Sales Techniques to Teach Your New Hires

Regardless of how good your marketing team is at pushing your products or services, you still need a solid sales team to close the deals. Automation and AI have grown leaps and bounds and made the sales process easier, especially when it comes to delivering more qualified buyers to sales teams through the use of sales funnels.

However, regardless of how far technology advances, nothing replaces the human-to-human element during a sales situation. A sale is a very emotional process and requires a delicate touch in order to close certain clients, especially when you’re talking about a high-ticket product.

With that being said, nobody buying something from your company wants to deal with a boring, robotic person or a hostile and pushy person. Those two types of sales personalities will kill a deal faster than anything else.

Luckily, even sales reps with the worst of habits can learn how to add some finesse back to their sales game with the following sales tips. It’s all about connecting with clients and making a friend so you can gain their loyalty and build a good rapport.

Is your sales team struggling to close a certain amount of business each month? Maybe you just want to get in there and swing with them and get everyone fired up. Regardless of the situation, using the tips in this article can help get your new team members on the right track.

It’s much easier to train new hires than it is to correct bad habits in old ones. We’re not saying it’s impossible, because it can be done.

However, correcting the bad habits of veteran sales team members is done much easier by implementing the right habits in your new employees. When you do a great job of being consistent in hiring new sales reps who succeed, eventually, veterans that have failed to adapt to changes will have no choice but to catch up with the team.

You can easily use your LMS platform and data tracking to implement most of the following tips for training new members of your sales force.

    1. Where Do You Need to Grow?

It’s hard to grow in a certain direction when you don’t know what that direction is. When you’re a manager leading a sales department, you need to train individuals and the team as a whole.

This means understanding when it’s time to educate the team, when it’s time to spend one-on-one time with individuals, and knowing the difference in these strategies. One of the best ways to focus on areas that need improvement is by listening to live sales calls.

You should also check how your new team members have been taking notes during their calls. If they’re not logging all of the important points of the conversation, they’re not doing their jobs.

    2. Playing Calls Back

As we just mentioned, listening to sales staff conversations with clients can give you some powerful insights into how your team is performing. While you’re listening in, write down things you feel were critical points that are worth logging.

After the call, compare your notes to those of the employee who led the call. If you’re far off base, you need to go over proper note-taking with the employee so they can give the proper attention to clients during and after calls.

At the same time, you can use this as a means of giving them positive feedback as well. Highlight times during the call when they did the right thing and congratulate them, so they have something to build on.

    3. Using Online Sales Training

You should make sure your online training is as exciting as possible and keeps your employees engaged. While they’re completing training, ask them to share their screens so you can give them the proper advice on how to use the interface and maximize their experience.

    4. Training Should Be Ongoing

You should make ongoing training a constant theme at your organization. Make sure new hires know that training and learning don’t end just because the onboarding process is over. Promote an atmosphere of constant learning and growth to allow your sales team to continue to level up.

One area of focus that you should be serious about is showing your team how to sell with integrity and honesty. There’s no reason to lie to sell a product.

Additionally, when sales reps get into this habit, it can become cancer within your company and give your organization a bad rep. It’s easy to constantly implement this point by doing simple meetings once or twice per week.

Keep driving this point to your sales reps until everyone is on board. During the meeting, go over the best ways to sell with integrity and why it’s so important.

    5. What Are Your Team’s Strengths?

It’s critical that you show your team support on a full-time basis. This is important when they’re doing well or struggling.

Honestly, it might even be more important when they’re struggling. The most important thing to remember is that when your team is having a hard time, extend help in a humble way.

You don’t want to make it seem like you’re punishing them or singling anybody out. Make sure they understand you are reaching out to assist them not just for the wellbeing of the company but because you want to see them succeed.

Sometimes the best way to fight through challenges isn’t by focusing on the problem. Focus on what your team does well and capitalize on it. If a football team runs the ball effectively but isn’t so good at passing, what are they going to do? They’re not going to keep aimlessly passing the ball, hoping for a win.

They’re going to do what they do best and maximize that strategy. The same is true of sales.

    6. Let Them Lead

Let your team lead conversations when you’re discussing their performance. It’s easy to sit there and go over a list you wrote out about what you believe needs improvement.

When you allow them to lead the conversation, it gives you a chance to hear things from their point of view. It’s important to get a good idea of whether they’re able to identify their own challenges. Nobody is perfect, and we all need improvement.

When we’re able to identify where our trouble areas are, it demonstrates that we are making a conscious effort to improve ourselves.

Helping your sales team with the right combination of personal outreach and data tracking can pay huge dividends. You don’t need to do anything extravagant, just pay attention. This shows new hires that you’re willing to go out of your way to address their needs and concerns. If you are ready to build a much stronger team and lead to a more productive organization overall, contact us today for a free consultation.