The average time it takes for new sales representatives to ramp up sales is six months or longer translating to lost revenue. Most sales reps don’t stay in the same position for longer than two years. However, you can shorten the time it takes for your new sales hires to ramp up sales, ensure sales and minimize employee turnover with a comprehensive onboarding program.
Training your new sales hires using reliable sales training software helps to better their understanding of the competition, processes and customers leading to shortened ramp-up times. Sales training is not just about how to make an actual sale. It involves orientation, introducing them to the knowledge of your product, your industry, your sales methodology, showing them how to use the CRM, putting goal-setting into perspective and acclimatizing them to their new duties and responsibility.
1. Fast and Effective onboarding of sales reps
Onboarding aims to ensure that sales reps are better prepared for the take you have hired them for. The training software revolutionizes the onboarding process so that it is less expensive, faster and more effective. It also helps in streamlining the sales process and makes it measurable. This means that your employees can begin hitting targets sooner than they normally would.
2. Increased revenue
Better training and access to continuous learning means your sales reps are all set for better performance. The sooner your sales representatives can hit a quota, the faster you’ll see an increase in revenue. The sales training software aims to increase the revenue per sales representative by pushing average-performing sales reps to be top performers. The software lets you identify weaknesses of individual team members and work on them through coaching to improve their output. An increase in revenue is a direct return on investment on the software.
3. Improved employee retention
High employee turnover for sales reps is costly for your bottom line given the duration it takes before they begin hitting the quota. By training employees, you’re able to achieve a high employee retention rate and sticky behaviours as sales reps get more and more comfortable with the products and selling process. This will help to safeguard your bottom line.
4. Integrated best practices/Improved service
Professional training does not only educate your sales team on the best practices but also help to clarify their purpose and significance to the process. If you want team members to emulate best practices then they must understand why this is important. The training software also enables team members to share best practices with the entire team so that they are not only relying on the trainers and managers. Allowing your team members to capture their tips and implement them into courses will heighten the sales game for your team leading to supercharged sales.
5. New sales techniques
Training your sales team equips them with new ways of selling that they might be unaware of. It helps them to acquire knowledge on the latest trends as well as the ever changing needs of customers. This way, they can get better results from their sales efforts.
6. Access to key metric measurements
Sales training software comes with tools to help you measure some key metrics. You may want to know the conversion rate of your employees, the period it takes to convert a sale and how much each sales rep is making for the company. These metrics are important in determining who needs training and the areas they need to improve. You can also identify skill gaps by simply looking at the metrics. This information can inform how you identify top-performing sales reps, how you reward them and the kind of training they need.
7. Improve communication skills
Just because a salesperson enjoys talking doesn’t mean they have the right skills to communicate with diverse populations and personalities. Sales training helps to nurture key communication skills that include listening for understanding because it’s the only way to know what the prospect truly needs. The same goes for improving the ability to not only ask relevant questions but provide the right responses.
Using a sales training software is way helping your new sales hires to learn and develop processes and tactics that bring repeat wins. This is a great investment because it helps you develop a talent pool that delivers bottom-line results you desire. Even then, you must keep in mind that not all sales training solutions are the same so aim at finding software that can be tailored to suit your specific needs.