December 4, 2021

Sales Management Training: 3 Useful Tips To Conduct It Successfully

Sales management training is a great way to improve the skills and knowledge of your staff. It also ensures that they are up-to-date with the latest developments in their field.

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As a sales manager, one is no longer solely responsible for one's numbers. When they take on the role of sales manager, you're taking on additional responsibilities and accountabilities. Your main focus shifts to managing a group of people who are individually accountable for achieving their results.

The better you understand these new roles and responsibilities, the more effectively you'll be able to guide your team toward superior performance. 


How should you plan a course for sales management training?

There are two types of skills that managers need: technical skills and personal qualities. Technical skills relate to knowledge about products or services, specific industry terms, competition information, and so forth. This type of information changes from week to week or month to month, based on the industry and trends.

Personal qualities are largely unchanging; no matter how quickly technology or sales trends change, your personal qualities will still be every bit as important in two years as they are today. And if you're like most managers, it's these skills that you probably need to develop the most. Read the following detailed steps regarding planning a training course for sales management. 


Here's how you can make an interactive sales management training course


1. Design a training course that reflects your role as manager, using the following steps:

a. Write down each of the managerial tasks in your job description. For example: doing a daily stand-up with reps; holding weekly meetings to review progress and set new targets; monitoring pipeline data and analyzing trends to determine which tactics are working and which ones aren't. You can also use our handy template for this process.

b. Brainstorm ways you could help them learn by doing these tasks. Break the task into chunks they can easily handle, even if it's only one small part at a time. Don't overwhelm them by having them do every aspect of the task from start to finish in one fell swoop, or they will become overloaded before they get comfortable doing any one thing.

c. With their permission, observe them during the task. If they are struggling, help them by giving them feedback on how to do it better next time, or by training them on how to get started. Don't try to tell them everything there is to know about that task in one sitting; break it down into small chunks and make training an ongoing process.


2. Design a sales management training course for understanding your trainees' career using the following steps:

a. Plan for this phase of your career before taking on new responsibilities or moving into your new role as manager of reps. Look at the content areas of the job description you created in step 1 above and identify courses that will give you the knowledge you need in each area.

b. The best sales management training courses are interactive, allowing you to practice the skills you're learning. If no one offers an online sales management program that will allow you to practice your new skills in a simulated environment, consider developing your own "virtual" course by hiring someone to act as a student while you give them feedback.

You can also use our Virtual Mentor tool for this process.

c. Review the content of each course before offering it to your team so you know what weaknesses they might have and how much time they should devote to each session—and monitor their progress closely throughout the course.

Try not only to identify gaps in knowledge or areas where there is low skill or confidence but also look at why this is the case—often it's because reps don't get enough practice or reinforcement.

3. Design a sales management training program that is interactive using the following steps:

a. Plan the overall schedule for your training program based on what you can learn in each course of study and how much time you have before moving into your new role, adding some buffer time to allow for unexpected issues or delays.

Discuss this with each rep individually to be sure they're on board with your plans, and remind them that this is just a guideline; if they have something else they'd like to add to their existing schedules, it's up to them to request more time from their manager every week.

b. When possible, conduct live sales training courses in person at a central location. Doing so makes it easier for reps to ask questions and get answers from more than one source, which is important in sales management training. 

c. If you're unable to meet face-to-face with the entire team, consider using online Webinar tools such as GoToMeeting or WebEx to conduct part of your courses, but make sure at least some of the course takes place in a live environment if possible. 

d. Give each rep a copy of their personalized schedule when you hand out their training materials and send them an email reminder with the date and time of each scheduled meeting before its start.

This will help ensure that they attend every session on time and stay focused throughout, so you only have to waste a little bit of time, in the beginning, explaining what will happen in each session if necessary.

e. If possible, don't try to teach your reps everything they need to know about a particular subject in one sitting. Instead, break the training into small chunks and give them opportunities to practice between courses so they can learn better when there's follow-up reinforcement. This will also help ensure that everyone is paying attention and not getting bored or distracted. 

f. Reward them for attending every session on time and asking good questions during lectures by giving out prizes such as Starbucks gift cards, T-Shirts or other fun trinkets. The key here is not monetary value but psychological; think of what would make your reps feel good about spending a few hours in training, and give them what they want.

g. Don't get too caught up in rules of strict etiquette during live courses; you can monitor the chat window on Webinars to see if anyone is being disrespectful or talking too much but don't pounce on every typo or deviation from whatever outline or agenda you've set out in advance unless it's interfering with everyone else's learning process.

If someone asks a question that wasn't addressed previously, consider making time for it; people may not feel comfortable speaking up in front of an instructor, so they might be hesitant to ask questions outside of class even if something is unclear. 

h. Include real-time quizzes and interactive exercises in your sales management training programs, not just lectures.  This will make the presentations more dynamic and engaging.

i. Make sure your reps are practicing their new skills in simulated live calls with their supervisors or other senior team members before you move on to the next subject area, which helps ensure they retain what they've learned better and gives them opportunities for immediate feedback where necessary until everyone understands how things work.

j. If people ask questions that could be addressed by a quick video or forum post, do your best to answer them right then and there. This reduces noise during presentations and keeps people engaged; if someone doesn't understand something, they're less likely to miss out on information if it's explained immediately than if they have to wait for a separate video or email response. 

k. Plan additional training sessions to address specific topics that keep coming up during lectures, rather than trying to address them in the middle of the presentations themselves.  This will help your reps better retain what they've learned so far, especially if things are being covered in-depth for the first time. 

l. Communicate often with each rep throughout their training program by checking in at least once per week unless something comes up that needs more immediate attention and guide them through each step of their learning process as it happens so you can answer any questions they have along the way.

This is important because not everyone learns in the same way; some might prefer practical videos while others need lots of opportunities to practice and apply what they've learned to the real world. Pay attention to their learning preferences and do your best to accommodate them as much as you can. 

Tips for sales managers training

1. Help them strike  a balance between new responsibilities and old skills

2. Train them by breaking their new role into bite-sized chunks, and help them learn by doing

3. Don't try to create a mirror image of yourself

4. Teach them to lift their reps to reach common and individual goals

5. Train them to look for the "why" behind their numbers

6. Don't overwhelm them with administrative tasks and reporting

7. Make training an ongoing process


Let us go through each one of them in detail one by one. 


1. Help them strike a balance between new responsibilities and old skills:

A sales manager role essentially involves two things – being a leader and being an individual contributor. During sales managers’ training, they are taught to ensure that their team members have the right skills to create a winning account strategy, by recruiting the right people with the right background and training them accordingly.

They also must learn to manage their accounts. This may present a challenge as they have to spend time on both developments of their team and also on closing deals themselves which can often lead to burnout. 

The better way is for the newly appointed sales manager to get guidance from an experienced mentor or shadow others in your organization who are doing a similar job so they can understand what it takes to be successful for this position.

They must find ways to maintain, if not improve, their skills while they are coaching others because the ability to contribute directly will make them more effective managers.


2. Train them by breaking their new role into bite-sized chunks, and help them learn by doing:

There are a couple of approaches to break down the responsibilities of a manager in multiple areas like managing a team, taking care of the month-end closing process, preparing analytical reports, meeting targets, etc. One approach is using a management 3D system that breaks down the overall management style into three key dimensions - Direction(Doing), people(How), and results(What).

The other approach that can be used for this kind of situation is dealing with one area at a time instead of everything altogether. 

3. Don't try to create a mirror image of yourself:

When a sales manager is best qualified to coach sales reps, they mustn't try to create a mirror image as such. The reason for this is as follows: if you were an individual contributor and didn't manage people before, there's no way you would be able to help reps do something you couldn't do yourself or even understand fully.

This can lead them to develop some bad habits which will be difficult for the manager and his new team members to break later on. 


4. Teach them to lift their reps to reach common and individual goals:

Newly appointed managers should spend ample time building rapport with all their direct reports on a personal level, not a business level. As we know sales reps as people who work as individual contributors and can't be held accountable to meet group goals, here sales managers play a crucial role in creating a win-win situation by assigning them personally and team objectives. 


5. Train them to look for the "why" behind their numbers:

As a manager, they must look at their team's numbers from a higher level. In other words, they have to help the reps use data for decision-making instead of just providing them with number-driven targets. Some managers fail to do so as they are not good at data analysis and lack knowledge on how to bring the information down to a human level that will benefit their team members.

This can be taken care of by either assigning this role to someone else or by hiring an external consultant who has expertise in this area. 


6. Don't overwhelm them with administrative tasks and reporting:

Managing the performance of sales reps is not only about dealing with people issues but also a well-thought-out strategy that helps in achieving business goals which can often be very time-consuming and they tend to forget about this aspect which can lead them to face some serious problems with motivation.

Thus it becomes important for managers not only to provide mentoring but also to help their team members prioritize tasks and make sure that everything is under control. 


7. Make training an ongoing process:

Managers should conduct monthly meetings where they can review the performance of their reports and give them direction on the required changes needed in terms of negotiations, product knowledge, etc. This will help them create a better rapport with each other and also improve overall sales productivity levels.

By making things more proactive, managers will be able to identify areas where they need assistance from the team members themselves who have been through those situations before so they can now take necessary actions and prevent them from happening in the future. 


To concludesales management will be quite different from the previous role one used to hold. It'll take some time to get adjusted but proper planning and execution of tasks will help managers to not only look after their team members but also improve overall sales productivity levels for better business outcomes.


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Aryan Vaksh

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