This blog post shares 4 mistakes to avoid that ruin your online product sales training.
Companies spend billions to train their sales force on their products. However, what is the main reason the training initiatives of only some companies succeed and yield the desired results, while others do not? Well, one main reason is ineffective training and usually, this is due to the following mistakes.
Below are four avoidable mistakes to keep in mind for your next online product sales training program.
1. Restricting Navigation
Restricting navigation is a bad idea because it doesn’t allow learners to choose the order of topics they want to learn. Adults never like to be restricted and it is very important not to restrict the navigation of your course. If a salesperson is taking a course which doesn’t allow him to skip the slides he already has knowledge of, this forced learning will frustrate and encourage him to escape taking the course, and this also leads to boredom. Ultimately, he will fail in getting certified. It’s always better to unlock the navigation so that the salesperson can move on quickly to whichever section he requires the most.
2. Being too General
The biggest mistake is not personalizing the course because every salesperson is unique with unique problems and is in need of solutions. If we fail to customize the course, salespeople cannot relate themselves selling your product. They will not be able to relate the product to customers’ problems. In general, everybody knows how a product works or how another business used it and achieved success, but we need to add a personalization element and make learners believe that they have been tailored specifically to suit their tastes. As we all know, learners enjoy the training when they are able to identify themselves with it and in a product sales training program, by personalizing the message, successful or senior sales reps can share their success stories with peers and juniors.
3. Flooding Sales Force with Content
Never bombard your learners with too much information because it immediately puts them off and you may end up losing their attention. If the course content is well-structured and organized, salespeople can remember the key points. If you feel text is heavy onscreen, it is better to divide the content in a logical way, because this will help the salesperson stay focused throughout the course, and recall information quickly. Another effective way is to use relevant images and this helps them understand the content easily. Too much of content on the screen will kill your sales force’s interest and reps may feel tempted to skip the slide and go to the next slide immediately. However, you cannot always replace text with images, and you need to strike a balance between the two.
4. Listing Several Benefits
When many benefits are listed, it can distract a learner; and this can result in a negative impact on decision making. Knowledge retention will be better if four to five benefits that will solve a very specific problem are focused on, rather than telling everything about the product. This will also ensure that salespeople will not be overloaded with too much information, giving them the opportunity to focus on the benefits covered.
Good product sales training goes a long way in enhancing the efficiencies of salespeople. Have anything to say? Please do share!
