Every sales team can benefit from continuous learning and development through B2B sales training. As a sales leader, it's your duty to identify where and when your team needs additional support to perform better.
Here are five questions to help you spot areas where your sales team might need focused training.
What you'll find in this blog:
5 Questions to Ask if Your Team Needs B2B Sales Training
Sales training is a continuous process that doesn't end after a single course or certification. However, determining when and where sales training is needed doesn't have to be complicated. Use the following questions to guide you into making an informed decision.
1. Are you seeing an increase in missed sales targets across your team?
Missing sales targets can stem from various factors– from market conditions to internal challenges.
Before jumping to conclusions about performance issues, consider what might be driving these numbers: economic changes affecting your industry, increased competition in key markets, unrealistic quota setting, recent changes in product pricing, or even team morale and motivation challenges.
Before jumping to conclusions about performance issues, consider what might be driving these numbers.
When looking for commonalities among underperforming team members, such as identifying if they are all responsible for selling the same product line, which might indicate issues with that product's competitiveness or appeal.
Or if they are targeting the same market segment or geographic region, as this could reveal external factors affecting sales. See if they are recent hires who may need additional onboarding and support to fully acclimate to your sales processes.
Comparing current performance to historical data can help identify trends. Internal changes like new sales strategies, recent product launches without sufficient training, or leadership shifts might be affecting results.
Here’s where you can start: Consider analyzing the deals that weren't closed to identify patterns. Are deals stalling at a particular stage in the sales funnel? Is there consistent feedback from prospects about product misunderstandings or unmet needs?
|
✅ Here’s a quick assessment checklist:
|
This data helps paint a clear picture of where your team might need additional support or training to overcome specific challenges.
If you identify consistent patterns across these areas, targeted sales training could help bridge these gaps. However, remember that training is most effective when it addresses specific, identified needs rather than serving as a catch-all solution.
For instance, if your analysis reveals that reps struggle with technical objections in late-stage deals, focused training on product knowledge and handling technical discussions might yield better results than a general sales methodology course.
2. Are your sales cycles getting longer compared to previous quarters?
Before attributing longer sales cycles to team performance, it’s important to first consider the common factors that could be extending your sales cycles, such as the ones mentioned above.
When analyzing your sales cycle, focus on specific stages where deals are slowing down. Map out where deals are getting stuck and look for patterns.
|
👍 Here’s where you can start evaluating: Are technical evaluations taking longer than before? Are budget discussions becoming more complex? Is your team spending more time in the proposal stage? Your CRM data can reveal these bottlenecks - for example, deals spending unusually long periods in specific stages or requiring more touch points than previously needed. |
If you identify consistent patterns where deals are stalling, targeted training might help your team navigate these challenges more effectively. For example, if deals are getting stuck in the evaluation stage, your team might benefit from training on managing complex buying committees or building stronger business cases.
The key is to match the training to the specific challenges your data reveals.
By pinpointing the specific stages where bottlenecks occur, you can implement targeted strategies to address them. This might include refining your sales qualification criteria or reevaluating your ideal customer profile (ICP). This lets your team focus on only high-potential prospects, simplifying internal processes, or enhancing your sales materials to better address customer needs.
3. Is your sales messaging inconsistent and fragmented across the team?
When your sales team lacks a unified approach, it manifests in various ways that can be confusing for your buyer, creating inconsistencies that can affect your credibility.
Review your recent sales pitches and proposals, ask for customer feedback, and join sales calls for signs of misalignment. Are team members emphasizing different product features, offering inconsistent pricing, or presenting varying value propositions? Such inconsistencies can confuse prospects and undermine their trust in you.
|
🔎 Here’s where you can start: Begin by analyzing recent deals, both won and lost. Look for patterns where inconsistent messaging may have impacted outcomes, such as prospects receiving different pricing structures from different reps, or varying descriptions of implementation timelines and service levels. Pay special attention to deals where prospects have interacted with multiple team members. |
A well-structured B2B sales training can help standardize your team's approach while still allowing for necessary personalization. The goal isn't to create robots who recite the same script, but rather to ensure your team delivers a consistent core message that aligns with your company's strategic objectives while adapting their communication style to each prospect's needs.
4. Are your sales team members actually using your sales enablement tools?
A low adoption rate of these tools not only bogs down your sales process with inefficiencies but also represents a significant waste of resources invested in these technologies.
Low adoption rates of sales tools often stem from a few common issues:
- If the sales team hasn't received proper training, they may find the tools confusing or difficult to use.
- If the tools are not user-friendly or don't integrate well with existing workflows, team members might avoid them due to frustration or inefficiency.
- If salespeople don't see clear benefits or value in using the tools, they may not be motivated to incorporate them into their daily routines. Addressing these challenges through effective training and tool selection can significantly improve adoption rates.
|
🔥 Here's a tip: to effectively measure and address this issue is to simply ask your team whether or not they are using the tools. This can be done through surveys or meetings to gather feedback from your team about the obstacles they're facing in adopting these tools. |
If you find that adoption rates are low due to lack of understanding or difficulty using the tools, this clearly indicates a need for training focused on helping your team learn how to use them effectively. Improving adoption rates through training not only enhances productivity but also ensures you get the maximum return on investment from these tools.
5. Are there new industry regulations and best practices to adhere to?
In industries with stringent regulations—such as manufacturing, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and finance—compliance is not just a matter of best practice; it's a legal imperative.
Non-compliance can lead to severe consequences, including hefty fines, legal action, and significant damage to your company's reputation. As regulations evolve, your sales team must stay informed about the latest legal requirements and ethical standards to avoid inadvertently violating them during sales activities.
|
✅ To begin evaluating this need, collaborate with your compliance or legal department to review recent changes in industry regulations that affect sales practices. Assess your team's current knowledge through surveys, quizzes, or audits to identify any gaps in understanding. |
This proactive approach allows you to pinpoint specific areas where training is necessary. Investing in specialized B2B sales training focused on compliance ensures that your team operates within legal boundaries, adheres to ethical standards, and maintains the trust of your clients and stakeholders.
When is B2B Sales Training the Right Solution?
It's a common misconception that declining sales automatically signal a need for training. While training can help reverse negative trends, it's crucial to understand that performance metrics alone don't tell the whole story. Before investing in B2B sales training, consider these broader factors:
- Market conditions and economic shifts
- Product-market fit issues
- Pricing strategy misalignment
- Resource constraints or territory imbalances
- Internal process bottlenecks
- Changes in customer buying patterns
- Competitor actions or market disruption
When Training is (and isn't) the Answer
Training delivers the strongest impact when your team faces specific challenges: knowledge gaps about products or processes, adapting to new market conditions, launching new products, or implementing new sales methodologies.
These situations directly benefit from structured learning and skill development programs that can enhance your team's capabilities and confidence!
The key is to approach training strategically, not reactively.
However, recognize that training isn't always the answer to performance challenges. When issues stem from product limitations, pricing misalignment, process bottlenecks, or inadequate resources, addressing these operational fundamentals should take priority. Training won't fix a broken product or compensate for uncompetitive pricing.
The key is to approach training strategically, not reactively. Before investing in a training program, carefully evaluate whether your team's challenges truly stem from skill gaps or if they're symptoms of broader organizational issues.
This focused analysis ensures your investment in training addresses genuine development needs rather than attempting to patch over systemic problems.
|
👍 This curated list of free sales courses will help you connect with clients, and improve your overall sales performance. Dive in to find flexible, impactful sales training tailored to support your professional growth. Here's a list of 9 FREE Sales Training Programs (B2B). |
Learning Management System: Introducing Showell's Integrated LMS
As a sales leader, you know that effective training is crucial for your team's success. Showell's Learning Management System (LMS) is designed to help you build a high-performing sales team by providing consistent training across your organization, so everyone gets the same information and there are no gaps in knowledge.
By offering engaging training materials that suit different learning styles and training methods, Showell's system helps your team understand and remember what they learn. You can see each team member's progress, which helps you identify where they might need extra support, get new team members up to speed quickly, and keep all your training materials in one unified easy-to-use platform.
When combined with Showell's award-winning sales enablement tool, this learning system helps your sales team manage, present, share, and track sales materials effectively. It's easy to use and works well for both small teams and large ones.
Investing in your team's development with Showell's LMS equips them with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed. So book a demo with us today to see how Showell's LMS can improve your sales training and take your team to the next level.
Learn more about B2B Sales Training:
Book a Demo!
If you'd like a personalized walk-through of how Showell LMS can be of service for your sales training needs, book a demo with us.
