If you are a busy business owner or a manager of a sales team, you’ll already know that training your sales team is no easy task. A quick search online will throw up lots of advice and tips, but there is a lot of conflicting advice out there.
If you want to cut through the noise, there are three simple cornerstones that you need to put in place to train your sales team effectively. Read on to discover how to train existing team members and onboard new starters to give them (and your customers) a consistent experience:
A fully documented linear sales process
Without clear documentation of your sales processes, there is no consistency in the way you train or onboard sales staff. You may convey information in different ways to each team member, or forget a key stage of the process which means your team may not be geared up for optimum success.
By creating a detailed and documented linear sales process, you’ll offer each team member the same training experience and opportunity for success as they guide leads through the process and turn them into paying customers.
This may sound like a daunting task, but trust us, you will reap the rewards once you have a fully documented process. You’ll save time and money on training costs, your team will all have a clear understanding of how to convert leads to sales, and above all your customers will have a sales experience that is consistent and geared towards conversion.
Creating a linear sales process involves devising a step-by-step guide to every stage of the customer journey and the different activities that need to happen to successfully move to the next stage of the process.
Once you have these stages documented, you’ll be in a good position to scale a profitable sales process that evolves as your business grows.
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Create clear process maps
The second key element you’ll need to establish in order to train your sales team effectively is a clear process map.
Your whole sales process is managed by three main entities:
- Leads
- Systems
- Teams
A process map provides a visual representation of how a lead enters the process and travels through the system and your team, towards a sale or new customer acquisition.
This map should show the activities and actions required by the sales team and also what part the systems you have in place contribute towards the process:
Mapping your processes in detail will take time, but it is a worthwhile exercise to help you clearly define and communicate the sales journey to your team, giving them a blueprint to follow with every lead they touch.
We use a platform called LucidChart to create process maps for our clients, and follow an industry standard method known as Business Protocol Manual Notation to ensure consistency across the process. If you’d like to know more, join us online and speak to our team.
Video demonstrations
In a very visual world, videos will help your sales team understand every element of your sales process.
By creating a video demo of how to take a lead through the funnel towards becoming a purchaser, your team will have access to each step and strategy within your sales process, in a medium that they can revisit anytime and anywhere they need.
Think of the time efficiencies you’ll make if you no longer have to train, retrain and answer repetitive questions. One key advantage in recording a video demonstration is that you’ll be able to document real life situations and examples that will resonate with your team so they can grow and evolve your business successfully.
Want to get off to a great start?
Our tips are designed to help you implement and document your sales processes. But if you’d like a little more help, advice — or a team of professionals to deliver the full solution for you—then building a full stack sales process for businesses like yours is where we shine.
Join us online and chat to our team to discover how we can help to train your sales team effectively with the creation of a linear sales process, the use of process maps and clear documentation.