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Factor 8 is pleased to announce it has been named to Selling Power’s annual list of Top Sales Training Companies in 2023.
“We are so grateful to Selling Power for recognizing Factor 8 as a Top Sales Training Company,” said Founder and CEO, Lauren Bailey. “My goal over the years has always been to get people to love and STAY in sales, because it’s awesome here. We’re proud to be the only training company on this list that has always focused 100% on teaching virtual and digital sales skills.”
Factor 8’s winning application highlighted the incredible success of its virtual sales training programs and its ability to adapt to its customer’s needs in the constantly evolving corporate landscape. With many years of experience in virtual sales, Factor 8 quickly became a strategic partner to various B2B and B2C companies, helping their sales teams adjust to and excel in virtual and hybrid selling environments.
According to Selling Power publisher and founder Gerhard Gschwandtner, quality sales training is more important than ever. “As the economy continues to slow, accelerating sales becomes increasingly critical to a company’s success. The right sales training delivered at the right time can be the secret ingredient to a company not only surviving in this economy but also thriving.”
All companies on the list submitted a comprehensive application that included a detailed listing of their offerings for both training and retention, innovative solutions, and their company’s unique contributions to the sales training marketplace.
The main criteria used when comparing applicants and selecting the companies to include on this year’s list were:
To evaluate applicants for the list, the Selling Power team surveyed and considered feedback from nearly 400 clients of the applicants. Here is a brief selection of comments from their clients:
Selling Power magazine editors say CROs, sales VPs, and sales enablement leaders can leverage this list to find the right sales training partner to help salespeople succeed during social distancing and remote working.
Factor 8 is an award-winning sales rep and management training company focused 100% on helping sales teams sell in a virtual world. The want people to love sales – and stay! They are a team of expert sales leaders who quit the daily grind so they could spend their time developing people. Together, they’ve solved the big problem: Sales Reps and Managers are not gaining the skills they need to quickly feel confident and successful long-term. That means they ramp slowly and leave quickly.
In addition to Selling Power, the leading digital magazine for sales managers and sales VPs since 1981, Personal Selling Power, Inc., produces the Sales Management Digest and Daily Boost of Positivity online newsletters, as well as videos featuring interviews with top executives. Selling Power is a regular media sponsor of the Sales 3.0 Conference, which is attended by a total of more than 4,500 sales leaders each year.
Been thinking that revenue targets would be easier to crush if your new hires would ramp up to speed more quickly? You’re spot-on, my friend.
WATCH: Onboarding Sales Reps: 10 Hacks To Improve Training + Ramp Time
Best-in-class onboarding (or new hire training) programs go well beyond the standard “Welcome to the company” orientation and dive into actual job training. But most programs stop after introducing reps to their new systems and products. This leaves reps on their own to figure out things like:
The result? Long ramp times, while they use experience to supplement what they could have been taught.
There will always be a ramp period. Our goal is to shorten it. Awesome new hire programs have been proven to cut new hire ramp-to-target in half (Training Magazine).
What is the right ramp time? Sorry for this, but it depends – on the talent you’re hiring, your training program, and the complexity of your offering and sales cycle. But here are a few basic benchmarks:
I’ve been building and benchmarking new hire programs for the past fifteen years, and there are very few who don’t need help. Why?
Most onboarding programs need help because trainers don’t get sales, and sellers don’t usually get training – it’s a sandbox thing.
A great program is a killer combination of both worlds. Incidentally, a great program can also shrink your rep attrition. Keep them longer, ramp them faster = this is worth your investment, sales leaders!
READ: How to Hire and Retain Top Sales Reps and Managers
Here are eight signs of a world-class rep onboarding program (that you should steal immediately!)
Think of it as “Just-in-time training.” 100% classroom time is 1-2 weeks and then decreases gradually to once a month.
For example, a new hire is in full-time training for 2 weeks, but by week 4 they’re in class 2 hours a day, and in week six 1 hour a day. By week 8 it’s one hour a week and by month three (and for the rest of their tenure!) they’re in training once a month.
This makes it critical to focus their first two weeks only on what they’ll need in month one on the phone. Why? They’ll have no idea what they don’t know yet. That means you’ll graduate a team of super-confident sellers who can’t wait to get on the phones. Perfect.
This is my favorite tip. My theory on ramp time is that it will always be present because it isn’t the “what to do/say” that takes a long time to get. It’s the “when do I do it/say it” that takes experience to really nail. So shorten that by letting reps listen to call recordings. Nope, the recordings don’t have to be their own, and they shouldn’t all be great calls. Just typical. It’s like reviewing game tapes before the big game – breaking down what the other team (customer) is doing and when they should have used the right play (skill).
All six critical components of the program are included and mixed together:
1. Systems & Tools – CRM, Intranet, Lead Management, AI, etc.
2. Product/Service – be sure it’s “how to sell it” and not “the full history of it”
3. Sales – how to sell our products over the phone (not generic sales 101 field training!)
4. Process – how leads and orders get processed + rep and customers’ top 10 questions
5. Acumen – business acumen, industry acumen, and customer acumen – critical!
6. Manager integration – nope, lunch on day one isn’t enough. Get them more involved.
If you can create an exercise where reps are calling current, potential, or even past customers by day two, do it! They can qualify leads, gather success stories, call cold leads – whatever! The right hires are itching to start calling, and the wrong hires will show reluctance and wash out. You’re welcome.
READ: Tips for Virtually Onboarding New Sales Reps
Sorry large organizations, I know it’s so tempting! But classroom-based training (in-person or virtual) is still the most effective for a reason: You can’t practice selling with a computer! Also, how engaging is your new hire’s experience when they’re clicking forward 200 times a day? Painful.
In my experience, a good 25% of every new hire class should not graduate training (yes, please be sure you’re hiring in groups, not “onesie-twosie”). When you really trust your training department, you’ll count on them to de-facto manage reps during training and coach them out the door if they won’t make it. Start, stop, and break times should be like real life on the floor, and weekly tests let them know how they’re doing.
Quick hit ways to do this:
a. You have a systems sandbox for training (a monthly updated mirror image of all systems)
b. Phones and systems in the classroom for better role plays
c. Dummy accounts or even real (low scoring) accounts for practice
d. Call coaching or quality forms approved by sales leadership used for role plays/testing
e. Scenario-based testing (because when is a real client going to say, “A. send me a quote…B. schedule a call back…”?)
There’s a difference between regular company training and sales training. Aberdeen recently reported that 85% of best-in-class sales teams use a professional sales curriculum or trainer. What is good sales training? (read more about that here)
Overwhelmed? Here are a few easy ways to start:
Let’s dive deep into a phenomenon that’s rearing its head in the world of sales: call reluctance. Having chatted with senior sales leaders this month, it’s clear this isn’t just an isolated challenge; it’s a widespread issue. But why is it happening, and more importantly, how do we tackle it?
DOWNLOAD: 20 Value-Add Reasons to Call Your Customers
When you have reps dodging calls and taking refuge behind emails or DMs, you’re witnessing call reluctance in action. So, why are our once-confident reps hesitating? A few reasons…
The COVID Comfort Zone: The pandemic changed buying patterns. Many sellers shifted to a laid-back, order-taking mode. Now, as the world returns to some semblance of its pre-pandemic self, we need to dust off our sales hats and get back into the game.
A Crisis of Confidence: A few factors are at play here:
Demoralized Frontline Leaders: These folks are the backbone of our teams. When they’re down, the whole ship can veer off course.
READ: Sales Is A Confidence Sport
So, how do we turn the tide? How do we help reps build confidence and get back on the phones?
Rediscover the ‘Why’: Tap into what truly drives our reps and managers. Align their goals and motivations with their roles and rewards. It’s all about the personal connection.
Celebrate Small Wins: Start small. Take, for instance, a client of mine: once struggling with a mere 100 dials a month across a team, they shifted focus to small victories. Now? They’re rocking 90 discovery calls a week!
Skill Refresher: It’s time to retrain and remind our reps about the art of tactical sales. Equip them with the tools they need to navigate this new landscape.
Invest in Your Leaders: Here’s the golden nugget: support your frontline sales managers. I can’t emphasize this enough. Whether it’s training, resources, or just a chat over coffee, check in with them. And hey, if you’re looking for training, I might know someone. 😉 But jokes aside, these leaders are pivotal. Ensure they have the right support, tools, and motivation to steer the ship.
READ: Why You Need Training for Sales Managers
Embrace Technology: Virtual sales tools aren’t just about tracking; they can offer insights, refine strategies, and enhance client relationships.
Regular Check-ins: In the world of virtual sales, regular team check-ins can bridge the gap, ensuring everyone’s aligned and motivated.
Client Engagement: Beyond the sale, focus on building and nurturing relationships. Virtual doesn’t mean impersonal.
The sales landscape is ever-evolving, and while challenges like call reluctance arise, with the right strategies and support, we can not only overcome them but thrive. It’s about reconnection, retraining, and relentless support.
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales rep training programs
to help rebuild rep phone confidence.
Sales is an ever-evolving landscape, with tools, techniques, and targets shifting regularly. Yet, while we often focus on training our frontline sales reps, there’s a critical group that’s frequently overlooked: sales managers.
In fact, 60% of new managers fail within the first 24 months in their role. Why? Lack of training and development. Oftentimes, companies will promote reps into management without providing critical leadership skills to prepare them for their new role.
DOWNLOAD: Critical New Manager Skills to Master
Let’s dive into why training for sales managers is paramount and the benefits that come with it.
Often, organizations operate under the assumption that a stellar sales rep will naturally transition into a stellar sales manager. However, the skills required for each role differ significantly. Managing a team, strategizing, forecasting and coaching demand a unique skill set that isn’t always innate.
DOWNLOAD: Leader Activities to Start & Stop Doing
On-the-job training for sales managers isn’t just a “nice-to-have”; it’s a necessity. By investing in our sales leaders, we’re not only boosting current performance but setting the stage for sustained success in the future. It’s high time we prioritize sales manager training for those at the helm, guiding our sales teams to victory.
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.
In the world of sales, the quest for effective training solutions is never-ending. For years, event-based sales training has been the norm, but is it actually effective?
I’m here to tell you 7 reasons why event-based training won’t cut it, especially for leaders managing large teams.
Concern: Event-based training is like cramming the night before a test. You get a bunch of info all at once, but will you remember it next week? Probably not.
Reality Check: Enablement leaders get that learning isn’t just a one-time thing; it’s an ongoing process. Sales teams require continuous skill development and reinforcement. Event-based training, with its one-off sessions, can’t provide the consistent support needed for long-term success.
Concern: Event-based sales training can feel like it’s all talk and no action. It’s theory-based and detached from real-world sales situations.
Reality Check: Enablement leaders know that the sales landscape is dynamic and challenging. To thrive, teams need training that is directly applicable to their daily tasks.
Concern: Sales reps can struggle to retain the vast amount of information taught in a single training event. (That’s why micro-learning over time is critical to ensuring skills stick!)
Reality Check: Enablement leaders recognize that skill retention is the key to performance improvement. Event-based training can overwhelm participants, leading to lower skill retention. This leads to less effective training that fails to drive tangible results.
Concern: Event-based training typically lacks ongoing skill reinforcement.
Reality Check: Just like learning a new language, if you don’t use it, you lose it. Skills deteriorate over time if they’re not regularly practiced and reinforced. Enablement leaders need training that includes coaching, mentoring, and opportunities for reps to apply what they’ve learned to their daily work life – something that’s missing in event-based learning.
Concern: Event-based training can be expensive, and the ROI may not always justify the investment.
Reality Check: Enablement leaders are under pressure to deliver results and prove the value of their initiatives. Event-based training’s high costs and questionable long-term effectiveness can make it a tough sell when trying to show ROI.
Concern: High turnover is a common challenge for large sales teams, making it difficult to keep everyone up-to-date through periodic training events.
Reality Check: Enablement leaders understand that training should be agile and accessible. Event-based training struggles to accommodate the rapid onboarding of new hires or the need for ongoing training when turnover rates are high.
Concern: The sales landscape evolves rapidly, and event-based training can’t keep pace with these changes.
Reality Check: For those at the helm, it’s crucial that our teams are prepped and ready to tackle the ever-shifting industry trends and customer needs. Relying solely on event-based training might not give us the flexibility and swift adaptation we genuinely need.
Event-based sales training has its merits. However, for those leading large teams with a notable churn rate, it might not be the optimal choice. The better route? Ongoing, virtual sales training. It promises consistent, deep learning, techniques that align with real-world challenges, enhanced skill retention, ongoing skill reinforcement, cost efficiency, and the flexibility to adapt to the ever-evolving landscape.
READ: Why You Need a Sales Training and Enablement Budget
Ongoing learning fosters a culture of proactive growth which improves employee retention. This continuous approach ensures that every team member, whether a seasoned sales pro or a new rep, is armed with the most current strategies, insights, and best practices. In a landscape as competitive as sales, staying updated isn’t just recommended—it’s imperative.
Contact us today to request information on our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).
Whether you’re shopping around for external inside sales training vendors or working with your internal training department, knowing what good inside sales rep training looks like is the first step to ensuring your training is checking all the key boxes.
We’ve outlined a few of the most important considerations to keep in mind when choosing an inside sales training partner.
This shouldn’t be a surprise to any sales leaders out there — but what makes good inside sales training is results. You’ll be able to know whether or not sales training worked simply because it moved the needle.
These “results” look different depending on your company, team, and goals. It’s important to go into the sales training and decide on what those goals are to you — whether it’s sales units sold or market share gained.
READ: How to Measure Sales Training ROI
This is even more important when partnering with an external sales training vendor. The vendor should understand your goals as well as your sales process, product, customers, industry, and competitors. There is so much specialization in the market today, don’t let a vendor bring SDR training to your team of AEs.
In order for sales training to be considered “good”, it must achieve your goals. Outlining what these goals are, and what success looks like, beforehand is a surefire way to get what your team needs out of their training.
We recommend identifying metrics, behaviors, KPIs, and overall results that you expect to shift during and after the training. Metrics and behaviors should lift immediately showing you’re on the right track, and KPIs are early indicators that the results are on the way. Identifying metrics or results only can lead to a miss.
After the goals are set, here are a few more tips to ensure you’re maximizing your training investment:
Really great sales training is customized to your industry and product/service.
This ensures your reps aren’t left trying to figure out how to take a broad theory and apply it to their job, customer, or service.
While it’s true that customized sales training is more expensive, the ROI is up to twenty-fold when you consider how much your reps are actually retaining, and how much they can apply immediately to their practices.
Use public seminars and events to help someone get a tip or two. Use custom live training to move the needle on results.
Aberdeen reported that 85% of the sales teams that are considered “best-in-class” utilize professional sales trainers or resources.
Don’t try and turn your managers or reps into trainers. Let’s face it, they’ve got enough on their plates. Plus, even really good managers and reps have no idea how to train — it’s just not their job! They might be excellent at sales, but they have no expertise in training.
Even worse, don’t let your HR department teach sales. They’re great at training and professional facilitation in many areas of your business, but their bailiwick is in company orientation and sexual harassment training — not sales and selling. They may be excellent at training but have no expertise in sales.
See where we’re going with this?
Make sure to bring in someone who is an expert at both training and sales. That’s the secret to good inside sales training, and it’s what the best in class are doing.
If you’re training your inside sales reps, make sure they’re attending an inside sales training. It sounds simple, but oftentimes well-meaning sales team leaders are duped into thinking “sales training” is enough. Shoe-horning your company’s existing field training for your inside team may actually do more damage than good.
Most popular sales books and training curricula deal with a very narrow view of selling: The conversation between Person A and Person B. Anyone who has been working in inside sales for a while can agree that the true issue lies in getting that interaction in the first place.
If your reps are struggling with connecting with decision-makers, getting callbacks, finding the right people, figuring out who to call, and capturing attention at the top of the funnel, then conversation selling and overcoming objections will miss the mark.
Make sure that your inside sales reps are being coached on topics like:
It’s important to make sure other aspects of the strategy are covered as well, so the reps can rely on their managers less for questions such as:
Theory stinks.
During the training, make sure reps are getting on the phones. There’s no reason that training shouldn’t be stopped so that the reps can go try out the skills they’re learning, and role-plays don’t really tell the whole story, do they?
Live calls to live customers using the training guarantees that these training methods are going to be applied. Live calling in a safe space leads to more rep buy-in and builds confidence. When reps see the tactics work in real-time they adopt, apply, and try more often. Training fall-off (the forgetting curve) has the odds stacked against it now!
Make the training stick by actually making calls and building pipeline during training.
Put managers in the reps’ training, and when possible make sure they have their own version of the training class tailored for their needs. Managers need to learn how to recognize the new skills in action, when to coach, how to coach the new skill, when to celebrate it working, and how to keep the momentum alive when the trainers leave. Behavior change lives and dies with the management team, and their buy-in, involvement, and use of the new skills are critical to success.
Ask your vendor how the managers will be involved in retaining the new skills.
READ: Tips for Enablement Leaders to Increase Sales Coaching Focus
You got it, training is a process, not an event. Reps reported a “Lack of Development” as a top 5 challenge every year for the past five years as reported by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals. Aberdeen also reported missing development opportunities as the number one rep-reported reason for leaving companies.
Deciding to invest in rep development is a smart choice, but be sure you don’t assume that it is “one and done.” Your teams want ongoing opportunities to learn, grow, and advance their careers.
READ: Why Event-Based Sales Training Falls Short
Training Magazine reported an average number of development hours/year/employee at about 48 hours – or four hours/month. Is your internal training team ready to provide this? Most corporate training teams get quickly maxed by providing new hire orientation and onboarding. Manager coaching can fill some of the gaps, but if you’re talking with learning vendors, check their ongoing offerings as well.
Ongoing training will often nurture and advance skills taught onsite – helping check the box of retaining new skills and providing the ongoing development reps crave.
The easiest way to accomplish this is with vendor-provided online skills training or inside sales training courses after their session to brush up on their skills, hone in on their weak spots, and keep skills in practice.
When evaluating sales training software, look for interactive resources such as:
Reps want skills on-demand. Learning should be easy, fun, interactive, and flexible. The old days of long-form narrated slides and sales training videos are over. Anyone who has clicked their way through to the final test (or let it run in the background while doing email) can attest to the fact this isn’t engaging or effective.
Again, look for sales training software to engage your management team as well as the learners. New skills and a culture of development live and die on your front lines. Does the software provide manager resources?
How about fast-reference cheat sheets, coaching guides, or contest ideas? Is it nimble enough to allow quick reference before a big call or team meeting?
Get your sales managers involved in testing your top choices.
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.
Employee development is more critical than ever as our incoming sales reps have less experience and fewer skills, yet our customer expectations and the technology we’re required to master are on the rise.
The best practice is to budget for sales training each year alongside your normal recruiting and tech line items. Now more than ever, “Training is something you do, not something you did.”
Don’t be one of the sales leaders who wait for a budget surplus, a BHAG goal, or a massive GTM shift to train. Today’s generations prioritize career development ABOVE their paychecks.
READ: Why You Need a Sales Training and Enablement Budget
So hats off, leader! You’re ahead of the game by searching for annual sales training budget amounts in this blog.
Because many of us slashed or froze headcount and training budgets in 2023, we recommend that planning for 2024 should be based on 2022 budgets. Before the economic uncertainty, we saw organizations spending more on employee development. This was driven by increasing customer expectations, shrinking pools of available talent, and a resounding demand by the employee base.
In 2022, the average company budgeted approximately $1200/per employee for professional development annually – up about 14% over the previous year. Keep in mind, that this average number is for all employees – from forklift driver to CEO. Not a surprise, but services and manufacturing industries reported the largest budget increases, whereas government, education, and nonprofits largely stayed the same or decreased.
Growing customer demands = growing training demands.
We expect to see these numbers come down in the 2023 Training Industry Report with the widespread layoffs, but we anticipate a resounding rebound in 2024 for two reasons:
Average spend on annual training per FTE is 1-3% of the total annual budget or 2-5% of the salary budget. That’s about $50.00 per $1000 of salary. If your team is new, only remote, shifting, or hasn’t had hands-on sales development for six months, aim slightly above average:
Six percent of salary = $60.00 per $1000 of salary
$100K employee = $6000/year | $60K employee = $3600/year
Remember, the benchmark is an average across all industries and employee types – landscapers, fast food workers, and CPAs. If customer experience and loyalty are critical to you, go higher. And, if your industry is complex or your product is early in the lifecycle, go higher. If you’re competing like mad for talent, go higher.
One source says sales jobs average 20% higher than the industry average, meaning 6-7% of their salary.
At Factor 8, our per-employee costs (for under 1000 employee companies) to outsource one year of sales development (onboarding to upskilling) comes in at the middle of this budget range – depending on services and other factors – again validating the research.
In 2022, the average organization provided about 5 hours of training per month or a total of 64 hours a year. If you haven’t trained since new hire onboarding, you’re lagging well behind average. This number is up since 2021 when we averaged 4 hours a month.
We theorize that this increase is driven by two sources: Remote workers and ineffective remote training.
With most of our teams still working remotely or hybrid, we are hit from two sides when it comes to learning:
Factor 8, provides sales training for virtual sellers and sales managers and we do so both in-person and virtually. I can tell you firsthand that it is taking us more remote sessions to get our normal increases in connection and conversion rate results we normally see in just a few hours when onsite.
By the way, like the last ten years, most companies are increasing budgets for manager training the most (although this group still typically falls underneath “onboarding” as the training department’s top priority).
If your enablement department isn’t prioritizing the development of your sales management team, consider allocating your budget to outsourcing this critical training.
Most companies under 1000 learners employ 1 trainer for every 80-100 learners. The exception to this rule is for start-ups where we recommend budgeting for the headcount at around 50 learners if you’re on the way up.
When beginning an enablement effort, your team literally has everything to build. Digital selling skills can be outsourced, as can some systems training, but the product, services, process, and customer acumen training has to come from within. Remember, for every hour in the classroom, there’s someone spending between 3-10 hours creating that learning interaction (and please don’t get me started on the difference between training and telling! 😉)
If you’re in build mode, I recommend a management to director-level staffer and 1 year of time before your onboarding program begins to produce reps hitting quota in industry average timelines (around 6 months, depending on role).
Employee development and career advancement are 2 of the top 3 things millennials search for when accepting jobs. And only 50% of reps think their company provides them with the training they actually need to be successful.
More great news, the American Society for Training and Development cites companies who invest in training their people achieve a 24% higher profit margin compared to those who don’t invest.
It’s much more expensive to recruit and replace (on average 200% – 600% of salary vs. 6% – 7%).
Here’s some great research to help you justify the spend:
Both HR Magazine and ATD sites double the profit per employee that prioritizes training (priority = double the spend of not a priority). In fact, companies who invest a minimum of just $1500/employee will see 24% higher profits.
CSO Insights proved a 63% average improvement across teams where the manager was getting development (that’s average you guys…what would happen with an 85% increase on entire TEAMS?)
And great onboarding can cut a new hire’s time to quota in HALF. That could be 1-2 extra months of productivity on an already-shrinking rep lifespan. Worth it!
Again, I can validate these findings. Over twelve years of partnering with BDR, AE, AM, and management teams across thousands of companies, we’ve seen lifts from 30-300%, with a huge percent of teams paying for the training before it’s even over with increased leads, pipeline, close rate, etc.
If you need an ROI model to get the spend, I recommend showing a 15% lift over about 90 days post-training if you’re still doing event-based training.
READ: How to Measure Sales Training ROI
You can expect bigger spikes with face-to-face training, but longer-sustained skills with a long-term blended approach. Overall, if you can’t show at least a 5-10% lift, it probably isn’t worth the investment.
Not sure it will work? Do it anyway and measure the results. Remember this?
A recent Ambition study surveyed sales reps about training and 98% of them said they would stay with a company indefinitely if they got ongoing development.
IBM recently shared that employees who feel they cannot develop in the company and fulfill career goals are 12X more likely to leave.
Truth is, sales reps know less than they did 10 years ago and our customers expect more. If you haven’t added a development line item by now, you’re in trouble. If you haven’t increased it in the past five years, it’s time.
And, if it’s been more than a year since you provided training, increase your number.
Click here to watch our session on “How To Build Your Training & Development Plan” to learn what industry spend is for sales training, the critical skills you need for every sales role, how to partner with your sales training organization, and more!
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).
