Any inside sales training initiative, if it is to succeed, should first answer the question for participants as to why it is being offered. The smooth introduction of your sales training plan is critical.
With any proposed change, the targets of change need to be convinced that not only is change possible but also that it is in their personal best interests as well as the interests of their team and the company at large. Especially with an inside sales training initiative, participants need to be willing to learn…and they will be if they understand that the training will help them reach their personal and professional goals.
Help inside sales reps see how the skills they will learn in the workshop and the behaviors that follow can be a direct resource for performance improvement and achieving their own success. The inside sales training is not designed so much to “fix” them as to enhance their likelihood of improved sales performance. They need to see, even before the sales training begins, that there is a personal payoff.
When presented well initially, your insides sales training workshop will be attended by willing learners, not prisoners. Elicit the aid of the team’s sales manager to meet with each member of the inside sales team to review individual goals and link the program objectives to the rep’s career objectives. It is all about relevance – to the participant, their boss and the team as a whole.
Once the participants are persuaded that the training makes sense for them, they should understand more of the details of the content. If, for instance, you have determined that sales have lagged because the reps are not very good at uncovering customer needs, then participants should embrace the opportunity to learn how to ask the questions that will lead to a better understanding of customer issues. The skill to be learned connects directly to improved sales.
Of course, training by itself is of little lasting value. Skills workshops are effective only when there is a follow-on system to reinforce the new behaviors on the job. Make sure that you set up ongoing coaching and create a measurement system to assess performance as those new behaviors are applied.
Both the introduction and the follow-on to training matter to the success of the overall initiative…not just the workshop itself.
For more information about inside sales training best practices, please visit: http://www.lsaglobal.com/inside-sales-training-coaching/
