How to Build a SaaS Sales Funnel

1. What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is a sequence of actions, events or stages that a user goes through before purchasing a product or service. Sales funnels are designed to allow marketers to track, record and optimise the sales process to improve results.

You can learn more about our SaaS sales training here.

2. How to build a SaaS Sales Funnel

Your SaaS sales funnel is an essential part of your Apps success. If you’re offering SaaS apps then creating a repeatable, scalable and trackable sales funnel is one of the important steps that you need to take.

Sounds easy? Then think again. The sales funnel is where many start-ups transitioning into revenue generation struggle, and in many cases fail.

Before starting to build your funnel it’s worth first considering where you are in your app journey.

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3. The three main stage of SaaS development

Unfortunately, in sales there is never a one size fits all solution, and the starting point for how to build a SaaS sales funnel is dependent on where you are, in the terms of the three main stages of a SaaS business?

Are you at:
Phase 1: the start of the journey whereby the Founder and primary team are still trying to establish product/market fit.

Phase 2: where the founder and primary team members have proven product/market fit and are proving they can implement systems and processes that others can use to sell.

Phase 3, the final hurdle where you have a proven product market fit, you’ve identified and proven the right systems and processes for scaling and you are now ready to scale your sales, focus on client acquisition and build up your MRR.

The strategies you use for building a SaaS sales funnel will vary depending on exactly what you learned in Step 1 above.

So for the purposes of this exercise, I will assume you are at Step 1. If you are still struggling to build a sales funnel at steps 2 and 3 then either you missed something at step 1, or something has changed that has made everything you learned at step 1 stop working.

4. Build a marketing funnel before your sales funnel

With any business it’s important that you provide the optimal conditions for your sales team to be successful. In the SaaS world it’s not enough to have a great website, you need a website that:

a) can be found by your products and services in the major search engines – Google, Bing, Yahoo & YouTube
b) can be found by the problems you solve in the major search engines – Google, Bing, Yahoo & YouTube
c) can convert web traffic to marketing qualified leads

Many companies ignore this and rush to build an outbound sales team. The fact is that every potential prospect that your outbound Team gets interested will then go to your website to do further research.

Unless the web experience is equal to or greater than the prospects experience with your outbound team they will immediately switch off.

To build a marketing funnel you must create “compelling user first content”. This is content that the user is actively searching for not the content that your sales and marketing team want to push.

You SaaS marketing funnel is an essential part of your Inbound sales strategy. To do this successfully you will need to create high quality content at each stage of the buyer journey as shown below.

The content should subtly tell your brand story and the success you have brought to other users. Turn your early adopters into the Heroes not you.

TOFU – Top of funnel
The first part of your sales funnel otherwise known as TOFU is the awareness stage of the funnel. The prospect is aware of the problems they have and is investigating solutions.

Your website must have content that speaks to these problems and position your company as the Subject Matter Experts. The most popular content here would be:

How to guides
Explainer videos
Blog posts
Lead Magnets

At this stage, the prospect is in research mode, not buying mode and is simply gathering information.

Your prospect may not even be interested in solutions at this stage as they are still trying to accurately self-diagnose their own problems. It’s unlikely that your prospect will want to talk to sales at this stage.

We recommend you use marketing automation to track which articles/pages your prospects enter the site on as this is the problem that is top of mind for them. Knowing this can make it easier for sales to have a relevant conversation with them.

You may also have some success engaging the prospect with chatbots on your site, however many will want to remain anonymous at this stage.

Middle of Funnel
The middle of your sales funnel is when prospects start to evaluate specific solutions based on what they learned in stage 1. Middle of funnel content would include:

Presentations
Demonstrations
Case Studies

In practical terms they will have created some form of shortlist of potential suppliers, and they will then dig deeper into the details of each potential solution.

At this stage the prospect may still not engage with you as they are often simply researching on behalf of other people within their own organisation and their priority is still information gathering.

Bottom of Funnel
By the time your prospect has reached the bottom of your marketing funnel in many cases they have already “bought into” one particular supplier or solution.

They have made their decision largely on their web experience of the brand, your sales messaging and your ability to position yourself not only as a though leader but as a thought leader in that understands their problems.

Bottom of Funnel content would included things like:

Pricing
Comparison tables
Testimonials
Reviews

For simpler lower priced solutions you will find they are now ready to take a trial if you offer a strong Call to Action (CTA), whilst for the more expensive and complex solutions they will now engage with sales.

The image below shows where a simple marketing funnel transitions into a shopping cart and the more complex B2B sale transitions into a lead for sales.

Success lies not in choosing the right model, but building your own model based on data and trial and error.

Most marketing software now tracks user behaviour on your website and may use lead scoring to alert salespeople when the best time to pro-actively reach out to prospects.

From our own experience the timing is nearly always to early and a well-defined lead nurturing programme is equally effective.

In order to do this you should build into your marketing an at least three different lead magnets that will help you turn your web visitors into a subscriber so you can keep in touch.

5. Advertising to fill your Sales Funnel

Many companies successfully fill their sales funnel via advertising. Digital advertising has matured to a level that allows significant tracking and reporting allowing you to within a matter of weeks understand what your Conversion Ratio and CAC will be.

In the first instance we would advocate “Re-targeting Campaigns”. This is simply the process of placing adds in front of people who have already visited your website.

Studies show retargeting is seven times more effective than new campaigns which is why we advocate this as a starting point.

This strategy works extremely well with a strong content marketing campaign. The most popular add channel for B2B would be LinkedIn, however, many companies have also done well with Facebook and Instagram.

Needless to say this would be defined by your audience. Advertising can be used in simple funnels to drive sales and more complex ones to drive new enquiries for sales reps.

More complex sales may need a defined sequence whereby users click on and advert to receive a lead magnet with each lead costing $3.

If you subsequently manage to convert 5% of these new leads you can then attribute $60 per sale from advertising to your CAC.

You can build a trackable sequence or model from any activity not just advertising. For example, events, webinars and telesales allowing you to understand which activities are the most cost effective not only at filling your funnel, but actually converting into orders.

6. How to Build a SaaS Sales Funnel

Your sales funnel will vary depending on your sales strategy. Are you selling your App direct or are you selling through partners? Which channels have you decided to focus on initially?

1. Identify your Perfect Prospect Profile. This is the sales reps version of a marketing persona. It includes everything that a marketing persona would include, plus some additional information that helps sales understand and communicate at a deeper level with the prospect.

2. Build your sales messaging. Part of the product/market fit is understanding what business and or personal problem your product solves.

In our experience the most successful SaaS services are business solutions that solve business problems.

Once you understand how this relates to your own product/service at a deep level you can start to build your sales messaging.

This is the words and nuanced language you have proven that prospects connect with. It’s not enough to know about your own business and solutions, you should know about your customers.

You should know exactly how your solution helps your customer save money, make money and make their life easier.

3. Lead Generation Campaign.

Once you have identified your target prospects and built your sales messaging you will need to start work on a Lead Generation campaign.

There are two main approaches to Lead Generation as follows:

a) Inbound Lead Generation. Inbound lead generation campaigns are where the prospect contacts you first. The may fill out a form on your web page, telephone you or email you. In order to generate inbound sales leads you will need to do some form of content creation, ad campaigns, webinars, referral programmes or SEO.

b) Outbound lead generation. Outbound lead generation campaigns are where you reach out to prospects via telephone, email, direct mail, events or account based marketing. Outbound campaigns invariably means you will have to build an outbound says team which can be expensive.

The majority of SaaS companies use a combination of inbound and outbound, however, they nearly always have an emphasis on one more than the other.

As a very rough guide, SaaS services that are lower cost and targeting SMEs, are marketing led and have a predominantly Inbound focus.

SaaS services that are more expensing and targeting Mid-Market to Enterprise organisations will have a more sales led approach via Account Based Marketing.

7. What are the Stages of a SaaS Sales Funnel?

The stages of your sales funnel are simply a series of steps that your prospects move through to place an order.

These stages can vary greatly and there is no one funnel that you can apply to every app. Even if the stages are the same the method by which you move prospects through the funnel may vary.

Your sales funnel is a great place to start collecting data in order to measure performance and make improvements over time.

In general, prospects should move through the sales funnel as quickly as possible – this is called the sales cycle or pipe speed.

Measuring the speed that prospects move through the cycle allows you to identify blockages in your funnel and areas where prospects slow down.

These “sticking” points are where you should look to make improvements.

8. When do I demo my SaaS product to customers?

The timing of SaaS app demos within the sales process has been the subject of discussion for many companies.

The answer unfortunately to the question is “it depends”. Many companies successfully demo their app at the start of the sales process, however, there are equally many who demo at the start and then have their prospects disappear into the black hole of voice mail and unanswered emails.

In short the cheaper and simpler the solution, then the earlier in the process you can demo and the more expensive and complex the solution the demo should be pushed as far back in the selling process as possible.

The reality is that there is a tendency for Entrepreneurs and salespeople to rush to demo their app, hoping the demo will convince the prospect to sign up.

Even if the prospect is qualified and a good fit, a demo without any form of diagnosis of the prospects pain is in danger of losing the prospect.

Your prospect needs to know that you know and that you understand their world. This can only be achieved via intelligent and targeted questioning. If you want to speed the sale up, slow the sale down.

The demo is usually the salespersons greatest point of leverage and if you give it away to soon you will lose the leverage and in all likelihood the prospect.

As a general rule of thumb – push the app demo as far back in your sales process as possible.

Demos cost time and money especially for complex sales where more often than not a bespoke demo is required.

Any bespoke demo must only be delivered to the senior decision makers on the prospects buying team. If appropriate you can even have two demos within the sales process – there are no rules other than if it works do it.

Most sales reps make the mistake of using this part of the sales process to explain the benefits of the product in more detail.

When you’re telling you’re not selling. Use intelligent probing questions to get the prospect to tell you how the solution will solve their business pain.

You should avoid talking about features that you believe to be relevant to them. If you didn’t uncover this in the discovery stage of the sales process it’s inherently risky to introduce anything new further down the process.

For simpler lower priced solutions you will find they are now ready to take a trial, whilst for the more expensive and complex solutions they will now engage with a sales rep.

In order to demonstrate they have undertaken due diligence they will always speak to two or three potential suppliers.

This isn’t necessarily to beat a supplier down on price, but sometimes they need to validate to the wider purchasing group within their organisation why they have a preference.

App trials are also a good way to get users to sign up, however, the conversion ratio of trials to close is usually poor in most SaaS cases.

Depending on the pricing you could offer a managed trial, so they can evaluate your software while you manage them further down the sales process.

During a trial, the prospect can see how the product will work for them in practice. It’s important to time the trial wisely and ensure you have agreed in advance what happens if the trial is successful.

We’ve created the graphic above to try to explain visually how this might work for your organisation.

It’s worth noting in the example, the majority of your CAC will be marketing, whereas in the more complex funnel your costs will include marketing, sales + customer onboarding.

9. SaaS Sales Funnel examples

The sales funnels below are examples. You should NOT replicate these unless they fit with your sales process.

They are designed to be a starting point for those looking to develop a sales funnel.

As you can see from the graphic, there are many alternatives to the stages that go to make up your sales funnel depending on the type of funnel you are creating.

For purely digital funnels you could have:

Lead Magnet Landing page – where prospects arrive after clicking on your advert
Confirmation Page – confirming your free offer, trial or purchase
Upsell page – where prospects have an opportunity to add additional services or upgrade
Checkout page – where prospects pay for the service
Congrats or Thank You page – where you can sign post prospects with the appropriate next steps.

10. SaaS sales funnel metrics

When it comes to metrics we believe these are the common sales operations metrics and KPIs that most people are familiar with. Needless to say these metrics are important and you should be recording and reporting on them.

LTT – Lead to trial conversion
This is the number of leads who have converted to a trial.

DCR – Demo conversion ratio
The number of demos that successfully convert to the next stage in the sales process.

TTS – Trial to sale conversion
This is the number of prospects on the free trial who have converted to paying customers.

LTV – Lifetime Value of the customer
This is the average total value a customer will spend before leaving the service. Ironically this can be more difficult to measure the better your product is because, without customers leaving you will not know how long they stay and their total value to the business.

Churn – Number of customers leaving
Customers will leave and that’s not always a bad thing. If the customers who leave fit your ICP (Ideal Client Profile) then you have a problem. Customers who leave that don’t fit your ICP may be freeing up valuable resource that can be spent on your ICP.

MRR – Monthly recurring revenue
The monthly recurring revenue gives you an overview of your success, however, it’s only an overview and you need to look at the details within the data to gain a more accurate picture.

ARR – Annual recurring revenue
The annual recurring revenue gives a good overview of the business, but like the MRR you should study all the data to obtain a more accurate picture on the health of your venture.

Sales Cycle – The time from initial contact through to a closed order
This is typically short for lower value simpler solutions and longer for complex Enterprise sales. For example a sales to a Tier 1 bank may take 18 months from initial contact to close.

CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost
It’s important to understand how much it costs you to acquire a single customer. In an ideal world you would discover this in the initial phases of the business when you are proving the value proposition. Without this figure it’s impossible to put in the systems and processes to scale the business as you won’t know how much you can spend on the front end marketing and sales.

Negative Churn –
Negative churn is a powerful growth metric which indicates that the revenue from upselling and cross selling existing customers out strips the revenue lost when customers leave.

11. SaaS Proposal submissions

After the final demo, you should never offer to send a proposal.

Proposals cost time and money and if your prospect is interested they will ask you for a proposal.

If your prospect doesn’t ask you for a proposal then it tells you that they aren’t interested in working with you and you need to move back up the sales process to understand where you have gone wrong.

When the sales process stalls it’s rarely because of something you have done wrong at that moment – more often, it’s something you missed earlier on in the sales process.

Make sure you’re confident all the benefits of the software have been clearly explained to them and mapped out against their stated needs.

Where possible, always get your White Knight to help you co-create the proposal and sense check a draft version with them in advance of sending the official copy.

Before sending your proposal you must have a clear understanding of what the next steps are if you win or lose.

Without this you are most likely to spend the next three months chasing ghosts in voice mail.

12. Pricing your SaaS contracts

Many companies provide limited or no pricing at all on their website because they don’t want their competitors to see their pricing, or they think it will scare away potential customers.

You should be proud of your price and the value you bring. Let the competition undercut you and tie up all their resources on unprofitable deals.

People rarely buy the cheapest solution, so allow your prospects to undercut you.

If you’re still anxious about having your pricing on your website then think about how you feel when you are researching a solution you are interested in only to find the pricing page is littered with POA.

If you’re like most people you find this really annoying and quickly move on to the next potential supplier.

Lastly, another advantage of proudly displaying your pricing is that it qualifies out anyone who is not prepared to invest at that level.

This can save you lots of time and resources with prospects who simply have a different budget level.

There are numerous pricing strategies available to you, however, from our experience the only thing that is guaranteed, is that you will change your pricing.

As a basic rule of thumb if your prices are set too high for a short-term contract or paid trial, the prospect may fail to experience the full benefits of the software before the contract comes to an end, and they may decide not to renew.

Where possible you should reward prospects during the trial period for adding information and using the service.

For example, offer a shorter trial and incentivise users if they complete their profile/account set up.

Offer a further free period encourage them to use the product for example if they upload data into the system.

The idea is to “onboard” your new users step by step and make your product as sticky as possible.
If the prospect does want to go ahead you should use contracts with digital signature to speed up the sales process.

Never send contracts in emails or links to digital contracts as these can be easily ignored.

Arrange to get the prospect on the phone and talk through the contract with them. Once they have agreed to everything in the contract simply ask them to sign while you have them on the phone.

This way you retain control of the sales process.

13. Why the sales funnel is so important for SaaS providers

Many businesses have failed after struggling to implement a sales funnel. Marketing and selling SaaS products can be incredibly challenging, and chances are your target customers are already overwhelmed with offers from competing software vendors.

Think about which part of the buyers existing budget you are going to win revenue from. What direct or indirect competitors will you take budget away from?

You may be competing with some of the biggest and most powerful brands in the world that are providing generic solutions to the same problems you solve.

This means you need to offer something distinctive that your customers actually require.

A CB Insights study said 42% of SaaS start-ups fail because they’re offering products their target customers don’t need.

Convincing potential customers your software offers genuine value is essential.

14. Managing prospects expectations

Creating a sales funnel is all about building a journey all the way from web visitor, to subscriber and through demos and trails and ending with the contract being signed.

Your sales funnel should emphasise each of the key stages your prospects will travel through on their way to an agreement being made.

Be open, upfront and share the stages of the process in advance with your prospects.
You should pay close attention to any points of friction that might occur as your prospects travel through your sales pipeline.

This will give you the opportunity to make improvements to your funnel moving forward.
What’s most important is that you record all the data points in your sales funnel.

This will help you make decisions on facts rather than your gut feelings. It can take time for your sales funnel to become fully effective, and you may need to make several refinements before you have a truly optimised sales funnel.

Many customers don’t have a rich understanding of what they need when they first encounter you. Provide solutions not just products by helping prospects make the connection between the two.

What’s also true is users often buy what they want not what they need.

This is why it’s so important to ask targeted questions in order that you can accurately determine what their needs are so you can position your software in the most favourable way.

These questions will also tell you how near or far away they are to making a decision.

15. The Rise of SaaS solutions

It seems like everything in the world is now powered online by SaaS Applications. From Netflix and Amazon Prime to LinkedIn and Microsoft M365 we are now surrounded by SaaS solutions of one description or another.

Financially SaaS makes sense as it avoids heavy capital expenditure up front and de-risks the solution.

After all if it doesn’t work you are typically only ever locked in to a maximum of 12 months. Other advantages of SaaS include the way that it is normally quick to deploy and requires no maintenance on the part of the client.

Upgrades are normally delivered automatically, with clients generally being offered guaranteed levels of service.

Backups and data recovery are usually carried out on behalf of the client, so they can focus on what they do best, safe in the knowledge that everything’s being handled by the software developers themselves.

Lockdown has turbo charged SaaS
Remote working was on the rise even before the pandemic, so the fact that SaaS products allow individuals to work and collaborate from anywhere has only served to embed SaaS even deeper in our every day lives.

There are thousands of new products SaaS products being developed in every country around the world so competition is fierce, however, there is no apparent end to the appetite of consumers and business to SaaS solutions.

A coherent sales funnel could be the difference between your product being a viral success and being forced to return to the drawing board.

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What makes a great Sales Manager?

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The Complete Guide to Channel Planning in Sales Management

by Iain Swanston

What are sales channels?

Sales channels are simply the routes to market you choose to sell your products or services. Channels fall into one of two main categories: indirect channels where you sell via a third party such as Amazon or direct channels whereby you sell direct such as via your own company website.

What are Direct sales channels?

Direct Sales channels are where you sell direct to the consumers of your product or services. In B2B Salesforce.com sells direct to all their consumers throughout the world. They have no partner, reseller or affiliate network. Many people credit the Salesforce business model as the first successful direct sales channel model for a global SaaS brand.

What are the benefits of Direct sales channels?

The benefits of Direct sales channels are they allow vendors to remove the margins associated with distribution partners, and therefore lower their price to consumers. It allows them complete control over their sales process and provides them direct access to their consumers to build relationships and brand loyalty.

What are Indirect sales channels?

Indirect sales channels are channels where you sell through a third party. For example, Amazon is an indirect sales channel for many manufacturers in the B2C world. Microsoft sell licenses through a network of LARS (large account resellers) who sell licenses to commercial businesses. In B2B there has been a trend to move away from selling indirect as brands seek a direct connection with their consumers.

What are the benefits of Indirect sales channels?

An indirect sales channel can provide fast access to consumers who already have a relationship and brand loyalty with your partner or distributor. Indirect sales channels can provide a faster and lower cost access to local markets that would be difficult and expensive for you to reach.

In some cases a Partner network may form an essential part of your distribution and post sale support. The benefits of Direct sales channels are they allow vendors to remove the margins associated with distribution partners, and therefore lower their price to consumers.

It allows them complete control over their sales process and provides them direct access to their consumers to build relationships and brand loyalty.

Examples of Sales Channels

Direct Sales Channels	Company owned website	Retail Outlets	Salespeople	Telesales
Indirect Sales Channels	Dealers & Distributors	Franchised Stores	Manufacturers Reps	eCommerce & Auction Sites

What are digital sales channels?

Digital sales channels can be direct and indirect and include selling direct from your own company website, selling indirect via an affiliate programme, selling via Value added resellers, selling via value added resellers.

What is a Channel sales strategy?

Part of Channel planning in Sales Management includes strategy which simply means what approach will you take to sell? This can be very simple or very complex depending on many variables.
For example:
Products/services that need more post sale support such as cars have primarily been sold via Dealer networks. (This is changing)
Products and services that need less support may be sold direct such as video editing software.
Products and services that need customising to meet customer needs may be sold via Value added Resellers such as enterprise software applications.
Products and services that need local distribution may be sold via traditional field sales such Pension Products (IFA’s).

As you would expect there is no one size fits all, however, every manufacturer/producer has the same simple goal – How do I maximise market penetration for the minimum cost?
They also have the same problem – how do I consistently motivate, incentivise and coach my channel to sell more?

How to Choose the right sales channels?

If you do want to reach the right customers in the digital age, you need to choose your channels wisely and find out where your audience is.

Whilst this isn’t the most creative strategy we suggest the following starting point for choosing the right sales channels:

a) What channels are your consumers on?

b) What channels are your competitors on?

In many cases when vendors try to engage on multiple channels they simply dilute their efforts, so it’s wise to limit the number of channels you engage with.

Whilst outsourcing sales to your channel undoubtedly allows you to save from hiring your own direct sales team, every channel as to be supported.

Supporting and enabling your sales channels takes time and money if you want to do it right.

Once you have selected the right channels and become present on them, you should be able to help whenever your consumers are using their favourite platforms.

With this in mind you should research your consumers before choosing which channels you want to use. To create the right channel strategy for your brand, you will also need to decide on the best way to introduce and promote your products and services.

What’s right for one consumer, company and channel won’t always be right for another. For instance, Facebook is typically more suited to the consumer market whereas LinkedIn is more suited for Business to Business.

How does market segmentation affect sales channels?

Market segmentation affects sales channels as you will inevitably have limitations on the budget and resources available.

As an example you may sell via a network of distributors in order to target SME’s but retain the option to sell direct to large Enterprise accounts who want to deal with the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer).

By segmenting the market you can maximise your penetration and minimise your cost of sales.

At the most basic level you should segment your target markets into three groups based on revenue.

Once you have segmented your market depending on the resources you have available you could have the highest revenue producers in group A as Direct sales managed by you the vendor.

Group B could be managed via distributors and group C could be classed as un-managed and in effect they become a self service channel.

Should I choose Multichannel vs Omnichannel?

In most cases if you have a range of sales channels, it’s usually a wise move to unify various teams within your enterprise and create a multichannel strategy.

There can be many benefits of bringing the channels together into a multichannel sales strategy such as, to align or even differentiate pricing, to reduce overheads or maximise profits.

Where Omnichannel differs is when done correctly, the end user has a seamless brand experience across all channels. Rather than focus on the sale the customer journey and loyalty become equally important.

Practical examples of this could be a Live Chat operator checks and shares the stock availability in a store to allow the customer to pay and collect locally.

A successful channel management strategy is likely to see internal and external teams come together to drive more brand engagement, which in turn drives sales.

How do I develop sales channels?

The best way to develop your sales channels is via extensive research and testing. This doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should be thorough.

After you have identified the channels, you should run a series of tests to see which channels perform the best. Only once you have data and facts can you begin to develop your channel sales strategy.

Please note: when testing channels it’s not enough to use lead generation data alone. The sales leads may never convert to sales so you must take into account revenue generated versus COCA (cost of customer acquisition).

Every sales channel should have a growth plan in order to maintain existing sales and provide future growth.

What are the best sales channels for small business?

The best sales channel for small business are web based because they allow them to scale quickly and remove many of the traditional barriers to sales such as geography, travel and people.

A small, well optimised website can compete with much larger international brands.

What are the best sales channels for SaaS?

The best sales channels for SaaS Businesses are to have one direct sales channel via your website and then have two indirect sales channels.

Of the indirect channels the first would be a referral programme and the second would be a partner or affiliate programme.

Please note the channels mentioned above are sales channels and should not be confused with marketing channels which are completely different. For example LinkedIn is a great marketing channel for SaaS however, you cannot sell anything on LinkedIn (currently).

You would need to take the sales leads from LinkedIn and direct them to your website or partners in order to generate a sale.

What are the best sales channels for B2B?

The best sales channels for B2B are direct via salespeople for enterprise sales and web based for products and services aimed at SME’s.

Most businesses need a combination of the above. You should also use partner and affiliate programmes when targeting SME’s to help widen your market penetration.

How do I Build product awareness across various channels?

Channel marketing involves supporting sales teams so that awareness around a product is raised. It also focusses on increasing customer knowledge so potential buyers are ready to interact with members of your sales team and in effect further along the buying process before they talk to sales.

Channel marketing strategies can focus on educating the prospect on the potential problems and implications not just building product awareness.

If a product already has a high profile, your strategy may be centered upon maintaining awareness of what’s great about your product and what makes it different from those offered by your competitors.

How do I use sales channels to Understand consumers?

Todays consumers and customers are arguably more informed than ever. They are able to access all the information they need from wherever they are.

As long as they are connected to the internet, they can source important details about your products and services within just a few touches of their screens.

As part of your research into understanding your consumers you should:
a) research online groups and organisations using tools like LinkedIn groups
b) run test campaigns with new distributors before committing to long contracts
c) Use distributors insights and customer relationships to gather market knowledge
Look for common pain points in online discussions and forums
c) run quick polls to test engagement levels
d) run “test” campaigns to see what messaging works best.
e) run surveys to better understand consumer needs.
f) focus groups

Consumers expect brands to have a rich understanding of their needs, be consistent and enhance their lives.

There are many channels you can use to reach your customers in the modern world, and it seems new ones are appearing all the time. Developing a quality channel planning strategy is essential, but most companies can’t build a strong presence on each one.

How to make the right investments in your channel?

Supporting and incentivising any channel can be expensive, so you will need to budget wisely.

Avoid spreading yourself to thin when you are building a channel marketing strategy – its better to focus on one or two channels and get them optimised before adding channels in that you may not have the time or budget to make profitable.

For example many companies choose to be present on each and every social media network they can think of, but it may be more effective to focus your efforts on the ones that your customers are using the most.

Marketing on any channel can be expensive, so you should start small and test everything before committing to larger advertising spends.

How do I create distinctive Channel campaigns?

The single, most powerful way to engage that vendors can use to engage their channel is to generate new sales leads for them to close and make money from.

Brands should avoid replicating what their competition are doing and be innovative both with their products and the way they present them to the market. Differentiation is key, as simply copying your rivals is unlikely to be successful and places you in the “me to” category where consumers use price as the differentiator.

Furthermore, what’s right for your competitors may not be as effective for you, so it’s always best to build strategies that are specifically aligned to your needs, circumstances and the requirements of your customers.

By all means you can take inspiration from what others have done, but it’s wise to ensure your strategy as a whole is unique to your brand.

It would be unusual to hire an Accountant who is neither qualified nor experienced, so in order for your Channel Sales Planning to be successful you may need to seek out external help.

It may not be possible to achieve what you want to without assistance from outside specialists who know the pitfalls from experience.

Beware of larger Brands

As new entrants to channels and markets making the right decisions at the right time is critical. Often large brands will dangle the potential of large orders in exchange for exclusivity. This may or may not be the right move for your brand. Every decision need to be evaluated on its merits with the wider context in mind.

For example the most common pitfall is where exporters rush to sign up International dealers who immediately “park” the new product or service.

They never intended to sell it but equally they didn’t want anyone else selling it in their territory.

It’s easy to get legal agreements that preclude this sort of thing from happening, however, you will still lose market traction, money and time while the lawyers from each side make money bringing the contracts to an end.

Do you go with the market leader and become a page in their catalogue, or do you go with the disruptive new entrants who are out to make a name for themselves?

It’s no surprise that the most successful multichannel marketing strategies have seen companies working with channel partners who understood their needs, but are also aligned by culture and values.

Social Media Platforms as Channels

Social Media cannot be ignored but equally, you should be very careful choosing any social media as part of your channel sales strategy.

These platforms exist to make money, and they will use any data your company pages, your employees and customers generate to sell to your competitors.

In addition, Channels you don’t own carry an inherent amount of risk.

Millions of Companies built up their presence on Facebook only for them to sell their customer data to their competitors.

Millions of companies built up their presence on Facebook only for them to be locked out and their pages closed.

That’s not to say they were wrong, you can make hay while the sun shines if that’s the best, most efficient route to market.

If you do decide to use Social Media you should partner with a data specialist, so you can get the insights you need to create profitable campaigns and drive your business forward.

They can provide an objective view to help you make the right decisions.

It may not be easy to get everyone on board with your new strategy initially, but they are likely to become more enthusiastic when they can see clear evidence that your methods are working.

Is offline marketing still important?

It’s vital to keep your consumers at the forefront of your mind when creating a multichannel marketing strategy.

Offline marketing remains relevant for many businesses, with some older consumers more likely to encounter your brand in newspapers and magazines rather than online.

Despite the lockdown and increase in hours people are spending online offline should still be considered.

For example advertising at large, televised sports events may fit with some brands.

Multi-channel marketing is focussed upon utilising various digital and traditional channels in order to reach your customers.

Additional channels that you can utilise to target your customers include text messages, social media, email marketing, chat, social media, direct mail, TV, radio, video marketing, podcasts and your website.

Studies suggest that most companies that use strong multi-channel marketing strategies keep around 89% of their customers.

How do I set clear channel sales goals?

To build a successful channel planning strategy, you need to have clearly defined goals in mind. You can only start creating your strategy once you have set your goals or objectives.

Once you have determined your goals, you should create a sales and marketing plan. If the goals and objectives are the destination the sales plan is the roadmap that you follow to reach your goals.

The plan will help you to start deciding which channels, how to engage those channels and which KPIs to track.

Part of this planning requires you to get a firm idea of who your customers are so you can find a way to connect with them, so you will need to carry out substantial research.

Where possible you should be automating your processes using software like marketing automation, email marketing, ad buying programmes and CRM systems, which track the interactions you have with your consumers.

For example marketing software can start creating profiles for customers from the moment they first interact with your brand online.

These profiles are then updated as they continue to interact with salespeople on and offline.

Consistency in Channel Planning in Sales Management?

Many people mock McDonald’s, however, there are many things they do extremely well, and we can learn from. For me, one of the pillars of McDonald’s success has been their consistency.

No matter where you are or who serves you, there is a level of consistency not just in the food, but the whole experience.

Your users experience should remain consistent across every channel. This means your tone of voice, logos, colours and so on should be the same on each channel.

If you don’t have a unified brand experience, this could leave your consumers confused and confused people don’t spend money.

Achieving this level of consistency is difficult when you sell via Indirect channels like partners, distributors or franchisees.

Car manufacturers spend millions annually on marketing and training with their dealer showroom network to try to achieve this type of consistency.

You need to find a way of tracking your results so you can see how well your campaign is working. Analytic software will give you key information on your performance on each channel and give you the insights you need to make changes to your campaign.

Some ideas that you can choose to measure would be:

Net Promoter Score to measure brand loyalty
Repeat purchase scores to measure quality and service
Upsell Ratio to measure sales

How to Write a Sales Plan in 8 Easy Steps (with FREE Template)

by Iain Swanston

1. How to write a Sales Plan

Few businesses manage to meet or exceed their sales goals without a sales plan, or should I say successfully create a Sales Plan and execute it.

Creating a sales plan helps you to establish your sales objectives, and outline the steps you will take to reach them.

A typical sales plan will include information on how the growth will be achieved (this is sometimes referred to as your sales strategies and tactics) and how sales will be measured.

Measuring the sales of your product or service may seem simple, but there are often important indicators and metrics other than revenue that can and should be used to measure the success of the execution of the sales plan.

Your plan may also feature details about target customers and their pain points, the sales process, roles and responsibilities, revenue targets, revenue goals, business goals and a sales and marketing strategy for your products and services.

Hopefully now you have a better understanding of the benefits of a sales plan you will take the next step and grab a free download our template in order that you can start creating a sales plan for your own business.

2. Different types of Sales Plans

Unfortunately, given all the differences between industries, companies and products there is no single plan that can be applied to every business. There are 3 main differences you should be aware of as follows:

1. Customer Base – are you selling to an established customer base where you need to manage existing accounts or are you selling to a greenfield territory where you need to focus on opening new accounts? In reality, it’s often a mixture of the two.

2. Market Movement – is the market stable enough to allow you to repeat what’s delivered your sales numbers in previous years or is the market changing and forcing you to change at the same time?

3. Business Strategy – the sales plan needs to meet or exceed the objectives of the business plan. The plan therefore needs to be aligned with the company mission and overall business strategy. If part of the business strategy is to divest risk from one income stream, the sales plan needs to reflect this.

Sales are the fuel that powers the ship, however it’s the business that decides where the ship is going.

3. Increasing Your Sales Revenues

At times sales can seem very complicated, however, it’s worth remembering there are only three ways to increase sales revenues as follows:

a) Increase sales by selling to accounts aligned with your ideal target customers

b) Increase sales by selling more to current customers

c) Raise your prices

The growth in your Sales plan must reflect at least one of the above, but preferably all three. You must also allow for “churn” as every business no matter how good they are will lose customers over time.

Even if you do nothing wrong customers will go bankrupt, they will be taken over, they will move away and you will lose business.

Reducing customer churn may well be part of your growth strategy. Anything you can do to increase your Customer Lifetime Value is always worthwhile and will stand you in good stead in the future.

Back to Table of Contents

4. Preparing for Success

Sales plans are primarily designed to help you achieve more sales. They should include information on what your current situation is, what you are aiming for and what you need to do to make your vision a reality.

Sales plans are like a roadmap your team can follow to achieve success. Without this roadmap they will take longer to achieve their targets as they move slower and possibly even in a different direction.

A more focused and driven team

A key benefit of every sales plan is that it can help make your team members more focused on achieving a specific goal, or series of goals.

Once a sales plan is in place, your team should have a firmer, more coherent idea of what your aims are. They should also have a more specific idea of what steps they personally need to take to achieve them.

Sales plans can also help you prevent a decline in sales over time by keeping your team focused and delivering a constant sense of purpose.

They can also help you make the most of your team’s specific capabilities and assign roles to the most suitable employees.

Creating confidence

Confidence is an important, yet often overlooked part of the sales success in any organisation.

A well written Sales Plan will give confidence and direction to the sales team and once you have a robust sales plan in place, you’re more likely to attract or keep investors and other stakeholders on-side.

The sales plan should also include information on the likely and possible challenges you envisage and how you plan to overcome them.

Clarity and coherence

Sales plans should be straightforward, so they can be easily understood by people outside the sales department.

There is no point filling your sales plan full of sales jargon which some team members may struggle to comprehend.

It’s essential that your sales plan firmly outlines your plans and goals for the period that it covers in an easy-to-read format.

If you would like help creating and implementing your sales plan we offer a full sales consultancy service and would love to talk to you about how we can work alongside your team to drive revenue growth.

5. Frameworks for a sales plan

We’ve put together a framework for your Sales Plan in Microsoft PowerPoint so it can double up as a presentation document. It includes easy to complete sections on:

1. Review – Learning what’s worked and what hasn’t from the previous year is an essential part of any sales plan. This way we can repeat or increase what’s been working and reduce, eliminate or adapt what didn’t work.

It’s also wise to look at your past data when setting targets. Do you have a good track record of hitting your targets? If you have failed to reach your aims in the past, do you know the reasons for this?

By closely assessing your past performance, you can optimise the chances of your latest campaign being a success and avoid setting unrealistic targets.

2. Sales Team – salespeople are a key part of the sales success in any organisation and should always be included in the plan.

In addition to showing past performance you should demonstrate how you plan to support them over the life of the plan by way of training and coaching.

Details of the training should be recorded in each employees PDP (Personal Development Plan) and Coaching should be recorded in individual coaching worksheets.

There may be times where every sales person has similar development needs but at as a minimum the coaching should always be bespoke.

3. Strategy – this is simply a high level statement on how you will approach selling to your market. The details such as goals, priorities and milestones of the strategy will be laid out in the Objectives section of the sales plan.

An example of a Strategy would be the Big Bets or Blockbuster strategy. Imagine if you were running a movie company and you were choosing what movies to invest $100,000,000 in over the next 12 months.

Would you take your $100,000,000 and invest £1 million dollars in 100 films or would you invest £10 million and try to create 10 blockbusters?

Perhaps your strategy is to move your customer base from Mid Market to Enterprise accounts. Your strategy might be to expand your portfolio to meet more of your customers needs and keep the competition out.

Your strategy may be the opposite and you might want to reduce and streamline your portfolio.

Removing choice allows you to focus sales and marketing resources and lower operating costs. We’re great fans of the Blockbuster strategy because we love the focus and simplicity it brings.

We accept there is an increased risk when you focus on fewer options, however, there should be some form of validation in your Blockbuster strategy. Will the next Bond movie be a hit? Well based on previous Bond movies yes.

So the majority (not all) Blockbusters should already be proven revenue streams that you are simply doubling down on.

4. SWOT analysis – thi is where you can document your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to help form and validate your sales strategy. Please remember the SWOT should only refer to your sales strategy.

The SWOT serves as proof that you and your team have undertaken some critical thinking around your sales strategy and have taken the time to think each aspect of the strategy through.

Once you have completed a SWOT analysis you can use the data to form a strategy that minimises the Weaknesses & Threats and maximises the strengths and opportunities.

5. Objectives – Your sales plan must be based around genuinely achievable targets. It will be much harder to get your team to embrace your sales plan if your aims are unrealistic or unreasonable.

It’s fine to be ambitious, but your goals still need to be realistic. Unrealistic or unachievable goals will only serve to demoralise the sales team and lead to them giving up.

Your aims and strategies need to be measurable so you can track the progress that you are making. You must include research that supports your aims, especially if your targets seem particularly ambitious.

Setting growth targets/objectives in the plan

Growth targets in a sales plan can vary wildly. Some sales plans are based on what the company wants to achieve over the next quarter, whilst others have longer-term 12 month goals.

It would be unusual to have a sales plan that was longer than 12 months as markets and customers can change so quickly.

Your sales plan needs to be agile enough to respond to these changes quickly. The best sales plans will feature detailed information on which activities need to take place and what kind of resources need to be used in order to generate success.

A simple method for sales forecasting would be to take the previous years monthly sales figures and then add 20% to each month. This provides a monthly sales target that accounts for any seasonal changes, and after 12 months will have delivered 20% annual growth.

It’s normally best practice to list separate sales objectives for:
product mix
new customers vs existing customers
sales by region
sales by vertical
individual sales reps

Whilst tracking each element may seem overkill, this allows you to quickly adapt your sales plan and implement contingency plans if required. For example, if one vertical is under-performing you may choose to divert resources into other verticals that are more active.

6. Sales Tactics and Techniques – after Strategy and planning comes the tactics. These are quite simply the approaches you will use to deliver the objectives of the sales plan.

Your sales tactics should call out the tasks and activities the sales team will be doing on a daily basis to implement the plan.

Tactics could be as simple as changing the sales messaging to match a new market or retraining customer service teams in up-selling existing accounts.

Perhaps you want your sales team to invest more time on Social media using tools like LinkedIn to identify new prospects or your interested in starting a cold email campaign.

7. Metrics – it’s important to agree on what success looks like how you will measure it before you start any project.

There are lots of great systems and tools available for this, however, you should make a list of tracking methods that you will be using for the duration of your plan.

These can include your selling strategies, techniques used for monitoring and performance metrics.

Where possible:
a) use existing systems and tools like CRMs that are already in place and being used, so you don’t get dragged into a software implementation project.

b) the recording of the measures should not create any additional workload for the salespeople as they are then less likely to complete them.

c) where possible use lead indicators and not lag indicators. Examples of a lead indicator could be the number of qualified new sales leads created and a lag indicator is the monthly revenue.

Whilst the revenue is important if we wait till the end of the month to get the revenue figures and we miss the target it’s too late.

Measuring the lead indicators allows us to take corrective action before the lag indicator is missed.

SaaS companies often track subscriptions to their app which is important but the lead indicator could be as simple as the number of visitors to the website.

You wil need to make a list of tracking methods that you will be using for the duration of your plan. These can include your selling strategies, techniques used for monitoring and performance metrics.

We use Sales Scorecards to record and track KPI’s, however, there are many different methods to track KPI’s from simple spreadsheets to online apps.

8. Budget – sales and selling costs money. Whether it’s a simple Linkedin Sales Navigator subscription or a 6 figure Expo in Las Vegas everything in sales costs money which needs to be budgeted for.

Budgets will vary greatly from one company to another, however you should always attempt to quantify the costs in advance.

Companies that do not have formalised budgets for Sales and work on an ad hoc basis are by nature lower down on the Sales Maturity model.

If you plan to spend a considerable figure during the period, you’ll need to justify this to your stakeholders. The plan should include detailed figures to illustrate where your budget will be going.

If you’re investing in new resources during the period, add an ROI analysis to your sales plan to help justify the investment.

You may also wish to budget for unforeseen costs such as recruitment, should a sales person leave unexpectedly you need to replace them.

If you’re not given the required budget, you may need to make changes to your sales plan, but you don’t necessarily need to scrap it completely.

Back to Table of Contents

6. Sales Plan Content

Your sales plan shouldn’t only consist of text. Wherever possible it’s worth have the document professional designed.

If you choose to use a template like ours you need to include your own branding as a minimum. It’s common for lists, tables, graphics, screenshots and charts to be used to convey key information about the company’s aims and the market you serve.

The sales plan should also feature research about what’s currently occurring in your industry This means it’s important to include statistics based on the latest research.

It’s also advisable to research your existing customers and targets market before you start creating your sales plan.

Depending on what sector you’re based in, there may be more demand from one market segment than there was in previous years.

Conversely, groups you were previously targeting may not be as interested in your products and services as they once were. Wherever possible do research so you can back up any positions you have taken.

Remember, your document doesn’t need to be incredibly formal, but it does need to be coherent and easy to comprehend.

7. Encouraging Buy In

Once you have completed your sales plan, you’ll need to present it not only to your team but your stakeholders and relevant managers too.

If you can’t get these on board, your plan is unlikely to be effective. The more convincing your sales plan is, the more enthusiasm you can generate.

The management is also more likely to release your budget if you can present an impressive well-thought-out sales plan.

With this in mind it’s always best to include other people in the creation of the Sales Plan. Getting buy-in from Sales people will be much easier if they helped create the document and senior management are much more likely to allocate budget if they have been included in the whole process.

With this in mind it’s worth asking your salespeople to create mini-plans and forecasts specific to their territory and then rolling these into the master plan.

This is a good way to develop ownership and responsibility within your sales team and provides a good reference point for future coaching.

A well-designed and executed sales plan can take your business to the next level. Just remember to keep it realistic and comprehensible so others ‘buy-in’ to it.

Whether you are a new business, a small business, a mid market or enterprise organisation the benefits of a well written sales plan are high. When done right your sales plan will position you for both short term and long term success.

Often an effective sales plan will play an important part with aligning the sales team’s activities and ensure everyone is working towards the same goals and moving forward.

Free Sales Plan Template

Download a free template so you can start enjoying the benefits of strategic and effective planning.

The free template is available for download as a Microsoft Word document to get you started.

This template is one of over 30 sales tools and templates available in our sales playbook.

Can we work with you?

Klozers provides B2B sales training and coaching throughout the world. Check out your nearest location or book a free consultation here.

Head Office: Klozers

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10 Reasons Why Sales Training is Important

by Iain Swanston

Here's the short answer

Why Sales Training is Important. Sales Training is important because sales provides revenue which is the lifeblood of business. A well trained sales team will outsell your competitors and build relationships for future business. We would never hire a Lawyer, Accountant or Trades person if they hadn’t been trained and sales is equally important.

Why Sales Training is Important

Salesmanship training can benefit your business in a myriad of ways. Chances are you have a great deal of competition to gain an edge over, and sales training can help with this.

In many cases products and services can appear similar to customers and often when this happens companies try to compete on price.

Rather than try to compete on price in Business to Business sales people still buy from people so it makes more sense to have a well trained sales force than simply keep discounting your selling price.

Regardless of the advances in technology and social selling B2B sales is still a people to people activity and an experienced sales team can help you develop more leads and convert more prospects into customers.

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…

1. Return on Investment

Businesses across sectors invest vast sums of money into sales training each year, seeing exceptional returns on their investment.

As an example, when a salesperson learns how to sell without discounting their price, they can use this skill for the rest of their career.

Most companies recover the cost of training between 1 month and 6 months after completion. The time is largely dependent on the profitability and volume which is unique to every business.

2. Changes in your Market.

The internet has and continues to create huge changes in the way people and companies buy which makes the continued upskilling of your salespeople more important than ever.

All markets are dynamic by nature and training is an important part of keeping your salespeople up to date.

Changes in technology, legislation, customer needs, all serve to make you and your business less relevant unless you change with them.

Salespeople form a vital conduit between the customer and the business feeding back these changes to the business.

As a simple example, the use of Social Media in selling has now become a critical sales skill in modern selling.

3. Building Brand Loyalty

Most sales professionals will connect with your customers and clients not only on a business level but a personal level too.

They can help you strengthen your credibility and position you in the eyes of your customers as Thought Leaders in your industry.

Sales Training helps your sales team accurately diagnose the root cause of your customers’ business pains and circumstances before offering solutions that match their requirements perfectly.

The better your customer experience is, the more likely it is that those customers will return to you to purchase more products and services, time and time again.

The vast majority of sales decisions are based on how much trust customers have in a brand and salespeople are an extension of your brand.

4. Business Growth

It’s simply impossible to grow any business unless you grow the people in the business. In it’s simplest terms every business has a strategy to grow.

A large part of that strategy will involve sales and unless your salespeople are trained then they may struggle to execute your strategy.

As an example, part of your growth strategy may be to start selling to larger companies. The sales strategy, tactics and skills required for this can be very different from selling to SMEs.

Quality sales training and coaching can give your team the knowledge that they need execute you growth strategy and take your business to the next level.

Technological advancements mean companies now need to do so much more to engage with their customers than before across multiple platforms.

This means queries need to be met with swift responses and pre-sales support needs to be easily available.

5. Optimise the Customer Experience

If a customer has a bad experience with your brand, there’s a big chance they will let others know about it and in the worst case use social media to tell everyone.

Whilst customer experience (CX) was once exclusively the domain of Account Managers companies have expanded their CX to include the very start of the sales process and the very end in the hope of converting existing customers to high value brand ambassadors.

Whilst more common in B2C more and more B2B companies have developed bespoke programmes to optimise the customers experience journey.

With the lifetime value of B2B deals worth considerably more than B2C ones, it’s no surprise that sales training in this area has become more and more relevant.

One customer’s horror story can quickly go viral and impact on your industry reputation. This is why sales training is important to your sales team to help them communicate quickly and effectively whilst resolving issues as soon as they arise.

Customers are also likely to let others know if they have an incredibly positive experience when dealing with your brand.

This can generate much more interest in your website, products and services. Sales training is important for any brand that wishes to improve and deepen its relationships with its customers.

6. Knowledge is Power

Sales training can also give your team a richer understanding of your products, services and the industry they serve.

The more your sales team know about what you do and what you sell, the more effective they will be when informing others and positioning your brand.

Prospective customers are unlikely to be swayed if the sales rep they’re talking to lacks sufficient knowledge about your company, products and services.

The best sales training tells your team how to sell from within the context of your brand, makes them more knowledgeable about your history and the benefits your products offer to your customers.

In B2B, sales training isn’t just about learning how to answer your prospects questions. What’s much more important is learning the right questions to ask.

The modern sales professional is as much a detective hunting down answers than simply answering the prospects questions.

At the most basic level, have you set a budget aside for this project yet, who else is involved in the purchasing decision, what timeline do you need your solution in place by?

These are all important questions that B2B companies need answers to before even qualifying a sales opportunity.

7. Learning from Mistakes is Expensive

Unfortunately like every other profession and skill in B2B sales mistakes can happen. These mistakes can be painful and expensive.

Sales training and coaching is there to reduce the mistakes and help salespeople learn from them.

One mistake repeated once a month over the course of a year is an expensive way to learn, when an experienced sales trainer and coach could help the sales team avoid the mistakes in advance.

Whilst failure can be costly in sales what’s worse is the often debilitating effect it has on salespeople who don’t understand why the mistakes are happening or what they can do about it.

Most training programmes will help the sales team develop guides on best practice that can be shared to make sure the same mistakes are not being repeated across the organisation.

We’ve developed our own best practice guides over the years and made them available in our Sales Playbook which you can download for free here.

8. Versatility and Flexibility

No two businesses are the same, and even when businesses may appear similar, the needs of the business and the buyers can be hugely different.

Sales training helps sales professionals adapt their approach when working with different types of industries, businesses and buyers.

Sales training improves communication skills in a way that helps your team enhance their relationships when working with people both internally and outside of your company such as those with different DiSC profiles.

Training can also help your team turn unhappy customers into satisfied ones, allowing them to overcome obstacles more effectively. Given the Lifetime value of clients in B2B this is hugely important.

9. Increase Leadership Skills

Sales training can also help you boost leadership skills within your company as it helps people become more effective communicators and teaches them to think more strategically.

In addition to increased knowledge and skills an often overlooked and reason why sales training is important is the increase in personal confidence it provides.

Confidence in B2B sales is crucial part of success given the number and variety of differing scenarios salespeople can find themselves.

From simple 121 discussions in the boardroom through to delivering presentations to large groups of people from a stage, confidence is a key ingredient of the success of every sales person.

Training helps your team to understand your colleagues needs which is an important part of teamwork.

The best sales training courses enable delegates to develop high-quality communications skills that are essential for leadership roles.

10. Building Resilience in your Sales Team

Salespeople who have undergone sales training are more likely to become more resilient in the face of adversity.

Whilst rejections can hinder performance, trained sales professionals can overcome rejection and become more effective at winning customers over.

In sales you will always receive more No’s than Yes’s and to survive, let alone thrive in sales, it’s important to have skills and coping strategies to deal with this.

The excitement and highs of winning big deals inevitably come with the downs of losing large deals.

Whilst it’s important to always reflect after a loss, all to many times salespeople become overly self-critical and take the rejection and loss personally.

This kills confidence and in the worst case forces good people who could be succesful out of the industry, as they never had the support they needed to succeed.

Sales training is an important part of building resilience which will repay many fold when the business is confronted by the inevitable recession, lockdown or other crisis that is sure to come at some stage in the future

In Summary

When you evaluate all 10 points we’ve raised you will see Sales Training is important and an integral part of the growth of any business.

It’s also worth noting the importance of sales and marketing working together and breaking down any silos.

Sales and Leadership is all about taking action and that’s why sales training is so important. In addition Sales Management training is equally important has training a sales reprsentative.

There will always be a million reasons not to invest in training, however, sales are unlikely to improve unless you take action.

If you haven’t invested in sales training recently, it may well be time to take action. Klozers have a wide range of the best sales training programs available for delivery both in person and live online.

How to Sell to BIG Companies

by Iain Swanston

How to Sell to Big Companies

Discover how to Find, Kloze and Grow Large Enterprise Accounts

Next FREE session – Tuesday 2nd Feb 2021

Register Here

We’ve got all the templates & tools to make it easy for you

How to Sell to Big Companies. In order to sell to big companies you need to first create a shortlist of targets that meet your perfect prospect profile. Next, focus all your sales and marketing resources to research and create a unique sales approach for multiple contacts within the big company you are selling to.

What’s Inside

SESSION 1

The WHO

Introduction to Enterprise Selling

Selecting the right targets

Segmenting your accounts

Mastering the complex sale

Prep for Session 2

Get this session FREE

SESSION 2

The WHAT

The Door Opener

Right content, right contact, right time

How to write persuasive copy

The cadence of big account selling

The profitable, easy to deliver and replicate offer

SESSION 3

The HOW

What to say to Big Companies

How to control the sales conversation

The Contact Plan

Listen & Learn LIVE over the coaches shoulder

Your personal Action Plan

Course Author

Iain Swanston

Founder, Klozers

After 35 years in B2B sales Iain just loves solving sales problems.
If you’ve ever attended one of his live events you’ll know, even during the breaks and after the event he always likes talking about sales. Iain is an Author, Speaker & our Lead Sales Coach.
Iain is on a mission to make sales easier for B2B companies and their salespeople.

“In the short time I’ve been working with Klozers I’ve used his guidance to develop positive new sales activities, techniques and a mindset that has significantly helped my sales confidence. As a results I’ve already seen excellent performance benefits that are directly attributable to working to the coaching.”

Alan Wood

Scotland Director

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

“This was my first ever sales training and genuinely still the most pertinent in my sales career. Iain taught us how to take leads through the sales journey from lead to opportunity to closure, I still use these skills today and encourage my colleagues to do the same. My earnings have more than doubled since Iain gave that pertinent training and his latest blogs have been shared internally between our sales and marketing teams as the advice rings true to what we are currently working on as a department”

Lynne Hall

Strategic Accounts Manager

E-On Energy

“My coach was really flexible and was happy to talk in between my scheduled coaching slots, especially when I had burning questions and needed support fast. The debriefing calls we had after my sales meetings not only helped me understand where I could improve, they also gave me the right words to say, in the right sequence and at the right time.“

Elliott Boll

Enterprise Learning Consultant

Docebo

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How to sell to a big company — Remote Sales Coaching – Sales Playbook

How to sell an idea to a big company — Online Sales Coaching

“The first session was full of useful and practical sales information. I took so many notes and have come away with exercises I will carry out to help further clarify our approach to sales. I would highly recommend”

Rebecca Pick

Founder

Pick Protection

“Great training session with so much information packed into an hour. Looking forward to completing sessions 2 and 3. “

Max Anderson

Director

SuperBot Experts

Very insightful content from Klozers this afternoon. Thank you Iain Swanston for the invite to attend. This shall be hugely beneficial for our business moving forward and I am looking forward to putting my learning into practice

Laurie Wilson

Regional Sales Manager

CMP Products

Learn How to Sell to Big Companies

If you are new to sales at some stage you will want to learn how to sell to big companies. It’s common for most ambitious sales people and businesses, yet this can be a challenging or even, a near impossible experience.

For example, finding the right people to talk with (yes there will also be more than one decision maker) can be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, and then trying to coordinate all these decision makers can be like herding cats.

The longer sales cycles that inevitably arise from having multiple decision makers in a complex sale, then frustrate most sales people as time drags on.

The large revenues that Enterprise sales can deliver, more often than not, prove so elusive that the salespeople give up and focus on smaller opportunities, they know they can convert.

However, in some circumstances it can take the same amount of sales resources to convert a small opportunity as it does when selling the same product or service to a big company, so don’t give up just yet.

Learn More, Sell More, Earn More

How to Sell an Idea to a Big Company

Maybe you don’t have a product or service but instead you have an idea that you want to sell. It’s the sames process and the fact is, it is possible to sell to big companies and large enterprise organisations, although it does need a slightly different approach.

The first FREE 60 minute session in this course walks you through the preparation and planning required before you approach big companies.

When you sell to big companies you may also need some additional sales resources that are not as commonly used when selling to smaller organisations, such as a Business Case, a Cost Benefit Analysis – don’t worry we’ve got templates you can use for all of these.

If this sounds like lots of work, then Yes it is, and because of this many companies will not rely on any one individual, instead they will work as a team to win large accounts. Part of that team should include Marketing in order that you can target the right people in the buying organisation, with the right messaging, at the right time.

Run the sales campaign as a mini project with scope, roles and responsibilities, costings, objectives and milestones. Needless to say that it usually makes sense to be targeting more than one big company if you are going to do this professionally, but don’t make the mistake of having too many, as the campaign can then turn into a marketing initiative which by their very nature are more generic.

The key to success is that all the messaging must be bespoke and relevant to every target which takes time, which is time that you won’t have if you have too many targets. Again this course covers everything you need.

Before you start selling to big companies there are however two important considerations you should address as follows:

1) Does your company have the capability to successfully deliver a project on the scale that a big company will require?
In most cases you will only get one chance to sell to a big company and delivering success for your first big company will also give you a reference point that will help you sell to other big companies.

2) Does your company have the financial resources required to sell to a big company?

If you buy materials in January to create stock for February and have agreed 90 day payment terms this means you have to run 150 days without being paid. Some small businesses are not sufficiently funded to do this, so be careful what you wish for.

Selling to big companies can transform your business, but like most things in life that are worthwhile it’s usually not easy and doesn’t happen overnight, but it certainly can be worth it.

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your first session FREE

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The Best SaaS Sales Training & Coaching for SDR’s & AE’s

by Iain Swanston

1. SaaS Sales Training: Before you Start

How do you grow SaaS sales? How do you grow sales in your software or technology business?

Sadly most companies are doing the same generic marketing and getting the same generic results.

Growing monthly and annual recurring revenues isn’t easy for any organisation.

Behind every overnight success there is nearly always years of hardwork and maybe even some failures from which they learn and move forward.

B2B sales training can differ depending on the stage of the startup. The strategy and skills required in stage 1 Product/market fit, will vary from stage 3 Scaling.

Many companies make the mistake of jumping to stage 3 immediately and this can kill their growth. If you try and ramp up sales before you have a firm grip on the systems and processes that drive profitability, every customer you add will drive you further away from your profits.

SaaS Sales Training Course

How to Build a SaaS Sales Funnel

Why B2B Marketing is Broken & How to Fix it

How to Scale a Business Super FAST

HOW TO TAKE THE GUESS WORK OUT OF GROWING YOUR ARR

Before starting any SaaS or software sales training here are a few boxes we suggest you tick so that you get the most from your investment in sales training. Sales Training can differ hugely depending on the stage of the startup.

The sales strategy and skills required in stage 1 Product/market fit will vary from stage 3 Scaling. Many companies make the mistake of jumping to stage 3 immediately and this can kill their growth.

Stage 1 – Ensure you have a proven product/market fit.

Many start-ups rush to employ sales reps and try to scale up before they have proven their product/markit fit.

Product/market fit is simply the process have taking your value proposition and proving you can sell it to someone. As you would expec,t one sale doesn’t mean you have a viable business model,but it’s a starting point.

Many B2B start ups aren’t sure how to prove their product market fit so here are some questions you should ask your team:

1a. Do we have repeat business? Although they have value one off sales don’t actually prove much becasue they won’t help you grow recurring revenues. Locking clients into an annual contract of 12 monthly payments doesn’t equal 12 sets of repeat business.

It’s not until the annual contract renews that you can get a feel for how valuable they see your product.

1b. Are your customers in the same verticals? It’s usually a good sign if you are having repeat success within the same vertical.

That’s not to say that selling across different industries is a bad thing far from it, but in the early days it’s easier when you can be hyperfocussed and branch out as part of your growth strategy.

1c. Is you product solving the same problem? Again it’s not a bad thing if your product solves multiple problems, it’s just in the early stages this can lead to generic marketing and confused sales messaging.

1d. Are you receiving a regular flow of referrals? Most people will happily recommend a product or service if they feel it will of benefit. Whilst a lack of referrals may simply be because you haven’t asked – in this case what is your Net Promoter Score? Improving both of these before you start to scale your business will only make selling easier.

Product/market fit is a journey, not one single event and takes time, customer feedback and usually many iterations from the initial concept. Each iteration should be defined, measured and tested by the user base before being accepted.

1e. Lastly, you should never under estimated the feedback loop from your early adopters. This isn’t just about changing your MVP, it’s about listening and understanding the problems from the prospects perspective.

Seemingly small changes in the sales messaging and sales process based on feedback can have a huge impact in the results you will achieve.

The same feedback loop is invaluable for tech based businesses as they can use this to develop the product roadmap post MVP.

Stage 2 – Systemise Sales

Once Product/market fit is achieved the next stage for Startups is to systemise sales. This can vary greatly, however, the general rules of thumb are, higher prices will mean more man hours are required to sell, and the larger the target customer the less automated the sales process.

Lower priced solutions targeting SME’s is more likely to be a marketing led sale and higher priced solutions to Enterprise organisations are predominantly sales led.

Systemising your B2B sales includes six main areas as follows:

creating a measurable and repeatable sales process
using automation technology where appropriate
segmenting markets and accounts
turning proven sales plays into repeatable sales process
Volume on-boarding process for new hires
gathering relevant KPI’s and metrics – closing ratios, pipeline coverage, average deal size, cost of customer acquisition, customer lifetime value and Sales Rep scorecards

Without these metrics you should not move to the next stage. The metrics should form a solid business case to investors and if they don’t you simply need to make some changes before moving forward.

Having one loss making sales rep and then adding 10 more as you scale, all the time hoping you will turn the corner of profitability isn’t recommended. Sales performance is therefore an important part of stage 2, both in terms of how you will measure it and how you will manage it.

Stage 3 – Scaling Sales

The last and final stage is scaling sales. In many cases start-ups rush to this stage due to pressure from investors or they are running out of cash. The reality is that the more time and effort you put into stages 1 and 2, makes stage 3 so much easier.

When you are ready we recommend you read “How to Build a SaaS Sales Funnel”.

Stage 3 creates huge changes in the business as you move from a small, mostly development based team, to hiring multiple sales, marketing, operations and HR staff.

Costs are huge however it shouldn’t be a concern because you have a proven product/market fit (stage 1) and the right systems & processes in place that are following proven KPI’s (stage 2).

Another challenge here is the mindset of the leadership team. In most cases they have gone for years focussing on saving money, and now they need to start spending money on more sales and marketing hires.

Often this rapid growth can decrease profitability even further as new customers are onboarded.

Moving from a mindset of survival to one of growth shouldn’t be underestimated.

2. Going Outbound

Starting any Outbound sales campaign is a dangerous thing, because when Outbound is done badly it leaves a scorched earth behind.

A scorched earth approach will not only limit future growth, it will dramatically increase the churn in your sales team.

Sales Reps like winning and when they aren’t winning and earning commission, they will quickly look elsewhere.

This will add cost to your recruitment, management and training budgets, in addition to the missed market opportunities.

Going Outbound is difficult and most businesses make the mistake of simply sending a generic email (including a first name and the company name is no longer classed as personalising) and following up with a nuisance cold call.

This approach will get you some sales, but you will be leaving thousands on the table. The best outbound strategies are one to few, not one to many and they are highly coordinated campaigns that deliver higher opportunity creation rates.

This involves sales and marketing working together to come up with the right target audience, the right sales messaging, the right initial approach and the right sales plays. All of which needs to be supported by content, collateral and campaign material.

There are two primary drivers for B2B success as follows that you should be aware of:

1. The initial approach from the sales development reps need to provide a “gift”. No one likes receiving cold calls and most sales people don’t like making them. What gift can you provide that delivers value to the user that will encourage the salespeople to pick up the phone?

What is of high value to the user, but low value/cost for you to deliver?

2. The faster the user receives value from the product/service, then the more likely they are to use the service, stay engaged and complete the on boarding process.

Instant gratification motivates users so use this to your advantage. Invest heavily in your on boarding and customer success programmes, because this will reduce your churn down the line.

3. Understanding Sales Training: The Basics

To train your B2B sales team to be the best that they can and bring in the most sales that they can, you have to use the science of learning. Just like students in a classroom, your sales team is going to study and work hard to try to bring about the best results.

For any student, whether they’re in a traditional classroom or not, there is a general 70:20:10 rule of learning. This is a widely-adopted rule that applies to nearly all scenarios of teaching and learning.

To train your sales team to their maximum level of efficiency, follow this:

70% on-the-job training

20% coaching based on performance

10% in-classroom learning

If you follow this basic guideline, you’ll see that your team will respond better to training and be able to do more with what they’ve learned from their time in training.

Another rule that you should pay attention to in regards to training your team is the idea of repetition. You can’t expect that every member of your team remember every rule, procedure, and policy that you’ve told them for the rest of their lives.

In fact, most people can only retain about 20% of what they’ve learned over a month. To reduce the amount of information forgotten (and ensure that your team is up to speed), you have to train everyone on your team continually.

In terms of sales training content, whilst every business is different we would advise you include topics like how to engage buyers, selling skills, building a sales pipeline, consultative selling skills, reducing sales cycles and account growth.

This means that you need to train even the most senior employees of your team continuously.

TREATING YOUR SALES TEAM AS STUDENTS

Whether you’re training a new group of salespeople, or repeating an old lesson to a group of executives, you should keep a classroom-like state in mind. All of your sales representatives are students when they’re in training. Therefore, you have to act like a teacher to perform effective sales coaching.

Think about some of the best strategies that teachers in traditional classrooms use. For example: “See. Do. Teach.” This is a phrase that’s widely adopted by teachers who are looking to make effective students.

What this means is that if you want your salespeople to be as effective as possible, you have to show them what to do, ask them to do it, and then require that they teach someone else how to do it. Not only is this repetitive. It also requires your team to show their skills in three different ways.

After a student (or salesperson) achieves this line of practice, they are said to have mastered the material. However, we all know that one listen-in and two practice calls aren’t enough to make effective salespeople.

REACTING TO PROGRESS MADE AS A COACH

When you’re teaching a new or old group of salespeople, you should see the act more as a way of coaching them, rather than training them. We’re sure you know, your role as a coach for the sales team is to give individuals feedback based on what they do.

Rather than dictating how they should conduct sales calls, you should give the salesperson feedback based on what they could improve on. Don’t forget to highlight things they’ve done correctly as this will enforce them to do those things correctly again.

As you’re acting as a coach, it’s also essential to focus on one performance indicator at a time. Think about the one quality that you think would send this salesperson above and beyond as they’re conducting sales calls and conferences.

Don’t overwhelm your sales team by picking too many areas of focus at once. Let them ease their way into making sales by fixing one attribute at a time. You’ll also find that coaching and teaching them this way is more manageable as their focus remains on one thing rather than several things.

SALES MANAGERS

Often the most neglected but important role in sales is that of sales managers and sales leaders. These are the people who set the bar for sales performance and what is acceptable or not. In many cases sales managers were either the top sales rep or simply a manager with little or no sales experience.

Whether you buy in experienced sales managers or develop your own sales leaders this investment in talent will repay itself many times over.

SALES PERFORMANCE

It’s worthwhile noting that Sales Coaching and Sales Management are very different skills but both play an important part in building and increasing sales performance. Where possible you should separate the roles as a coach cannot make a coachee do anything where as Sales Managers can.

SELLING RESOURCES

Your SaaS team will inevitably need resources to help them make sales. These resources will range from research tools, to prospecting tools, through to klozing tools like online presentation and digital sign off tools.

Other than mentioning Microsoft which everybody has anyway, we deliberately don’t provide a list of resources in order that this blog can remain vendor neutral, however, we’re more than happy to talk through the resources that we have found to work best.

DOCUMENT EVERYTHING

When you’re training salespeople most companies default to the traditional model whereby they hire a trainer for a day or two days in house training. This may work for some but from experience we have found that at least one member of your team will leave. It then becomes financially impossible to have a trainer return to train the one new hire.

We recommend documenting all the training in an electronic B2B Sales Playbook which is living, working document that can be updated and refined as your team matures.

Our Playbooks provide a single point of reference and storage for everything a sales person would need in order to be successful selling tech based solutions.

The Playbooks are built in Microsoft OneNote and work across both Windows and Mac devices.

WORKING TOWARDS LONG-TERM SUCCESS

Don’t assume that your sales force can be taught in just a week or even a couple of weeks. The coaching process should be viewed as a multi-year process that is made to bring salespeople from amateurs to coaches themselves.

As you’re conducting your sales coaching program, you should never assume that someone doesn’t need training. No matter how much previous training and experience they have, you should be prepared to put them through a sales program. Even with these ‘experts,’ you should work to build their strengths.

While your sales representatives are succeeding and learning more about their role in the sales process, you should note how they could fill higher positions in the future. For example, you may have a sales representative who is showing great promise for a leadership role. Take note of this and encourage the representative to work towards a higher position like this.

Working towards long-term success means that you should consistently be working to better your sales representatives so that they can bring more business to your company.

ONLINE SALES COACHING

Traditional tech based sales training focuses on what we call the tactical part of sales training. Whilst this is hugely important, there is an inevitable ceiling that is created once you have optimised this part of your sales.

Klozers will work with your management team and ensure we deliver a holistic solution that maximises the market opportunity.

If you’re looking for a program to complement your on-the-job sales training, look no further than our online sales coaching. Our sales experts will coach your sales team to be the best they can be by highlighting strengths and building upon any perceived weak points.

We know that you’re looking for a strong sales force. The only way to get this is to invest in quality tech focused sales coaching like ours.

Klozers provides training for SaaS companies via our offices in United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia and the USA.

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Tailoring Our SaaS Training to Meet Your Teams Needs

Every sales team is unique, with its own strengths, weaknesses, and goals. To achieve improved sales results it’s essential to tailor the sales training to meet their specific needs. This approach not only improves sales results but also aligns with the individual skills and career paths of your team members, from new salespeople to seasoned directors.

Understanding Your Team’s Composition and Goals

Before you begin any training session, it’s crucial to review your team’s current performance, sales processes and sales skills to identify areas where they need the most help. Are your sales reps struggling with closing deals or qualifying leads? Do they need better tools to convince prospects or to articulate the value proposition of your product? Understanding these challenges will help you design a curriculum that addresses these pain points directly, ensuring the training is applicable and relevant.

Creating a Customized Training Program

A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always work in sales program. Your team might benefit from a combination of consultative selling techniques, practical exercises, and real-life scenarios that mirror their day-to-day challenges. Incorporating blended learning, including both virtual and live training sessions, allows you to cater to different learning styles and ensures that every team member, regardless of their role, can engage fully with the material.

For instance, new salespeople might need more focus on the basics of SaaS sales, such as understanding the sales funnel and mastering CRM usage. In contrast, experienced sales reps may benefit more from advanced tactics, like improving their ability to handle objections or refining their approach to securing renewals.

Continuous Improvement and Support

Sales training is not a one-time event but an ongoing process. After the initial training is completed, it’s essential to continue supporting your team with regular coaching sessions, review meetings, and feedback loops. This continuous education ensures that your team members are not just trained but are also evolving with the ever-changing demands of the SaaS industry.

By focusing on the specific needs of your team, you can build a strong foundation for long-term sales success. Remember, the goal is to enable your team to not only meet but exceed expectations, creating a sales culture where every team member feels confident and capable of driving the company’s success.

Realizing the Benefits of a Tailored Approach

When your sales program is customized to your team’s needs, the results speak for themselves. Your team will not only be better equipped to handle sales calls and demos but also more capable of developing lasting relationships with customers and decision-makers. This approach fosters a personal brand for each salesperson, making them more effective in the eyes of prospects and clients alike.

Finally, a tailored training program helps your organization stay ahead of the competition by continually refining and adapting your sales strategy to meet the evolving needs of the market. This commitment to excellence is what separates the good from the great in SaaS sales, ensuring your team not only reaches but surpasses its sales goals.

By focusing on the specific needs of your team, you can transform your sales training from a generic program into a powerful tool that drives measurable results and sets your organization on the path to long-term success.

How to Master the Complex Sale

by Iain Swanston

The Definitive Guide to Sales Training

by Iain Swanston

Introduction

We’ve written this guide based on the most common questions we are asked by companies considering purchasing Sales Training, those who have bought sales training from us, and those who are considering implementing their own sales training programmes.

Our goal is to give you as much information as possible to make an educated decision on Training for you and your business.

If there are any questions we have missed then please leave a comment below and we will add them in for future visitors.

Sometimes the answers to these questions may lead to other questions which are unique to your situation and if that’s the case you can reach us via the contact page.

Best Online Sales Training Courses — Best Online Training Courses

1. Sales Training Prices

How much does Sales Training Cost?

The biggest influence on training costs are the way that the training course or content is delivered. Free sales training is available by reading books and some online courses. Paid training in most cases involves facilitator-led sessions and costs between £450 per person for a one day course, up to circa £10,000 per person for 12 month programmes.

We have an open and transparent pricing policy and you can view the prices of all our sales training programmes.

Larger organisations can make savings by volume purchasing and Facilitator costs are between £3,500 and £15,000 per day, however, in most cases they will restrict class sizes to circa 15 to maintain a good learning environment.

As most companies move away from Impact Training (one-day events with no follow up) more and more companies are adopting a longer-term approach to developing their salespeople and using regular weekly and monthly sales training and coaching sessions.

Is Sales Training Effective?

The level of effectiveness of training is directly linked to the time spent designing the training programme, measuring the outputs of the sales training, and lastly following through on the training to ensure it is embedded in the organisation moving forward.

As a minimum, the follow-through would include sales coaching but may include further training and personal development.

If you consider the Sales Reps are in effect learning new skills for life as long as the training is relevant, well delivered and receives follow through training easily delivers a strong ROI.

Sales Training - Choose Growing — Choose Growing

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2. Designing Sales Training Programmes

What is Sales Training?

Sales Training refers to the process of teaching and developing salespeople on how to sell more effectively. Training may include both the theoretical and practical skills required to be effective in sales.

Sales Effectiveness can be measured in many different ways, however, the main KPI’s may include Total Sales, Cost of Sales, Sales Margins, Sales Conversion ratios, Length of Sales Cycle and Lifetime Customer Value.

Training may include Skills Training which can also be referred to as Sales Competencies or Learning Competencies. These refer to the practical activities that salespeople undertake on a regular basis. This could include skills such as Prospecting, Rapport Building, Active Listening, Questioning & Planning.

What is a Sales Training programme?

A Training programme is typically a long term learning and development programme lasting for between 6 months and a year, whereas a Training course would normally be held over 1 or two days.

Training programmes often include a number of sales training courses that form part of the wider training programme.

What is a Sales Training process?

A Training process is a step by step programme that would take a Salesperson through the different areas of sales that they need to develop and improve.

An example of this would be when a new person joins a company they will go through a Sales Training Process that may include training on the company’s history, products and services, target markets, case studies, skills training and sales management training.

The sales training process often needs to be flexible to allow learners to join at different points in the process and allow them to progress at different speeds which is called self-paced learning.

What Sales Training ideas do you have?

All Training should be needs-based, meaning that the topics or ideas should be driven by the needs of the salespeople and the business. These training needs are often found by studying the sales data, analytics, industry trends or the future needs of the business if there is a change in sales strategy.

Training ideas are the start of the learning process as they need to be developed into structured programmes with learning objectives and learning outcomes that can be assessed and measured.

If the Training is not needs-based then there is a real danger that the training will have no relevance to the Salespeople. When this happens learners switch off and even important components within the training are missed.

How do I create a Training curriculum?

A Training curriculum will vary dependent on the course design and learning objectives.

We recommend:
1. Identifying the Sales Competencies required for success in the Sales role from a business perspective
2. Identify the sales competencies that make your Top sales performers stand out
3. Prioritise the competencies based on your KPI’s for success
4. Understand what Best Practice is for each Competency in your organisation and document it
5. Create appropriate learning content with learning objectives and measurable outcomes
6. Train Salespeople on the Sales Competencies and measure the outcomes
7. Use Sales Managers and Top Performers for follow-through coaching that reinforces the training.
8. Link financial rewards to learning goals as much as revenue goals

What Training Competencies should I consider?

Historically training was delivered via 1 and 2-day courses however as training itself has developed more and more organisations break down their training needs into Competencies. We group these competencies into the four main areas of sales performance which are:
1. Finding new customers
Why Prospects Buy, How to target prospect, Making Cold Calls to Prospect, How to Uncover Business Pain, Uncovering Where Prospects See Value, Using Social Media to Sell, Building a Personal Brand, Qualifying Sales Tenders, Listening Skills

2. Closing new customers
Building Trust, Consultative Selling Skills, Handling Stalls & Objection, Maintaining Sales Pipelines, Differentiating your Products and Services, How to Beat your Competition, Selling Value Not Price

3. Growing existing customer revenues and
Selling through Customer Service, Key Account skills, Maximising Meetings with Prospects, Preparing for Sales Negotiation

4. Development or Learning Goals
Managing Personal Time, Improving Self Performance, Understanding Human Behaviour, Leading Others, Coaching and mentoring, Mindset

The relevance of each Sales Competency can be different from one business to another and one industry to another however the main competencies we work with are

Will you help us design our own Bespoke Sales Training programme?

Yes. We can work with you to co-create your own learning programmes and content. Depending where you are in the design process this takes anything from 2 weeks to 2 months.

Who needs Sales Training?

Many different groups of people need sales training, however, the most common groups include Graduates, People transitioning to Sales from another position, Salespeople looking to develop their careers, Entrepreneurs, Consultants and Engineers.

In reality, anyone who has contact with customers, whether that be via chat, phone or face to face can benefit from Training. More and more companies are asking for formal training as part of the interview process, as they only want to hire new salespeople who can hit the ground running so to speak.

Changes in Buyer behaviour means that where previously customers were served by humans either face to face or telephone are now purchasing the same products and services by shopping carts online. If anyone in Sales wants to future proof their career they should invest continuously in themselves.

Do you provide Learning Management Systems?

Yes. Learning Management systems (LMS) are online software applications that provide the end to end management of the learning and development of your sales team.

There are many LMS applications to choose from that have different features and if you have specific requirements you will need to undertake some research. For most companies over 80% of their LMS requirements can be met with Microsoft applications that they are already paying for.

We use MS Teams as the base platform which we customise to include Needs Analysis, Sales Playbooks, Training Courses, Learning Assessments, Coaching Programmes and Content Management Systems.

What Different Sales Training methods are available?

There are 4 main training methods that companies are using as follows:
1. Self Study. As a training method self-study is difficult to measure in terms of effectiveness. Without any design or structure or support there will be a limit to how effective this method is however all training and learning is good training so this should not be discounted.

2. Role Play. This is not always popular, however, when Roleplay sessions are designed and conducted well they are not only very powerful, they are also enjoyable for the participants. Roleplay continues to be the most effective way to build the muscle memory required to make real changes in sales behaviour.

3. Observation. Many companies monitor and record telephone calls to ensure Salespeople are following their sales process and complying with any regulatory requirements. For Field Sales Teams “ride-alongs” whereby a Sales Manager or Sales Mentor accompanies a Sales Rep to observe and provide feedback.

4. Workshops. Sales Workshops are a great way to facilitate peer learning amongst your Sales Team however their success lies in the design and facilitation of each session. Workshops are usually focussed around a single topic and would last between 1 hour and 1 day.
Training Courses. Despite the move away from Impact Training, Sales Training courses are still a powerful sales training method. In most cases training courses are now highly interactive, activity-based sessions that engage and inspire learners.

5. Self-Directed Sales Training. When people have ownership of anything they tend to have a higher rate of engagement so allowing Sales Teams to Self Direct and in effect choose their own training can be very powerful. In order to be effective Self Directed training needs to have a framework that guides and challenges learners.
Sales Playbooks. Sales Playbooks are digital repositories that contain everything on how and organisation sells. The “Books” are divided into chapters that contain different information such as products and services, sales plays, the companys sales process, product and service information, technical data, case studies and testimonials. Playbooks are great tools that every organisation should have.

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3. Types of Sales Training Available

What types of Training programmes do you offer?

There are many different types of Training Programmes however most training programmes are categorised by course delivery type:

1. Online via our Learning Portal
2. Open Courses, where anyone can attend from any company
3. In-house Courses where we deliver courses exclusively for one organisation
4. Bespoke Sales Training programmes where we co-create learning content with you

Once you have chosen your course delivery type sales training programmes are further categorised by their content:
Product Training & Sales Skills Training.

In terms of Sales Skills Training the most popular skills bases sales training programmes are:
1. Telephone Sales Skills
2. Key Account Management Training
3. Consultative Selling Skills Training
4. Sales Management Training

Many Training programmes now include an element of Sales Coaching to ensure follow-through which makes every training programme more effective.

Do you provide Online Sales Training?

Online training has become more and more popular and now nearly every organisation delivers part of their training online.

The most common area for this is the adoption of online training as part of a Sales Enablement system which are one-stop repositories for everything connected to sales inside an organisation.

Online Training is also widely used for onboarding new salespeople, both graduates and experienced salespeople as it allows them to quickly learn the fundamentals of selling within that organisation without tying up more senior salespeople to deliver this.

We provide Online Training both as a stand alone service and to compliment and support our face to face delivery. Our training programmes are delivered via Microsoft Teams and prices start at £97 + VAT

Do you provide Training courses for beginners?

There are numerous options for training courses for beginners with most companies having their own in house onboarding programmes. In addition, there are many sales training courses for beginners available online, however, online learning for sales does have it’s limitations.

You can’t teach someone how to make a pot without at some stage, them getting their hands dirty and practising on a pottery wheel. Selling is a hands-on activity that needs to be learned on the job.

Do you provide Sales Training Videos?

Yes all our online training courses include raining videos which are a great learning tool to complement and support a training programme.

They are especially helpful for Remote training and coaching and really lend themselves to product, process and technical training. Whilst it is possible to use video for Skills training it can be difficult to include every context and therefore needs to be used as part of a wider blended learning programme.

Do you provide Sales Webinars?

Yes. We run monthly Training webinars for our customers as a way to reinforce our Training access our Sales Trainers from anywhere in the world.

Our webinars include the facility to ask the presenters questions and in most cases these webinars can be recorded and accessed offline.

These can form the basis of a lunch and learn where you need to stimulate a conversation around a particular sales topic.

Do you provide PPT (PowerPoint) presentations on your Training?

No. We do use PPT, however, our sales trainers only use them as a way to support our blended learning process.

Blended learning is an approach to training that includes a mix of different content such as Training PPT’s and quizzes, worksheets, templates, guides and most importantly, activities and interactions with the sales trainer and their peer group.

Furthermore, studies have shown that people learn and retain knowledge and skills more by doing than training. This is more relevant in Sales than most other topics.

Do you provide post course support for Training?

Yes. We use our online learning portal to engage with your salespeople before the training to ensure we include and specific content they need. After training our participants have access to the portal for a further 12 months to ensure they get the support they need.

Do you provide Sales Coaching?

Yes. We have a range of sales coaching programmes available for Salespeople and Sales Leaders.

Back to Table of Contents

5 Easy Ways for Using MS Teams for Sales

by Iain Swanston

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…

Using MS Teams for Sales

We’ve previously written about how we use Microsoft OneNote for Sales Management for everything from recording meeting notes through to online sales coaching and training and sales playbooks. We are big fans of OneNote, but what really turbocharges OneNote for us, is the ability to create, store, access and use inside MS Teams.

With so many people now using MS Teams from home Teams has gone from a Business product to a household brand that everyone can use. Unlike its competitors that lack the Enterprise level of security, MS Teams has multilayered security allowing users to configure Teams to bring sales prospects, customers and employees all together. In some cases that might not be appropriate, however, in many cases we help our clients configure Teams so they have:

Using the Public Access feature to deliver Live Events & Sales Webinars for Lead Generation

Using Group Access to position your business as an Industry thought leader

External Company access for Sales Prospects to take them through a Complex Sales Process

In house access where Teams for Managing Sales Opportunities, for example, collaborating on Tenders

In House access where Teams is used as the “host platform” for a Learning Management System based on OneNote, MS Forms, Planner, Yammer, Stream, To Do, Calendar and My Analytics or even third party apps like Moodle.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these scenarios and see why using MS Teams for sales makes so much sense.

1. Public Access for Live Events using MS Teams for Sales

Every business needs new customers and the Live Events feature inside Teams allows you to create and run events open to the public as part of your Lead Generation Programme. Over the years we have found that many Salespeople struggle to pick up the telephone and make sales calls.

Some even struggle to send emails and LinkedIn connection requests because they are introverts and don’t want to face the possible rejection that comes in sales. We’ve found that create FREE high-value Events are a great way to overcome this because most Salespeople are much happier calling or emailing a FREE invitation. The reality is Events are a great way to position your business, raise awareness and start conversations with prospects.

If you’re struggling with ideas on what High-Value event you could deliver think about what’s relevant and what’s current. Are there changes in Legislation surrounding your industry? Are their new trends in your industry?

If you’re still unsure look up your Industry News site and run a Live Event on the topic they are headlining with. If you don’t know anything about the topic find the expert source that the News article referenced and interview them for the Live event using questions from the attendees.

ENABLING THE LIVE EVENTS FUNCTIONS INSIDE MS TEAMS

If you are planning on using MS Teams for Sales, the Public Access feature may not be available or switched on in your companies current MS Teams platform. If Public Access is not available then you will require a user with Admin Rights to switch this feature on from inside the Teams Admin Centre. Once Inside the Admin Centre you should look for the Meetings section and from there the Live Events policies. Please check the video for easy to follow directions.

The notes not only help us remember what was said and what next steps need to be taken they are great for referring back to when we send a “Thank you for meeting me email” with a summary of the notes and if we need to create a proposal or presentation later in the sales process.

If you are in the Admin Centre it’s worthwhile using the additional features in Teams to customise your Meeting Invitations:
Your Company Logo
Your Legal T’s and C’s
Your Support Contact for the Event
Your Company strapline in the Footer
These are then displayed whenever a recipient opens their Meeting Invite.

We should point out we’re not a Tech Channel so here are the links to Microsofts’ own guide to making these changes.

Getting started with Microsoft Teams Live Events

Setting up Live Events in MS Teams

Once you have Live Events configured you can create your own Event from inside teams by clicking on Calendar and then use the drop-down menu to access the live events option.

From here you can then add the Meeting Title and all the details. Next, simply copy the link and insert it into your emails or lead generation campaigns.

2. Group Access for Sales using MS Teams

Whereas Public Access in MS Teams is a great platform for Live events, we recently configured Teams for a client who wanted a Channel to communicate with a specific industry that was going through huge changes with the Pandemic and needed a platform to talk to them.

They invited over 350 customers and 450 prospects into Teams and are delivering weekly updates to an entire industry. They are now seen as thought leaders in the industry and it’s a great way to start conversations that lead to relationships that lead to sales.

You can use the same strategy and use MS Teams to create a platform so that you can talk to your industry.

You could deliver updates on new laws and regulations, industry trends and insights, interview industry thought leaders and invite your customers to talk about their businesses and experiences.

We would, however, warn against overtly selling in these types of communications as the minute the audience believes they are being sold to, they will start to drop out and the Channel will wither.

3. Company Access for Sales Prospects inside MS Teams

In B2B Sales it’s increasingly difficult to reach all the decision-makers in the Sales Process. In many cases they send a “Scout” to find information not available on your website and do all they can to keep Salespeople at a distance throughout the buying process.

What these buyers want is information and in most cases a quote or proposal and when they have it they immediately cease all contact. This can be a huge waste of time and money for the selling organisation as tenders become more and more complicated, needing multiple people in the way of bid teams to respond. If you’re not sure if this is happening to you simply check back through your CRM and you’ll see that many deals stall immediately after the prospect receives the pricing and information they need.

There is no easy way around this however what’s working for our clients is offering limited information up-front and then holding back until the other Decision Makers engage. They do this by re-framing the sales opportunity as a project and using Teams as the “Project Management Portal” to gather the needs of all the “stakeholders”.

This brings the buyers out and allows a controlled release of the information in exchange for engagement. This doesn’t work on every deal however it very quickly “smokes” out the genuine buyers from those just using the Salespeople for pricing.

An additional benefit of this approach is the Sales Team can invite Pre-Sales, operations, delivery teams and aftercare teams to the Teams Channel in the solution forming phase of the sale which can provide a richer sales experience for the customer. This is a great point of differentiation and whilst no sales strategy works every time it’s low cost and easy to try.

Lastly this strategy shouldn’t be applied across the board unless every sales opportunity is large and comes with a bespoke solution. We only implement this for deals above £10k, but you can choose where to set the bar.

4. Inhouse Access for Using Teams on Bids & Tenders

The most common use for MS Teams is the call and video conferencing functions, however, there is much more functionality that can help Sales Teams sell more. MS Teams makes Sales Teams more productive, more focussed and delivers a better user experience which in turn increases productivity.

There are numerous advantages with Teams such as the chat function, which allows us to stay connected without cluttering up our Outlook Inbox. Whether it’s Yammer, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or any of the other O365 products, they can all be accessed and worked on from inside the Teams environment.

If you have bid teams responding to tenders the Bid documents can be created, stored and developed within the Teams environment and Tender Teams can collaborate and even edit the same document simultaneously.

In many cases the Bid creation process can run down to the deadline and when multiple authors are involved which can create time delays as each contributes and updates potentially separate copies of the one document. The Multi author allows uses inside Teams to make edits and additions live and see the document develop as their work colleagues contribute in real time.

Whether it’s Word, Excel, PowerPoint or any of the other O365 products, they can all be accessed and worked on from inside Microsoft Teams.

5. Teams as a Learning Management System

Many companies now acknowledge the tangible benefits of training, coaching and developing their people. Sales Training and Coaching itself has changed and improved over the years, whereas in the past training was in most cases was one-off event, they are now almost always part of a bespoke sales training programme. In order to deliver these programmes software companies have developed SaaS models where companies can create bespoke learning programmes.

There are numerous Learning Management Systems on the market each with some great functionality, however, Microsoft Teams has for most companies all the functionality they will ever need from an (LMS). Furthermore, the beauty of using MS Teams as an LMS is both compelling and simple:

You are already paying for it with your 0365 Licence
Your people are already working inside the O365 suite every hour of every day so that’s a great place for learning.

Although there is no one standard in terms of the functionality of an LMS, for most companies an LMS has the capability to, create, document, record, measure, store and deliver training programmes. In practical terms this means:

Create. Document, Record. You can create learning content in OneNote, MS Wiki, MS Paint, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, Stream, MS Whiteboard, Excel, Publisher.

Measure. You can test and measure learning using all of the above and MS Planner and MS Forms.

Store. You can store all your content in either One Drive or SharePoint.

Deliver. You can deliver all your training and coaching using MS Teams and acknowledge achievements via MS Praise.

In addition to the suite of O365 tools there are many additional third-party applications available from inside MS Teams to both enhance and compliment your existing applications. For example, you can connect to

CRM systems – MS Dynamics CRM, Salesforce CRM, NImble, Zoho or iGlobe CRM.
Productivity – Asana, Trello, Jira & Stormflow.
Communications – Survey Monkey, Mail Chimp, Mail Clerk & Text Bot.

There are hundreds of other applications available and the number of these apps including Moodle which is a stand alone LMS that can be connected into your Teams Channel.

We’ve also written on the benefits of using OneNote for Sales Management and Coaching which are an important part of any LMS. We rally like the combined functionality of MS Teams and OneNote as a Coaching platform to help develop Salespeople.

You can break down your Training into competencies and deliver bespoke sessions on specifics like sales prospecting, pipeline management sales closing techniques all from inside your own Sales Playbooks in OneNote. We use our Sales Playbooks with every client and the combination of creating and using OneNote for the Playbook, and delivering them through Teams is really powerful.

6. Recommended Reading

If you would like to discover some of the free templates that we use inside teams then check out our B2B Sales Tools.

FREE Sales Training for Salespeople Made Redundant

by Iain Swanston

Top 9 Activities for Remote Sales Coaching & Training Through a Crisis

by Iain Swanston

7 Best Practices in Training for Telesales | Training Course

by Iain Swanston

1. Training for Telesales

You may remember the ad campaign from Levi “When the world zigs you zag” which encouraged people to be different and draw on the rebellious spirit in them. Well in a world where there seems to be an app for everything it might be time for you to pull out the old fashioned Telephone and make some sales calls.

Get full details on our Telephone Sales Training Course.

2. Successful Telesales Strategies

Cold Calling might be dead, however, the telephone definitely isn’t.

Many Inside Sales Professionals successfully use the telephone in conjunction with email and Social Media to “connect” first with buyers and then establish relevance to prime the call before picking up the phone.

Recently one of our clients was thrilled to have a buyer call back after we helped compile, one simple introductory email.

This call led to a meeting and 3 months down the line a £60,000 contract.

Using the telephone to generate demand is still possible, but we need to be much smarter and much more targeted, than simply working our way through a spreadsheet.

Simply smiling and dialing is not a recipe for success in the modern business world.

3. Does Cold Calling Work?

69% of buyers accepted calls from salespeople in the last 12 months.

71% say they are happy to talk with salespeople when they are looking for ideas to improve business results.

60% of IT Buyers want a cold-call from salespeople first.

It may not be fashionable, and it may not be your own personal favourite, but nevertheless, it is the world’s number one Sales Tool.

The telephone has been abused, misused and the weapon of choice for some of the worst sales strategies and sales techniques, hence the words Telephone and Sales are now not always popular bed mates.

In many cases Inside Sales teams never receive formal training for telesales and more often than not they are working ad-hoc based on one persons experience.

However:

It is not the fault of Direct Mail we get flooded with junk mail.

It is not the fault of email that people choose to send spam.

It is not the fault of Social Media that people choose to be rude, offensive and keyboard warriors.

Therefore it is not the fault of the telephone that people have made, and most of us have received, some lousy sales calls.

4. Definitions Training for Telesales

Before we go on it’s important to first establish some common ground on the basics of telesales training.

4.1 WHAT IS A COLD CALL?

A Cold Call is when you telephone a complete stranger who is not expecting your call.

4.2 WHAT IS A WARM CALL?

A warm call is when you call a complete stranger who is expecting your call because you may have emailed, or sent something in advance telling them you would call.

The success rate of Warm Calling jumps to 40% with a personal introduction to a buyer and will be anything between 3 and 40% when you send information in advance, but this is largely dependent on what you send and your value proposition.

In some industries, cold calling has an amazing conversion rate but less so in others, so like many other things the context is important.

5. Inside Sales Training

Aaron Ross’s great book Predictable Revenue will help you understand how to set up an Inside Sales team and is a great starting point, however, most of our clients quickly find there are some missing links in the translation from selling American style, to the culture and nuance of the UK.

It doesn’t help that Inside Sales is such a tough job to do and an even tougher one to manage.

Many of us have had more than one negative experience with a cold call where the caller was less than professional and this unfortunately continues, as so few people have the necessary skills to make an effective telephone call or the appetite to learn.

When we Cold Call we run the risk of damaging our brand, and this is where training and coaching have their place.

Modern technology has killed the art of voice communication. Auto-dialers, Text, Instant Messaging and Email are now the preferred form of business communication and for many picking up the phone is the last option. In our personal lives, we are also happy to text or message our family and friends rather than phone.

This is further echoed by younger generations who have moved completely away from voice communication which ironically is often the least used App on the modern telephone.

The way companies buy has changed and evolved over the last 40 years, which has forced us to change the way we communicate and sell. This has cast a question mark over the effectiveness, or lack of it from Cold Calling.

Like everything the best way to get real results from cold calling are by providing effective training for telesales which is then supported by on ongoing coaching and practice.

By practice and repetition we mean making at least 1000 calls to practice and hone your telephone selling skills. Most people, however, don’t want to make 1000 calls, especially when they are learning when each call can quickly turn into a car crash.

Now more than ever, we all seek instant gratification and when we are making cold calls, that very rarely happens.

6. Marketing vs Telesales

Many marketers will claim that Cold Calling is not the most effective use of your Salespeople’s time and they have the statistics to prove this. Where this falls down, however, is that marketing is reactive which means we have to wait on a prospect finding a blog, a white paper or a video and then hope they respond or contact us.

Sales is a pro-active sport and if there is a C – Level buyer that fits our prospect profile why wouldn’t we call them?

Why would we wait on them finding the content that marketing created?

Marketing should be providing the 80-90% of new leads to the business, however, Cold Calling also has a place; as a high impact, tactical sales tool reserved for targeting high-value prospects.

7. Best Practice in Telesales

7.1 SYSTEMS & PROCESS

If you don’t prepare your call list till the day you plan to make your calls you will never make any calls. Preparation needs to be done in advance and don’t be too proud to use scripts. Everyone laughs at the scripted young servers in McDonald’s but multiply the effect of “would you like fries with that” across thousands of sales interactions every hour of every day and the additional revenue this creates is staggering.

If you are unsure what to say you need to first develop your Value Proposition and after that, you can feed this into your opening script. Please note only the opening should be scripted because when you use Consultative Selling, you will be asking questions and the prospects answers will never fit with your script.

7.2 KNOW YOUR NUMBERS

You must keep track of all your activity such as number of calls, number of voicemails, number of times the gatekeeper blocks you, number of time you get to speak with a prospect etc. By week 2 you should know for every x calls you make, you will get one appointment or sale. This will help to motivate you when times are tough. You can download a free copy of our Sales Call Tracker sheet from the Sales Tools section which will provide the basics to get you started.

7.3 MAKE A PLAN

You should develop a call plan with the best times to call, the questions you will ask and the outcomes you want.

Cold calling is 70% more successful on a Wednesday

Buyers are 16% more likely to answer at 10 am

The best talk to listen to ration is 55% to 45% (personally I think this is too much talking)

Follow up emails get a 62% open rate

Post call emails should be a minimum of 75 and a maximum of 100 words.

7.4 PRACTICE

Never practice on your best list of prospects, instead, take the pressure off yourself and practice on people that you have no chance of selling to. Keep your best prospect list ready till you have practiced and have developed your skills.

If you have important callbacks to make in the morning always do 2-3 warm-up calls first, to get you in the zone.

Work out in advance how you will handle sales objections so that you don’t get stuck when the prospect raises any, and they always do.

7.5 EXECUTE

Make your calls consistently and never rush. The goal is normally to set an appointment, not a competition on who makes the most calls. You must choose quality over quantity.

Even if you are trying to sell, do not, because they will smell what we call your sales breath down the telephone and it’s hugely off-putting. Never use features and benefit statements as they remind people of 1970’s car salesmen, instead use intelligent questions to engage them and gather information.

If you are selling “appointments” there is nothing more demoralising for a Salesperson than to attend an appointment arranged by telesales only to find the prospect isn’t a prospect at all. Agree with your colleagues in advance what the prospect must say or do to qualify for an appointment.

No matter how good you are every day people will be rude and even abusive. They are only words and they will never hurt you so never make the mistake of responding to them.

Kill them with kindness, protect your brand and yourself and simply say “Next Please”.

7.6 RECORD & DEBRIEF

Depending on the laws of whatever country you are reading this article in, it may be possible to record your calls. Normally recording is legal if you tell the other person and this happens all the time for inbound calls, however, it will kill your conversion ratio if you have to declare you are recording on an outbound call so only do it if it’s legal.

That said recording your calls and listening back to them is a great way to debrief a call and learn for the next one.

7.7 REPEAT

Repeat, In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he talks about the need for 10,000 hours of deliberate practice before you can become proficient at anything.

There has been a rush of studies to try and disprove this and you may not need 10,000 hours of telesales practice, but, you will need months to perfect and hone your skills. Repetition is a great trainer.

Back to Table of Contents

8. What Makes Cold Calling Difficult?

Telesales is a difficult job to do consistently and your sales team will need a good sales manager who is constantly coaching, and supporting them if they are to be successful.

Although many sales staff see telephone selling as the entry level and beginners rung of the sales profession. However, a good Inside sales person is worth their weight in gold.

Cold Calling has an average conversion rate to appointments of 1-3%

Pushy sales tactics deter 84% of buyers

Sales Reps spend 40% of their time looking for sales prospects

80% of cold calls go to voicemail

A survey by Leap Job claims only 2% of cold calls result in an appointment

A survey by Telenet states in 2007 it took an average of 3.68 attempts to reach a prospect. Today it takes 8 attempts.

Individual and group places on our courses can be booked by calling the office or filling out the Booking request form

9. Effective Training Techniques for Telesales Representatives

1. Understanding Telesales Dynamics

Effective telesales training begins with a deep understanding of the sales dynamics involved. Telesales representatives must be trained to handle various situations and adapt their approach according to the prospect’s behavior. Telemarketing skills such as effective communication, questioning techniques, and presentation skills are crucial. These skills help salespeople control the conversation, identify buying signals, and provide tailored solutions to meet customer needs.

2. Role-Playing and Real-World Scenarios

Role-playing exercises are an essential part of telesales training. These exercises simulate real-world sales calls, allowing representatives to practice their sales skills in a controlled environment. This method helps trainees feel more comfortable and confident when dealing with actual customers. Telemarketing courses often include role-playing sessions to help participants practice handling objections, closing sales, and developing rapport with clients.

3. Continuous Feedback and Improvement

Providing continuous feedback is vital for the development of telesales representatives. Trainers should give specific feedback on areas where representatives can improve and recognize their strengths. This feedback loop helps in refining their skills and increasing their effectiveness. It’s also important to discuss the results of their calls, analyze what went well, and identify areas for improvement.

4. Leveraging Technology and Tools

Incorporating technology into telesales training can significantly enhance learning outcomes. CRM systems, call recording software, and performance analytics tools provide valuable insights into sales calls. These tools help trainers monitor progress, identify trends, and provide data-driven feedback to representatives.

5. Tailored Training Programs

Training programs should be tailored to meet the specific needs of the telesales team. This includes addressing the unique challenges faced by the sales team and focusing on the products or services they are selling. Customizing the training content ensures that representatives receive relevant and practical knowledge that they can apply in their daily activities.

6. Building Confidence and Motivation

Building confidence is key to successful telesales. Representatives should be encouraged to believe in their ability to close deals and overcome objections. Motivational sessions, success stories, and recognition of achievements can boost morale and inspire representatives to perform at their best.

7. Emphasizing Customer-Centric Selling

Training should emphasize the importance of understanding and addressing customer needs. Telesales representatives should be trained to listen actively, ask the right questions, and provide solutions that genuinely benefit the customer. This customer-centric approach builds trust and increases the likelihood of closing sales.

8. Implementing Best Practices

Incorporating industry best practices into the training program ensures that telesales representatives are equipped with the most effective strategies and techniques. Learning from the experiences of successful salespeople and applying proven methods can significantly improve performance.

9. Regular Training Updates

The telesales environment is constantly evolving, and so should the training programs. Regular updates to training content ensure that representatives stay current with the latest trends, technologies, and techniques. Ongoing training sessions help maintain a high level of competence and adaptability among the telesales team.

10. Measuring Training Effectiveness

It’s essential to measure the effectiveness of training programs to ensure they deliver the desired results. Key metrics such as call conversion rates, average deal size, and customer satisfaction scores can provide insights into the impact of training. Regular assessments and reviews help identify areas for improvement and ensure continuous development.

By implementing these effective training techniques, telesales representatives can significantly improve their performance and achieve better results. Continuous learning, tailored programs, and a focus on customer needs are essential components of successful telesales training. By investing in comprehensive training, companies can equip their sales teams with the sales skills and confidence needed to excel in the competitive telesales environment.

10. Telephone Sales Training

We have been successfully delivering our essential telephone selling skills course since 2014. Delivered by our team of expert trainers, the course covers everything a sales team needs to generate sales leads and improve sales performance across your sales staff.

The telesales courses will help your sales team choose the most likely potential customers to call, the best methods for getting past the gatekeeper and ensure you are talking to the right person. How to build rapport, gain the customer’s interest and how to move them to the next stage of your sales process. How to handle objections and build an effective communication process with potential customers.

Lead generation is an important part of telesales success, however, in most cases you are not selling, but more often, you will need be securing a further call or meeting with other people in the buyers decision making unit and or securing a call back.

Find out how we can help you create more sales opportuntities and win more business with our telesales course now.

Telesales Training Course Find out more & book

How to Sell Without Sleazy Sales Closing Techniques

by Iain Swanston

Essential Sales Training for Entrepreneurs That Want Rapid Growth

by Iain Swanston

Why Non “Salesy” Sales Training for Consultants Works

by Iain Swanston

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…

1. Why Being Salesy Doesn’t Work for Consultants

Being Salesy is forcing your beliefs and opinions on why someone should buy a product or service from you. This rarely works because the approach is very off-putting for the person receiving on the receiving end and in most cases damages the Consultants personal brand in addition to the brand of the business.

Being Salesy clashes with our personal values which are the unwritten rules that guide the way we live and behave. When we are living and acting in congruence with our personal values people are the most productive and the most successful which is why being “salesy” doesn’t work for consultants or anyone else for that matter.

Consultants are not Sales People, they are experts in their chosen field and any sales training should be bespoke and reflect and leverage that expertise.

2. Selling Tips for Consultants Who are Introverts

Roughly one third of the population are introverts which means they are more likely to be uncomfortable around other people whether they are selling or not.

Introverts can make great salespeople as they are usually good listeners, good at building relationships and have high level of self awareness.

There are some practical steps that Consultants who believe themselves to be introverts can take to to help themselves enjoy the experience of selling more.

People who are introverts have a “self-as-story”. This self story reinforces negative beliefs such as they are introverted, not good with people and cannot sell.

It’s important to develop a new and believable “self-as-story” with more positive beliefs such as “I am not an introvert I am an Ambivert”.

Ambiverts are the third of the population who sit in the middle between introverts and extroverts. “I am good with people and I enjoying spending time helping others.”

Most human beings are by nature kind and well-meaning so this is again a believable statement.

“My job is not to sell but instead to be of service, help people and create the right conditions for someone to buy; if they want to.”

3. Sales Training for Consultants

We often are asked to train what we call Non-Selling Professionals in new selling techniques and these are people in a business where the sales function is not their primary role, they could be Consultants, but equally, they could be Lawyers, Engineers, Analysts, Accountants, Developers & Architects etc.

In most cases when we first meet them they proclaim that they could never be a salesperson – the reality is that humility is one of the traits that means that they absolutely could be a great salesperson.

Unfortunately, what’s holding these people back is that the publics’ perception of a salesperson is largely negative and the type of adjectives the public use, when asked to describe a salesperson, are words like “liar”, “selfish”, “talks too much”, “money-grabber” and “annoying”.

The reality is that most salespeople are nothing like this, however, sometimes we pay the price for those that go before us and unfortunately there are, albeit a small number of salespeople, who are like that. If you think about it though, those traits are hardly a recipe for success.

4. How to get sales leads without picking up the phone

After spending years trying to train and coach consultants, engineers and technical people from every different industry, we came to the realisation that nothing we could ever do would motivate them to pick up the phone and make a cold call consistently.

If we showed them how to make a cold call that won them a $1 million dollar order they would still prefer to come in the next day and work at their desktops. These same people, however, would be more than happy to take inbound calls and talk to strangers who had called them.

The answer to the challenge was easy then – get their phones to ring and get their email to ping. If you talk to anyone in B2B marketing they will probably say quite rightly that generating a consistent flow of inbound leads is not easy.

We worked with our own team to develop a new strategy around this and worked to implement this strategy into our own business to prove it works and to gather some good data.

What is this strategy and can it work for me? In simple terms the strategy involves leveraging the knowledge and expertise of the consultants, and position them and their company as SME’ s (Subject Matter Experts). We then help them develop thought leadership content that buyers were interested in.

We then help them take that knowledge and place it on their website in a way that can be easily found and ranked on Page 1 of Google – just the same way you found this article. This then creates a steady stream of self qualified sales leads who have already bought into the expertise of your consultants and keen to engage further.

What’s more unlike pay per click ads these articles create a steady flow of new leads that fuel future growth at no cost. Once the content is published that’s it.

No cold calls, no outbound phone calls of any sort. In fact, in some cases our clients are now closing deals via email.

If this approach interests you and you would like to learn more please contact us for further details.

Back to Table of Contents

5. Training Sessions for Sales Consultants

In most cases sales training for Consultants is delivered over 1 & 2-day courses. This can work however in our experience, Consultants can immediately feel defensive if they are told they need training as they are nearly always mature adults and often have had a negative experience from previous Sales Training programmes they have attended.

The best way around this is to choose sales training for Consultants that is specifically designed for Consultants and content that highlights the skills and experience of the Consultants. The trainer should have experience of training a wide variety of non-selling professionals and be able to address the specific learning styles and needs of this type of audience.

What can be equally productive is running workshops where the Consultants get to choose what they feel would benefit them most. This way they feel more empowered as they have chosen the content and by definition, the content should be more targeted and relevant.

The only drawback to this is that this requires an experienced facilitator/trainer who knows the answers to the Consultants Sales Challenges from memory and can articulate them without a PowerPoint. If the trainer has to stop the session to look up the answers in a textbook or slide deck they will lose all credibility.

These workshops should have defined outcomes with action plans to make sure they are more than just a talking shop and deliver real impact for the Consultants and the company.

6. Sales Training Tips for Sales Consultants

Most people have a common misconception that selling is all about closing and forcing people to make decisions that they might not want to make. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth as the most successful salespeople simply don’t do this because they know it doesn’t work and in many cases destroys any trust or relationship that they have with the prospect.

In most cases, traditional Sales Training for Consultants won’t work because the techniques they use go against the Values & Beliefs of the Consultants. No matter how good the trainer is unless the content is based on actions that are congruent with the beliefs and values of the Consultant it will simply be a waste of everyone’s time and money.

What will work however is if the training is designed to position the Consultants as Trusted Advisors to their prospects and the sales activities are aligned with positioning them as Thought Leaders in their Industry.

The following sales tips help Consultants & Non-Selling Professionals understand that Professional Selling is more about building trust and relationships than it is about “Closing” prospects.

To sell more consultants should focus on building TRUST

T = Time
R = Reliability
U = Unselfishness
S = Soundness
T = Truthfulness

Time

Set Goals and manage your own time – be effective, not busy. Be respectful of your clients’ time, turn up on time to meetings, prepare before meetings to get the most from them. Spend time with clients to help them. Focus your time on your best prospects.

Reliability

Get a plan and stick to it, sales plans, communications plans and account plans. Many sales are lost when you are back in your own office. Respond to every email within 24 hours, manage expectations and take ownership of problems and follow up.

Unselfishness

Listen, empathise and give, yes give, as in Emersons Law of Compensation. Stop trying to sell and start trying to help, have conversations, not sales pitches. Recognise when there is no fit and walk away – never force the sale. Pass on referrals and give recommendations.

Soundness

Become an expert in your field. Be the “go-to” person in your industry that people refer others to. Create your own personal development plan and learn as much as you can about yourself, your customers and your customers’ customers. Mentor, coach and help others.

Truthfulness

Be true to yourself. Have those difficult conversations with family, friends, colleagues and customers. Losing some sales, losing some battles will help you win the war. Nurture and grow your integrity, self-respect and self-belief. Be authentic and true to yourself.

These Sales Techniques are not glamorous, and they might not produce an overnight transformation however they do work. Together you will see these five areas form the basis of TRUST. Selling without trust may be possible, but it is extremely hard work and will, without doubt, limit your success. In business, the antithesis of trust is a risk, and every Buyer, every CEO, every organisation will pay more for a solution that is perceived to mitigate risk. Building and sustaining TRUST is the foundation of Mastery in sales, although many of our clients have asked us to help embed these “selling techniques” throughout their organisation, not just sales.

7. Sales Training for Professional Services

Selling Professional Services can be very different from selling as a Consultant because in many cases when you are selling Professional Services the salesperson is the product.

In B2B more so than B2C, buyers rarely purchase anything from a salesperson they don’t like or trust. There are exceptions to this when the Brand Power of the product or service is very strong, for example it doesn’t take the salesperson of the year to sell Microsoft Technical Services because the power of the Microsoft brand has pre-sold most people before they go into the sales meeting and the product is Microsoft, not the Consultant.

For Consultants who do not represent a big brand like Microsoft, Deloitte, or Bain & Co, in most cases they are the brand, they are the product, and they have to work even harder to win the sale.

In many cases what is more productive for Consultants is to stop trying to sell and focus all their energies on trying to help the prospect.

We recommend a Consultative Sales Approach which focuses the sales conversation around 5 critical questions.

What are the symptoms of the business problem?

Prospects find it easier to identify symptoms however it’s the role of the expert to ask questions and dig deeper.

What is the Root Cause of the Problem?

The Consultant should use Root Cause Analysis techniques to identify the underlying causes of the problems.

How is this problem impacting the business?

These questions should focus on what way the problem limits growth, profits or damage the brand in any way.

Financial Impact

The consultant and the prospect need to do a basic cost-benefit analysis to ensure the client will see a return on any investment they make.

Personal Impact

Lastly, the Consultant needs to uncover any personal motives or drivers that are important to the client.

Often by simply asking these questions, the Consultant will get the opportunity to position themselves as the expert at the same time building rapport and trust with the prospect.

8. Sales Training Courses for Consultants

We have training and coaching courses available to help your consultants overcome their sales challenges.

We deliver our sales training and coaching via our Online Sales gym so we can provide support throughout and after the training period.

This helps you embed the new skills and sales behaviours in your organisation to maximise the impact of our training.

You can learn more about our Sales Training for Consultants via the following articles:

Consultative Sales process here

Consultative Selling Skills Course

Bespoke Sales Training

1. What is a Sales Funnel?

2. How to build a SaaS Sales Funnel

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

3. The three main stage of SaaS development

4. Build a marketing funnel before your sales funnel

5. Advertising to fill your Sales Funnel

6. How to Build a SaaS Sales Funnel

7. What are the Stages of a SaaS Sales Funnel?

8. When do I demo my SaaS product to customers?

9. SaaS Sales Funnel examples

10. SaaS sales funnel metrics

11. SaaS Proposal submissions

12. Pricing your SaaS contracts

13. Why the sales funnel is so important for SaaS providers

14. Managing prospects expectations

15. The Rise of SaaS solutions

What are sales channels?

What are Direct sales channels?

What are the benefits of Direct sales channels?

What are Indirect sales channels?

What are the benefits of Indirect sales channels?

Examples of Sales Channels

What are digital sales channels?

What is a Channel sales strategy?

How to Choose the right sales channels?

How does market segmentation affect sales channels?

Should I choose Multichannel vs Omnichannel?

How do I develop sales channels?

What are the best sales channels for small business?

What are the best sales channels for SaaS?

What are the best sales channels for B2B?

How do I Build product awareness across various channels?

How do I use sales channels to Understand consumers?

How to make the right investments in your channel?

How do I create distinctive Channel campaigns?

Beware of larger Brands

Social Media Platforms as Channels

Is offline marketing still important?

How do I set clear channel sales goals?

Consistency in Channel Planning in Sales Management?

In this article we will cover...

1. How to write a Sales Plan

2. Different types of Sales Plans

3. Increasing Your Sales Revenues

4. Preparing for Success

5. Frameworks for a sales plan

6. Sales Plan Content

7. Encouraging Buy In

Free Sales Plan Template

Can we work with you?

Here's the short answer

Why Sales Training is Important

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

1. Return on Investment

2. Changes in your Market.

3. Building Brand Loyalty

4. Business Growth

5. Optimise the Customer Experience

6. Knowledge is Power

7. Learning from Mistakes is Expensive

8. Versatility and Flexibility

9. Increase Leadership Skills

10. Building Resilience in your Sales Team

In Summary

How to Sell to Big Companies

Discover how to Find, Kloze and Grow Large Enterprise Accounts

Next FREE session – Tuesday 2nd Feb 2021

We’ve got all the templates & tools to make it easy for you

What’s Inside

SESSION 1

The WHO

SESSION 2

The WHAT

SESSION 3

The HOW

Course Author

Iain Swanston

Alan Wood

Scotland Director

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Get started now and get
your first session FREE

Get all the templates
you need to sell more now

Get started now and get
your first session FREE

Get all the templates you
need to sell more now