a pet charity with hands-on opportunities
  7. Work/life balance. Kids these days (did I just type that?) are uber-focused on having a full life, less stress, and chances to be with family and friends
  8. Basic tech stack. They’re used to a great CRM, engagement tool, call recording, data sources, and more. If you’re using Excel spreadsheets, you’d better rock the rest of this list
  9. A mission to believe in. Listen, even if you sell floor wax, be sure every employee knows how they’re helping change the world
  10. A mentor and/or buddy. Having a great friend and/or confidant at work is a leading indicator of employee engagement.

They have choices, and as soon as they choose you, someone else is recruiting them.

Need to train newly hired sales reps or managers?

We’ve got your back! Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.


Onboarding New BDRs

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5 Sales Manager Tips for Onboarding New BDRs

Great news. You’ve got proof of concept, found your ICP, and gotten some funding. Now it’s time to build out your BDR team.

Bad news. Once you win the war for talent, the real work of sales training begins. Since most SaaS startups aren’t hiring classes of 15 reps and a trainer, you get the task of onboarding one or two at a time. And then again. And again. And again.

Here are some sales manager tips to save your sanity when onboarding new BDRs:

  1. Start a Google Doc now with everything they’ll need to know. Brainstorm in the following categories:
    • Industry acumen
    • Product knowledge – feature, function, benefit
    • Customer knowledge
    • Ideal customer situations
    • Business acumen
    • Competitor acumen
    • System logins and skills
    • Company info – who’s who, relevant background, etc.
    • Company processes, procedures, etc.
    • Customer FAQ
    • Demos
    • Testimonials and case studies
    • Questions to uncover ideal customer situations and challenges
    • Call recordings to hear good, bad, and ugly calls
    • Phone sales skills like leaving good voicemails, intros, uncovering contacts, and delivering value props on the phone
  2. Wherever possible, start hyperlinking to internal and external sites, videos, and resources so reps can self-serve for the info. Why go back and re-find that email 20 times?
  3. Now identify what you can outsource. Trust me, if you try to hire, train, coach, and lead the team you will either explode or mess a few of these up in a serious way.
    • Buy the system training if your vendor offers it or go find free forums and videos to link to. 
    • Sales skills are another area. Your job is to coach them, not teach them from scratch. Outsource the heavy lifting and stick to leading the team and coaching the delivery. The Sales Bar has hundreds of phone sales resources for new BDRs and Managers. They’ll also want some basic LinkedIn skills. I like Vengreso or Frontline. 
    • Find internal experts. Use your CEO, product geeks, and past customers and get them to do a video or recorded webinar to teach key points. Keep them short and on track with some guidelines during your request; these folks typically aren’t natural trainers! And if they do it live, get it recorded, I promise they won’t be available every time. Where you can’t record, set up a lunch or coffee chat vs. a formal presentation. Get your new rep to record it, plus their notes!
  4. Start a schedule and get your document in chronological order with about 6 hours of learning work/day to start. Make the schedule about 2 weeks long and ramp the training time down while call time goes up. So by the end of the second week, they may be doing 1-2 hours of training/day and 6 hours of work. Show that training doesn’t stop and they have some assignments every month! Bonus: show a path to the next level in their career, even if it’s just a footnote. In addition to the learning, your schedule should include:
    • Call shadowing with you or other reps. Bonus: have them score it using your coaching form. Side note: get a coaching form
    • Calls to past customers to hear their stories and happy outcomes
    • Research on their own – e.g. top features of competitors
    • Outbound calling – even if it’s just to capture contacts, qualify accounts, data cleanse, etc.
    • LOTS of time with you where they bring their questions, you talk shop, build a relationship, and make your newbie feel important
  5. Hook them up with a buddy/mentor. Reps who build strong friendships at work are happier and stay longer according to Gallup. With the average lifespan of a BDR under 18 months, it’s worth the effort. Pay for their first lunch and ask them to get together weekly for the rep’s first month. If it doesn’t stick after that, you’ve at least planted some seeds. Bonus: they’ll come to you less often for their questions when they have a buddy.

This approach will help your reps be more independent while saving you at least twenty hours per rep. Each hire can help make the document better and old hires can support the new. 

Make updating the document and improving it part of their work assignment so it stays current and off your to-do list.

sales manager quiz

May this also help you resist the temptation to hand your new rep a script and wish them good luck on the phone. Millennials are searching for career development and time with their boss at work, and they make their employment decisions based on this. Spend a few bucks, give them some structure, buy them some training, and you’ll see the payoff in their faster success and tenure!

Want some help onboarding new BDRs?

We’ve got your back! Contact us today to learn how you can incorporate sales training into your new BDR onboarding process to speed ramp time and improve retention.


hiring sales managers

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How to Hire a Great Sales Manager

Hiring Sales Managers vs. Promoting Reps to Management

Raise your hand if you’ve promoted the wrong rep to sales manager before. Yeah, no sales leader in the world can keep both (or either of?) their hands down. And it’s so painful, right? Because they were SO GOOD at the job and so ambitious and all over you about it. Honestly, you kind of HAD to right? For risk of losing them? And how’d it end up?

I really hope you didn’t lose your top rep AND a manager within a year. But that’s how the story usually goes when I’m commiserating with my fellow sales leaders. It’s like the million-dollar elephant in the room…the right of passage every great leader endures.

So you’re in the club (welcome, leave your t-shirt size in the comments). Now, how on Earth do we stop making that mistake? I believe the key is to understand why your top reps are so darn good. Because it’s the same reason they’re terrible managers.

Top reps are in the winning business.

Doesn’t matter what industry. They’re in the “try harder” business. The “don’t give up until you get the “W” business.” They get up faster, they get up better. They make ten more calls. They do NOT take a no for an answer or a loss lying down. You might not let them date your daughter, but you want 10 more on your team.

Never put this guy (or gal) in charge.

Because management isn’t the winning business. Management is the people’s business. I love how Jack Welch said it:

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself.

When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

— Jack Welch

If we can agree that the top reps are hard-wired for competitiveness and selfishness, and KILLING your number, then we can agree we need to go in a different direction for a top manager.

Hint: have this conversation immediately when these bulldogs ask about management because they will. They’re ambitious and they want more money and prestige like always. Try something like, “Why on EARTH would you want that crap job? I hire those guys to tend to my real superstars – you. The money is worse, the hours are longer, and you’ll always have to play by the rules.” That should hold them off for a while. If that doesn’t work, put them in charge of mentoring the newbies for a year or two and see if they get sick of it.

SALES TEAM RETENTION [INFOGRAPHIC]


Now, how do you find and hire the REAL management superstars? Here are my Factor 8 tips for hiring sales managers. Hope you’ll share yours as well!

  1. They’re a “B” level rep. These folks hit quota consistently but seldom outperform. If you had to guess, they have the effort and attitude and pretty good skills, they just lack the killer instinct to be an “A” level rep.
  2. They love to teach or mentor the newbies. Not sure if they’re a great mentor? Assign someone to them and see how they like it.
  3. They speak in KPIs. This means they know what really contributes to and indicates a win outside of dials. Try asking, “What trends have you found in your business?”
  4. They’ve got a process. Whether it’s how they attack leads, own their day, manage an account, or whatever. Try asking “How do you attack your account book/territory?”

These last two questions can help indicate a more strategic viewpoint. We’re looking for someone who sees the SCIENCE of sales vs. the ART. The science can be taught, but the art can not (your superstar reps were born to sell. It’s an art. They’re not really sure how they even do it, but it probably doesn’t include following the rules).

  1. They prioritize well. Front-line management is nothing if not chaotic. Many fail their first year just under the weight of the constant barrage of questions and requests. Someone who can prioritize time and tasks has a much better survival rate. Try asking,
    “What do you do first each day and why?”
  2. They’re a tremendous listener. If 50% of us quit because of our boss (it’s a thing, Google it, Gallup cited it), then we want someone who can connect well with others. Listening is a critical engagement skill and one that’s REALLY hard to teach and change. If they have this naturally they’re ahead of the pack. At the end of the interview, give them a rating here – subtract a point every time they interrupt, break eye contact, or were clearly just waiting for their turn to talk.
  3. They play well with others. You don’t need all your other departments logging complaints about the bulldog manager who’s hounding the credit department. Look for evidence of sharing, learning, teaching, and relationship-building outside an immediate team member. Try asking, “Tell me 10 people you’ve met and like outside of your team.”
  4. They want to make things better. I ask every new manager I teach why they decided to get into management. The bad ones want the title or money, the good ones want to help others win, and the great ones see something and want to make it better. Try asking, “Tell me about your ideas for ______.”

I look forward to updating this blog annually with the ideas you share with me. Like a grocery bag “Take a bag and leave a bag” station in the park, together we will stop hiring bad managers!

Want to set your new sales managers up for success?

Contact us today to learn about our award-winning sales management training programs.


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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5 Components of a Great Sales Onboarding Experience

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5 Components of a Great Sales Onboarding Experience

What’s the most important component of a sales rep’s onboarding process? If we measure by time spent, most companies’ inadvertent answer would be company history, product, and systems. In an employee’s first few weeks, that’s where the majority of time is spent.

Outside of company orientation, there are five components of a great sales onboarding experience:

  1. Sales
  2. Acumen
  3. Systems
  4. Process
  5. Product

I’ve put these in priority order, let me tell you why I rank sales first and product last (you probably didn’t see that coming):

Sales 

Sales tactics are the little skills that determine if an employee feels successful in their first 90 days. If you want them to stay, this is critical. Too often young reps quit sales because those first few months are full of calls, voicemails, and rejections. Product training will help them in a few months when they have sales conversations, but we need to focus first on getting them more of these conversations. 

DOWNLOAD: Sales Team Retention Infographic

Focus on skills like how to prospect, how to make an outbound dial, how to write a valuable sales email, how to leave a good voicemail, and how to overcome initial brush-offs. When we focus on these skills with new hires, we see results like 200% more productivity than previous new hire classes (HPE, 2023).

Pro Tip: weave sales training and practice into the curriculum daily. Combine with product training to produce better questions, with acumen information to help identify ICPs and do better discovery. Daily practice builds better recall and confidence!

READ: Quick Sales Voicemail Tips to Build Phone Confidence

Yes! Outsourcing sales training in new hire onboarding can be very successful. License a vendor’s online content for a great virtual experience and then come together in live workshops to tailor messaging and role play. You’ll save time and help reps ramp faster.

Acumen 

This is business, industry, and customer know-how. What do they care about, what are the challenges, what are the trends, and how do I have an intelligent conversation with them? Then, how do these relate to what I’m selling? New reps are afraid of conversations, and helping them get to know their customer and their customer’s business, lingo, questions, and challenges can fix this. 

Use customer testimonials, old call recordings, and lingo bingo to get the voice of the customer. 

Systems

I wish I could put systems last, but just like sales, it takes repetition to get good. Please resist the temptation to teach a system start to finish and start instead with the first 10 things they’ll do on the job. 

Practice system drills DURING sales role plays. It’s not the individual skill that’s hard, it’s using them together. Systems finals should include multi-tasking and be timed.

Systems and sales are ripe for outsourcing by the way. Use your systems provider’s training – just re-organize it from the rep’s point of view. Using outsourced training helps mix it up, cover different learning styles, and infuse your program with expertise. Same with sales – some things need to be customized but don’t rely on professional training facilitators to coach selling tips.

READ: How to Build Sales Confidence During Onboarding

Process

Process is how to GSD (get stuff done). Try organizing this by the top ten questions managers get and customers ask. Teach reps how to use tools to answer their questions instead of giving them the answers. I like a good scavenger hunt for this and it’s easy to do remotely. Reps need to know how to get accounts assigned to them, do research, send info, answer customer questions – do a day-in-the-life study of your last newbies, and your curriculum is written!

Process training can also cross over into acumen practice. Role-play conversations with customers or use recordings with questions and challenge reps to find the answers. 

Product

Finally product. Sure, I overcorrected a hair by putting it last, but there’s such a glut of product training in most programs I wanted to balance it a bit! When we give full-blown product training to new hires, we actually DECREASE their confidence. If you don’t expect a rep to have a conversation about the intricacies of what you provide in the first 2 months, then SKIP THIS. Focus instead on what problems it solves, the customer situations/profiles who love it, and the questions to ask to uncover this situation. Then provide resources just in case to look up answers. Slimming down the product features and functionality helps beef up the “how to sell it” portion. 

Pro Tip: do product training daily just before sales training so you can incorporate the product situation questions into your sales questions and be teaching them how to do discovery right from the start.


We’re talking about unconscious incompetence and it’s important. We can’t have reps making outbound dials feel underprepared and afraid. So lop off half of the training you’re doing in the first month and instead drill the basics. If they don’t know the complexities of what they’re selling in month one it’s a win. We will only retain about 50% of what we’re taught in sales onboarding unless we drill it, practice it, and role-play it, so less info and more practice! Bonus: mix it all up and use it together like they will on the job.

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