Web Based Sales Training – Top question from Google
Is Online Sales Training Effective?
Online sales training is effective because it helps organisations
Reduce travel time to live events
Provide a better work life balance by reducing time that salespeople spend away from home
Reduced deliver costs of sales training
Faster communication and collaboration
Reinforcement of new sales strategies and tactics after initial training
Improved accountability to help salespeople with new behaviours
Ongoing support for existing and new salespeople
Online sales training has improved dramatically and should be considered as part of your overall sales education.
Web based sales training or online sales training has become an essential aspect of sales education, since the advent of lockdowns and the subsequent trend in working from home.
The art of virtuality has become an advantage for every industry to work or study while staying home.
Despite this many businesses struggle to provide a comprehensive business case for online training versus the more traditional face to face classroom approach.
Traditionally Face to Face training has been delivered via one and two day events. In most cases there were held in hotels and conference centres. With more and more companies employing sales teams who are geographically remote some attendees could spend a day travelling to attend the event and a day travelling to return home. That’s three days for one day of learning.
With Web Based Training you don’t have to drive hundreds of miles just to come to work. You won’t need to get up early to beat the rush hour traffic and you don’t need a huge budget to get started.
2. Work Life Balance
For many people finding time for family has become an important part of their job. Hybrid working has allowed many people to eliminate lengthy commutes enabling them to spend extra quality time with their loved ones.
Traditionally In person training for any sales team has been delivered via classrooms and hotel meeting rooms. Add to this the cost of overnight accommodation at in person training events, and the costs can quickly begin to escalate, even for a small team.
Many training vendors will pass on the reduction of delivery costs to clients, as they themselves save costs on travel and accommodation for their sales trainers.
Most traditional training would be termed as “impact training”. They are one off events designed to kick start learning and development.
Whilst there is still a place for this type of training many companies have found that salespeople need help when they need help. They don’t want to save their question for the next sales training event in three months’ time. Web based sales training provides learning on tap, when the salespeople need it most.
Klozers online training provides real time support to our clients via both live chat and email. Our web based team provide support to our clients “in the moment” so they can learn while they are working.
Regardless of the quality of the sales trainer or the course content salespeople simply cannot absorb all the information they receive on one and two-day sales courses. Sales Training correlates directly to growth in personal development and this does not happen overnight.
Changes to sales strategy, sales techniques, sales process and selling skills all contribute to sales success but need to be approached with a long term view. There is no magic wand in sales and sales success comes via both hard work and developing your sales force in terms of overall sales performance.
Web based sales training is typically spread out over longer periods and works by a drip effect where content is delivered in a “little and often” format that is easier to absorb.
One of the most important parts of the best sales training courses is the implementation and support after the training has taken place. Not only will your sales reps need support but your sales management will also need help to implement changes on the selling process, selling skills and behaviours of the sales team.
Unfortunately many sales professionals attend training and then return to their job and continue to do what they always have done. This is not a recipe for success.
Many companies continue to hire new staff after any training event. This could be to simply replace salespeople who have left or as part of their expansion plans.
Most web based training is self paced and can be recorded. This can then be used to build up a library that can be accessed on an ongoing basis for both existing and new sales professionals.
Klozers provides a full range of both face to face and web based sales training courses. Each of these feature live training where participants can interact.
In addition to our training we provide ongoing support via sales coaching. If your sales force needs help with developing your value proposition, sales prospecting, reducing your sales cycle, selling skills, win repeat business or sales presentations we would love to talk with you.
Our goal is to help you achieve your business objectives, small your sales targets and achieve the sales success you are seeking.
Link sales performance to encourage the development of new sales skills
Fill out the form to the right and download our Sales Performance review template.
You can customise this to your unique situation and start driving sales performance within the hour.
Why Sales Performance Reviews are Important
Many companies and sales managers overlook the importance of regular and structured sales performance reviews with their sales reps. Sometimes they know how important these meetings are, but they slip from the diary because of other pressures within the business.
More often than not, employees are reduced to an annual performance review, that does little to evaluate performance, let alone drive professional growth.
There are a myriad of reasons you should make time for these meetings, probably none more so that employee retention. The cost of finding and hiring good sales people is rising so it surely makes sense to do everything we can to retain our people after this investment.
The pandemic, lockdowns and working from home have all served to make sales people rethink their lifestyle and life goals. Statistics show in 2021, 48 million people quit their jobs, 41% of the global workforce are considering quitting their jobs and 46% are considering relocating in the next 12 months.
Those companies and sales managers who are slow to realign their management and work processes are sure to struggle to keep their best salespeople.
Improving Sales Performance
Performance reviews and 121’s are a crucial part of not only an employees progression, but also there wellness. Professional selling can be stressful and mental wellbeing is hugely important.
They are a great way to ensure the company’s goals as well as those of the individual are being met and ensuring the employees career path is being recognised.
If a sales professional is having any challenges in their work or personal life, a performance review is their opportunity to discuss this with their sales manager.
A performance review should be a safe place for the sales rep to discuss there wants needs, what they are good at and what needs worked on. Far from an anxiety causing and scary meeting with the boss, they should be a place where they have someone they can speak to in confidence.
As a manager, you want to know that your employees are people you can trust. In turn, they need to feel the same from you and 121’s are a great way to do that.
Setting sales goals, discussing what they really want from the job and where they want to go, are a crucial part of their position. If the employee feels recognised and heard, they will then be more inclined to thrive in their position and work to their best ability.
Sales Managers should hold Performance Reviews at least quarterly, but ideally they should be held every month so that you, as the sales manager, can manage the sales reps role, their expectations, and get the most out of them.
SaaS Sales Playbook
What should I discuss in a Sales Performance Review?
Modern selling now has so many different roles it’s difficult to provide a one size fits all formula for everyone in sales. For example, the performance review for an SDR will be very different to that of an account manager. We would strongly encourage you to develop specific reviews and key metrics based on the different roles in sales.
The Performance Review process should be kept fairly informal – it’s not a disciplinary meeting, it’s a safe space for your employee to be open and honest. Your Sales Rep should be comfortable to ask questions in a private setting and air any problems they may have.
At Klozers our Sales Management philosophy is built around the four high value areas of sales, namely:
Finding – what are we consistently and proactively doing to find new sales prospects and opportunities?
Klozing – when we find new deals are we following our sales process and maximising the opportunity?
Growing – are we actively locking in new accounts and growing the revenue from them?
Developing – what are we personally doing to stretch, grow, learn and push ourselves?
Combine these with your Vision and Core Values and by focussing on these four areas, it’s simply impossible not to sell more.
Your Sales Representatives should come away feeling motivated and energised. A 121 is a great way to build and maintain strong relationships with your sales team. Feedback should always be provided especially when the staff member is voicing performance problems of things they may be struggling with.
Constructive feedback is never a bad thing, but employee performance only ever increases by praise and recognition of all the good things that they have achieved.
If they have been working hard throughout the month and this is the only time you have to catch up with them, then this is their only chance to hear praise and praise which will make them feel good and work harder.
If the Sales Professional never hears from there manager and is never told when they are doing a good job, they can sometimes feel paranoid and not appreciated – no one wants their sales team to feel like that.
Sales Performance Review Examples
Road Map & Career Path
A crucial part of the performance review process is about driving professional growth, setting career goals within the company: where do they want to go in this job? How can they get there?
Can they gain experience in different departments? Is there additional training they can do to get them there quicker?
Having clearly defined learning paths is much easier than most companies think and providing every employee with simple milestones they can follow to progress is essential.
A Sales Professional should be treated as a person growing withing the company, not just a number. So, discussing different career paths is a great way to show the sales professional just how far they could potentially go.
Klozers Performance Reviews
121’s for Salespeople Working Remotely
If you have sales preps who are working remotely, then a 121 is equally important as performance reviews. Whilst working from home has improved the work life balance of many Sales Professionals, helped them be more productive and cost effective, for many, it can be isolating and lonely.
Many salespeople are “people people”. They thrive around other human beings which is one of the reasons they love being in sales. Working from home for many has been a real culture change and a shock to most salespeople.
Sales Reps are sometimes reluctant to speak up and ask questions in a group setting, or if there is no rapport with the sales manager. Every sales professional needs to feel comfortable in the workplace – even though they are at home.
For new employees 121’s and team meeting are also great ice breakers and a way to get to know your colleagues. This way, they will feel more comfortable coming to you when they need help or have a problem. Start off with get to know me sessions.
These are very much informal compared to a performance review and a great way for you both to get to know each other. Discuss likes and dislikes, hobbies and interest, what they enjoy doing in their spare time. Keeping this on a personal level to begin with will make the staff member feel very much at ease and most likely they will feel appreciated that you have taken the time to get to know them.
Following up Sales Performance Reviews
Many sales managers are managers and not leaders. The best sales managers work hard to support their sales teams, versus those that are directing their salespeople and following spreadsheets.
Often the difference between a manager and a leader is simply the things they do for the salespeople. What may seem insignificant and unimportant to the manager can be the opposite to salespeople. The best managers are people focussed first and work focussed second.
With that said, there is no doubt how difficult this can be with the constant pressure to meet or exceed sales targets.
As a sales manager you must ensure you follow up on any of the actions you have discussed in the Performance Review. A record of the meeting should always be documented to provide the sales reps with a record of everything that was discussed.
This also provides a road map of what they are going to work towards, until the next performance review and helps hold them and the sales manager accountable.
This is a great way to monitor progress as it gives both the sales manager and the sales professional the opportunity to look over previous goals and discuss where they are in relation to the agreed targets and what needs to be worked on.
Sales Managers are arguably the most important part of any sales team. They set the bar in terms of employee performance and what is acceptable, and what is not. Great sales teams need great sales managers – invest in your sales management now.
Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…
SDR Sales Training Courses – Top question from Google
How do you train an SDR?
Most SDR training courses highlight the following steps, or similar to help train your SDR team:
Use a sales training template.
Provide clear learning paths aligned with progression
Set expectations.
Build a culture of collaboration.
No-such-thing-as-a-stupid-question policy.
Create a template for SDR/Account Executive meetings.
Teach your Sales Development Team to be curious.
Constantly provide actionable feedback
Give your team time.
We think you can do much more than this.
Training your team of Sales Development Reps may start in the classroom (virtual or otherwise) however, this is just the start of the learning journey. In order to build a successful sales organization there are many other areas you should consider.
SDR Sales Training Courses
Here’s the short answer – Run a 1 Day Sales Bootcamp
Session 1 –Sales Psychology. Build the mindset, goals and activities of a Sales Winner. Discover the psychology behind every sale and how you can use this to your advantage.
Session 2 –Discovery and Qualifying. In order to sell, you need to be in front of the right people, at the right time, with the right message. Get this right and sales becomes a lot easier.
Session 3 – Mastering the complex Sale. How to identify different decision makers with different and often competing priorities.
Session 4 – Filling your Sales Funnel. Discover short and long term strategies for driving new sales enquiries whilst maximising your productivity. This session includes our omnichannel lead generation approach and will demonstrate how to use the telephone, cold email and LinkedIn in combination to fill your sales funnel.
Whilst there is no doubt that ongoing learning via the “little and often” philosophy is important in terms of sales development, Sales Bootcamps are a great way to kick start the learning process.
SaaS Sales Training Bootcamps are typically 1 or 2 day sales courses. They are intensive by nature and provide SDR’s with a vast amount of information from which they can refer back to. Sales Bootcamps work best when they are used in conjunction with an existing sales campaign and ongoing sales coaching.
The bootcamps provide the training which is the knowledge, and the sales coaching helps the sdrs with the practical application of the knowledge.
In addition to SDR training, Bootcamps are popular for training topics such as Sales Fundamentals training which is designed for people who are completely new to sales and need a lot of information quickly, as part of their onboarding process.
SDR Sales Training
The job of a sales development representative (SDR) is a challenging and valued position within any business. It is important to ensure your SDRs are aware of their impact within the business and how their performance will help the business grow.
Unfortunately most Sales Development Reps tend to leave after a year. Most business owners will tell you the SDRs weren’t cut out for the position or that their SDRs left to climb the sales ladder elsewhere.
At Klozers, although we believe that could be partly true, it’s often a more complex situation.
People typically leave because they fall out of love with their sales manager and the company. Part of sales management is providing the best training possible and then continuing to build upon existing sales skills to help SDRs hit targets regularly.
Modern sales management includes providing professional development linked to a career path even if that means that the sales representative has to leave the company to develop their sales career. The more you invest in them the longer they will stay.
No sales professional wants to miss sales targets, nobody wants to work in a business where selling is like wading through treacle. People want to win, they want to sell, and a big part of sales management is making your team successful.
A Sales Professionals job never ends, there will always be prospects to serve! It only makes sense to establish ongoing sales training to help SDRs keep up-to-date on new sales trends, competitors, new product releases, new training tools and so on.
Not only will this help improve the efficiency of your business, this will enhance employee retention and job satisfaction.
The key to any successful SDR training course is to keep it simple and set clear expectations of what you expect from your Sales Team and what they can expect from you. This means building a strong culture of communication and collaboration within the team.
In addition to sales training we would encourage you to consider developing a comprehensive learning programme for your sales teams that include:
Most SDR training plans will include topics such as setting targets, training, mentoring, culture, rejection, and customer personas. Topics such as customer personas for example are key to ongoing marketing success.
Understanding customer personas helps your SDR’s learn what drives prospects to purchase your product or service. This also helps your SDR’s to understand the customer profile that your business draws in, and helps your SDR team to narrow down what the prospect wants out of your company.
This is also a great way for your Sales Reps to have a natural yet targeted conversation whether that be by phone, email, or in person.
At Klozers we use two different models for customer personas. The first is the ideal client profile or ICP which refers to the actual businesses that fit our criteria and secondly the perfect prospect profile. This profile is specific to the different buyers within and organisation and the differing pain pints they may have.
A really important topic to cover in your SDR training is rejection and mindset. We all experience rejection day to day, so why is it so discouraging when it happens when speaking to potential customers?
Most SDR’s are new to the role and want to prove their worth. Sales prospecting can be disheartening for them and quickly demotivate them. In sales, if you are not getting told no more than yes, then you are not talking to enough people. The first ‘No’ an SDR receives will be the first of many.
A great way to learn from this experience would be to ask your prospect why they declined. Take a look at reviewing your SDR’s sales strategy and practice listening skills and responses.
Being told ‘No’ is common practice in the sales, how your Sales Rep handles that conversation is key to their progression within the sales world.
Perfect Prospect Profile Template
Sales Training Exercises
Before any Sales Professional makes a sales prospecting call, they should always be ready to answer the four most basic questions any potential customers may ask on the call such as:
Why is the SDR contacting the prospect?
Why should the prospect talk with the SDR?
What information does the SDR need from the prospect?
What questions or doubts might the prospect have?
A great way for your Sales team to prepare for these questions is to role play with their colleagues. Ask your SDR’s to put themselves in your prospect’s shoes.
An interesting way to include the team with this is to pick one SDR as the caller, and the other SDR’s to role play as the potential new prospect.
Ask each SDR role playing as the prospect to ask these questions in a quick fire round. This exercise allows your SDR playing the role of the caller to be quick on their feet when answering questions.
Another great exercise would be to ask each SDR in your team to give a brief talk on their favourite subject to the rest of the team. Challenge the other SDR’s in your team to take notes of how many filler words the speaker uses such as like, um, uh, well, so, okay etc.
The aim of this exercise is for the speaker to use as little filler words as they can. This will help your SDR’s appear more professional, confident and push their value proposition to their prospects
With so much free sales training available we are sometimes not the first choice everyone. A quick search on the internet will show that there are lots of free SDR training courses and materials all available online, picking the best one for you and your business is the tricky part.
In addition to the importance of Live Training, we also understand that everyone learns differently, which is why it’s important to follow 4 key and easy steps, Consistency, assistance, practice, and progression.
It’s important to stick to your training schedule to show your team that you value them and their development. This is a great way to help keep your SDR’s within your business.
2. Assistance
Assist your team with their learning. Everyone learns differently and at their own pace. By researching different learning styles such as role playing, cold call games, and live call feedback you will help all the Sales Reps in your team. This is a great way to also include every SDR in the training by running through different mock examples.
3. Practice
Here at Klozers, we firmly believe practice makes perfect. It’s important to remember that most SDR’s have little to no prior experience in sales development. A great way to get your SDR team started could be to set a task to complete.
For example, record your SDR’s cold calls and play them back. Ask your SDR team to provide 3 things they think they could’ve done to improve that call. Encourage your SDR’s to think of their tone of voice and the language they use during the call. This can help them understand what they are doing successfully, and what they can improve on.
4. Progression
Progression is what all SDR’s want to achieve, this is a reason why a lot of Sales Reps leave the business to pursue a career elsewhere. Creating a training plan which incorporates the SDR’s progression within the business is a great way to keep them on track, and understand the value they add to your business.
All Inside Sales Professionals wants to prove their worth and show they can do the job at hand, but make sure not to let your SDR’s run before they can walk!
A simple tip would be to include scheduled 1-1 meetings with the sales manager to discuss their progress, their sales pipeline, offer feedback and work out a development plan together for each SDR.
Discover the latest in Social Selling on LinkedIn with our Lead Generation training.
There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…
Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…
How to Sell on LinkedIn – the short answer
Follow LinkedIn’s four recommendations listed in the Social Selling Index which are:
Create a professional personal and company brand.
Find and save the profiles of the right people so LinkedIn can push updates to you.
Start engaging with insightful content that generates likes, comments and shares.
Continuing to build relationships via connecting in a value led approach.
Lastly from Klozers – stop trying to sell to people. The more you try and sell the more you will put people off.
Here’s a more detailed guide on How to Sell On LinkedIn
1. Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
The genesis of LinkedIn in 2002 was as a recruiting platform that enabled job seekers to be found by recruiters and the reverse, in that job seekers could quickly find new opportunities.
The platform has moved on since then and is the largest B2B Directory with over 722 million users listed. The sheer volume of contacts has made LinkedIn the place to be for B2B salespeople who are researching and connecting to decision makers throughout the sales process.
The size of the opportunity is equalled only by the size of the potential to ruin both your personal and company brand on the platform.
LinkedIn has a certain etiquette and when you break the “rules” your personal brand is damaged. For example, if the percentage of your connection requests are refused then your prospect can block you for life – not just for the time you are in your current job role, every future job role. Life means life on LinkedIn.
The advent of lockdowns where Field Sales people where suddenly forced to do everything online without any strategy, planning or training, resulted in a massive increase in LinkedIn Spam which made connecting and selling on the platform more difficult than ever.
Outbound done badly damages your brand and this is so true on LinkedIn. The use of automations, spam, connect and pitch messaging and even fake profiles does nothing to enhance your brand.
To compound this problem many people turned to “LinkedIn Lead Generation Experts” who would take control of your profile and spam everyone on the planet with some form of “buy now” message.
Yes these people generate leads, however, this is a scorched earth strategy and the damage will be found by the profile owner for years to come.
Your Personal and Business brand is what attracts and retains customers. Cherish, nurture and develop them all you can.
3. Don’t be spammy
Everyone knows selling has changed, however, it’s worth reminding people as not everyone has got the message. People do not want to be sold to, but they do like to buy. The role of sales is no longer to sell, but to facilitate the right conditions for buyers to buy.
How do you do this:
Provide value up front
Provide insight up front
Focus on building relationships
Provide every single piece of information the prospect wants, including the information that they don’t know that they want, up front.
When you get this right, there is no need to “sell”. It’s actually so much easier.
How to Sell on LinkedIn
4. How to Optimise your LinkedIn profile
Let’s start at the very beginning, your LinkedIn Profile. In order to put your best personal brand forward LinkedIn rewards those with the most complete profiles.
By reward I mean they will push you and your content to other users more actively based on the completeness of your profile.
With that in mind it’s important to complete as much information as possible on your profile, whilst paying particular attention to starting from the very top:
Your LinkedIn URL. Be sure to “claim” your name and once you have done this add your primary keyword to the title as shown in the image – I have added the keyword “sales trainer”.
Include a professionally designed banner that conveys your brand promise. This should be congruent with your company website.
Use a business like, professional portrait image – not an image of you sipping cocktails. LinkedIn is B2B and you need to play to that audience.
How to Sell on LinkedIn – Optimise your personal profile
Use keywords that your target audience would use to search for you in your title. Many LinkedIn trainers will recommend a title targeting a specific audience and including the outcome that you provide. I can tell you that I and many others immediately decline connection requests from these people as they have just told you in advance “I am coming to get you”. Remember nobody wants to be sold to.
Include relevant hashtags for your industry. This needs to be done via the Creator Mode feature.
Be sure to complete the “Providing Services” section with three services that you would like to promote. Where possible these should match your hashtags
How to Sell on LinkedIn – Optimise your personal profile featured section
Next up is the “Featured” section. This is an opportunity for you to showcase your subject matter expertise. White Papers, Books, Articles and Posts that position you as the expert. Where possible include lead magnets from your website to attract new prospects.
About is the next section you should customise. This should be about who you work with, the services you provide and the results you deliver. Lastly include a call to action, keywords from your Skills section (more on this to follow), hashtags and contact details.
How to Sell on LinkedIn – Optimise your personal profile about section
The next two sections are Experience & Education, and these should be as detailed and truthful as possible. Whether you are selling a product or service or yourself in an interview, company’s will look to verify this information and you will quickly be found out if you are not telling the truth.
Licenses and Certification is the next section and here you should take the opportunity to reinforce your brand. This is arguably easier for us as a training provider, however, you can include vocational training and anything that puts you forward as a thought leader. If you are not continually educating yourself and keeping up to date you should be.
How to Sell on LinkedIn – adding licenses and certifications to your personal profile
Skills & Endorsements is the nest section and this is really important. The LinkedIn search algorithm is more likely to recommend you for a skill if you have been endorsed for that skill, which makes sense. Therefore, you should ensure that the skills you would like to be known for are at the top to encourage people to endorse you for these skills.
As you can see from my profile I have 99+ endorsements for a few skills but not for the core skills “sales”, “sales coaching” and “sales trainings”. My fault as I was not aware of the importance of this until recently. What’s also strange is that LinkedIn has not listing for “Sales Training” only “Sales Trainings”. This may be a language/translation issue, however, as the Skills are predefined there is no way to change this.
How to Sell on LinkedIn – adding skills & endorsements to your personal profile
Lastly, the Accomplishments section is a great place to highlight any awards, courses or publications that you are credited with.
That’s it. One important point I should explain. Whist we always advocate a consultative, non salesy approach we are referring to our communication style your personal and company pages should be very salesy. They are akin to a website Landing Page and should do as much as possible to convert the visitor to an enquirer.
5. How to create a LinkedIn Company Page
Like your personal profile page the Company page should be like a Landing page on your website. Content rich and full of information.
Once the page is complete it’s important that you keep the page up to date with new posts in order that anyone visiting the page will not be confronted with an empty page with no activity.
Again it’s important to have your company livery and brand promise front and centre. The about section is an opportunity to tell the world how great your products and services are, who they are for and the results they help your clients achieve.
Don’t forget your call to action button, contact details and hashtags.
How to Sell on LinkedIn – How to create a LinkedIn company page
6. How to create a LinkedIn Showcase Page
Showcase pages are a great tool for promoting a product or service. Imagine you are Microsoft, your company page would be Microsoft and you could create Showcase pages for Microsoft Dynamics or Microsoft Teams.
We use the Showcase section to promote the events we run on LinkedIn and Funnel Sprint which is our premier lead generation training programme.
Please note: Showcase pages must be created from your Company page using the “Admin Tools” drop down menu.
How to Sell on LinkedIn – how to create a showcase page
7. How to create a LinkedIn Showcase Page
LinkedIn articles are a great resource for positioning your personal brand. LinkedIn loves content so they desperately want you to be creating content on a regular basis.
When combined with creating content for our own website this can be really demanding, however, the best strategy is to create full, long form content on your website and then create a short summary piece as a LinkedIn article that links back to your website.
That way you have satiated both the Google and LinkedIn beasts.
As an example this particular blog post How to Sell on LinkedIn was first published on the klozers.com website with a summary article then published on LinkedIn here.
Google does index content published on LinkedIn but so far we have found by far it’s better to use our company blog as the primary content source.
8. How to create a Boolean Search Strings
Boolean search strings are the somewhat complicated looking search terms that allow you to create very specific and highly targeted searches. This targeting is encouraged by LinkedIn and contributes to your Social Selling Index score. Here are the different operators you can use:
Quotes [“”] These are used when you are looking for an exact match. As an example when you type in sales manager to the search bar without the quotes the search returns all the contacts with the word sales and manager in their profile. By adding the quotes and entering “sales manager” the search returns all the contacts with that exact keyword.
Parentheses [()] These searches are used when you want to combine search terms. For example if you wanted to find people who have “VP” in their profiles, but exclude “assistant to VP” or SVPs, type VP NOT (assistant OR SVP).
NOT – when you type NOT in capital leaders this excludes what follows. For example you may search for “sales manager” NOT “sales director” if you wanted to exclude sales directors from the results.
AND – as it sounds when you type in AND in capital letters the search returns results for both keywords. As an example if you type in “sales” AND “marketing” the search would return results that included both words.
OR – OR is the broadest search term and best used when you want to widen the results. The search term “sales” OR “marketing” would cast a wider net and return more results than “sales” AND “marketing”.
How to Sell on LinkedIn – Boolean Search Strings
9. How to connect on LinkedIn
Building your network is one of the 4 foundations of social selling, however, this has come under more scrutiny recently. LinkedIn would like you to only connect to people you know – but equally they know users are connecting to people they don’t know all the time.
Unfortunately, most people employ a spray and prey approach and connect with anyone and then never speak to them again. Because of this LinkedIn has reduced the number of connection requests to 100 per week to stop this although there are legitimate ways around this via the groups function.
In an attempt to short circuit the connection process many people search for the “best” connection messaging templates on Google.
By the time these templates are on Google they have been used literally millions of times. People buy from people we would encourage you to interact via like, comments and shares before trying to connect.
You can then refer to content or comments they have shared in the connection request and voila – no templates required.
By employing this strategy your acceptance rate will increase from the standard which is around 30 to between 60 and 70%.
HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR LINKEDIN CONNECTIONS
LinkedIn allows you to download your connections although it’s worth pointing out that this does not include the users email address or contact details.
The data is nonetheless still helpful for Account Planning and targeting larger enterprise accounts.
10. How to get the most from LinkedIn Messaging
We’ve covered the best approach to messaging with respect to when you are connecting, however, what happens after you have connected. The options here are three fold:
Pitch your product or service. This will work for some people, however, the percentage of times this will work is very low. If you are in a hurry, and don’t care about your personal or business brand, then this is your best option.
Send a thank you for connecting message and never speak to them again like the majority of LinkedIn users
Focus on building a relationship by providing insight and value. This is a longer term approach, however, the results are much improved in comparison to options 1 and 2.
Here are some ideas that you can use to facilitate this approach:
Tell the prospect in the “thank you for connecting message” that you regularly share insight to their job title about xyz and look forward to speaking again.
As discussed in step 1 regularly share insight with the prospect but don’t bombard them.
Message the prospect and ask for help with an industry survey
Create a plan – download our simple spreadsheet so you can plan and track all your interactions on LinkedIn.
Engage – Follow the individual using Sales Navigator and like, comment or share when the prospect posts or comments on the platform.
Provide sales leads to them using our “recommended search” hack
Lastly, you must compress all your messages as no one wants to read a novel in their inbox and wherever possible make the desired response to your message a simple thumbs up emoji. The quicker and easier it is for the prospect to respond the more likely they are to do so.
11. How to Create a LinkedIn Event
LinkedIn Events took off during the lockdown period as millions of users found themselves stuck at home in need or new routes to market and in some cases training.
Whilst the LinkedIn Events platform was primarily designed to host and deliver events on the LinkedIn platform itself many users are hosting Events and using LinkedIn as the main channel to drive registrations.
We’re personally great fans of LinkedIn Events and regularly run workshops on the platform. This has allowed as greater access to our clients and also potential new customers outside our current 1st degree connections and into 2nd and third degree contacts across the globe.
Like your company page, its important to brand your events inline with your company branding. Once the event is set up you can easily invite any of your personal connections and you should share the event regularly in your timeline.
In addition to LinkedIn we have a webinar sign up page on our website and use our email list to drive registrations. With what we would describe as limited effort we typically have between 50 and 100 attendees.
The downside of any free online event is there is a huge drop out rate on the day. This is partly due to the fact that the LinkedIn Events function does not add a Calendar Appointment to the users diary when they click yes to attend.
It’s obviously not possible to send a regular diary invite as the users would then have access to the contact details of all the other attendees.
We have managed to create a workaround using Microsoft Live Events, however, it’s still manual and something that we need to work on before we would share this.
How to selling on LinkedIn – How to create a LinkedIn event
12. How to use sell using LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups used to be huge, however, LinkedIn decided to move users away from the groups, and group discussions, leaving many groups almost dormant.
Whereby previously groups where the hotbeds of focussed industry discussions they mostly lie silent and posting into groups can feel like shouting into the unknown.
The plus side is that groups remain an easy route to build connections and gather data. For example, while new connection requests are limited to 100 per week, this can be sidestepped by connecting to users in a common group. LinkedIn may well change this again in the near future.
Users are allowed to be members of up to 50 LinkedIn groups and we recommend joining groups where your Ideal Client Profile can be found.
13. How to get the most from LinkedIn Inmail
LinkedIn Inmail historically had the highest open rates which according to LinkedIn is 57.5% which when compared to standard email which is 21.6% sounds great.
Forgive me though – Inmails are limited to premium accounts (20 Inmails per month) and add-ons that you can be purchased, so without independent verification this may not be the most accurate of data.
What I believe to be true is that the open rates and conversion rates from Inmail has dropped as it has become more widely adopted by sales and marketing team.
For us, the Inmail feature shows no difference in open rates given the strategies that we use, however, when certain prospects are not active on LinkedIn and have locked down their connection settings, Inmail might be the only channel available.
14. Using LinkedIn for Content Marketing
LinkedIn loves content creators and with the new “Creator Mode” available from 2021 they have signalled that this is the direction that they want to take the platform.
For obvious reasons when compared to Facebook, LinkedIn is primarily focussed on B2B, however, the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 drove new users to the platform and encouraged existing users to engage more using content.
The type of content has also changed there are much more personal stories on the platform then previously.
From a sales perspective this makes sense as stories sell. Whilst some people are uncomfortable sharing their story other content types that are popular are:
Industry Insights
Event Information
Customer Focussed
Employee Focussed
Company News
Products and services
Partners & Sponsors Stories sell, so in order to gain engagement and visibility it’s important to develop your content around a story wherever possible.
How to sell on LinkedIn – using LinkedIn for content marketing
15. How to sell on LinkedIn using Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator is the Premium version of LinkedIn and a must have tool for any modern sales rep. The Navigator platform is extremely powerful and in addition to the increased search filters, the main benefit we would suggest is the ability to follow prospects and target accounts from a central dashboard.
The dashboard provides alerts based on both the prospects and accounts you are following allowing you to identify opportunities to engage at a glance.
Sales Navigator also provides what they call “Smart Links” which gives the user tracking data for any documents they send via Inmail.
The data includes the number of times the link was clicked, how long the user viewed the link, the date and time the link was clicked and the full details of the user who clicked on the link. All of which are important when sending .pdf, ppt or word documents to prospects.
Saved Searches are also an important feature within Sales Navigator. These allow the user to save highly targeted searches and return to them as LinkedIn updates the search results on a daily basis.
The saved search function has many uses such as tracking when connections move companies or when they are promoted to a more senior role.
Linkedin developed the Social Selling Index (SSI) to encourage both user adoption and best practice. As mentioned at the start of this document the SSI has four core areas:
1. Creating your professional personal and company brand 2. Finding and saving the profiles of the right people so LinkedIn can push updates to you 3. Engaging prospects with thought leadership and insightful content that generates likes, comments and shares 4. Continuing to build new relationships via connecting in a value led approach
LinkedIn displays an SSI score for every user and their position or rank compared to their Team. Again, this is to drive user adoption and make the product sticky.
How to sell on LinkedIn – Social Selling Index
Most users are unaware of the benefits of having a social selling strategy. LinkedIn and Sales Navigator are like Ferraris which mean they need to be driven differently to a supermarket trolley if you want to get the full benefits from them.
Any strategy will take time, however, in the new world of remote selling it’s much more than inside sales and SDR’s who can benefit from the platform.
From our own experience we have developed a social selling strategy that can be replicated across every industry. There is however no magic wand and no substitute for hard work.
The more you put into LinkedIn the more you will get out.
17. How to sell on LinkedIn using Automation Software
The popularity of the LinkedIn platform has led to the development of a number of Google Chrome browser extensions that automate the process of visiting, connecting and messaging.
Like all tools they are only as good as the individual who is configuring them. In essence the tools are great, however, the widespread use of the tools are what has caused LinkedIn to now limit the amount of connection requests to 100.
Spray and prey, connect and forget and Scorched earth are the negative results caused by the misuse of the tools.
As you would expect LinkedIn discourages users form using any form of automation as they are against the rules.
With that said every one of the automation providers are on LinkedIn and even using LinkedIn events to promote their tools so the cynic in me thinks they are well aware of the problem and turn a blind eye to it because for the time being it suits them.
My understanding is that if you are “caught” using automation you will receive a warning and not immediately blocked from the platform.
I have never received such a warning so I can’t confirm this – only you know your level of risk so I will leave the decision to automate or not up to you.
18. How to sell on LinkedIn – Engagement Pods
A different take on Automation are Engagement Pods. Like other automation tools these are browser bases extensions that allow you to join a pod or group.
The purpose of the pods is to boost the reach of the members content by automating the like and comments on their posts.
The LinkedIn algorithm promotes content to more of your connections based on the engagement withing the first hour of posting.
Whilst you might like the idea of boosting the reach of your content, the problem arises when you suddenly find the automation is commenting on content that does not fit your brand and in some cases, will be damaging your brand.
You have no control over what they post and what comments they attribute to you. Giving control of your LinkedIn account to other pod members is not something we would recommend to anyone.
19. How to sell on LinkedIn – Social Selling Course
Social selling is such an important part of modern B2B selling we have incorporated all our best social selling strategies and tactics into our B2B Lead Generation Course. In addition to live training the course provides practical strategies and tactics that users are encouraged to use immediately.
The course is comprehensive and covers everything from the basics of setting up and optimising your LinkedIn profile to the more advanced lead generation strategies we teach.
As always our sales training is built around the consultative sales methodology so the priority is always the protection of your personal and business brand.
LinkedIn Sales Strategy Consulting
Need more help? Training is great, but strategy is the game changer that can set you apart from your competition.
Sales Teams with Sales Playbooks are 33% more likely to be high performers with win rates exceeding 50%
The Best Sales Playbook in the World
What is a Playbook in Sales
A playbook in Sales is a single repository that contains all the information, tools, templates, content, media, training and coaching that Salespeople require to execute their role successfully. The most common use of playbooks are for onboarding new salespeople, however, they are great for documenting your sales process and coaching salespeople.
What makes a good Sales Playbook?
A good sales playbook will help onboard new salespeople and get them to generate revenue as fast as possible. Playbooks help existing sales reps follow best practice, a proven sales process , develop their sales skills and behaviours and improve their productivity.
Join the next webinar for step by step instructions on how you can customise this playbook template for your business
We recommend that you host the playbook inside a Channel in Microsoft Teams in order that sales and marketing teams working remotely can also access the document.
2. SaaS Sales Playbook Outline
SaaS playbooks or Inside Sales Playbooks are often different because SaaS sales can have a different sales process and structure, but either way we’ve got you covered.
For example, many SaaS companies have teams of Sales Development Reps (SDR’s) who are responsible for lead generation and the initial sales qualification process.
These B2B SaaS companies are scaling and Sales Playbooks form a vital role in recording, tracking and developing the sales function within the business as well as onboarding new sales team members.
In addition, the playbooks act as a simple but very effective sales enablement solution, helping them learn and implement best practice in sales while increasing productivity and performance via sales coaching and training.
Playbooks are especially important for new hires who need to get up to speed and delivering as quickly as possible. Our template is the quickest way to get started creating your sales playbook and populating it with relevant content for your own sales team.
SaaS Sales Playbook
3. Sales Playbook Benefits
Single Location: Playbooks provide a single location for everything a B2B Sales Reps needs to know in order to do their job successfully. Rather than having pieces of information scattered across different file locations, and in different departments which are difficult and time consuming to find, your Sales Playbook keeps everything in one easy to find location.
Commonality: Sales Playbooks provide a common sales language that your sales and marketing teams can understand and follow.
Continuous improvement: Digital Playbooks provide a living, working document that can be continuously updated to retain relevancy.
Standardised Sales Process: Playbooks help salespeople follow the company’s proven sales process and buyer’s journey rather than having every sales rep following a different process.
Best Practice: Sales Playbooks provide a location to document and report on the companys’ best practices in selling for others to learn and follow.
Sales Coaching & Training: Sales playbooks provide a location to document and report on the learning & development plans for B2B sales reps. A good playbook improves the Sales Reps productivity and performance.
8. Building an Asset: As you begin to customise your sales playbook to meet your own strategy and methodology you can build in your own organisations KPIs, material, call scripts and content so it becomes a long term asset for the business.
9. Step by Step Guide: Your sales playbook provides a step by step guide on how your organisation goes to market. It covers everything from buyer personas, how to hire and onboard new reps, to KPI’s ROI, Performance management, proposals, channels, planning and strategy. It’s a single point of reference for everything in sales.
4. Sales Playbook Best Practices
1. Customisation – no two SaaS companies are the same so while it’s great to start with a framework, it’s important to customise the content of the playbook to match the needs of your organisation. Think of our playbook as a template to give you a head start on creating your own.
2. Updating – sales is a fast paced environment that is constantly changing and your sales playbook needs to be a living working document. Playbooks should be updated regularly and reviewed completely every six months.
3. Ownership – have a limited number of playbook owners with admin rights to stop anyone and everyone from editing the document. In OneNote this can be achieved by password protecting sections and pages. Improvements and additions can be fed back to the administrators on an ad-hoc basis or at Sales Meetings.
4. Engagement – playbooks have no impact on Sales unless they are used. Sales Managers must hold Sales Reps accountable to using and following the playbooks. “51% of reps attain quota at firms using a Sales Playbook, compared to 40% at firms who don’t have a Sales Playbook.” Aberdeen Group
5. Content – In addition to being relevant content should be easy to consume and engaging. Avoid massive PowerPoint decks with generic messaging. Use multimedia and a mixture of content types where possible.
6. Access – Sales Playbooks should be Cloud based however having access to them offline may be critical for some Reps, in which case the Playbooks should be downloadable but with restrictions on editing.
5. Sales Playbook Content
Your copy of the best Sales Playbook in the World contains:
5.1 DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE
This is where you can store information on your industry like statistics, trends and market intelligence. You can track and follow Industry Thought Leaders, top industry publications and Industry Bodies and Organisations so your teams are always up to date.
5.2YOUR COMPANY
In this section you can provide details on your company’s History, Mission and Values. This is also where you would place your Sales Strategy and Sales Plan so every team member knows the “Why” behind what you do, and can align their sales behaviours with the Sales Plan. Lastly in this section we record all the companies products and services.
5.3YOUR COLLEAGUES
When you join a new company and you don’t know anyone the first few weeks can be quite intimidating. This section contains an internal directory in order that new team members can quickly identify and connect with any colleague including those outside the sales department.
This section is where you can store information of your clients. These are typically examples of clients/buyers that fit your sales prospect profiles, common pain points, clients who provide good case studies, testimonials, channel partners or strategic accounts.
5.6 SALES PROCESS
It’s important that Reps have and follow a proven Sales Process. This process provides a track for the salespeople to follow which is repeatable and measurable. We have also included an example of our Qualifying template which you can customise to meet your own needs.
5.7 SALES PLAYS
Sales plays are where we document our sales messaging and structure for controlling the sales conversation with a buyer. They include templates for what we call a Door Opener which is similar to an Elevator pitch. There are also sections for buyer personas, pain points, how to deal with prospects Stalls & Objections, How to deliver product Demos, Pricing, Proposals, Sales Stories and Customer Meeting Notes.
5.8 COMPETITION
This is where you can store information and intelligence on your competitors. We are great fans of Sales Battlecards which you can use to win deals against your competition. The Battlecards help you steer the buyer conversation to the areas that favour your solution the most and make it more difficult for your competitors to compete. In short this shows you how to move the goals posts in the middle of the sales process to sabotage your competitors bid.
5.9 CONTENT
No more searching for files, flyers, technical specifications, case studies, testimonials and pricing sheets. Everything is stored inside this OneNote section in your sales playbook.
Sales Negotiation Coaching
5.10 KPI’S
Every Sales Rep needs to know their numbers and what are the Key Deliverables for their role. We have listed all the KPI’s you will need for you to choose from and then create your own Sales Scorecards to manage Sales Reps.
5.11 LEARNING
Learning is your library for Onboarding Plans, Sales Coaching Playbooks, Training Planners, Personal Learning Plans, Sales Coaching Notes, Goal Setting and experiential learning and simulations.
5.12 ADMIN
The very last section is our Admin section. In here we store Team Meeting notes, Compensation & Commission, Expenses and a Time Management Tracker.
6. Sales Coaching Playbook
As a sales training and coaching company we use Sales Playbooks for training and sales coaching probably more than any other business. Playbooks are a great place to include:
Sales Messaging is an often overlooked and undervalued area of sales, however when you lose business to a competitor it means that someone else is either saying or doing something better than you.
In sales, we have little to no control of the product, but we have 100% ownership of our messaging.
Robert Cialdinis best seller Influence is a testament to this and a great read for anyone in sales.
We call our Sales Messaging our Sales Plays and we have a whole chapter in the playbook dedicated to this.
Sales Messaging – our Sales Plays should include every possible part of the Sales Conversation that a Salespeople will have as they walk a prospect/buyer through the sales process.
In addition, our Playbook includes templates for creating your Perfect Prospect Profile / buyer personas to make sure your messaging matches with your prospect/buyer in every way.
8. Sales Playbook Download
Join the next webinar for step by step instructions on how you can customise this playbook template for your business
Everything we teach, we actually do as part of Klozers own sales strategies. This means we have a deep understanding and not just text book theories.
Each sales training course is live. With interactive exercises, we deliver an immersive learning experience.
Our training includes work based learning which means you are assigned practical tasks and sales skills to practice as part of your every day sales role, in order that you learn while you are doing.
Please note: we would never encourage you to provide your products and services for free, and in the same vein we do not provide free sales training.
Nothing in life that is worth anything is free.
Best Online Sales Courses
How much does online sales training cost?
Online sales training costs start from free and can rise up to $15,000 per month. The cost varies based on how many people are required to be trained, how much customisation the training content requires, and how much online support the attendees require throughout the training programme.
We have the best online sales courses available which cover all the sales skills required for Professional B2B selling. Our sales courses each include relevant modules on sales skills from how to attract customers to sales presentations through to how to close sales . Some modules are common across more than one course, whilst others are unique to specific courses.
The content can be modified to meet the specific needs of your sales team. In addition to the training on sales techniques, our coaches are very much hands on, and can work with you to develop your value proposition, sales strategies and the planning and execution thereof.
Historically this training course was most popular with entry level sales professionals, however, this course is a great refresher for experienced Business Development Executives and Account Managers who spend all, or part of their time working from home.
Please note the Live calling is a combination of outbound calling by the Trainer so you can see and hear in real time what Telesales is, and there is also time set aside for participants to make live calls whilst being coached from the course leader.
For companies looking to develop a full inbound sales methodology, we are the only sales training company with expertise at both inbound and outbound lead generation.
Consultative Selling Skills Training Course
Our Consultative sales skills course has been our best seller for the past 8 years. Revised and updated, this course is a must have for everyone in B2B sales.
The training course helps participants control and structure every sales conversation in a way that helps buyers uncovers their own personal reasons for buying, which are always more powerful than the Salespersons reasons.
This methodology is always popular with Non Selling professionals such as IT Professionals, Engineers, Professional Services, Consultants, Software Engineers, Project Managers, Accountants & Architects who don’t want to sound “Salesy” when in front of prospects.
The course covers the core concepts of Consultative selling which includes:
Modern Selling Sales Skills
The Consultative Sales Process
Uncovering Value
Human Behaviour
Selling Through Service & Winning Repeat Business
Building Trust
Sales Pipelines & Selling Process
Setting Sales Goals
Key Account Management Training Course
If your business is typical then 70-80% of next years revenues will come from this years customers. It’s also true that your customers are your competitors targets so without Professional Account Management these important clients may leave.
The course helps participants identify and build relationships with Key Stakeholders across the clients business and find and target new revenue opportunities within the account. Most course participants are either Account Managers, Relationship Managers, Technical Account Managers and Account Directors.
Our Key Account Management Training includes modules on:
Understanding Key Accounts
Segmenting & Defining Key Accounts
Planning for Key Accounts
Creating Key Account Plans
Sales Management Training Course
Sales Managers are the glue that holds sales teams together. With many Sales Managers carrying personal Sales Targets their time is more valuable than ever.
Our Sales Management Training covers the core topics of:
Sales Bench-marking
Sales Improvement Planning
Sales Performance Management
Coaching Sales Winners
Sales Management Skills
We deliver online sales training via self-paced learning and supported with or without live training and coaching.
We supply each of the above types of programme, however, we believe we have the best online sales training because of the learning methodology, or learning style we use which is called Work Based Learning.
Please read on to discover why this is important to you.
Depending on your requirements we have a number of options available to deliver online sales training to your sales force as follows:
Online Sales Training for Individuals – purchase individual licenses for less than 5 Salespeople hosted on our platform.
Online Sales Training for Teams – we offer a discounted rate for multiple licenses of our training content to teams with a minimum of 5 Salespeople hosted on our platform.
Online Sales Training for Teams – purchase Team licenses and host on your own company platform
Unlike most online training which is theory based, all our training courses follow the Work Based Learning methodology which as yet has no recognised certifying body.
All our training courses are Self-Certified and we provide Certificates to participants on successful completion of their training programme.
Best Online Sales Training – Certification
In addition to our Training Certificates Participants can include details of their Training on their Linkedin profile as shown below:
Our Online Sales Training for Beginners course is a mixture of self-paced and instructor -led training that covers the core concepts of selling business to business.
This Beginners Training course is suitable for the following:
Graduates
People moving into new sales roles
Marketing teams who need to understand the basics of selling
Entrepreneurs
Startup Founders
This course covers the core modules of Basic Selling:
Understanding Sales
Everything you Need to Know Before Talking to Customers Part 1
Everything you Need to Know Before Talking to Customers Part 2
In order to deliver a successful sales development programme we typically start by creating a bespoke plan for your company. Many of our Corporate clients have their own Learning & Development departments who can create and generate long term training plans for their sales teams. For those companies that don’t have that capability we can offer a bespoke service where we:
Identify the core sales competencies required for each sales role
Map the competencies against the learning objectives in our training modules
Create bespoke training plans and assessment programmes to deliver, record and assess participants
Our goal is to deliver the best Online Sales Training experience that can be delivered by a combination of face to face, self-paced online, and instructor led online sessions.
In addition to supporting your companies future growth and sales goals, your sales development plan should enhance the sales career and personal development of the participants.
Our sales trainers are very much hands on, and strike a balance between allowing participants learn an their own pace, and pushing them to meet the sales goals of the business.
Our Online Sales Training is delivered in a secure and stable platform online via Microsoft Teams. Individuals are invited into Teams and based on their requirements are assigned training modules to complete based on their personal Learning Objectives and any additional Objectives determined by their Line Manager.
To avoid learning fatigue all our courses are broken down into modules which are between 1 and 2 hours long. In addition we have short modules on selling skills which are between 10 and 30 minutes long.
The sales skills modules we provide are:
Advanced Questioning Skills
Controlling the Sales Conversation
Handling Stalls & Objections
Referrals & Testimonials
Online Sales Presentation Skills
Whiteboard Selling
Building Relationships
Value Creation
LinkedIn Sales Navigator/Social Selling
Dealing with difficult customers
Cross Selling & Upselling
Negotiation Skills
Best Online Sales Training
The Teams Portal provides the flexibility to configure the Channel in different ways which include the options of:
One of the most common questions we are asked by sales leaders is “What’s the difference between Sales Training and Sales Coaching” and why is it important. Training and coaching are two different things, that result in two different outcomes. In order to answer the question it’s important first to define what we mean by sales training and sales coaching.
We are not claiming our own definitions are either the industry standard, or the same as other service providers, however we do know from experience that our definitions make it easier for our clients to better understand their own needs which is the most important thing.
What is Sales Training?
Sales Training is the transfer of knowledge or skills.
What is Sales Coaching?
Sales Coaching supports the practical application of training (knowledge + skills) in the field.
At Klozers we define Sales Training as the “transfer of knowledge”, and the primary outcome from any transfer of knowledge should always be an increase in learning, education and understanding. There are of course secondary outcomes which are similar to the outcomes from coaching, but it’s important we understand the difference between the two.
This is why every training course regardless of the subject matter clearly articulates what the “learning outcomes” will be after the course, and usually do not reference any form of performance improvement.
In the western world over 90% of jobs requiring manual labour no longer exist, and we are now what we call a knowledge economy. Salespeople are paid for their knowledge and skills not manual labour, therefore for every Sales Person, knowledge is power, which is why Sales Training and Learning outcomes are so important.
Once we acknowledge that Sales Training is the mechanism by which we transfer knowledge, and that knowledge is power, it’s equally important to understand that in Sales more than any other subject, this knowledge is worthless unless the Sales Person takes the knowledge, and apply it in the field with prospects and customers.
Without this practical application of the new sales knowledge in the field, then the sales person risks being the smartest sales person in the office, where there are no customers. In most cases a sale never takes place unless a Sales Person has undertaken some form of activity/behaviour/action and this activity is where any new knowledge from training needs to be applied.
The same rules apply for inside sales, with the only difference being the channels with which they are communicating with the prospects/customers. If for example an Inside Sales Person attends a training course on Communication Skills, then unless they apply these skills on either the telephone, email or social media, the training is worthless.
We define Sales Coaching however as “supporting the practical application knowledge in the field”, and the outcome from coaching should always be an increase in skills, confidence and performance.
The main thing that sales training often lacks, and this is not a criticism, more a practical restriction, is that training cannot cover every possible scenario that a sales person will encounter when interacting with a prospect or customer. Those scenarios and equally important the context of each scenario, are what takes classroom sales training and turns it into Boardroom results.
10. The Importance of the Difference Between Training & Coaching
The best way to explain the importance of coaching would be to use the analogy of Golf. If we attend a 1, 2 or 3 day golf training session with Tiger Woods there is no doubt as one of the worlds greatest golfers Tiger Woods would be capable of delivering excellent training.
The course might cover things like the correct stance when addressing the ball, the correct grip and the optimum swing, and there is absolutely no doubt the course attendees would have some very specific and valuable learning outcomes.
What Tiger Woods cannot cover is the practical application of that knowledge next week when you are on the local course and you tried to change your grip, but because it was new to you it felt uncomfortable and for the first 9 holes, your new stance, grip and swing had left you 10 over par.
In these circumstances the golfer is most likely to revert back to his original stance, grip and swing and then might complete the next 9 holes on 5 over par which is his norm. No performance improvement takes place because there was no coach to support with the practical implementation of the new knowledge that the golfer had.
Furthermore, the golfer/sales person is typically left feeling frustrated and disappointed as he knows for sure that Tiger Woods had delivered great content in his course, and realises that he just does not have the ability to implement that knowledge.
Online Sales coaching supports the practical application of knowledge by support and providing context for the many different scenarios that a sales person will encounter with a prospect/customer.
Again if we go back to the Golf analogy. The coach would be able to help the Golfer understand why the knowledge that Tiger had delivered in the training course was not working, for example wind, ground conditions, course type and layout, club and balls – there are hundreds of external variables, never mind the internal variables such as the golfers mindset, belief system and attitudes that would affect the performance.
This is absolutely the same when any sales person goes into a meeting with a prospect/customer, there are hundreds of variables both external and internal that affect the outcome and performance. The role of the sales coach is to support sales reps in their endeavour to overcome these challenges.
Another important difference between sales training and sales coaching is the style. Modern training has thankfully moved away from a simple one way discussion telling people what to do. Games, exercises and good facilitation that engages the attendees should all be included, however the perception of training can often be negative and many attendees have mentally switched off before they get in the room/on the course.
They may have good reason for this based on a past negative experience, but either way the perception is not always positive and often the perception is related to the style. What we mean by this is the perception of sales training for many people is one of telling and from our own experience nobody especially sales people like to be told.
Coaching however is the opposite and is a question based approach to help the sales person discover for themselves the answers. That process of discovery and reflection is very powerful because it transfers ownership of the answer to the problems to the sales person. When the sales person comes up with the answers they then mentally own the answer which make them much more believable to the sales person.
Our online sales courses utilise the concepts of Work Based Learning as many companies and Salespeople no longer have the time available to dedicate days or even hours to training. The modern workplace demands that training not only fits in around the schedule of those involved, but that it also generates some form of value in addition to learning as an outcome.
As it sounds work based learning is focussed around learning and activities that are not only relevant to the job, they are based on sales activities that are the job. As human beings we predominantly learn and master skills by doing and repetition.
The Learning theorists claim we learn 70% by doing, 20% by watching and 10% by listening. Whilst I am sure these figures are not accurate, they are most certainly a good yardstick for any training programme, as the focus is on the learners actually doing the activities and behaviours which are vital for every Sales Person.
Although Work based learning is very different to traditional classroom based training it is still essential for the sales people to have some form of reflection, because like the golfer when they go out to apply the new learning not everything works first time in the field.
This learning by doing, and yes sometimes it will involve learning by failing, is by far the most powerful way for any human being to learn and master new skills. We also believe work based learning is now more important than ever, as sales people simply do not have the time to be away from either their desks or the field for days at a time in the way that traditional training dictates.
While Online Sales Training and Online Sales Coaching are all good there is one vital ingredient that every organisation needs in order for any form of sales improvement to take place and this is Accountability.
Without any form of accountability the Salespeople choose what to do, and when they will do it and in most cases this can be detrimental to the business. Sales Trainers and Coaches are neither in charge nor responsible for the sales people.
This must come from the companys’ own Sales Leadership, as the Sales Trainer can tell the Salespeople what to do, the Sales Coach can show the Sales people what to do, however only the Sales Leaders in the company can tell them what to do. Whilst we absolutely love sales people unfortunately in many organizations Salespeople are not held accountable and therefore choose for themselves what to do, how to do it, and when it is done. Again, in most cases this is not what is best for the business.
Developing a culture of accountability is in our opinion a vital ingredient for any business as quite simply without accountability nothing gets done. Like most things in life that are worthwhile there is no magic wand for Accountability and it takes planning, persistence and patience, but the end results are transformational both for the business and the people, as once the culture starts to take hold people are empowered and happier, because with accountability comes responsibility.
This also helps remove decision making bottle necks, and often the burden from senior people in the business, as the responsibilities are passed down the chain to newly empowered employees. Sales results are dependent on strong sales leadership and strong management. Not every decision will be popular and not every sales person will embrace the new culture.
In the book ‘Good to Great’, Jim Collins talks about employees as people on a bus. The people not only need to be on the right bus, but they need to be in the right seat for the bus to successfully reach its destination. Sometimes people who get on the bus at the start of the journey are neither in the right seat or on the right bus.
Sales Leadership is a continuous drive for sales improvement that leaves no stone unturned and in some cases this may involve asking people to leave our bus as they no longer have the right skill set, behaviours or mindset that the business needs to move forward.
Please don’t misunderstand us, we believe that a business has a duty to develop and grow every employee, however when those employees make it clear by their actions that they have no desire to develop and grow then it is negligent of the business to ignore this and not take action.
We create accountability online by including Line Managers in the learning process. On sign up participants are emailed a choice of Learning Objectives related to the course they have chosen. A selection of additional learning objectives are also provided and Learners can also add their own learning objectives all of which must be approved by their line manager.
By including Line Managers in the initial learning process we introduce Accountability. Line Managers are asked to verify the work based assignments and help assess whether the initial learning objectives have been met.
Online Sales Coaching is a process for developing individual salespeople to improve their performance. Coaching follows a methodology using a question-based model to improve the skills strategies and tactics of the sales rep. Studies show reps who receive coaching are more likely to increase their effectiveness and be successful.
Why is sales coaching Important?
Online Sales Coaching is important quite simply because it drives performance which in turn drives results. Professional Selling can be difficult and it can be a lonely job when results aren’t going your way. Coaching provides time out to talk through problems and change the perspective.
What do sales coaches do?
Sales Coaches support Sales Reps to grow and develop their sales activities, sales skills and Sales Mindset. Effective Coaching is primarily question based, which encourages the coachee to develop their own answers, thoughts and feelings. Sales Coaches help embed new knowledge & skills learned in training by demonstrating their practical application in real life scenarios.
In this article we will cover...
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Coaching for Salespeople which was once only the preserve of large organisations is rapidly becoming the Sales Leaders tool of choice for developing sales teams. More often than not the coaching is combined with Sales Training to provide a holistic approach. Even Coaching for Entrepreneurs has become popular as studies show that Coaching provides a great return on investment, with Harvard University claiming an 88% increase in productivity when combined with training, and Fortune Magazine claiming a conservative return of six times the cost of coaching.
Furthermore, Sales Coaching can be delivered remotely which removes the need for expensive travel and reduces time away from the office, allowing Sales Reps & Sales Leaders more time to focus on learning and their regular work duties.
New and updated to include the latest remote selling techniques we have a full range of coaching programmes for CEO’s, Sales Leaders, Sales Managers and Salespeople.
1. Develop high potentials or facilitate transition – 48%
This very much resonates with our own experiences and some real-life examples would be coaching a Pre-Sales Technical in the transition to a very successful full-time Account Director at Microsoft.
We also coached a fantastic Business Development Rep in his transition into a full-time Key Account Manager.
2. Act as a sounding board – 26%
A common reason sales professionals looking to hire a coach is for a sounding board. We have coached Sales People, Sales VP’s, Business Owners & Entrepreneurs and in many cases they like to talk to someone to ensure they are doing the right things or following the right path. The coaching helps build their confidence.
3. Address derailing behaviour – 12%
The word derailing conveys someone trying to block or obstruct and this can happen when change is introduced into a Sales organization.
This could be a new VP of Sales, a new CRM system, or a change in territories. Human Beings are hard-wired to resist change but as long as the individual has the right values this can be overcome.
Sales Managers are time poor and simply don’t have the bandwidth to coach their Reps. This is common as most Sales Managers still carry a sales target and they are forced to choose between coaching or selling. In most cases, the Sales Managers were originally Sales Reps so they will always choose selling before coaching.
Sales Managers may not have been taught how to coach and are therefore uncomfortable in the coaching role. They will claim they coach while on the job, however this is not the same thing and is much less effective.
No sales budget to hire external coaches to take the pressure off sales managers, which is akin to the chicken and the egg scenario. The reason most companies say they can’t afford coaching is that their reps are under-performing and need a coach.
So what is the best Sales Coaching Strategy you can adopt? Well in our experience here are some ideas you should explore:
Are your Sales Managers comfortable coaching – if not coaching is a proven way to support sales teams.
Dedicate coaching time with sales team members to improve your sales process. Often times salespeople understand the process but they find it difficult to take prospects through the sales process.
Techniques coaching is a common way to help improve specific techniques such as onjection handling, or controlling thee sales conversation.
You should also consider using video to record some of your coaching, so the coachee can see for themselves the improvements they are making.
Telesales coaching is a great way to develop outbound team members with the coaches making live calls to demonstrate techniques and tips in action.
Marketing and sales are no longer the silos they used to be, Great sales people can market and great marketers can sell so help your salespeople improve their marketing skills.
Make coaching one of the KPI’s for the Sales Managers and sales team members. This way you are sending a signal that this is important. 1 x 40-minute session every 2 weeks.
Separate Coaching sessions from training, sales meetings and pipeline reviews. Coaching needs it’s own space if it’s to deliver an ROI.
Create a transparent Sales Coaching Process with templates and logs so everyone becomes comfortable with the new system. Transparent as in what the process is not what the conversations are.
Consider having the sales coaching delivered by someone other than the Sales Manager. Often times the Sales Manager will have to hold sales reps accountable and have difficult conversations with them. This makes the Sales Reps much less likely to “open up” in a coaching session if it’s being facilitated by the Sales Manager, who just told them off about their expenses being late an hour ago.
The overall goal should be to develop a Coaching Culture within the organisation, this will take time to achieve. In turn, this will deliver increases in efficiencies and win rates across the board.
4. Who Benefits from Sales Coaching?
Online Sales coaching works for busy Salespeople and sales managers who have little spare time and need a flexible solution that is not dependent on their location. Coaching should be targeted and relevant to everyday work challenges in order to build confidence.
Some people are not coachable, as they may not be interested in learning or improving. Even with unlimited resources, you have to choose where to focus your energies because:
a) Does the biggest opportunity for improvement lie in coaching and training the top performing 20% of your sales team? Probably not. If these people are already hitting their sales targets, then you might want to leave them for now.
b) Does the biggest opportunity lie in coaching the bottom 20% of your sales team? Probably not, as often Sales Managers retain under-performers longer than is necessary. There are valid exceptions to this rule, for example if the company hired these under-performing Sales Reps, then the company needs to take responsibility and help them. This means giving them every form of support necessary however, if they still don’t respond it’s usually not the best place to spend your Learning and Development budget, because they may be simply a square peg in a round hole.
c) The biggest opportunity for improvement that you have is usually moving the 60% average Salespeople towards the top 20%. A mere 1% increase in sales performance, multiplied by 60% of your sales team, can be huge in terms of revenue. Typically these people are more interested, more motivated and willing to learn than any of the other groups.
The OKR model helps align the companies overall sales strategy and objectives with the coaching at every level of the organisation.
Sales Coaching is the process of supporting Salespeople to achieve improved results. By its nature it can then only be successful when you are working on live opportunities, in real-life scenarios – which is one of the benefits of online delivery.
As Sales Coaching should always be supportive this is not a meeting to criticise, discipline or embarrass, but instead an opportunity to build confidence and guide the Sales Person.
As an Online Sales Coaching company, we use the GROW coaching model which is probably the most common coaching model and it’s well-proven over the years in many different applications. The GROW coaching model is:
G – stands for Goals. What are your goals for the session? R – stands for Reality. What is the current reality of the situation? O – stands for Obstacles. What obstacles are preventing you from reaching your goals and what options do you have open to you? W – stands for Way & Will. What actions do you commit to undertaking to move forward?
As you see from the questions the onus is very much on the Coachee in terms of what they want to get out of the session. It’s also important to require the Sales Reps to complete the first part of the Sales Coaching form before the coaching session.
It ruins every session when the sales rep turns up and then spends 10 minutes trying to decide what they want to get from the session. Sales Leaders can help here by suggesting topics to discuss with their coach in between the coaching sessions.
It’s widely accepted in business and personal coaching that the Coach is not there to provide answers. This, however, is not always true for Online Sales Coaching. Professional Selling can be a very high-pressure environment and many salespeople who are desperate to hit their sales targets simply want a straight answer to their questions and not spend 40 minutes trying to work out the answer.
This, of course, depends completely on the style of the sales rep, but you should be prepared to answer their questions if required, hence for us, experience in sales is a must-have prerequisite for Sales Coaching.
That said here are some questions you can use at each stage of the GROW coaching model:
G – stands for Goals. What are your goals for the session?
Do you have any specific skills you want/need to improve?
Do these goals fit with your teams’ objectives?
Do you have the skills but need to be held accountable?
How will you know when you have achieved those goals?
Why do want to be coached now?
R – stands for Reality. What is the current reality of the situation?
What is happening now?
What is the effect if this continues?
What have you done to try and fix this yourself?
How do you feel about this?
O – stands for Obstacles. What obstacles are preventing you from reaching your goals and what options do you have open to you?
What constraints are on you?
What obstacles are in your way?
What do you need to stop doing to achieve your goal?
What are the disadvantages or advantages of your options?
W – stands for Way & Will. What actions do you commit to undertaking to move forward?
What will you do now?
Is there anything that might stop or hinder you?
How will you measure progress and success?
How will you keep motivated?
These are generic questions, however they are a great starting point and combined with real sales experience and knowledge can provide transformative coaching. The questions serve as prompts and get the salesperson talking about real-life scenarios they are facing.
To wrap up every session it’s good to include a final question as follows:
What is your Biggest Takeawayfrom the session today?
Lastly, the coach must take accurate notes so that they can refer back to them. It’s also good practice to get the sales reps to sign a coaching log or a worksheet that summarises what they have agreed to do before the next session.
In certain circumstances, if the Sales Coach is not the Sales Manager it might make sense to share this with the Sales Manager so that he or she can ensure whatever the agreed actions are happening. This additional accountability can be important because the Sales Coach cannot make the Sales Rep do anything but the reps line manager can.
Sales OKR examples
8. The Coaching Mindset
Check the Sales Rep’s mindset – if they have given up, aren’t engaged, don’t care or think they know everything; stop. You cannot make anyone want to improve and you simply may be too late.
You can deliver a motivating talk that peps them up, but the minute you leave the room it’s like pulling a plug from the socket in the wall, and the energy starts to drain from them and they will quickly revert to type.
Motivation has to come from within, so if the Sales Person’s mindset is not right before you start coaching, work on a personal Goal Setting session that ties their sales performance into their personal goals.
As a Sales Manager, you have a very limited amount of time and coaching C players in most cases is not the best use of your time or theirs. Investing your time on Salespeople who want to get better will always deliver a higher return.
9. Sales Data
For your Sales Coaching Plan to drive improvement and be successful, it must be supported by data, as without real data you only have one person’s opinion versus another, and it’s important that the coaching is objective.
Gather data from the best performing Sales Person so you have an example of “best practice” to compare with. If you have no hard facts and data to prove that something can be done, try doing it yourself and if you can’t do it then it could be that you are asking for the impossible.
Asking Salespeople to do something that you either cannot do or cannot prove that someone else in the organisation can do, will lose you respect and encourage the good salespeople to look for another position.
Sales Management Performance Review Template
10. Personal Sales Coach
We appreciate that many coaches will tell you they don’t need to have done something or be an expert in a particular field for them to be able to coach someone, and maybe you don’t however, in our experience in Sales, it definitely does make a difference.
Coaching a Salesperson on how to make a Sales Call is much more believable for the Sales Person if the coach can pick up the phone, and demonstrate by doing it themselves.
The coaches role is to help with the practical application of the theory and knowledge learned in training and this isn’t possible unless you have done it before and can still do it.
Klozers provide SaaS Sales Training, Telesales Training, Key Account Management Training, Consultative Sales Training, Sales Foundations and LinkedIn Training online.
When done correctly the sales training will compliment and support the sales coaching process.
12. Individual vs Group Coaching
The majority of our coaching is Individual Sales Coaching which provides targeted support based on the Individuals needs.
This is vital for our Executive Sales Coaching programmes, however, in addition to Individual sales Coaching we have experienced equally good results when facilitating Group Sales Coaching of sales teams.
This has the added benefit of Sales People learning from their peers and it’s a great way to share best practice, share customer stories and build teamwork.
Although the danger is that in some cases salespeople will be reluctant to participate and open up as they lack confidence.
With this in mind, our most successful projects have involved a combination of both group and 1-2-1 sales coaching.
To combine Group and 1-2-1 coaching simply set up a three hour or afternoon Coaching session every two weeks and dedicate the first hour to the group, followed by 2 x 40 minutes 1-2-1 sessions.
This can be run weekly with Sales Reps rotating the 1-2-1 slots so they each are receiving a 1 x 1-2-1 session every two weeks.
13. Sales Coaching Checklist
Before starting any sales coaching it’s vital to obtain and provide certain information to your Sales Reps. This is the best time to set any “rules” and manage expectations in terms of the sales coaching process, and how the coach can best help them.
We do this via a Sales Coaching Intake List which includes questions on:
What are the Sales Reps aims from Sales Coaching?
Ask “What do you want to achieve from Sales Coaching?”
Do you have any specific Sales or Personal Goals or issues to resolve/meet?
How will you know when you have achieved those goals?
Review Sales & Personal Goals Sheet. If not completed, ask for by next session
Why did they seek coaching now? This ‘treasure’ is key for their motivation
What Sales Coaching Is and Is not
Coaching is a relationship between your coach and you
You are the expert in your life. Coaching helps you connect to you, your wisdom and take action to create the life you want
Coaching is 100% Confidential & Non-Judgemental
Ask for two-way confidentiality (covers what you share too)
Coaching is NOT counselling or therapy
What Sales Coaching involves – what they should expect
How sessions will go/session structure
That their goals and focus may change
That Ups & Downs are normal in coaching as is reaching a plateau. The down cycle is where we do most growth
Gain permission to: Interrupt them, get tough with them, challenge them, ask difficult questions, repeat back what they have just said, give them forms, exercises, research, homework between sessions
The client decides what to cover, how/when to end coaching
The role of the Sales Coach – what they should expect from you
Set your boundaries here, e.g. returning email and phone calls within one working day
I will help you set, clarify and maintain focus on your goals
I will hold you accountable – for what you say you’re going to do
I will help you establish your solutions & strategies
I will encourage, support & believe in you even when you may not!
I will challenge you and help you recognize where you may be holding yourself back.
Together we raise your self-awareness
The role of the Sales Rep – what the Sales Coach expects from them.
YOU are responsible for YOUR results. Success is directly related to your commitment and the effort you make
To be honest and open (and to tell me when you can’t be)
Willing to adopt a more positive outlook on self and life
Ready to be fully accountable for your life/decisions/actions
How do you want to be coached
Ask, “How best can I coach you – what tips can you give me?”
What can you tell me about your learning style?
14. Is Sales Coaching Confidential
This is a really important question that you must address during your on-boarding session.
Confidentiality is important for many reasons such as the Sales Rep could feel embarrassed, ashamed or anxious if the coaching conversations were revealed to their work colleagues.
Additionally, they may reveal details around clients or pricing that could be damaging if it reaches the wider public which could result in a lawsuit for the sales coach and at best their business would be destroyed.
So with that said confidentiality is extremely important, especially if you are using an external Sales Coach.
In our opinion, Best Practice would mean that the Coach and the Coachee sign a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) before starting.
Confidentiality between the Coach and the Sales Manager can also be an issue as the Sales Manager wants to know how the sessions are progressing.
In most cases this is simply because they want the Sales Rep to be successful, however, in some cases, the Sales Manager might be part of the problem so the Sales Coach needs a way of feeding this back without breaking the confidentiality of the Sales Rep.
Again these issues are rarely a problem if you agree in advance what the ground rules are between all three parties.
An example could be that the Coaching notes and any feedback is open to the Sales Manager unless the Sales Rep specifically requests otherwise.
This compromise allows the Sales Manager and the Sales Rep confidentiality where they specifically want it, rather than just blanket coverage.
Confidentiality is also important from the Sales Managers perspective as he may specifically want the Sales Coach to address issues that the Sales Rep is avoiding and the Sales Coach who is being paid by the Sales Manager has to somehow introduce this.
15. What Makes a Great Sales Coach?
In our experience the single biggest issue that Sales Managers experience with sales coaching is frustration.
They are frustrated that the Sales Reps just don’t get it.
They are frustrated because the Rep isn’t as good as they were.
They are frustrated because they are emotionally involved in the outcome.
This means more often than not the Sales Manager wants success more than the salesperson. Whilst this might seem odd the minute the Sales Manager becomes emotionally involved and wants the success more than the rep, it’s over. The Rep can sense it, they can feel it and any Rapport and Trust that has been built up disappears. At this point the sales person will close down and worst-case scenario blame the Sales Manager for their lack of success.
Coaching is an art and a skill, very different to training, selling and managing salespeople. It’s a specialism but it can be learned if you have the time and energy to do so.
The success of your Sales Coaching is as much down to the Sales Leaders Emotional Intelligence as it is their Sales skills, experience, and knowledge. Treat Sales People like adults, respect them and never judge them.
16. Sales Coaching Tools
These are the tools and the processes that we use for sales coaching.
Sales Coaching Worksheet – this provides a structure and consistency to the coaching process.
Sales Coaching Check list – this helps set the ground rules, manage expectations and obtain vital information at the start.
Sales Performance Review – this ensures the activities of each sales rep are aligned with the companies sales strategy and they are consistently reaching or exceeding their sales goals.
Sales Content – it’s unreasonable to expect Sales Reps to learn and understand everything either face to face or over a call. It’s important to have good quality, relevant content in different formats that suit the Sales Reps learning style.
Microsoft OneNote – we use Microsoft OneNote to build and store our Sales Playbooks.
Communications – we use Microsoft Teams for all coms with Zoom and a telephone as a back up.
Sales Management is the leadership, management and administration of several interlocking sales functions, that enable organisations to meet or exceed the objectives of the company’s growth strategy. The nature of Sales Management can include many different roles such as Customer Relationship Management, Strategy, Process, Territory Management, Technology & Tools, Pipeline Management, Hiring and Sales Coaching.
What is sales management Important?
Sales Management is important because it provides the structure, support and environment for salespeople to exceed their goals. Furthermore, Sales Managers set an often subconscious bar on what productivity and performance are acceptable in the business from which Salespeople take their lead. The advent of new technologies has increased the workload and complexities of Sales Managers, especially when many still carry a sales target. These new technologies and the new markets now available over the web, can make the Sales Manager the difference between a business surviving or thriving.
There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…
Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…
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The Sales Management Strategy you use is dependent on the type of sales team that you are running or taking over (if you are a new hire). Given how fast the Sales Environment changes it’s unwise to create any Strategy for longer than three years. Even within three years, part of your Strategy will need to be revised due to changes in the market and technology and the ability to drive and accept is one of the key features in the Sales Maturity Model. Your Strategy should revolve around the following:
1.1 SALES MATURITY
Sales Maturity indicates the position the sales team is in, within the Sales Maturity Model. This is important because at each stage of Sales Maturity a Sales Manager is faced with different problems and what may be important in Stage 3 is simply not applicable in Stage 1.
1.2 BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
The function of Sales is to meet or exceed the objectives that the business has set. These may be short term and more tactical in their nature or long term and more strategic. Whilst long term 3-year Strategic objectives may be important it’s worthless if the business can’t meet it’s short term requirements for cash flow, which may require some tactical planning to overcome.
1.3 PEOPLE
As Sales are the lifeblood of every business, then salespeople are the lifeblood of the Sales Department. For any Sales Management Process & Strategy to be effective you will need the Salespeople and Team Leaders to be able to execute the strategy. This can then create difficult choices between strategy and people. As an example, should you retain a top-performing salesperson when they are hugely disruptive, if part of your longer-term strategy is to improve the culture, and sales skills of the sales team? Should I provide sales training to salespeople who do not want it, despite the fact they are underperforming?
1.4STARTING POINT
Regardless of where the sales team is in terms of maturity and competence, you will need to create a plan to share with the other stakeholders in the business. It makes sense then to benchmark where the sales team is against the industry best practice. From these results, you can create an Improvement Plan that you can follow.
Regardless of the products, services or industry, every successful business has 7 common sales management areas. The complexity and importance will however, vary for every company, what works best for Microsoft might not work for Apple.
What works best for a Mid Market company may not work for an SME. They do however, all have these 7 common sales functions which can be used as a framework to benchmark and audit any sales unit.
2.1 Sales Strategy
a) Is the Sales Strategy aligned with the overall growth strategy of the business?
b) Do the Salespeople follow the Sales Strategy?
2.2 Sales Process
a) Are there defined and comprehensive sales processes in place?
b) Are the sales processes being consistently followed and recorded by everyone?
2.3 Sales People
a) Is the business recruiting, developing and hiring the right people?
b) Does the Sales Unit objectively record people performance and review accordingly?
2.4 Sales Channels
a) Are all the appropriate sales channels being used?
b) Are all the sales channels adequately supported and managed?
2.5 Sales technology
a) Does the sales technology, tools and data enhance the customer experience?
b) Does the sales technology tools and data provide accurate management reports and accountability?
2.6 Sales Customers
a) How are our customer relationships segmented and managed?
b) How do we measure, record and report success in our customer relationships?
2.7 Sales Leaders
a) Are Sales Leaders creating a positive and supportive environment that rewards and encourages success?
Once the Sales Unit has been benchmarked and an Improvement Plan has been created, it’s important to set new Sales Management Goals & KPI’s.
A Goal would relate to our end objective, whereas a KPI is a milestone on the route to achieving a goal. One without the other is worthless.
These goals should include rolling 30, 60 and 90 Day targets in addition to Q1, 2, 3 & 4.
It’s important that any KPI’s you set are within your control and you have the ability to influence, whether you meet the target or not.
The Goals and KPI’s should, where possible be, “Lead Indicators” and not “Lag Indicators”, for example Monthly Sales Revenue is a Lag Indicator that in some instances you have little control over.
What you can control however is the Monthly Sales Activity that drives those revenue figures.
Lagging indicators are also important and must be recorded and used to influence future Lead Indicators.
In certain circumstances, it may not be possible to measure the KPI’s if the systems and reporting are not available.
This could mean in the short term the priority is to create the recording and reporting systems.
This can be dangerous, as an example you may need to completely replace a CRM system, which can be a huge project as you migrate data and face the unknown and complex technical issues, as well as the natural resistance encountered with Change.
Where possible delay any complex and technical projects and focus on the low hanging fruit and use the shiny new CRM that everyone wants as a reward for hitting new sales targets.
3.1 Sales management system
Use a Sales Management System to create either manual Dashboards in MS Excel or digital dashboards in your CRM, to record and track the Goals and KPI’s.
The Scorecard focuses on the four main areas of Sales which are Finding New Sales Opportunities, Klozing More Sales Opportunities and Growing More Sales Opportunities.
The last quadrant is called the Developing quadrant and focuses on the development of the Salespeople.
TABLE OF SALES MANAGEMENT KPI’s
1.
Initial Sales Meetings
In B2B Sales most sales start with a meeting but this could be a Webinar or Call
2.
Follow Up Sales Meetings
Number of follow up meetings per month
3.
No of Qualified Proposals
Number of Qualified Proposals Generated per month
4.
New Customer Acquisition
The rate of new customers joining the business per month
5.
Sales by Channel
The sales revenue figures for each channel per month
6.
Number of Contract Renewals
The number of contract renewals per month
7.
Customer Satisfaction Scores
Feedback & reviews collated from Customers
8.
Sales Pipeline Value
The total value of the current months Sales Pipeline
9.
Weighted Sales Pipeline Value
The weighted (by percentage/stage) value of the current Sales Pipeline
Number of 1-2-1 Coaching Sessions each Rep has received, usually 2 per month
13.
Sales Rep Attainment
Number of Reps reaching “On Track” or higher during monthly reviews
14.
Sales Rep Targets
Number of Reps meeting or exceeding Sales Targets
15.
Closing Ratios
The ratio of deals closed from qualified sales leads
16.
Returned Leads
The number of leads returned to marketing for nurturing
17.
Cross & Up Selling
Number of Reps meeting or exceeding targets
18.
Sales Cycle
Speed in days the prospect progresses through the Sales Pipe
19.
Customer Satisfaction Scores
Feedback & reviews collated from Customers
20.
COCA
Cost of Customer Acquisition
21.
Average deal size
The average value of the last months deals
22.
Sales by Channel
The sales revenue figures for each channel
23.
New Accounts by Channel
The number of new accounts opened by sales channel
4. What are the Leadership Styles of Sales Managers
Every individual has their own style or approach to management and these different styles are aligned with their individual DiSC profile.
The DiSC model is based on theories developed by early 20th-century behavioural scientists who identified four behavioural dimensions. Most behavioural analysis today builds on the workings of Carl Gustav Jung in 1928, one of the original behavioural scientists. In the 1940s and 1950s, the DISC theory was refined from the original Jungian theory.
The genesis of these theories is said to be from the Greek philosopher Empedocles in BC444, who first defined the four dimensions of a personality as Water, Air, Earth & Fire.
These styles are not “can do” or “can’t do”, nor do they measure skills or intelligence. There are genuinely no right or wrong answers other than the truthful one. In the same way that people can be left or right-handed, a person’s mind can be influenced by one of the four quadrants.
This is not to say they do not retain traits of one or more of the other quadrants, but that every human being has a preferred style or way of behaving.
DiSC reports are never 100% accurate however they do give a credible diagnosis of behavioural strengths and weaknesses from which our Leadership Styles emerge.
Sales Management and Leadership Styles
DISC STYLES & PREFERENCES OF SALES MANAGERS
DRIVERS
Combination of task orientation and proactive attitude.
These are task people who want results and waste no time in going after them.
They tend not to discuss, explore, analyse, and think deeply, preferring to make decisions alone.
They can be dominant, overbearing, and impatient.
They are pushy, tough, strong-willed, efficient, and decisive.
They do not like to be immersed in detail ,preferring concise, summarised information.
INFLUENCERS/ENERGISERS
A combination of people focuses and a proactive attitude.
These are ideas people and have a strong future orientation.
They like change, creative ideas and exploring new ways of doing things.
They have a strong sense of what could be better and are committed to causes they believe in, and which they take very seriously.
They like to explore options and opportunities, so may not be decisive.
They tend to be undisciplined, ambitious, enthusiastic, dramatic and friendly.
STEADINESS/SUPPORTERS
A combination of people-orientation and a passive/reactive attitude.
These are ‘people’ people and are very empathetic and/or sympathetic by nature.
They want to establish good relationships and a co-operative way of working with others.
They are interested in whatever concerns the person they are dealing with.
They like to be a practical helper.
They have views and opinions, but are not concerned with winning a debate being more concerned about what is good for the other party.
They are available, supportive, willing, and dependable, making them excellent coaches/mentors.
COMPLIANCE/ CORRECTNESS
A combination of task orientation and a passive/reactive attitude.
These are cautious people who like the facts, and they check the detail.
They want to analyse and consider everything before making decisions.
They use rational persuasions.
They are critical, orderly, serious, and questioning.
They draw conclusions based on available data.
5. How much do Sales Management Training Courses cost?
The manager sets the sales strategy, creates the sales plans and holds the salespeople accountable for executing the plan.
Sales Training costs in the UK vary from free courses online and free workshops, up to £2,000 for the larger brands however, the majority of courses available are either one or two day courses, and these typically cost between £300 and £900 per person, per day.
We have a selection of training courses available from around £500 per per day covering Consultative Selling Skills, Sales Management Training and Key Account Management Training.
Understanding, Measuring & managing a modern sales pipeline.
Planning & Analysis
Analysis and planning for sales growth.
Sales OKR examples
6. What are the Best Tools for Managing Sales Teams?
There are many different types of Sales Management Tools available, the majority of which are some form of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Tools. Whilst these are invaluable, there are many other equally important, productive and necessary tools available, depending on your requirements. Sales Management tools are predominantly broken down into these types:
Customer Relationship Management. There are many great sales tools available depending on your requirements and budget. Depending on the Maturity of your sales unit it’s often best to start with the basic tools and focus on user adoption.
Marketing Automation. Whilst these are predominantly marketing tools many, of these now come with a lightweight CRM built-in so you can keep all the customer information in one place.
Content Tools. These are tools that focus on storing, indexing, customising and rendering the sales content. The content is typical multiformat and cloud-based for access in the field.
Business Process. These tools integrate with the wider company systems and may include features such as Invoicing and Stock Control.
HR & Performance Management Tools. These tools may perform simple tasks such as recording Holidays through to Performance Reviews and Salary & Commission Schemes.
In many cases companies have multiple systems that don’t integrate and can cause inaccurate & duplication of data, and the repetition of certain tasks which lowers productivity. As an example, it’s not uncommon for a marketing database to be separate to the sales database, nor would it be uncommon for Finance to have a different database for invoicing. These are legacy systems, that both the company and technology have outgrown and are best removed or updated.
7. Sales Performance Reviews
It is widely accepted in modern management thinking that people are the most important component in any business, and Sales is no different. If you don’t look after your salespeople they won’t look after your customers and if you grow a business, you must first grow the people in the business.
Providing regular, fair and objective performance reviews ensures Salespeople are aligned with the business objectives, performing at or above the expected level and motivating them to keep going and do better, and lastly, as recognition of their efforts.
Professional Selling can be difficult, frustrating, stressful and anxious, and that’s on a good day, so you may benefit from providing reviews on a Monthly rather than Annual basis. Although this does take up more Management Time, the payback in performance and team morale is huge (if it is done correctly).
Sales People respond well when Monthly Performance Reviews are introduce, as all human beings want to be the best they can. No one wants to do a bad job, it’s just that life, circumstances, people, technology and stuff get in the way.
A Performance Review is therefore, an opportunity to help the salespeople be successful, to grow and to develop.
Sales Managers are sometimes uncomfortable with Monthly reviews as they are forever busy and don’t need the additional workload. Also, they often believe there is no need for reviews as they talk to their people every day.
This is not the same as a structured, objective and professional review. It’s also possible that some sales managers are simply uncomfortable in the coaching role as they have either no system, no process or haven’t had the necessary training.
The biggest asset any organisation has is it’s people and given the high proportion of bad hires and the inherent cost in a new employee who does not work out, more frequent reviews might be worth exploring.
Staff Performance Reviews do take up Management time, however they are essential if you want to keep your workforce engaged, growing and delivering value to the business.
Sales Management Performance Review Template
8. Sales Analysis
With the advent of modern technology, Sales Analysis has become a bigger and more important part of the role of modern Sales Managers. Working knowledge of Excel spreadsheets is required in addition to proficiency in the companies sales system. For the most part, this would be the CRM [Customer Relationship Management] tool that the company was using, however the more mature the Sales Organisation the more likely they are to be using additional technology with data. This could include HR Systems, Sales Compensation software, Sales Enablement tools and Marketing tools, if used in Sales Campaigns.
Typical examples of sales analysis would include:
Cost of Customer Acquisition
Customer Lifetime Value
Cost of Sales
Product sales split to ensure cross-selling
Territory Analysis to ensure coverage
Key Account Analysis to ensure retention & growth
Market or trends analysis for future planning
Sales Rep performance
Customer Satisfaction
Seasonal Analysis
Completing any Sales Analysis is dependent on accurate and up to date data, which is often not available.
Sales Management Performance Review Template
9. What is Sales Territory Management?
Sales Territory Management is the process by which companies segment and manage and service the customer accounts within a defined geographical territory.
There are many variables involved in this and hence Territory Plans may look very different from one company and territory to another.
Enterprise organisations typically have Territory Plans in place with pre-defined lists of target accounts set by Management. These “named” accounts will have been segmented into importance with more time being allocated to the larger, more profitable accounts. Often salespeople are not allowed or credited for other accounts or business in the territory when operating named account lists.
The Sales Person for a Territory will have to maintain or increase the revenue from existing clients and develop and open new accounts in the territory. Territory plans include the frequency and number of visits the Sales Rep must conduct with each of the accounts.
Territory plans are usually reviewed by sales Management every Quarter at a meeting called a QBR (Quarterly Business Review). At these meetings, salespeople present an update or progress report and a revised plan for the next 90 days.
10. Examples of Sales Roles
Whilst most industries follow similar naming conventions for job roles in sales, many companies have developed their own unique roles and job titles.
Often job titles are important as a form of recognition and progression within an organisation, however, job titles can help reinforce a structure and sales process such as in the SaaS industry.
There are hundreds of job titles and we have listed what could be argued are the most common.
Sales Development Rep
Focused on lead generation and sit between marketing and sales qualifying leads before passing onto sales people
Pre-sales Technical
Provides technical expertise before a sale is made to ensure compliance, compatibility and customer satisfaction post sale
Business Development Reps
Primarily focused on opening new accounts and winning new business
Inside Sales
Desk based salespeople who undertake a range of sales activities
Field based sales reps who undertake a variety of sales activities externally
Channel Sales Manager
Provides support and manage the Channel partners
11. Sales Training
Providing regular sales training and coaching to your sales team is an important part of every effective sales management sales management process. Sales Training and coaching come in many different formats from 1 off event bases sales training, to longer term sales programmes, focussing or professional development.
Our preference is to provide any training and coaching via an OKR based model. This model fits and compliments perfectly the normal KPI based sales management process. We have continually found an OKR based approach provides better sales outcomes for both small businesses and large enterprises.
