This is a fairly common problem in a start-up environment. They don’t have the time to create robust sales training, and they don’t have the money to contract it out. Also, with the velocity of change that most start-up companies experience, sinking a lot of time and money into creating training doesn’t make sense. It seems that as soon as the last “t” is crossed, it’s time for revisions.
That said, people still need training. Here are some “quick-and-dirty” workarounds that can get the job done.
#1: Record and Transcribe Best Practice Sales Conversations
At this particular start up, the vice president of sales was a master at managing objections. The right clarifying questions and the perfect responses seemed to just roll off his tongue. In fact, every member of the sales team wanted more time with Rob, so they could learn from him. Rob, of course, was over committed with other responsibilities.
I recommended that he record a series of objection-handling role plays. The company could transcribe the recordings and distribute them to the sales team. They could study Rob’s advice and apply it to their own conversations. A quiet room, an iphone, and a willing role-play partner were the only resources needed.
#2: Create a Sales Dictionary on Google Docs
If you’ve been in sales long enough, you’ve inevitably stumbled across certain phrases that seem to work like Ali Babi’s magic carpet. They open doors. They get a response. They move the sale along.
Why not set up a language of the sale dictionary on Google docs that every member of the sales team can contribute to? This way everyone, including new hires, benefits from the discoveries their fellow team members unearth.
#3: Make Screen Capture Recordings
Sales people spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer updating records in Salesforce, researching prospects on LinkedIn, creating and organizing spreadsheets, and more. Let’s be honest: training new hires on how to do various computer-based tasks can be time-consuming and tedious.
Instead of one-on-one training, you can use screen capture software to demonstrate how to do a particular task, along with an audio explanation. You can then use these mini movies to train new hires over, and over, and over again. Talk about one and done!
#4: Assign New Sales Hires to Create Their Own Sales Playbooks, Objection-Handling Guides, and Competitive Battle Cards
The benefit of this assignment is two-fold. First, it provides a way for new sales hires to synthesize what they are learning into tools they can use going forward. This fosters deep learning and increased sales fluency. Second, it gives sales managers a way to see what new hires are learning—or, in some cases, not learning.
As a result, sales managers know where they need to provide remedial coaching. What’s more, all that’s needed are templates for each type of tool so that new sales reps know what information they need to fill in.
# 5: Cascade New Hire Sales Training
The process of training new sales reps often goes to a sales training team that doesn’t sell. Unfortunately, you lose a lot of valuable knowledge and skill when you are not in the trenches every day. Conversely, another popular approach is to assign training to a stretched-too-thin sales manager or an experienced sales rep who loses valuable selling time while they train. Why not have the most recently hired (and trained) sales reps train the next group of new hires?
Of course, you need a solid training plan for this approach to work, but there are some important pluses to this method. First, when you teach something, you perfect your own learning. What better way to help recently hired sales reps shore up their knowledge and skills then to assign them to teach? In addition, recently hired sales reps still remember the stumbling blocks they encountered during their own onboarding. Their solutions are still fresh in their minds, so they can then more easily show new hires how to successfully navigate their first few weeks or months on the job.
#6: Tell Stories Around the Proverbial Campfire
Break out the marshmallows! People have been learning from stories since we were inhabiting caves. Those cave drawings? Ancient flip charts! In fact, did you know that every night in firehouses across the country, firefighters share stories about their day? This ritual allows firefighters to learn from each other. Why not do the same with your sales team?
Make sure the stories include successes, failures, bumps along the way, workarounds, and lessons learned. By doing so, new sales reps can learn from experienced reps and vice versa. It’s also a great way for the sales manager to get a read on the sorts of issues that the sales team is facing as well as on the strengths and weaknesses of individual reps.
