Sales Training Implementation Guide [Checklist]
Sales Training Implementation Guide
[Checklist]
[Checklist]
[Research Report]
Scale revenue-driving behaviors with Gong Enable. Turn every rep into a top performer with enablement powered by real customer conversations. Gong uses conversation data to pinpoint winning behaviors and drive data-backed behavior change across your revenue team.
Check out their guide, ROI of sales enablement: Using AI to prove business impact, to tie enablement initiatives to growth.
How do you build a top-performing sales team? Short answer: Skills. Confidence. Coaching.
Every sales team has a few all-star reps. The ones who just get it and crush it. The question is, how do you clone that kind of success?
Here’s the truth: some people are born with drive, curiosity, and that inner fire to win. But top-performing sellers aren’t just born, they’re developed. They learn the skills, build the confidence, and have managers who coach them along the way. The good news? Every bit of that can be taught.
If your reps are struggling to find the right contacts, freezing up when someone actually answers the phone, or taking forever to ramp, it’s not a talent problem. It’s a skills and confidence problem.
So, whether you’re building a team from scratch or helping seasoned sellers hit the next level, here’s how to turn potential into performance.
Before you can grow a high-performing sales team, you have to figure out what’s slowing reps down. For most, it starts with confidence. New sellers don’t know the language yet, feel unsure about the tools, and get stuck just trying to figure out who to call.
Here’s what sales leaders say are the top challenges:
And even when they do reach the right people, getting them to engage (and knowing what to say next) isn’t always natural.
Confidence doesn’t just appear. It’s built, one conversation, one small win at a time.
New hire sales training often tries to do too much. But what sellers need most in their first few weeks is confidence, the kind that comes from actually knowing what to do and say in real situations.
Skip the deep dives into quoting systems or pricing battles. In the beginning, focus on the basics that make up 90% of their day:
That’s the heart of just-in-time sales training. Teach what reps need for their first 30 days, not their first 300.
Tip: When new reps leave training feeling confident, they come back hungry for more. That’s how you build a learning culture and ramp faster.
READ: 8 Sales Rep Onboarding Best Practices
One of the most effective coaching tools out there is the Pause Game. It’s simple and powerful:
This exercise pulls reps out of their own heads and into the customer’s world. It builds active recall, which science shows is five times more effective than passive learning.
The game teaches reps when to apply knowledge, not just what to say. That small shift in awareness can shave weeks off ramp time.
Tip: It’s not just about knowledge. It’s about retrieval. Helping reps recognize when to use the right skill is what separates good from great.
READ: Sales Training Techniques: Telling vs. Teaching
Reps can’t succeed without the right tools and the know-how to use them at the right moment.
To set your team up for success:
Digital Sales Rooms (DSRs) are must-have sales tools. These microsites let sellers organize resources, track buyer engagement, and keep deals moving with mutual action plans and real-time visibility.
Tip: Tools like DSRs don’t just help reps. They make it easier for buyers to stay informed and move deals forward. That’s a win-win.
If you want to keep your top reps, you have to do more than teach them how to sell. You have to show them what’s next.
Reps are motivated by success stories, recognition, and growth. So give them that:
Coaching plays a massive role here. Too many managers run 1:1s, review pipeline, and put out fires, but never actually coach.
That’s why developing your managers matters. Coaching certifications give them a repeatable system to build skills, boost confidence, and grow their people.
Tip: If managers don’t know how to coach, reps don’t improve. Equip your frontline leaders to develop people, not just push deals.
READ: Tips for Enablement Leaders to Increase Sales Coaching Focus
Let’s be real. Most reps are buried under too many tools and use none of them well. The average tech stack is a juggling act, not a system.
Keep it simple. Your learning, content, and call-intelligence tools should actually talk to each other so managers can move fast, coach smarter, and see what’s working.
Manager dashboards should show trends, not snapshots; who’s improving, who’s stuck, and where to step in.
And here’s the kicker: about 90% of what managers say in a 1:1 is forgotten within a week. Real learning sticks when it’s reinforced, coached, and repeated until it becomes a habit.
READ: The Secret to Scaling Sales Team Revenue: Your Managers
This article is based on insights shared during a Sales Shot webinar featuring Lauren Bailey and Devyn Blume, Sr. AE at Allego. Watch the full session here.
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.
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:
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.

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:
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).
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!).
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
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:
In reality, this creates three big problems.
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.”
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.
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.
If you run enablement or revenue, you are caught in a familiar trap.
But you also run into the reality:
But the tradeoffs are real:
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.
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:
For revenue leaders, inside sales training that is truly customized means:
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
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:
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.
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).
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.
Let’s dive a little deeper into why and how to integrate these tips into your onboarding.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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?
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.
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.
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.
Contact us today to request information on our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).