Successful sales training methods : your questions answered

In our latest webinar, ‘5 Keys to Successful eLearning for Sales’, Nancy Nardin, CEO of Smart Selling Tools, and Dawn Baron, Gomo Product Marketing Manager, discussed the changing expectation of today’s salesperson in relation to the buyer and to L&D professionals. We had a number of excellent questions around sales training methods from our attendees, which Nancy has answered below.

Q1: For salespeople, which do you think provides a better result: training from third-party content or training provided by internal subject matter experts?

Nancy: It’s certainly content coming from internal subject matter experts and peers. I really love the idea of L&D becoming a subject matter expert on the company’s sales cycle so that they can provide first-hand insight to new and current salespeople.

Q2: What do you think we can do to get L&D from training the way we do today to training salespeople the way they want to be trained?

Nancy: Well, this isn’t an L&D problem; it’s a sales org problem. There is a distance between L&D and Sales. “Sales Enablement” has become a bridge for that distance but we still have to strengthen that bridge. We have to encourage each other to try new methods. Maybe one way we do that is by asking ourselves: ‘What will happen if we do nothing?’ If we do nothing, we won’t capture the talent we need to be the leader in our industries.

Q3: What do you think is the biggest difference in how we view sales training today versus how we viewed training 10 years ago?

Nancy: The biggest difference when it comes to sales training is the outcome. Today, sales teams with talent win. Ten years ago, we didn’t rely on salespeople as being the ambassadors of our brands and our cultures. Today, salespeople drive revenue but they also drive loyalty and brand. The more talented our sales team, the better position the company is in to compete. The makes the role of sales training ever more important.

Q4: Why now? Why is now the time that we should be rethinking our sales training methods?

Nancy: Because if you do it now, you’ll have a competitive advantage. If you do it even 12 months from now, you will be a follower. I believe that only 15% of companies’ sales organizations are training with a modern learning program. Maybe even less. If you are not adopting digital learning applications, mentoring, practice, mobile learning, video learning —right now—then you will fall behind before 2020.

Q5: What gets you excited about where sales enablement is headed?

Nancy: While sales leaders, salespeople, and even sales enablement professionals are not pushing hard for modern sales training, I know that when it hits, it will hit hard. It will be an exciting time to see how companies really integrate training moments into everything and it will be even more exciting to watch salespeople and sales teams grow.

Thank you for your great questions!