Online sales training is effective because it helps organisations
Online sales training has improved dramatically and should be considered as part of your overall sales education.
Web based sales training or online sales training has become an essential aspect of sales education, since the advent of lockdowns and the subsequent trend in working from home.
The art of virtuality has become an advantage for every industry to work or study while staying home.
Despite this many businesses struggle to provide a comprehensive business case for online training versus the more traditional face to face classroom approach.
Whilst face to face training still has an important role to play in sales education, here are some areas you might consider when evaluating the different options available.
#web based sales training
Traditionally Face to Face training has been delivered via one and two day events. In most cases there were held in hotels and conference centres. With more and more companies employing sales teams who are geographically remote some attendees could spend a day travelling to attend the event and a day travelling to return home. That’s three days for one day of learning.
With Web Based Training you don’t have to drive hundreds of miles just to come to work. You won’t need to get up early to beat the rush hour traffic and you don’t need a huge budget to get started.
For many people finding time for family has become an important part of their job. Hybrid working has allowed many people to eliminate lengthy commutes enabling them to spend extra quality time with their loved ones.
Web based sales training is part of that solution, providing either self-paced training, and or structured classes online, that sales teams can attend from home.
Traditionally In person training for any sales team has been delivered via classrooms and hotel meeting rooms. Add to this the cost of overnight accommodation at in person training events, and the costs can quickly begin to escalate, even for a small team.
Many training vendors will pass on the reduction of delivery costs to clients, as they themselves save costs on travel and accommodation for their sales trainers.
Most traditional training would be termed as “impact training”. They are one off events designed to kick start learning and development.
Whilst there is still a place for this type of training many companies have found that salespeople need help when they need help. They don’t want to save their question for the next sales training event in three months’ time. Web based sales training provides learning on tap, when the salespeople need it most.
Klozers online training provides real time support to our clients via both live chat and email. Our web based team provide support to our clients “in the moment” so they can learn while they are working.
Many studies have shown that participants can forget up to 95% of the content from one and two-day training events without any form of reinforcement.
Regardless of the quality of the sales trainer or the course content salespeople simply cannot absorb all the information they receive on one and two-day sales courses. Sales Training correlates directly to growth in personal development and this does not happen overnight.
Changes to sales strategy, sales techniques, sales process and selling skills all contribute to sales success but need to be approached with a long term view. There is no magic wand in sales and sales success comes via both hard work and developing your sales force in terms of overall sales performance.
Web based sales training is typically spread out over longer periods and works by a drip effect where content is delivered in a “little and often” format that is easier to absorb.
One of the most important parts of the best sales training courses is the implementation and support after the training has taken place. Not only will your sales reps need support but your sales management will also need help to implement changes on the selling process, selling skills and behaviours of the sales team.
Unfortunately many sales professionals attend training and then return to their job and continue to do what they always have done. This is not a recipe for success.
Change for any human is difficult and most of us need support in order to do this. With web based training Klozers provide ongoing coaching support for both the course participants and their sales managers to ensure any changes in sales process, new sales skills and behaviours are fully adopted.
Many companies continue to hire new staff after any training event. This could be to simply replace salespeople who have left or as part of their expansion plans.
It’s often not financially viable to bring in a sales trainer every time there are changes to your sales team and the ability to deliver training online to new employees is therefore hugely important.
Most web based training is self paced and can be recorded. This can then be used to build up a library that can be accessed on an ongoing basis for both existing and new sales professionals.
Traditional In-person training will always have a place in modern sales education, however, it’s important to consider the alternatives. Whilst budgets and individual circumstances must always be considered web based training is here to stay and an important part of every ongoing sales training program.
Klozers provides a full range of both face to face and web based sales training courses. Each of these feature live training where participants can interact.
In addition to our training we provide ongoing support via sales coaching. If your sales force needs help with developing your value proposition, sales prospecting, reducing your sales cycle, selling skills, win repeat business or sales presentations we would love to talk with you.
Our goal is to help you achieve your business objectives, small your sales targets and achieve the sales success you are seeking.
Iain Swanston has spent over 30 years in B2B sales selling, training and leading teams both domestically and internationally. In addition he serves as an Associate at Strathclyde University Business School where he has delivered the sales content for the Masters in Entrepreneurship since 2015.
107a High Street
Dalkeith
EH22 1AX
United Kingdom
