AirDeck Guide to Sales Training

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Your sales representatives have a big job. They’ll be responsible for driving much of the revenue growth seen by your business.

And that’s why it’s so important that you train them correctly — to do their job in the best way possible.

Don’t get intimidated by sales training. With the right information and the right tools, you’ll be equipped to provide new hires with everything they need to be set up for success.

Follow these steps to put your new sales reps through training from start to finish. 

Provide Learning Materials

Get your sales staff started by giving them materials and resources that walk them through everything they need to learn. You’ll want to teach them about:

  • The product or service they’re selling
  • How to sell it
  • Your buyer personas and your customer’s or client’s pain points
  • Your industry
  • Your position in the market, and your strengths and weaknesses 
  • How to use your CRM
  • Your sales process, benchmarks, and expectations 
  • A competitive analysis of your top competitors
  • Your policies and procedures for negotiating 

All of this information may not be suitable for self-paced learning. You might choose to share some details via an in-person discussion or an interactive learning activity. However, it can be helpful to provide a high-level overview that sums up the most important information and can be referred back to at any time. 

You can send this information to new hires before their first day so they’ll be free to get a jump start if desired. AirDeck makes it easy to create presentations that can be viewed at the recipient’s leisure. Design a presentation and share it with employees for on-demand viewing. They’ll be able to access a secure link to view the training and learn what they need to know.

Set Up Mentor Relationships

Assign new sales reps with a mentor who can walk them through the onboarding process with your company. To make sure everyone gets the most out of this relationship, be clear upfront about your expectations (for example, how often the two employees involved should meet or talk). The mentor should be able to answer any of the mentee’s questions and explain your sales process as well as serving as a source of encouragement. 

You’ll also want to let your new team members “shadow” these more experienced reps on calls or meetings. Whether virtual or in-person, this gives new hires a valuable opportunity to be a fly on the wall, watching how everything they’re learning is meant to play out in practice. 

If the mentor is low on time, have them use AirDeck to compile helpful information a new hire might need to know. There’s no need for new team members to always meet with their mentors face-to-face. AirDeck provides the resources you need to train new hires at scale, adding personalization without having to waste your veteran employees’ valuable time.

Design Your Own Scenarios 

In-office role play can help train new hires in a low-pressure environment. Have team members walk through several types of sales calls, including:

  • Cold calls
  • Warm calls or connect calls
  • Sales appointment calls
  • Follow-up calls or close conversations

Other employees — both new and old — can offer their feedback on what the hot seat reps did well and where they could improve. By creating artificial scenarios, you can bring up common objections or statements you hear from your target audience. Use AirDeck to design presentations that walk your sales team through different scenarios, showing them how to respond to each situation. 

This is also a helpful stage to give your new employees scripts. While they won’t need these forever, sales scripts are a good starting place to help reps understand what you want them to say and how you want them to say it. 

A script should use language that’s tailored to your target audience and confident in your offering. Concisely explain the benefits of your product or service (not its features — its benefits) and leave some white space for reps to just listen after asking about a prospect’s pain points. A sales script can help new hires feel prepared should they run into a snag or get tongue-tied.

Add notes or a script in AirDeck by using presenter notes. This allows trainers to provide written details on what sales reps should say in certain scenarios.

Give Feedback on Calls

Within a couple of months, reps should be ready to start conducting calls themselves to find their own prospects. Or, if they’ll be taking over existing accounts, set up introductions between both parties.

Providing customized feedback on sales calls is an effective way to foster learning and improvement. 98% of employees disengage from their work when they receive little or no feedback, but 69% of employees say they would work harder if they felt their efforts were being recognized through feedback. 

Be specific with your feedback, stating exactly what you want the rep to keep or change. If you ask them to do something differently, be specific there, too, explaining how to put your suggestions into action. And always lean more on the positive side than negative — especially for employees who are new to you and your company.

It’s best to give feedback in person. But if you aren’t able to, AirDeck can help. Add narration to any document with just a few clicks. This allows you to personalize presentations with the sound of your voice — then seamlessly share with whoever needs to hear your feedback. AirDecks can be customized with ease, allowing you to swap out slides or content to match the needs of whoever you’ve training. If someone is struggling with specific areas, you can easily provide them with personalized resources that target the areas where they need help.

Your new employees need your help as they assimilate into their new position at your company. With AirDeck’s capabilities, you’ll be prepared to assist them every step of the way. 

Get Started with AirDeck!