Product training is one of the most important objectives of sales training. It is important because it equips the sales staff with adequate product knowledge that enables them to handle customer queries objectively and convincingly. A company can have a great product to offer, but if the sales people are not trained to market the same to prospects it may not obtain the intended market penetration. In order to make product trainings more successful, one needs to keep in mind few critical aspects. Let’s review some of them here.

Product training is important but product selling is essential: Product knowledge is very important for sales people as they use this information to help prospective customers make favorable decisions. Training managers need keep this aspect in mind. The problem comes when product trainings are focused about the product and not about how to sell the products. Sales people find it easy to understand the functioning of a product. The difficult part is to be able to sell it. This is the area where the training needs to focus on.

Customer value is the key to selling: Product training often focuses on product features and benefits and does not really bother about the value the product provides to customers. It is not adequate to provide the sales person with all the facts and figures that indicate how the product fares in terms of customer value. Information may be obvious but training should put the same across in a logical manner so as to be convincing to a potential customer. Training sales people about customer value addition of the products in a logical way ensures that there is uniformity in the way sales people represent the company and product in the market and this would greatly increase credibility of the product as well as the company.

Product information needs to be taught in the context of industry and market: It does not really help a sales person if he is given just the product information in isolation. Sales personnel need to get a perspective about the industry in which they are operating. There are times when market scenario and economical fluctuations might influence buyers in their decision making. Sales people need to be adaptive to such situations and should be equipped to modify their selling techniques accordingly. This needs to be reflected in product training sessions.

Develop job aids wherever possible: It is not adequate if product training is confined to just annual sales meets or workshops. It is not possible for a sales person to absorb so much information at a single go and recollect it when needed. Therefore, product training should be available just-in-time when the sales person needs it. Job aids in the form of PDF files or short videos should be made available to the sales person in a format that is easy to access. Multiple delivery formats such as podcasts, webcasts, videos and so on would be very effective information resource for sales personnel.

Product sales training would be better appreciated by sales people when it is tuned to address their needs rather than merely disseminating information about products. Do you agree with me? If you have any other ideas please share the same with me.

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Identifying the best training options for your sales staff that not only fosters learning and development but ultimately helps boost the organization’s sales is not an easy task. Sales people are result-oriented action lovers. Hence, you need to think of activity-based training programs that involve a lot of learner participation. Thankfully, there are excellent resources available in the market today that provide you with a multitude of options. All you need to do is research your training options and choose the one that best suits your requirement. Let’s take a look at some of them here.

On site sales training: Sale training typically is initiated by the chief sales officer of the organization. Some organizations such as Xerox have developed their own comprehensive training modules for their sales personnel. However, not all organizations would have the ability or resources to offer such comprehensive training program internally. Therefore, organizations could hire external training providers to conduct onsite sales training. Such training workshops spread are across a day or two and comprise several sessions through the day covering various aspects of the selling process. The effectiveness of such programs largely depends on the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the service provider.

Off-site training programs: Many organizations opt for offsite training programs that are planned to be part-business and part-pleasure trip for the employees. Pleasure or sight-seeing activities are interwoven with the training programs. Sometimes team based games such as paint-ball are organized which are directed towards strategy building among the team members. Such trips are often part of the rewards program when sales people meet or exceed their targets.

Online sales training: There are many organizations that provide online sales training. Training can be delivered in many formats such as through CDs, Web-based training, Computer aided training using the company intranet and so on. They are a viable option for imparting quick product or process knowledge training, especially to a large sales force spread across a wide geographical area. They also are cost-effective and flexible as sales people can easily access it from the locations of their choice. Webinars, sales-casts, job-aids and many more resources could be useful components of such a training program, which can be customized to suit individual organizations.

All the above options are effective, however; the choice of the training program depends on the individual organizations and the needs of their sales staff. Additional questions we need to ask are – can sales training be confined only to just a couple of days in a year? There are bound to be new recruitments every few months. Would they have to wait for the next training cycle before being introduced to the finer points of the sale process and procedures unique to the organization? It would be beneficial if the sales team has easy access to a training program that is available to them on-demand all through the year. After all, learning is a continuous process!

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Selling is not only an art but also a science. Let’s examine if selling can be effectively taught in a class room. Well, traditionally selling was taught on the job. A new sales executive followed a senior sales person on a few calls and then went on to be on his own. In his book “Life Insurance Company Sales Training Programs” H P Gravengaard says that scientific selling methods were perhaps first started by subscription book companies and that they are the pioneers in terms of organizing training for their sales staff. Subsequently, modern organizations started giving importance to the training of sales personnel reinforcing specific skills that are important for their domain.

Selling is best learnt through experiential learning which involves ‘learning by doing’. In learning on the job, a senior sales person is assigned to juniors to provide guidance or feedback. Training is effective in a classroom environment, when sales situations are simulated and learners get to enact the role of a sales person and that of a buyer while the instructor provides the feedback about the best method to be adopted in a given situation. Training is not likely to be effective if the participants are given a lecture through PowerPoint slides for 2-3 days. Role plays, situation analysis and case studies have to be part of the program. However, it is not always possible to incorporate all of the above in an ILT program.

This is where online training and resources prove to be handy. Animations, video enactments or simulations are components of an online training program that can be effectively used in sales training. Consider the following situation. A sales person is about to make a sales pitch. He has forgotten his reference material which gives key data about his product and his competitor’s product. Would it not be handy if he had access to a resource where he could simply download the same to his iPad or smartphone? In another situation, imagine a sales person who is disillusioned with himself and needs a mentor to pep him up and instill confidence or provide guidance. Would it not be ideal to have an online mentor available, say through the company intranet, who provides guidelines?. Imagine how much more it would add value to the sales person, if he is provided with bite-sized modules giving sales tips or selling ideas to sales personnel.

I think technology can play an important role in providing training to sales personnel. It can be innovatively and creatively used for the benefit of sales staff who are typically action-oriented and detest being confined to a typical classroom type setting.

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Product knowledge is fundamental to the seller who is selling it and the buyer who is purchasing the same. In between the seller and the buyer there are other stakeholders who are equally required to have sound product knowledge. They could be the dealers, resellers or the vendors. Let’s examine in detail who benefits from product trainings and why imparting product training is so important.

Product training is not a one-off event. In many cases, product information is required not only by end-users of the product and employees of the company launching the product, but also by extended partners such as customers, vendors and suppliers. You will find that it is required for different audiences at different stages of the process. You might begin with employees, and then move on to the sales and distribution channels, and on to the consumer, or end-user. Of course, it goes without saying that the service personnel who have to repair or service the product should posses a comprehensive knowledge of the product. As you can see, for any new product to be launched successfully, many diverse audiences must be reached and educated through highly effective product trainings.

One of the most important factors for organizations to succeed in today’s competitive landscape is through a successful speedy launch of its new products and services. The time-to-market of new products and services is critical to both survive and succeed. Added to this challenge is the increasingly compressed product life cycle of most products today. Users expect the training to be rolled out at the same time as the product itself. No longer does the market tolerate any delays. It is therefore a challenge to distribute product knowledge across various markets within a short span of time to all the stakeholders. Lack of product training will limit the knowledge of the sales personnel and they will not be able to make adequate sales – the same is true with other stakeholders such as dealers or vendors. Needless to add, poorly designed product training will fail to equip the customers with the skills required to make optimal use of your product, further leading to low adoption rates and subsequent switching of their brand loyalty in the longer run.

Almost every organization that has a product to sell recognizes the need for product training. Despite having user manuals and technical documents and data sheets on the product made available to end-users of the product, there is a felt need for well developed, comprehensive product training solutions. Distributing product knowledge through classroom training is not a practical solution for a globally dispersed workforce. Hence, organizations need to think of innovative solutions such as web-based trainings or eLearning solutions to impart product trainings for their diverse stakeholders.

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Importance of product training for sales people has never been doubted. The product features, product USPs, its installation and operation, basic trouble shooting and some information about competitor’s products are all ideally part of the product training program. However, how do we make product trainings for sales people more relevant to the sales team and ensure that it covers what is most important to them?

Thanks to the internet, customers are armed with a wealth of information with respect to products, their features and how they are with respect to the competition. Therefore, sales people today have to shift their role from being an information provider to being a customer advisor. Typically, product training should help sales people to sell a solution and not just features of the product.

Here is how we at CommLab approach product trainings for sales. We do cover product features and product USPs, but we try not to teach a product in isolation, but provide a context for the learning. In addition to what is typically covered through product trainings, we also ensure that we address the following when creating an online training for a sales person:

Making him an industry expert not just product expert: A salesman should have a comprehensive knowledge about the industry in which he is working. This helps him to advise customers on industry trends and the relevance of their products. A customer is likely to be convinced to buy from an informed sales person.

Making him tech savvy along with being business savvy: Earlier there was a salesman who would handle all the business related issues with respect to a product and there was a sales engineer who was essentially the product expert with knowledge of installation and trouble shooting. Today it has become important for sales man to have basic technical knowledge and a sales engineer to have sound business acumen. The line between the two is blurring and the roles are increasingly being combined to one. Hence product trainings need to address both the technical as well as business aspects with respect to a product.

Positioning the product to show how customers will benefit from the product: Enlist problems that the product would solve for a customer. The sales team can use this knowledge to showcase the specific features of the product that addresses the current problems faced by the customers. Product training for sales people should thus focus on how to translate product features as solutions to the customers.

To summarize, we can say that in order to make product trainings more relevant to sales people, they should be trained to sell solutions to customers rather than training them to just sell products.

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Sales personnel are the revenue generators for any organization. If the sales force is not equipped with adequate tools to showcase the company’s products or services, it would drastically affect the revenue-generating capacity of an organization. Each organization has specific requirements and they need to train their sales people adequately with respect to their specific needs. So, what is the type of training that an organization needs to plan for their sales personnel?

A typical training program for an organization needs to cover the following:

Product Knowledge: Knowledge of a product or service that the organization is offering. A sales person could be seasoned professional with many years of sales experience. However, if he has newly joined an organization, or if the organization has newly launched a product, he needs to learn and understand the features and benefits of the product before approaching a prospective customer. Organizations need to have a mechanism in place to make sure that sales team is kept up to date with product information. Therefore, this forms the main features of a sales training.

Sales Process: Typically, a sales process has the following five stages:

• Establishing a relationship with the customer
• Analyzing the needs of the customer
• Making a recommendation to satisfy those needs
• Completing the sales process by taking a commitment
• Ensuring prompt delivery of the service and follow-up with the customer for any feedback

These stages remain more or less the same for any product or service. However, organizations need to tailor these stages for their specific requirements and sensitize the sales force about their importance. The sales team needs to thoroughly understand the sales process in order to effectively execute it.

Sales Strategies: Each organization will have its own strategy to sell a product or a service depending on its core mission. Sales personnel need to be guided with role plays or examples as to how to employ these strategies to promote their products or services. For example, an organization’s strategy could be focusing on dealers or distributors rather than individual customers. Yet another strategy could be using direct marketing or through outbound marketing. Sales team need to understand the strategies of the organizations and the systems that are in place. They will need to require appropriate training so that the sales force is in sync with the organizational strategy.

Follow up Process: The sales process does not end with obtaining the order. Every organization will have its own process and procedures that need to be adopted to complete a sale. Some of them could be very important regulatory requirements – especially when providing services such as insurance. Apart from this there will be many internal documents that need to be completed or filled as a part of the sales process. These procedures have been adopted for securing the interests of the organization as well as the customer. Hence the sales personnel need to be duly trained in these processes.

Organizations normally focus on product training and soft skills training for the sales personnel. However, having a training program which covers all the above aspects would be truly comprehensive and empowering for a sales person.

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Sales persons need to develop a new set of skills with changing market environment and with ever-changing product features. These will help them get a competitive edge over the others. They need to be customer advocates by understanding the requirements of the customers. At the same time they need to develop their business and strategic skills as business consultants for their organization.

Previously, sales training consisted of just sending the sales person out on the field along with a senior colleague or putting him/ her through formal classroom training. But, with the evolution of technology, the process of imparting training to sales people has undergone a dramatic change. Here are some of the emerging best practices of sales training; leveraging the use of technology and some innovative processes.

Involve sales people in preparing the curriculum and when identifying the methods of training. They are the best people to judge the suitability and relevance of the training material with respect to the sales process. They also will be able to decide if the focus should be on the product knowledge or the actual selling process which includes details about the post-sale paperwork.

Classroom training with a PowerPoint presentation may prove to be boring and leads to disengagement of the sales team. Training managers can use innovative training delivery methods such as these:

• a) Role plays are important while adopting a new skill. This gives trainees an opportunity to practice the newly learned skill in an informal setting. It also helps trainees gain practical insights into real life scenarios.
• b) Webinars are being used in recent times as online workshops where sales people across different geographical located can be trained on a product or process simultaneously. They also have the benefit of getting trained by experts and can get their doubts clarified through the online chat functionality.
• c) Short Videos where a clear demonstration is shown. This audio visual aid helps in better understanding of the sales process.

The different methodologies used now a days need to structured, customized and modularized so that it can be easily understood by the trainees.

With the development of web-based solutions, a sales person can be provided with instant and timely access to procure knowledge on critical product and process information. Information can be posted on the company intranet or website so that sales people can instantly get their doubts clarified and can provide correct information to customers.

The competitive success of any organization relies on the ability of the sales forces to meet the unique business needs of customers. Therefore, to support the sales team development, integrated training approaches need to be developed, which streamline the learning process of sales people.

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What is the objective of delivering product training to sales people? Is it just to empower them with the relevant knowledge of features and benefits of products? How can product training help in empowering sales team and thereby increase sales? These are a few questions that a manager needs to answer while planning a product training session for his sales team.

How to empower sales forces with product training?

1) Product training is imparted either by product managers or sales managers depending on the company. However, we need to understand some basic facts. It’s true that a product manager possess an in depth knowledge of the product features and benefits. But at same time, it is also true that he does not possess the knowledge of what is happening in the market – how customers are reacting to it? So, a product manager does not understand the real challenges encountered by a sales person on a day to day basis. Therefore, it would be better if a sales person having sound product knowledge conducts the training session. This has two positive implications. Firstly, while delivering training he/ she will always think from the perspective of a sales person. Secondly, the sales person will feel comfortable in attending the session as they are able to relate theoretical aspects with practical ones.

2) Another important way of empowering a salesperson is by giving him sufficient knowledge about competitor’s product, its features and pricing. This helps them to be ready with answers when customers make a comparative analysis. They also understand the strengths and weaknesses of his own product. Thus it enables the sales people to highlight the positive points of his product.

3) The questions that customers pose while viewing a product demo are quite predictable. These could be related to the product, its usage or its features in comparison to the competitor’s product. So, a simple FAQ list can be prepared and given to sales people. It enables sales person to be mentally prepared with the plausible answers to questions.

4) Role plays are another means to impart product training. It provides practical demonstration of the real life situations that he would encounter when demonstrating a product to a customer. Possible role play scenarios could be – a difficult customer who is not convinced about product features or a customer who complains about faulty product. Role plays can be used to show a sales person how he can handle such situations. It also helps him understand the importance of product knowledge.

5) Quiz is another means by which important features of the product can be highlighted. This not only tests the product knowledge of sales people but also helps in revisiting key product features and other relevant information.

6) Online product training is another option for organizations that do not have resources or budget to invest in the instructor led training programs. This is a cost-effective option to educate sales people about new products or product features in a short notice.

It is true that sales people are one of the representatives of any organization. They are the people who directly face a customer, understand their needs and provide solutions in form of products most appropriate to fulfill their requirements. Therefore, it is important for sales people to understand their products better so that they can educate customers more convincingly. This is where product training becomes very critical.

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The revenue generating department in any organization is the Sales Department. Therefore, it is important that the sales people in the department are equipped with the necessary skills for improved performance. So, what are the sales skills required? Let’s take a look at some of the essential skills required for a sales person.

Passionate to sell: A sales person needs to have a genuine enthusiasm and passion to sell. He should have the inner urge to clinch the deal and enjoy the sense of achievement that follows. A good sales person is usually self-motivated to achieve the given targets.

Maintain cool and balance: A sales person cannot afford to brood over rejections. He needs to move on and source for new leads to conclude his sales and meet his targets. Therefore, another essential skill that a sales person needs to possess is to be balanced by taking both winning and losing in his stride – Not get unduly excited about a successful sale and dejected with an unsuccessful one.

Possess certain personal skills: Sales people need to be good persuaders. They should be able to create the need for the product or service in the minds of the prospective customers. They also should be able to manage their time efficiently and prioritize their tasks for maximum output. Sales people are usually smooth talkers; nevertheless they need to be good listeners as it will lend credibility to their intentions. Customers love to be heard as much as listen about the product or service.

Confident negotiator: A sales person needs have a thorough understanding of the product as well as the needs of the customers. Coupled with this if he has the confidence in his abilities and skills to convince a customer, he would earn himself a position of a coveted sales person. He will be a skillful negotiator wherein he will give confidence to the customer that he has been given a good deal while not unduly compromising the interests of the organization.

Maintain good relationships: Having good contacts and nurturing them helps a sales person during critical times. Sometimes, getting access to the right person in an organization may not be possible and having a reference of a mutual contact will help him gain an interview with the right person. Therefore, a sales person should love to meet people from diverse backgrounds and remain in contact with them on an ongoing basis as one never knows when he needs to rely on one of them.

Adaptable in presentation: A good sales person knows how to change his style of presentation based on his audience. He should know how he needs to communicate while addressing senior executives in a board room and how needs to talk while presenting his product or service to a group of shoppers in a shopping mall. Both require different skills-set in terms of presentation and attracting the attention of the prospects. An able sales person quickly adapts himself to the level of his audience and uses a language that his audience can easily relates to.

A sales person does not necessarily possess all of these skills. However, they can easily acquire them with practice and patience. All they need is the zeal to achieve their goals with focus, commitment and dedication. This will go a long way in molding them into effective sales persons.

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1. Sales Training – How Important Is It?
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If you have a global workforce – classroom training doesn’t always work as it involves huge costs, is time consuming and cannot reach all learners simultaneously. On the other hand, eLearning can be a solution to reach employees all over the world simultaneously on a click.

Learn more about eLearning implementation and delivery through our series of eLearning Webinars!

Integrating ILT Initiatives with eLearning
Improving Sales Revenues by using eLearning
Learning Design Strategies for Product Training
Planning An Enterprise-Wide eLearning Solution
Communication Strategies for Marketing eLearning
Delivering Learning Solutions using Smartphones and iPads
Tips and Tricks for Using Lectora
Designing eLearning Programs: In-House/Outsource?
Learning Objectives and Evaluation of eLearning
Using Blended Learning for Sales Training

More information and registration for these free live events is available at
http://www.commlabindia.com/elearning-resources/elearning-webinars.php.

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