The World of Sales Demands Change: Part 4

What You Need to Know

Sales trainers used to present ideas to the sales reps.
Now, the trainers are sales consultants.
The reps can talk back, and they may have more of a chance to get exactly what they need.

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training, or suggesting sales approaches to a group of sales reps who have come to a multi-hour training session, has been replaced by short, focused sales training delivered via Zoom or similar video platforms.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.