The Modern Approach for Sales Training: Global + Local Approach

Headcounts are climbing. According to an independent study commissioned by CareerBuilder, 36 percent of employers plan to increase full-time, permanent headcount in 2015, a significant jump from 24 percent last year. Even small businesses have high expectations: 29 percent of small businesses with 250 or fewer employees expect to add full-time, permanent workers in 2015, up from 22 percent last year. 

It is a challenge in itself to make sure that your current team is up to speed, but now with increased hiring that challenge gets significantly harder. More importantly, what impact will this trend have on sales teams? 

Knowledge and Learning Management for Everyone 

A major challenge with this kind of aggressive hiring is effectively delivering the company’s mission, vision, and strategy to each of these new employees. A global learning management tool can be a great way to synthesize the volume of one-directional information new employees require. 

Global learning management systems (LMSs) are useful tools to disseminate a unilateral flow of knowledge, such as company-wide policies. A well-designed LMS will share appropriate knowledge with the right group, at the right time, for maximum retention. 

But Each Department Is Different 

Each team of employees is different. Marketing, operations, finance, sales, engineering…each constituency has a specific set of training requirements that extend beyond onboarding. Is the global LMS that’s in place to manage onboarding and compliance the right tool to be training new sales people on products, pitching and skills? Probably not. 

The global approach works for broader company-related items, but we hire people in departments, groups, and specialties. It is just not feasible for one team on a global level to know all the details and expertise that is crucial for each person to succeed in their role. The world of learning technology needs to evolve by enabling specific teams and departments to run their own training specifically for people in their role and especially for high-stakes roles like sales. 

Traditionally if a department or group wanted to get role-specific training out to their teams, it was a time consuming and draining process that was often too much work, requiring too many resources. 

Impact to Sales Departments 

Top performing sellers can become legends within an organization. Though great business leaders know even the best sales people can get better. Sales is a function that has specific training needs that cannot be achieved by a global LMS alone. Key to the development of the right knowledge is knowing where the knowledge assets and sources are, then finding a way to combine specific knowledge into a usable piece of information. The problem is, these assets typically aren’t in the one-directional training a global LMS provides. 

Localized Learning: Beyond Onboarding 

A local LMS approach allows each department to run the training specific to them while still allowing the global team to share relevant items on a global basis. Specializing in sales effectiveness can make a big difference in the success of sales teams. Localized doesn’t mean geographic necessarily, the concept is more specific to providing what specific business units need, when they need it. 

Enabling your sales teams with the tools they need to succeed is important. According to Forrester Research, “Sales enablement is a strategic, ongoing process that equips all client-facing employees with the ability to consistently and systematically have a valuable conversation with the right set of customer stakeholders at each stage of the customer's problem-solving life cycle to optimize the return of investment of the selling system.” 

Localized Sharing: Sharing is Caring, and Landing Deals 

Sharing top-performers’ skills and secrets is an effective way to continuously train new sales reps. A local learning approach may include listening to others successfully handling common objections—showing reps that overcoming obstacles is possible. Practicing these skills leads to increased chances of being a productive long-term employee. In a study performed by the Sales Management Association, direct manager coaching and easy access to the training program were among factors judged “most important” in an ongoing training program.