How to Find the Right Professional Sales Training for Your Company

As a growing company, one of the major challenges you face is developing your sales organization. Bringing in a professional sales training company to help out can be a hefty investment, but very worthwhile if you make the right choice.

Right now, you may be handling your own in-house sales training. Perhaps it's not even a formalized process. Your new hire may be given a bit of product/service training, armed with marketing collateral and told to spend a few days in the field with Patty the Pro.

If that's what you're doing, your future sales are definitely at risk.

In today's crazy business environment, your salespeople are your competitive differentiators. Prospective customers expect your salespeople to add value in every client interaction. If they don't, your company doesn't get a second shot at their business.

Prior to evaluating potential sales training companies, analyze where your salespeople are having problems. Are they struggling to:

• Set up meetings with corporate decision makers?
• Fill their pipelines with high quality opportunities?
• Convert interested prospects into customers?
• Differentiate themselves/your company from competitors?
• Handle the numerous objections they encounter?

Make sure to search for the root causes of these sales challenges. Nothing is worse than investing big bucks in the wrong training program.

Key Considerations

If you decide to go ahead with professional sales training, check out these areas to ensure you get the right "fit" for your organization.

• Sales Methodology

Review the training company's sales methodology to ensure it aligns with how your prospects make buying decisions. Because customers' expectations have changed so much in the past few years, it's important to do a "sniff test," too.

Ask yourself: If a seller used these techniques with you, would it raise your opinion of this person, make you feel like you were wasting your time or make you feel like you’re dealing with another self-serving salesperson? Trust your gut; it knows.

• Industry Expertise

There is no one-size-fits-all sales training. Selling to a retailer is different from selling to a technology company. Selling to consumers is different from selling to big companies. Selling technology is different from selling commodities. 

Check with the sales training firm to make sure they have a depth of experience in your industry. If they don't, keep searching until you find one that knows your business.

• Ongoing Reinforcement

Research shows that 85 percent of your training investment is lost within weeks– unless it's immediately reinforced with follow-up learning activities. Ask the sales training company how they can help you reinforce the strategies and skills covered in the workshop.

Some ideas to consider include: teleseminars, webinars, group/individual coaching, software tools and more. Don't let the learning end with the training session. 

• Adult Learning Principles  

Effective sales training is not a data dump of everything a seller needs to know. Professional sales training programs should clearly articulate the behavioral changes you can expect at the end of the session. They should have numerous opportunities for salespeople to practice new skills and apply the newly learned strategies to their jobs. 

Watch out for those sales training firms who are trying to cram too much content into a short window of time. When that happens, virtually nothing is retained. 

• Futures Training

If you want the sales training program to be fully integrated into your company's DNA, then it's important to know how your future sales reps can be trained. Some companies offer open sessions. Others have teleseminar or online training options. Find out what's available so that you're never left in the lurch. 

In today's marketplace, it's essential to invest in professional sales training programs to ensure that your salespeople become the differentiators. When that happens, your competitors won't know what hit them!

As a growing company, one of the major challenges you face is developing your sales organization.