So, the 2020 pandemic has changed the way businesses operate. Sales being one of the primary functions is hit the hardest. This is because face-to-face meetings are not encouraged anymore, and so many sales professionals that once relied on such meetings have to adapt to the change.
Sales is an important function to every organization. Organizations will not stop selling or hold it off till this epidemic is under control. And even if it is, it will never be the same as continuing to maintain social distancing and avoiding interactions with people will continue to be the standard protocol.
In this blog, we talk about designing a modern sales training framework involving eLearning and how to assist your sales representative to make a successful switch to online, telesales, and email marketing.
Designing a Modern Sales Training Framework in 2020
Rethinking Field Sales Etiquettes
Telesales training is the way to proceed. No face-to-face interactions result in sales professionals reaching out to more people over the telephone. The sales etiquettes of field-sales agents and that of a telesales agent can differ a lot. Where body language and presence played a huge role, now voice modulation, clarity in speech, and promptness in remote problem solving are more important.
The advantage of telesales training is that it can be taught over our modern communication applications like Zoom, WebEx, and so on because these are the tools that a telesales agent will use to reach out to potential candidates. Another point to remember here is that using these tools to their maximum potential is very important as well.
So, when designing a telesales training program, L&D professionals can easily train employees in batches over the very tools they plan to give each sales agent. It’s also a way to kickstart mock calling where learners can easily converse with their trainers while others listen and understand.
However, a whole other side is the training on delivering the right sales pitch and engaging prospects over the telephone or meeting tool. This training is both practical or hands-on training and theoretical training.
The best approach to designing this type of modern sales training framework
Design a custom eLearning sales course that covers both theory as well as practical training. Training content should be unique to your products and services, so off-the-shelf courses won’t do justice. Use a mix of factual training (for concepts and processes) and scenario-based questions to help learners make decisions in a safe environment. Show your learners how to conduct effective and engaging virtual meetings. You can also break some sections into a virtual instructor-led training (VILT) session where through Q&A with your learners, practical learning can occur. Finally, the program ends with an assessment. This is to convey and retain knowledge.
Email Marketing Campaign and Sales Outreach Must Follow
Writing is not everybody’s cup of tea. Assuming that your sales agents write as well as they speak is a gross miscalculation. As a result, expecting all agents to write crisp emails and sales outreach emails is an overshoot. Writing requires more theoretical and practice-based training. Alongside such training, it requires the L&D professionals to provide multiple examples of effective sales emails. Emails of all sizes, tone of language, set and sequences of sending mails must be compiled into effective theoretical training.
Another aspect of this training is grammar and the usage of correct corporate lingo. Email training is a prime example of where eLearning can make a huge difference. Only dumping theoretical training in the form of PDFs and Word Documents on learners will not work. Rather, designing engaging interactive eLearning courses alongside providing opportunities to practice and assess one’s self is a better option.
The best approach to designing this type of modern sales training framework
Focus on modules that cover how to structure emails and meeting invites. Include tips on grammar, tone, language, and conciseness of email. Break each section into micro sections that learners access as per their convenience. This makes for great just-in-time training as well. Provide examples of best sales emails and the opportunity to practice and assess learners. Sharing best emails from amongst your group of learners with the rest is another way to promote peer-to-peer knowledge transfer.
Social Media Outreach is Gaining Traction
LinkedIn and Facebook are two amazing social media tools where sales prospects can effectively reach out to the right person from the right department with the right decision-making abilities. However, learning to identify prospects and effectively introducing themselves is a complete challenge. Adding to this is the need for agents to present their profiles with the right information and appearance. As a result, elements of social learning and media-based training will work wonders here.
Furthermore, tools like and LinkedIn sales outreach tools will need some training to enable professionals to use them well. They offer options to market products and promote ideas among followers and connections. However, social media’s own set of etiquettes apply when interacting with people. This is very important for every professional to understand.
Best approach to designing this type of modern sales training framework
Designing media-based training with screenshots and conducting VILT sessions where professionals train people on designing the best profile is a good option. Social learning will work well here as peers can share their approach to successful interactions with prospects and also share their versions of LinkedIn and Facebook profiles. This training is more of a look and replicate type training. As a result, it is important to provide good looking training content with enough examples to simplify the process.
The Training Activity Itself Must Go Online
It is very important to understand that face-to-face training is something to avoid. Where sales training both field-based and tele-based were once carried out in closed rooms or venues with physical trainers and travelling employees, it is now absolutely critical to move your training online alongside the sales function itself.
How Can We Help?
We are a custom eLearning development house that specializes in converting your existing sales training content into specialized eLearning content that is accessible via mobile phones and all popular learning management systems. The advantage of converting your traditional training to eLearning is that the training content itself becomes more engaging and the fact that the training is custom built to suit your existing training needs.
All the training is built around your products and services and helps your sales employees represent your offering with greater clarity. Sales training has to be one of the most important activities that corporates plan for their employees and so it is important that everything is custom-built to promote your corporate’s interests.
We can assist you with your custom eLearning needs. Reach out to us at contact@enyotalearning.com or fill form to know more. We also license our corporate LMS – Abara to organizations looking for a robust learningng and development platform. Try it out below!
