Last time, in Part 3 of this series of articles, we took a critical look at CRMs, with — you know — the work-from-home shift and all that we’re encountering.
As we finish our journey here, in Part 4, we’re rounding out with a forward-looking view of training and coaching.
You train what you know, and you reproduce who you are.
We want to reproduce top performers, and develop future leaders, while increasing wallet share in every home and business we do business with.
The New Way
Traditional sales training, or suggesting sales approaches to a group of sales reps who have come to a multi-hour training session, has been replaced by short, focused sales training delivered via Zoom or similar video platforms.
The COVID 19 shutdown eliminated traditional sales training, and the new work-from-home approach makes it impractical.
Sales trainers have now assumed the desired role of sales consultants.
The new 45-minute to 90-minute training sessions can be set up on demand, and the sales consultant can even require the sales rep to pass a short test on the material in one section before the rep can go to the next training module, when the rep has time. This can be done through a virtual learning management system (LMS).
Imagine the sales consultant knowing who is watching all or part of each learning module, ensuring that sales reps are taking the time to watch entire training videos.
The New Tools
The trainers running the old sales training programs talked. The sales reps listened. Someone might, eventually create a simple set of talking points that the reps could use to understand the material and begin conversations with clients and prospects.
Now, the new, interactive sales training technology has given the reps more ability to shape what they’re learning, and managers more ability to know what the reps are learning.
When a company is using a good, modern, virtual LMS, reps can give context-specific feedback to the sales consultants. The reps can tell the consultants what they found to be the most valuable in a section, and how other parts of the material could be more relevant.
Sales consultants may be able to use an AI tool to create virtual maps of actual sales calls, to help clients find and listen to the most important and most interesting parts. The consultants themselves can use the maps to offer reps suggestions about ways to improve their performance.
With a good, modern LMS, any member of the sales team can convert training material into a set of talking points at any time, or update previously created talking points.
A good LMS should also make all of the material available through a Google-like search tool, to ensure that reps have the answers to any questions prospects ask at their fingertips.
Why This Matters
Salespeople deserve new ways to provide the information required to solve consumers’ perceived needs, Consumers demand that kind of instant access to customized information.
The new virtual LMS technology can make that kind of communication possible.
The world of sales has demanded change, and that change is here.
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(Photo: Erik Snyder/Shutterstock)