{"id":13654,"date":"2024-09-04T08:58:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T08:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindticklestg.wpengine.com\/?p=13654"},"modified":"2024-09-04T14:48:52","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T14:48:52","slug":"10-sales-training-topics-to-help-your-team-get-and-stay-sales-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mindtickle.com\/blog\/10-sales-training-topics-to-help-your-team-get-and-stay-sales-ready\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Sales Training Topics to Help Your Team Get (and Stay) Sales Ready"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Sales training and coaching are often reserved for new hires and low performers. For the rest of the team, training may be limited to a brief refresher during the annual sales kickoff.<\/p>

But this approach to sales training isn\u2019t as effective as we\u2019d like to think. In many cases, this is because revenue organizations only cover a few training topics with their sales professionals.<\/p>

To improve the effectiveness of training (and your entire sales enablement program<\/a>), you must continually cover a full range of sales training topics. This will help all your reps build the skills and knowledge required for any selling scenario.<\/p>

Sales training topics<\/p>

  1. Pipeline management<\/a><\/li>
  2. Prospecting and outreach<\/a><\/li>
  3. Qualifying leads<\/a><\/li>
  4. Call planning<\/a><\/li>
  5. Building relationships with customers<\/a><\/li>
  6. Identifying customer needs<\/a><\/li>
  7. Presenting the value of your products<\/a><\/li>
  8. Competitor knowledge<\/a><\/li>
  9. Managing objections<\/a><\/li>
  10. Closing deals<\/a><\/li><\/ol>

    1. Pipeline management<\/h2>

    Your sales reps need to be able to build their pipeline, prioritize leads and prospects based on lead quality and sales urgency, and measure their results.<\/p>

    In fact, research<\/a> suggests that effective pipeline management is closely linked to rep performance.<\/p>

    However, a recent survey<\/a> found that generating and converting a healthy pipeline is a top challenge among revenue professionals.<\/p>

    Training in pipeline management can set junior team members up for success. They\u2019ll be able to keep track of all their deals in your CRM, know what pipeline stage their deals are at, and determine whether they have enough conversations in progress to hit quota.<\/p>

    2. Prospecting and outreach<\/h2>

    Sales prospecting and outreach are two competencies that go hand in hand. Business development reps (BDRs) need to find and identify good-fit potential customers and then craft compelling messages to engage them. According to a Salesforce report<\/a>, sellers spend about 17% of their time each week prospecting and researching potential customers to ensure they fit your ideal customer profile (ICP).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Sellers spend about<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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    of their time prospecting and researching<\/div>\t\t\t
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    Top performers spend even more time researching their prospects. According to a LinkedIn report<\/a>, 82% of top performers say they always perform research prior to reaching out to prospects, compared to 49% of other sellers.<\/p>

    Cold calling and outreach emails are essential skills for BDRs to master if they want to bring new prospects into their pipeline. You can provide training and coaching via verbal and written role-plays<\/a> to help reps practice these core skills. In fact, we found that learning to prepare cold email intros<\/a> is the top use case for written role-plays by BDRs in the Mindtickle platform.<\/p>

    3. Qualifying leads<\/h2>

    Nurturing or repeatedly contacting bad-fit leads is a waste of your reps\u2019 time and energy. Furthermore, following up with a prospect they know isn\u2019t interested is one of the top frustrations reps have with their jobs. And if a lead is a bad fit, they\u2019re more likely to book time with your reps but never show up.<\/p>

    One way to cover this in sales training and revenue enablement<\/a> is to share bite-size quizzes to test reps\u2019 ability to qualify leads and their familiarity with your ICP. Then, if you identify knowledge gaps that may be affecting their lead qualification capabilities, you can follow up with AI-driven coaching<\/a>.<\/p>

    4. Call planning<\/h2>

    Your sellers need to know how best to prepare and plan for a call with a prospect at every stage of the sales cycle. For initial calls, sellers need to make a good first impression. They must build rapport with prospects and become trusted advisors for later calls.<\/p>

    Oracle found that 11% of prospects ignore sellers because the seller wasn\u2019t properly prepared for their conversation. Call planning is essential for all sellers.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    of callers ignore sellers because the seller wasn't prepared<\/div>\t\t\t
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    You can create training materials such as pre-call checklists or run practice calls for product demos, discovery calls, or closing calls. These will allow your sellers to appear professional, knowledgeable, and trustworthy to prospects.<\/p>

    5. Building relationships with customers<\/h2>

    Relationship building is another essential skill because, even in B2B sales, you\u2019re still dealing with another person. According to research from Forrester<\/a>, trust is the most important factor contributing to whether or not a company will do business with you. So it’s essential that your reps get training and coaching to help them foster relationships and earn prospects\u2019 trust.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Trust is the most important factor contributing to whether or not a company will do business with you. <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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