It's a common belief that sales is a reactionary industry – go with your gut, learn by experience, act on the fly.
Unfortunately, intuition will only get you so far. Some salespeople have very little “natural intuition”, and even sales reps with great instincts could benefit from sales training programs.
Sales training programs are outstanding resources for increasing conversion rates, boosting soft skills, and lowering employee turnover rates. They can teach pipeline management, consultative selling, objection handling, general prospecting skills, and more.
Sales teams willing to invest in training programs are 57% more effective than their competition.
In this blog, we will lay out the benefits of sales training, types of training programs, our top 5 choices for training courses, and a few tips from the pros.
Knowledge is power.
Sales training programs are resources to help salespeople learn techniques, build skills, and hone strategies to turn prospects into customers.
Coming in a variety of styles, the best sales training courses can be virtual or live courses, seminars, workshops, and more.
They typically follow this structure:
This process is made more accessible if you track their progress and schedule their lessons with a CRM like Ringy. And once they're done, follow up their training with a great coaching call to ensure knowledge retention.
Sales training programs come in many flavors, but most fall under four distinct categories:
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Training type |
Type definition |
Training examples |
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Inside sales |
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Field sales |
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Service sales |
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Sales management |
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Sure, your team functions o-kay without sales training. But you shouldn't turn a blind eye to continued education and upskilling.
And your employees agree: 74% of employees feel they aren't reaching their full potential due to a lack of development opportunities.
Sales training programs bring with them a slew of benefits, too. Your sales reps will learn about the company and product, gain more confidence, and achieve their objectives and quotas more easily.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's dive into the benefits of sales training.
Better job performance, increased conversion rates, boosted charisma – let's look at the great things you can expect from diving into sales training programs.
One of the primary benefits of sales training programs (that's why it's point #1) is sharpening the closing skills of your sales reps.
Many companies, sales managers, and onboarding programs mistake giving a one-size-fits-all approach to selling and closing. And we don't have to tell you that that doesn't even work for sweatpants.
By being exposed to various techniques through training courses, your sales reps will hone razor-sharp sales skills that suit them – not generic handbook-recommended strategies.
The result?
The ROI of sales training programs stands at 353%. That means that every dollar spent has a return of $4.53.
Probably something to do with the 50% higher net sales per sales rep that sales training creates.
Ahem.
You'll find that your agents will shine when submersed in a range of top-notch skills that they can absorb and put to heavy use.
Many people think salespeople have to be born with the right personality (ever heard of “natural born salesman?”). That's why it's a stereotype that introverts can't be sales reps.
What if we told you that sales aren't just an innate skill?
Sales training programs can improve the charisma of the salespeople who simply weren't born with it.
Not only that, but they can boost the skill of those “natural born” salespeople, too.
Training high performers is an outstanding idea. Why? Excellent sales training can boost performance by 20% – which means sales training can turn 40% into 48%.
But it can also turn an 80% into a 96%.
Soon, they won't even be looking at their scripts.
Sales training programs keep people at their jobs longer. “How?” we hear you ask. Check out these employee turnover and retention statistics:
It isn't just the sales managers that don't like it when sales reps don't know how to do their job. It turns out the rep doesn't like it either.
The less your agents know, the more likely they'll seek employment elsewhere. And if you keep hiring new representatives, you'll never reap the benefits of long-term employees with experience – plus, there's the cost of re-hiring, onboarding, and training.
Train your salespeople. Keep your salespeople. Hit your quotas.
Training is an excellent opportunity to know your team and monitor their progress, skill levels, techniques, and methods.
What are we getting at?
Knowing your team's abilities will let you set realistic goals for them, setting your company up for success.
Whether they're too high or too low, unrealistic goals will build discomfort and spite among your reps. Quotas are only effective if they're practical and achievable.
The best sales training courses will let you get to know your reps, allowing you to set motivational, attainable goals for them.
For more tips on crushing those sales goals, check out our blog post.
Many salespeople never get enough time to properly get acquainted with your company's practices, your product or service, and your brand.
I'm sure you've heard these dreaded phrases on calls a dozen times over:
“Err…I'm not sure. Let me check.”
“Yes, I think we have that feature…oh…I guess we don't….”
Ouch.
Sales training programs will increase each rep's knowledge of the company and services to know what they're selling.
And all of this, in turn, will boost a rep's confidence. 51% of employees believe that training gives them more self-confidence.
Knowing what you're doing (and what you're selling to the customer) can make a person more confident – go figure!
Now that you're motivated by all the pros, perks, and benefits – let's talk about the different courses.
Here's a quick summary of the sales training programs we will be going over:
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Training type |
Quick description |
| SaaS sales training |
Techniques and skills for selling SaaS |
| B2B sales training |
Learn how to better sell from business to business |
| Sales prospecting training |
Improve your prospecting and keep your pipeline full |
| Sales relationship training |
Learn how to build and nurture essential sales relationships |
| Sales management training |
Hone your coaching, communicating, and team-handling skills |
On to the good stuff.
SaaS sales training will typically involve educating your sales reps on your software, its features, and the solution it brings.
A SaaS sales training course might include:
That last point's a good one. Learning how to ask deep, probing questions is one of a SaaS salesperson's best skills. It helps you discover the prospect's pain points to suggest a solution better.
Business-to-business, or B2B sales training is the process of one business selling a product or service to another company. This means that, yes, our last point can overlap with this one. There are a lot of B2B SaaS sales training programs out there.
Most B2B sales training courses will teach you how to:
And if you're new to the B2B world entirely, a lot of these courses will give in-depth training on the industry itself, how to sell to businesses vs. individuals, and how to navigate the bureaucracy of it all.
You can smooth-talk like a pro and close every deal in your pipeline, but if you can't fill that pipeline.
Sales prospecting training helps reps gain the necessary prospecting skills to attract quality leads - leads that are the perfect fit for your business.
This sort of training course will generally focus on prospecting methodology. This includes understanding your industry and shaping your ideal customer to find the perfect prospect. It also teaches cold calling, cold emailing, and social selling skills.
These courses give your reps a solid strategy instead of guessing and using “gut instinct.” Why improvise when you can use proven methods during calls, emails, and meetings?
If you're interested in learning more, we talk about sales prospecting techniques in this blog post.
People buy from people they like. Pure and simple.
Sales relationship training teaches how to build and nurture good relationships with prospects. Listen, ask probing questions, and offer solutions to their problems and not just the issues detailed in the handbook.
Many of these courses teach consultative selling (we mentioned that one in the SaaS section, too!).
Consultative selling is a sales approach where reps are more like advisers recommending a solution. They try to solve a problem for the customer by addressing their needs with a solution, rather than a hard sell of a product.
This is much more likely to build a long-lasting relationship where the prospect not only becomes a customer – but a repeat customer.
Since many sales managers are former salespeople, they know how to talk to people, charm, and sell. But they might not know how to handle a team.
These courses help you learn how to define a target market, create a solid sales process, build sales development opportunities for sales reps, and coach and communicate with your team.
Being a leader can be challenging. It's a brand new set of skills and challenges. If you're looking for a secret weapon to make it a little easier on you, read our blog on sales management software.
We promised some tips and tricks from the sales training experts – and we intend to deliver.
Here are four that caught our attention.
Sales trainer Josh Braun talks about a simple sales skill that every rep should practice: problem training.
He asks you to answer this question: “What does it cost your prospect to do nothing?”
You can't correctly sell someone a solution if you can't clarify which expensive problem it solves.
He frames it in a “before story” and “after story” way.
Teaching your reps to identify the problem they could solve will help them land more clients and close more deals. Although identifying is only the first step.
They then need to learn how to frame it and phrase it. Braun recommends using his above framework and making it sound casual and friendly – like talking to a friend over coffee.
Christopher Voss is a former FBI negotiator who teaches communication skills and strategies – and it turns out they're invaluable to salespeople.
Yup, here's Josh Braun again.
Braun often utilizes Voss' methods in his sales training, a favorite being “Don't fight the resistance, join the resistance,” which he calls “verbal aikido.” Aikido is the martial art where you redirect aggressive force instead of fighting it – get it?
The principle is that instead of forcing someone to change their mind or see things the way you do, you see things from their point of view.
If a prospect says, “I'm unsure about your pricing,” don't reply with “We're X times more affordable than our competitor.”
Say “What about our pricing makes you unsure?”.
Here's a transcript of Voss' techniques in action (via Braun again).
Inquire, probe, and listen. Once people feel heard and understood, they're much more likely to listen to another point of view.
Sales trainer Mark Allen Roberts asks if being a good sales manager is an art or science.
Don't worry, he answers it himself. It turns out it's both.
Science from data and KPIs. Art from the social aspect of talking to reps and coaching them.
He recommends asking yourself these questions to maintain a good balance:
Roberts also recommends keeping up with your reps, asking them questions, and ensuring they feel comfortable with you to guarantee trust and respect.
We wrote an entire blog on sales coaching for more tips on the subject.
Marcus Sheridan, also known as the “web marketing guru,” lists the top sales skills that he finds essential for reps interacting with prospects. And we think they're some of the best sales training tips:
He adds that other skills, such as product knowledge and persistence, are beneficial. But these are the cream of the crop.
Now, let's explore a handful of the best sales training courses.
Specifically, we mentioned one from each category: SaaS, B2B, sales management, sales relationship, and sales prospecting training.
We know you're eager to get started.
Aspireship's SaaS sales training course is aimed at SDRs, AEs, and account managers looking to land a new job – or just increase their current performance.
It has 20 hours of content intended to be consumed 5 hours per week over four weeks. It's all online and accessible through computer and mobile, making it a flexible course you can bend to your schedule.
It covers consultative selling, multi-channel prospecting, pipeline management, lead qualifying, etc.
Aspireship has two packages: Forever Free and Unlimited, with the latter being a one-time price of $180 (pricing accurate as of 05/2022).
Udemy's Sales Mastery class is intended to teach your reps the top strategies, secrets, and tools of B2B sales training.
It's a 30-minute course that goes over finding the perfect customer, overcoming objections, and their top 3 strategies to convince customers. The system also goes over communication skills and how to build better business relationships.
It's a quick one, so your reps can consume it and then get back to the grind. But you also get lifetime access, so they can go back and check it.
It's $84.99 for unlimited access (pricing accurate as of 05/2022).
Richardson Sales Performance offers their Sprint Sales Prospecting Training Program to help reps target, message, and engage prospects better.
It's either two four-hour virtual instructor-led sessions or one day of instructor-led training with pre and post-digital learning. So it's pretty flexible for varying schedules.
The course aims to teach sales reps how to reach the right audience in a way that successfully captures their interest and attention and makes them want to hop on a call.
They've trained over 3.5 million sales professionals and have impacted a 24% improvement in skill efficiency.
You must contact Richardson Sales Performance to learn to price.
Business Training Works starts with a bold statement: “Stop Selling!”
What?
That's the sort of emphasis they want to put on the importance of building a loyal customer relationship.
Their Consultative Selling and Relationship training centers on teaching a partnering mindset to reps so they can truly listen to customers, treat them like actual humans (not just a sale), and nurture solid relationships.
It's an onsite course offered in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia.
Prices vary from project to project, so contact Business Training Works to learn more.
Sales Readiness Group believe that sales managers are an essential part of a sales team – which is why they offer their Sales Management Training course.
This course focuses on managers' specific skills instead of just tossing the same training handbook at them that everyone else gets. They go in-depth into coaching, sales performance, pipeline management, leadership, and hiring and recruiting.
The course is offered via virtual instructor-led training, classroom instructor-led training, and digital blended learning.
They recommend scheduling a consultation to determine pricing.
Sales training programs should include essential sales skills such as making calls and giving demos, communication and customer experience, and your sales process and product.
You should also incorporate regular assessments using your CRM to monitor progress and measure the efficacy of the training.
The four main types of sales training programs include inside sales, field sales, service sales, and sales management.
Many courses and programs may have different names, but they can all fit into one of these categories.
Get executive-level buy-in, assess your reps' most needed skills via CRM, research the best sales training courses, and define your goals and objectives.
Then just keep your training material available for reviewing, assess your reps' progress, and ask for feedback on the courses.
We wholeheartedly believe that regular training and development through sales training programs is a sure-fire way to increase your team's performance.
It boosts confidence, quota attainment, and product knowledge and closes more deals.
If you need a great CRM to capture crucial training KPIs or assess sales reps' performance after your training program, request a demo with Ringy and look at our killer all-in-one software.
Or check out another blog post on sales training for more info and resources to increase your team's skills.
You see, we're sales training experts here.