In This Issue:
The pressure is on inside sales organizations to produce and drive revenue this year They’ve got higher sales quotas, dozens of product offerings, unpredictable and complicated customers — and green new hires with lots of sales tools bling . . . Let the search for inside sales training begin!
Companies are desperate to refresh their team’s skills. They’re are looking for more effective prospecting techniques, better time management, and updated tactics for getting to the C-suite buyers. So they scramble to invest valuable time and resources interviewing various training providers, just trying to pick the winner out of what has become a crowd of wannabes.
Let’s face it — inside sales is hot! Hundreds of sales training vendors are suddenly professing their love for inside sales. They make lots of promises and guarantees for greater access to decision-makers, inspiring scripts, and warm, cuddly coaching reinforcement. Great! The client gets financial buy-in, reserves conference rooms and schedules participants for the training.
But wait — something is very wrong here. The trainers don’t actually have experience in the complex and very specific world of inside sales. As a consequence, teams walk out of the quickie one-day training and two days later they can’t remember what they learned. Wave goodbye to your training investment.
Avoid the “quick fix” when it comes to training! Instead, build a sustainable inside sales training program from the inside out. Both the client and vendor must have some skin in the game and equally take responsibility for the training implementation.
A training program with legs — that supports your training investment — must include these four major areas:
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Sales Productivity Tools: Today’s sales tools are the fuel that powers the teams. Teams must have tools they can integrate through the sales process — from beginning, to the middle, and straight through closing. The training curriculum has to address the “must-have” sales productivity, sales intelligence. and social tools that help inside sales warriors sell.
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Marketing and Sales Alignment: Selling in today’s Sales 2.0 landscape requires deeper alignment and broader understanding of marketing functions. The sales department must put their marketing hats on and learn how to nurture their top prospects with engaging content. And they will also need to build a robust library of email templates to use for their call campaigns. Sales training must build robust sales talent that is multi-dimensional.
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Sales Process and Structure: The biggest reason why inside sales organizations fail is because either they do not have a defined charter, or it has not been communicated throughout the company. Everyone must understand their sales charter, how they are structured, their revenue goals, the competitive landscape, and the customers’ engagement strategy. Sales training must incorporate these types of questions in their needs assessment.
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Talent and Skills: It’s all about buy-in isn’t it? The talent and staff must support the training program and reinforce a universal language at all times — before, during, and after the training. It is critical for some roles to be exclusively dedicated for training reinforcement, such as: Team Leads, Training Coaches, Quality Assurance, Managers, Directors. These people must be deeply involved throughout the process.
Want to learn more about making your training investment stick? Download our free 10 Triggers to Think About e-book.
Smart Selling Service Offerings 2012: TeleSmart provides a wide assortment of service offerings, from on-site training to virtual webinars. Our training is all about inside sales — combining phone, online, and sales and social tools productivity.
