(AND HOW TO BEAT THEM)

THE 5 BIGGEST BUGBEARS OF

SALES TRAINING

“Sales Activator® is brilliant. In my opinion this product could change the face of learning in the future.”

–Shell International

At Sales Activator, we’re guided by just one goal: to help our clients perform better.

Not just today and tomorrow, but every day. Continuously. That’s why we’ve built our business on giving them valuable insights that they can hold on to. This booklet is one example.

The 5 bugbears of sales training, as well as the solutions we recommend, are based on insights gained from speaking and working closely with companies around the world. If you’d like to know more about how we can help your business perform better, please get in touch.

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Challenge #1:

Energising your sales force

Sales training should be inspiring. Yet all too often, it just isn’t much fun. Sound familiar? Where’s the engagement? The impact? Getting your sales force excited about training is the first step towards getting them to “own” their development. But how?

Solution:

Make learning more fun

Salespeople love nothing more than friendly competition – it’s the quickest way to get them engaged. Game-based learning works because it lets them compete, giving players the thrill of achievement and status without any risk. Just as important, it also brings people together and gets them talking. When it comes to motivational tools, you just can’t beat having fun.

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”If you can make something fun, and include notions of play, you can get people to do things they might otherwise not want to do.”

–Gabe Zichermann, gamification expert

Challenge #2:

Getting sustainable improvement

Studies show that you have to repeat a new action an average of 66 times before it becomes ingrained in your memory*.

Now think about your typical 1- or 2-day training course. Did you know that after just 24 hours, 60–80% of what was learned there will be forgotten? And that after 27 days, only 3% of that knowledge remains? Of course, no salesperson will ever get 66 training sessions – so how do you overcome this?

Solution:

Continual reinforcement

As every student knows, the key to learning is follow-through. By reviewing information in small chunks and in regular intervals, just 10–20 minutes every day or on a weekly basis, those new skills become a natural part of each salesperson’s toolkit – always on hand and at the ready.

“It’s highly interactive and gets very

competitive, within 10 minutes you can have a

re-energised team of people just by picking up a game card!”

– Quote from KMFM

Natural forgetting curve starts at 75% retention

Review immediatelyafter lessons

Review 24 hours later

Review 1 week later

Review 1 month later

% R

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bere

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Lesson Ends10 min 24 hrs 1 week 1 month

100

80

60

40

20

0

Overcoming the curve of forgetting

*Phillipa Lally study6 7

Challenge #3:

Getting a return on your investment

Sales training today is a rental industry. Those 1- or 2-day courses costs a fortune – but when they end, all that content walks out the door with the trainer. If the sales force remembers only 3% of it, then what have you really gotten for your investment? Just the memory of the experience… which quickly fades.

Solution:

Stop renting sales training. Start owning.

Let your competitors throw money away every year on the same ineffective training programmes. By buying the content instead of renting it, you can teach, reinforce and refresh as often as you like – without spending another cent.

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Challenge #4:

Spotting weaknesses

Why aren’t your team closing more sales? Do they really know their stuff, or are they stumbling at certain points in the sales cycle? How well do they handle price objections? Are they picking up on buying signals? Are they using the right closing techniques? Most training programmes don’t give you a way to measure or track individual performance, so how can you be sure?

Solution:

Remove the risks

A truly valuable training programme will test each person’s real-world skills to identify areas of improvement. One of the most effective ways to do this is to create a virtual sales environment, so you can see how they perform at every step of a real sales call – including how they deal with tricky situations, handle objections and convert leads to customers – all without any risk of embarrassment.

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Challenge #5:

Filling the gaps

What are the 3 types of objections your sales force may have to handle? How do motivating questions differ from implication questions? What is the secret to a winning presentation? You’ve realised that your sales force has some knowledge gaps that need to be filled. The question is, what do you fill them with? Many businesses invest thousands every year in teaching their Sales Managers how to coach – but the problem of knowing what to coach still remains.

Solution:

Use the right sales-coaching materials

Well-researched, insightful sales-coaching materials will answer these questions and hundreds more just like them. If they are well organized and divided into bite-sized chunks, they will travel easily and can be drawn on as needed. It’s such an easy way to support your Sales Manager or trainer, and a great way to make sure your team is always getting top-quality coaching.

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Clients include: Endorsed by:

Play to winAt Sales Activator, we’re serious about making sales training fun. Not for its own sake, but because we know it’s the key to getting sustainable, real-world results.

Grounded in scientific research, the Sales Activator® Toolkit is a game-based learning platform covering every aspect of consultative selling. It helps Sales Managers and in-house trainers identify the gaps in each sales person’s process while teaching and reinforcing proven sales skills – from the basics all the way to advanced selling techniques.

Challenge and engage your sales force

Teach and embed proven sales techniques

Make lasting improvements

Identify and correct weaknesses

Build real-world confidence

The Sales Activator Toolkit includes:

2 fun, engaging sales-coaching learning platforms

62 bite-sized coaching cards covering every aspect of consultative selling as well as sales process and activities

70 hours of sales training sessions delivered in bite-sized chunks

For Sales Managers or in-house trainers

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0044 543 432 43 / salesactivator.com

150 Upper Grosvenor Road / Tunbridge WellsKent / TN1 2ED / United Kingdom

Get your free training sessionTo really understand what the Sales Activator Tookit can do for you and your team, you have to try it. And that’s easy – just get in touch and we’ll arrange a free training session.

P L AY T O W I N

P L AY T O W I N