7 Benefits of Giving Sales Training to Every Sales Rep

In practice, with sales training, you can achieve much more than your next quarterly target. In this article, we’ll explain the key benefits of good sales training, so you become more confident at rolling out your first sales training initiative.

What is sales training?

Sales training is the process of developing your salesperson’s skill sets to help them generate more opportunities and become more effective at closing deals.

There are many forms of sales training. For example, you might think of a traditional session based on specific sales coaching models or maybe personalized 1:1 training. Whatever method you choose, sales training is usually organized to achieve a specific goal, such as helping deal with a low close rate or educate your staff on new market changes.

The benefits of investing in sales training for employees

When allocating budget for personal development, you should ask the question: “Is this the right investment to make?”

With sales training, the ROI is obvious — it can clearly translate into more sales and revenue for the business. However, the benefits of sales training are not limited to achieving sales targets — it can mean much more for the company.

1. Close more deals

The value sales training can bring in terms of new revenue is one of the key reasons why many provide their teams with ongoing training. Especially as closing more deals is the top sales priority for the next year.

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During training, you can learn where most opportunities are missed — if it’s at a discovery call or at the final sales stages. By identifying where your sales bucket is leaking, you can then work on improving the process at that stage and eventually improve your results.

2. Develop realistic goals

Setting overly optimistic sales goals is one of the reasons why your sales reps don’t achieve their monthly quotas. On the other hand, if your sales goals are not ambitious enough, you’ll make it too easy for your team to achieve their sales targets.

During your sales training, you can analyze where the golden middle is and set more realistic goals for your team.

The most common approach to setting goals is SMART which focuses on making goals more specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound, so you can see results faster.

3. Decrease turnover

In most organizations, sales reps work in a highly competitive environment that makes almost everyone work under pressure and fear that this month's quota won’t be achieved.

When left alone within this type of environment, sales reps can easily get demotivated and start thinking of quitting. As a result, you’ll have to hire and onboard new reps again and again.

By teaching your sales team the right mindset and skills to become better at what they do, closing new deals won’t come as a big effort. On the contrary, they’ll feel more confident and empowered at their work and, as a result, will stay with your organization for longer.

Often, talented SDR teams will recognize their need for improvement or stress management even without your prompting. And although it sounds counterintuitive, if you show them you’re willing to support them in training and development that they can mention on their CV, they’re more likely to remain loyal to you longer than if you don’t.

4. Increase productivity

Sales executives are often swamped with administrative and other low-value tasks instead of being able to hold more video conferences with customers and make more sales. In fact, they only spend 36% of their time actively selling.

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A group employee training program helps everyone understand which sales routines have high value and what skillsthey’ll need. It also reveals which sales activities don't directly contribute to closing deals and can be easily automated or outsourced. It may even be worth investing in a virtual sales assistant for this exact purpose.

5. Help sales reps understand your service offering

Sales happen when the right solution is offered to the right prospect at the right time. To sell more, your sales team has to know what problems your products help solve, what type of customer might need a solution, and when they need it the most.

Educating your sales team on how to reach an ideal customer, how to position a product during a sales call, and what price to offer can help your team close more deals.

You can support this effort by creating product enablement resources, such as a knowledge base that provides your salespeople with in-depth detail about your company’s products and services.

This might be an internal company resource, or you could share this with both customers and salespeople so that all the relevant information is presented transparently. Allowing customers to become well educated on what you offer can help your sales team close the deal more quickly by not having to explain as much or spend time overcoming objections.

6. Get people to work as one team

Building a sales team that is collaborative isn’t a piece of cake in an environment where everyone is rewarded for achieving their personal quotas.

However, in the long run, an individual cut-throat approach can be counterproductive. Sales reps who struggle to hit their quotas will find it difficult to learn and grow in a highly competitive environment where only a few are rewarded for their hard work. They’ll either leave on their own or be fired.

During sales training, you can help come up with team objectives that will incentivize everyone to work as a team and see an incremental improvement in results when everyone is playing to the same goal.

7. Help acquire new skills

Sales isn’t for everyone. On one hand, sales are difficult for people who can’t manage prospects’ objections and handle rejection. On the other hand, anyone can excel in their profession with the right attitude and preparation.

For example, junior sales reps often find it the most difficult to handle sales conversations with annoying clients who often say “no”. Feeling demotivated after their first days at work, they can start thinking that sales isn’t for them and, as a result, decide to quit.

However, sales training can help them manage this and feel less demotivated when hearing “no”. Instead, they can start to see progress while working on improving their KPIs — which will help them catch up with the rest of the team.

Providing sales reps with ways to enhance their CV will increase their attractiveness as candidates for future promotions or expanded roles within your company.

Think about it — if you look for certain training experience among new hires, then doesn’t it make sense to make sure your existing sales team is at or above that same level with their training?

Wrapping up

Investing in sales training is worth it — its benefits go beyond improving sales metrics. Good sales training can also have a positive impact on the morale in your organization, help empower your employees, and foster their development. Now, it’s time to think about the specific goals your sales training can help you achieve and look for a trusted and experienced expert to help carry it out.