6 Tips to Design Your Sales Training Programs For 2021 Sales Readiness

The world has changed completely now, and the new decade has kick-started itself with a completely different model of things. The term “business as usual”, is no longer relevant for modern businesses desperately trying to stay afloat during such volatile times. However, businesses that modified their sales strategies by improving their sales management training and sales training courses are observing a remarkable growth in sales even during these difficult times. 

So, the message is clear, it is finally the time to train your sales reps for the new business model. Any further delay can result in serious losses. But investing heavily in training without proper planning can lead to even more losses. So to achieve desired results, you need to understand the market requirements and plan accordingly. 

Here are a few tips to improve your sales training for 2021 sales readiness:

1) Prepare your reps and managers for the new digital model

Sales meetings have become almost completely virtual. The decision-makers no longer want to take risks of travelling, or meeting people for sales activities. That’s why you need to prepare your sales reps and managers to handle the virtual meetings highly professionally. The preparation must start from the very initial stages of training. Right from the first day, a clear message has to be sent out that the old methods have changed. Start making your reps familiar with the equipment and their presence in front of the camera. By the time the training period comes to an end, all your reps and managers must be very comfortable in front of the camera. The more comfortable they feel while virtual meets, the easier it will be for the decision-makers to trust your business.

2) Improve the Content for The New Model

As the very style of sales meets change, the content has to be changed as well. The content has to be developed according to the new style. For improved training efficiency, you can utilize digital methods like e-learning, which can impart a large volume of information in a relatively less amount of time. The reps and managers can benefit from engaging in training programs that are easy to understand and implement. 

Improving content quality cannot just stop with the training. For better sales performance, the after-training content has to be improved as well. Provide your sales reps with good, centralized access to all the information so that they can use the information quickly during their meetings with the prospects. Also, incorporate your sales cycle with modern software solutions that help your sales reps further. 

3) Turn Training into Ongoing Education

Instead of gathering all the reps in one room and conducting hours and hours of training, you can now break down the training program and convert it into bite-sized ongoing coaching programs. You can small-sized coaching modules specially personalized for your reps. This way, learning becomes easier for the sales reps as they get to train in their weaknesses in a personalized manner. It also reduced the burden on managers and trainers, as they don’t have to go through very extensive training sessions. So, the modern business model now calls for a segmented and ongoing training method. 

4) Gamification

Gamification is relatively new but highly effective when it comes to sales training. Partner with professional service providers who can offer top-quality e-learning and gamification content for your sales training. Professional service providers can develop games and other challenges according to your requirements, motivating your sales reps to learn and perform better. Gamification also greatly improves the reps capability to solve problems quickly without any assistance. These character enhancements are vital for a smooth experience during live video conferences with prospects. 

5) Analytics-Based Training 

The role of analytics has only increased with time. Businesses in 2021 rely on analytics more than anything else to improve performance. That’s why your sales training also has to take an analytics-based approach. To begin with it, you need to first improve your analytics and reporting structure for higher sales-readiness. Better, more precise and quick reporting is the key. Invest in software that offers the right metrics and the right speed to meet your reporting and analytics requirements. Once done, you need to modify your training program according to the analytics reports. 

From the very beginning, the sales reps must get a clear idea about how important the role of analytics is for their business. Moving further, they should realize how the leads are filtered and which of the prospects have a higher chance of sales conversion. Such analytics-based training will help your reps to target the right leads from the very beginning. 

6) Train your Managers

It is extremely important to train your sales managers so that the entire team works smoothly. Sales managers are the ones who handle the team performance and make instant decisions on-floor. So the managers must also be trained to adapt to the new working model. Training them with software and providing them with the right tools to track sales performances can be very helpful. Sales managers can then keep a better track of each reps’ performance and provide them personalized support. The team management also improves, which directly reflects on the overall efficiency of the sales team.

Conclusion

The year 2021 has changed a lot, but the changes have also offered some good development opportunities. Though everyone struggled at the beginning, the changes have only converted the business model into a more advanced, technological, and quick process. The new model offers better scalability, precise data, and easy connectivity. So, once you utilize these benefits to improve your sales management training and sales training programs, you will not have many bumps on the road ahead. 

So, the main focus has to be on training development. Once your sales reps are made comfortable with all the changes, they will in fact find it easier to handle the sales cycles now than before.

So, use the above 6 tips and improve your sales training, and the business will surely be a lot better than usual once again.