Training for sales team is a critical focus area for most organisations. Even if an organisation is facing budget constraints they do their best to wriggle out the cash to plan sales training.

The reasons are simple – it’s the sales that bring you growth and cash, they are the ones who help you get your products out in the market and they help build your businesses top line.

Training for sales team members of a business helps deliver the required knowledge as well as developmental inputs to support their performance, productivity and efficiency. The training is normally based on their needs and their planned development keeping in view the business requirements.

At times some organisations, especially the ones that are new to the concept of training, may have lots of questions.

Some of these could be:

• What kind of program should be developed?
• What all should the program cover?
• Who should deliver the training?
• What is relevant for us or our business?
• Is training just going to be a company paid picnic for employees?

While you need to figure out the answers to most of the above, we will help you with an idea about the typical programs that could help sales teams. Now your choice of program should originate from your business need and the developmental needs of the sales employees.

Some typical programs that can be thought of for your sales organisation could be:

• Essentials of Selling – This could cover the basics of sales process, and talk about the sales cycle, prospecting, closing sales etc.  This kind of program is ideal for a fresh employee, or can also be administered as a refresher to existing employees. Even if someone is good at sales, the program can help him/her align his/her understanding within a definite conceptual framework helping improve productivity.
• Strategic Selling – This program may be meaningful for those in institutional or B2B sales, where in you are trying to sell a product, a solution or a mix of both.
• Consultative Selling –Essential when you are dealing in solutions more than products. Here in you are not just a sales person, you also act in an advisory capacity where in your knowledge and understanding of the services or solutions is going to impact the buy decision of clients.
• Product Training – This is the most frequent requirement for any business, and is mostly handled in house. Almost every business needs to orient its sales team with a good understanding of their products and services. Product training are mostly handled in house.

Other training areas for sales teams could be – Motivation, Team Working, and Customer Handling etc.

The theme for the training and the contents of the program will entirely depend on your specific business needs and the needs of the sales team.