Did you know that sales reps spend 3 - 11 hours (or more each week) researching for answers to questions about tools, processes and information on tasks like updating the CRM and executing sales cadences?

If your sales team has been experiencing the same challenges, they need appropriate sales training. 

Why is sales training important?

If you haven't taken sales training seriously for a while, here's why you should integrate a consistent sales training program for your team:

1. Improves rep engagement, performance, and recognition enabling managers to retain talent

According to Dooly’s Sales Happiness Index, 43% of salespeople would be motivated to leave their company for better benefits while 33% others would leave due to a lack of access to the best tools and technologies.

Retaining sales talent is a big problem. But, not receiving the right compensation and benefits is not the only reason. Mostly, companies experience higher attrition rates because:

• Reps are spending more time on non-selling activities which leads to burnout
• Reps feel there's no room for their professional growth

With sales training, you can help reps:

• Strengthen their sales skills 
• Feel empowered in their roles
• Thrive in a company culture where growth is encouraged
• Improve job satisfaction and performance

To make sure that sales reps are continuously empowered through sales training, use AI sales training tools that enable a streamlined feedback system and improve their sales skills. 

2. Increases your team’s forecasting accuracy

Did you know that salespeople spend 2.5 hours on sales forecasting each week yet their predictions are less than 25% accurate? 

Inaccurate forecasting can lead to difficulty in predicting sales performance and meeting revenue goals. 

By training the sales reps, they can become self-reliant in diagnosing the deal’s health, identifying the problems in the sales pipeline, and fixing them.

3. Boosts sales performance & improves sales results 

What if a sales rep doesn't know how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator the right way? They'll not be able to target the right prospects. In fact, 34% of salespeople point out that prospects back out of deals because they aren't ready to make a purchase—leading to a poor conversion rate.

This ultimately leads to poor sales performance and results. To fix situations like these, organizations need to integrate sales training into their system.

For example, Funnel Clarity provided outbound prospecting training to Calbibro’s sales team helping them understand the technicalities of prospect research and different prospecting activities the reps needed to execute. 

Result? 

• 30% penetration into enterprise accounts in 3 months
• 28% of trained reps got promoted

4. Improves objection handling & creates strong relationships 

Reps may think they're there—ready to convert the prospect and hit their sales target. But a major roadblock will dampen the chances of converting— the prospect’s objections.

Gong’s survey reported that the best sales reps tackle objections by asking questions (54%), pause 5 TIMES longer, and use words judiciously. However, not all sales reps have the right tools and expertise to handle objections. Thus, closing a deal becomes challenging for sales teams.

Sales managers need to train them on how they can use these techniques for different sales objections. When the rep is trained better to address sales objections, they can address all the concerns prospects have and build rapport with them.

5. Improves team culture and rep mindset

Imagine the rep conducting a sales call without researching the prospect—besides knowing their name and company name. Maybe they couldn't find the relevant information they needed about the prospect, or they conducted the call with minimal research on the prospect. Whatever the reason be, this approach will always backfire. 

Such instances can be prevented by training the sales reps. When the sales rep knows how to conduct comprehensive prospect research, they'll never conduct the sales call partially prepared or tell you that they couldn't find relevant information about the prospect. 

When you build a solid sales training program for your sales team, it enables the reps to continuously learn and improve their skill sets. This further creates a positive ecosystem in your organization. 

6. Helps you stay ahead of the competition

Picture this: your competitor's sales team is leveraging guided product demos to showcase their product features to prospects even before they get them on the demo call. 

And you? You're still struggling to conduct demo calls accurately. It's obvious your competitor is outshining whereas you're lagging behind. 

The solution? Train your sales team. Doing so, you'll be able to:

• Stand out from the competition
• Have better understanding of using the sales tools the right way
• Stay up to date with industry's trends way before your competitors 

7. Delivers deep product knowledge

When conducting a sales call or a giving product demo, product knowledge the sales rep has is directly proportional to their overall performance. 

When a sales rep does not have complete knowledge of the product, they can't ask the prospects about their product concerns and advise the right solution. 

This is why, sales reps must know the ins and outs of the product. 

• How does a specific feature work?
• What are the different use cases or possibilities in which different target audience can use the feature?
• Which features of their product are most loved by their customers and why?
• How is the product impactful for existing customers?

By sharing these details, the prospect can understand the strength of the product better and make their purchase decision quicker. 

And to achieve this level of knowledge, reps must learn everything about the product. This can be done by providing comprehensive product training—get the reps to use the product and collaborate with product teams. 

Importance of sales training software over vs traditional sales training methods 

The sales training software market is anticipated to hit a valuation of $6.07 billion by 2030. 

One big reason for this is sales teams using modern selling techniques and AI. Let's understand how sales training is beneficial over traditional sales training methods. 

1. Personalized training vs. generic training

Traditional sales training focused on classroom-style training—organizations used to invite experts and conduct workshops on specific topics to educate their sales teams. However, the training involved zero personalization. The workshops conducted were generic and not relevant to individual rep. 

However, with AI sales training software, sales managers can understand the reps’ weaknesses and strengths and based on their analysis—provide training to reps in specific areas. 

2. Real-time feedback vs. long wait

Picture this: you've onboarded 5 new reps to your sales team. As a manager, it's your responsibility to coach them. So you start with group coaching. You walk them through the sales stack your company uses, and give them the breakdown of techniques that helped you close customers. 

What next? The reps start conducting sales calls based on the training received. 

Now, as a sales manager, it's your job to provide feedback to the reps after reviewing the sales call recordings. However, reviewing a single recording takes hours, sometimes multiple days. And all other sales activities - coaching sales teams, developing sales strategies, coaching- will receive second class treatment.

This leads to a long waiting period for reps to receive feedback. And by the time reps receive feedback, the inaccurate practices become ingrained in their sales conversations—leading to losing sales opportunities. 

With AI-sales training software, you can speed up the sales training process and provide real-time feedback to reps. For example, with Happysales’s AI Coach, reps receive instant feedback when practicing their pitch—the rep's talking speed, tone of voice, pain points highlighted, and so on. This helps the rep understand the key areas they could improve on when pitching the prospect in real-time.

3. Scalability vs. unscalability for large sales teams

With large sales teams, sales managers don't have enough time to train reps individually. This means, no 1:1 feedback calls and roleplays. In a traditional sales training scenario, managers would provide feedback in groups or ask the other experienced reps to do roleplays with new reps. 

While the approach is good, it won't sustain in the long-term as:

• The sales managers are not focusing on individual reps during group coaching
• The sales managers are not involved in role playing—making it difficult for reps to get the right feedback

That's where sales training software comes into the picture. With AI sales training software, reps can do sales roleplays, and the AI can provide them with feedback.

For example, Happysales AI integrates with LinkedIn and provides the rep with the prospect's information—from prospect details to their personality. The AI Coach will then feed the prospect's information and generate an AI prospect avatar so the rep can execute the roleplay. 

4. Data-driven insights vs. no data to conduct sales calls

In traditional sales training, sales managers couldn’t analyze the reps’ strengths and weaknesses, and why they couldn’t convert a prospect.

With a sales training software, AI provides insights on the conversation elements of each rep that leads to winning or losing the deal. Sales managers can review these insights, identify the reps’ weaknesses and coach the reps accordingly. 

5. Consistency vs inconsistency in sales training

In traditional training, managers and sales leaders couldn’t provide regular training to reps because they didn’t have enough time. 

With sales training software, sales managers can integrate the training into the reps’ workflow and reps get regular training—even for reps who work remotely or from different geographical locations.

Different types of sales training methods

Wondering what are the different sales training techniques you can leverage to strengthen your sales team’s skill sets? Here are 3 most common methods:

1. Shadow calling

Shadow calling is a training technique where new hires are paired with experienced reps on sales calls. These newbie reps will then shadow experienced sales reps on sales calls without being heard by the prospects. They'll observe how the experienced rep conducts the call and takes the conversation forward.

During the sales call, the newbie rep can observe the following elements of the call:

• How did the experienced rep start the call
• What’s the tone of voice and speed at which they communicated with the prospect
• what are the types of questions they asked the prospect
• how did they tackle the prospect’s objections

After observing these factors and practicing them, the newbie reps can start taking sales calls. These calls can then be reviewed by the sales manager.

2. Role Playing

Roleplaying is a training exercise wherein reps enact a real-life buyer interactions scenario to practice and improve their skill sets. 

There are different types of scenarios you they can enact: 

• Handling objection
• Negotiating with the prospect 
• Conducting a discovery call
• Contending with a competitor 
• Knowing your buyer personas and ICP
• Speaking to decision-maker

3. Microlearning

Microlearning is a training technique where you provide bite-sized, interactive learning material to sales reps on specific topics. Ideally, these training materials include:

• Instructor-led videos 
• Quizzes
• Games
• Situational simulations 

How can sales reps use Happysales for sales training?

Step 1: Connect Happysales AI with your LinkedIn profile. Then, search for the prospect’s LinkedIn profile.

Step 2: Happysales AI will then gather the prospect’s details like their pain points, personality traits, etc. The AI Coach will then feed the prospect's information and generate an AI prospect avatar so the rep can execute the roleplay. 

Step 3: The rep can then practice the pitch and the AI Coach will give instant feedback by analyzing factors like the rep's speed, tone of voice, pain points highlighted, and so on.

Step 4: Once you're done practicing the pitch, go to ‘call history’. You'll see the transcribed version of your pitch. Based on the pitch, AI will also give you feedback on what worked and what didn't work in your pitch. Plus, it will also analyze your pitch based on the 4P’s of prospecting. 

Want to see how Happysalers AI can enable sales training for your team? Sign up here. 

FAQs

How does artificial intelligence help sales?

Artificial intelligence in sales provides sales training at scale, enables sales forecasting, and automates customer interactions. 

What is the primary goal of sales training?

The goal of sales training is to help sales teams improve their selling skills and enable them to perform better at their job.

Why is artificial intelligence sales training important?

Artificial intelligence in sales training is important as it helps reps to do AI sales roleplays, optimize their sales pitch, analyze customer insights and predict sales performance.