Must-Tackle Training Initiatives for Modern Sales in 2017

Selling in the modern B2B landscape is harder than ever before because buyers are savvier, more informed, and have more choices. To successfully close deals, reps must leverage technology to multitask and remain on top of their game. This requires making the most of every opportunity and every minute of the day. 

Modern sales organizations recognize the value of helping reps optimize their entire technology stack. This is placing greater emphasis on establishing seamless connection points between training and other essential sales activities. 

The fact is, when it comes to sales training, so many organizations are siloed because there are three distinct types of training sales needs, and they’re often created and managed by distinctly different teams. This is no longer acceptable in 2017. It’s time to give training an overhaul and provide reps direct access to the content they need, when they need it, across the following three categories: 

#1. Corporate Training 

This is often onboarding and ongoing business-specific training, and it’s largely the domain of learning management system (LMS) software. While LMS solutions are important to certain aspects of the business, for optimizing the knowledge of your sales team, a more flexible and context-relevant solution is imperative. 

#2. Sales Excellence Training

This type of training is exactly what it sounds like—tools to help your sales team excel. To work best, it occurs outside the sphere of corporate training. It makes the most sense for this category of sales training to be interconnected to the same content management system that reps use to access their sales materials. Training in-context to the appropriate collateral creates a seamless learning experience, and lets reps take the right training, right when they need it.

#3. Product and Services Training

The day-to-day workhorse of training, this centers on features, benefits, and results unique to what reps are selling. It must be well-organized and easily accessible if reps are to make the most of sales opportunities—including product launches and other special events—and this is another area where integrating training with the content management system makes a lot of sense, and makes it easier for sales to consume.

The right sales enablement platform can transform your sales training from an afterthought to a critical component of your sales strategy. Look for a solution that can provide in-context training capabilities in all three training scenarios, including the ability to:

• deliver training content in-context to the selling situation

• deliver training content alongside—or within the same system—as sales content, including the CRM solution or the sales enablement platform itself

• recommend training content based on newness or relevance to a seller’s opportunities

• provide full analytics on content usage, completion, and performance in relation to sales efforts.

If you’d like to learn more about how to fully optimize your training strategies, join ATD and Highspot for a webcast on eliminating training siloes and delivering training at the most critical moments in the sales process. During the webcast, you’ll learn about best practices that can deliver big impact for your sales team in 2017, including how to:

• integrate ongoing training into a sales rep's daily life

• digitize the sales playbook and turn it into an agile, helpful tool

• improve training participation by delivering it in context with the sales opportunity

• provide "just in time" training, content, and best practices, when the rep needs them

• integrate your sales tech stack to eliminate friction and get end-to-end analysis on what works and what doesn't.

Gather the knowledge you need to integrate your sales tech stack, eliminate friction, and analyze end-to-end data on what works and what doesn’t, from training to content to the process improvements that create strategic advantage.

By thinking strategically and holistically, and by applying best practices in the critical areas of sales training, content management, playbooks and sales processes, sales enablement can drive astounding results and transform sales effectiveness. If you’re ready to learn more, check out the Definitive Guide to Sales Enablement. It’ll set you on the path to better sales training and enablement in 2017 with a clear action plan for success.