Tag: Sales Team

100 Sales Team Training Programs, Workshops, Courses, and Blogs

Posted on by irc

Even the best sales teams need training from time to time to improve and expand their skills. Luckily, there are tons of high-quality resources out there that leverave a variety of sales training techniques for both individuals and teams of any skill level.

We’ve collected a list of 100 of the best sales training programs, courses, certifications, blog posts, and podcasts that will help any sales professional improve their knowledge, work more efficiently, and close more sales.

Top 100 Sales Team Training Resources

These resources will help improve sales processes and meet sales team training objectives.

1. IRC Sales Team Starter

Pricing: $490

The IRC Sales Starter is a ground-up sales training workshop built and optimized for individual sales professionals, startups, and freelancers alike. It covers all areas of business sales, including building a sales team, creating a winning sales process, and incorporating valuable sales tools.

Regardless of where you are in your sales career, this course can help you scale and reach your sales goals and beyond.

2. Sandler Sales Training Certification

Pricing: $1,000 to $3,000 (via independent sources, pricing not available on the website)

The Sandler Sales Training Certification program offers fundamental sales training for teams looking to improve their overall sales acumen and face modern sales challenges in a complex market. 

The certification learning path covers all vital aspects of sales, from building better outreach habits and healthy negotiating, to developing sales strategies for unique business goals. 

3. Effective Sales Training by Dale Carnegie 

Best sales training resource: Winning With Relationship Selling

Pricing: Prices vary among different U.S. cities

Dale Carnegie is a well-known corporate sales trainer specializing in teaching businesses how to build customer relationships and provide a high-quality sales experience. 

The program is one of many that focus on identifying customer’s needs and pain points, crafting a sales strategy around them, and offering real solutions for the pain points on sales calls. 

4. Sales Training by Brian Tracy

Best sales training resource: 21st Century Sales Training for Elite Performance

Pricing: $997

Created for salespeople looking to upgrade their sales skills to compete in saturated markets, this program addresses the typical drawbacks of legacy sales strategies in seven key areas, including the prospecting funnel, closing the sale, and repeat business. Prospecting is engaging potential customers or “leads.”

5. Action Selling Sales Training

Pricing: On demand via quote

Sales training by Action Selling consists of classes and workshops designed with long-term sales success in mind. Each module is taught by certified experts and includes training videos, workbooks, group exercises, custom scenarios, and role-play practice, all using a sales team’s existing selling environment and tools. 

6. Steli Efti Training

Best sales training resource: Steli’s Essential Guide to Negotiation

Pricing: Free with a Udemy subscription

This free course helps teams build more confidence and negotiation skills while learning some valuable sales hacks for high-level selling. If you’re looking to build better relationships with clients while transforming how you approach and negotiate with a prospect, this course is for you. 

7. IMPACT Selling by The Brooks Group

Best sales training resource: IMPACT Selling® Professional Sales Training Program

Pricing: On demand via quote

An award-winning sales training system, IMPACT Selling helps teams create a straightforward and effective sales process that helps close more sales in a shorter time through tried and tested techniques. Ideal for B2B sales professionals and teams looking to make their approach more buyer-focused. 

8. Sales Training by Iannarino

Best sales training resource: Sales Accelerator Cohorts 2024

Pricing: $1,497 at the time of publication, normally $2,497

This three-month program helps develop executive briefings for clients and consists of bi-weekly live online training sessions with industry experts. Also included is a full year of access to all the resources on the Sales Accelerator training platform. 

9. Turpin Communication Sales Training

Best sales training resource: Presentation Training for Sales Professionals

Pricing: On demand via quote

This B2B sales course is crafted around high-stakes sales scenarios and teaches sales representatives how to communicate product strengths and value to clients. The program itself is a mix of in-person, virtual, and on-demand modalities and expands across two or more days of training and workshops. 

10. Sales Training by ValueBased

Best sales training resource: SaaS/Software Sales Training Course

Pricing: On demand via quote

This course by ValueBased focuses on the B2B SaaS market and is taught by leading professionals in this space. A fully customizable program, it introduces the value based selling methodology over the course of three 60-minute coaching sessions, as well as other exercises and resources.

A sales methodology is the framework or set of principles that guide your sales approach.

11. Sales Training by Vengreso 

Best sales training resource: FlyMSG Sales Pro for Teams

Pricing: $5,000 per year for SMBs (30-user license), $35,000 per year for enterprises (100-user license), and $132 per year for individuals

The FlyMSG Sales Pro course trains teams to master selling on a variety of platforms while creating better messaging to convert more prospects into qualified sales. The subscription provides access to the entire library of FlyLearning training courses and offers a customized group onboarding experience for new hires. 

12. Braun Sales Academy

Best sales training resource: The Badass B2B Growth Guide

Pricing: $197

This B2B sales training guide covers multiple sales mediums and teaches teams to instill a growth-centric mindset with strategies for maximizing the potential of each sales call. This is a self-paced online course that your teams can take in progressive learning stages. 

13. Sales Training by Hoffeld Group

Best sales training resource: Virtual Sales Training

Pricing: On demand via quote

This program consists of 20 courses and takes a science-based sales approach for both teams and individuals. It uses videos, simulations, and quizzes, and it offers a certification at the end. In addition, it covers the entire sales fundamental spectrum, from the basic sales mindset to neutralizing competitors. 

14. Sales Training by JB Sales

Best sales training resource: Signature programs

Pricing: $419 per user per year

JB Barrows is a well-known sales guru with several valuable training programs for individuals and teams. The two signature programs, Filling the Funnel and Driving to Close, have all the fundamentals plus innovative sales techniques that a modern sales professional requires. Both offer certifications upon completion.

15. Sales Training by RAIN Group

Best sales training resource: Insight Selling: Advanced Consultative Selling

Pricing: $199 per month

The Insight Selling course by RAIN Group is based on the consultative selling methodology and is a self-paced online course with more than 45 lessons across 12 modules. It covers the end-to-end sales process, from program basics to understanding buyer personas, and telling convincing stories. It offers a certification at the end.

16. Sales Training by Kevin Dorsey

Best sales training resource: B2B Sales Masterclass: People-Focused Selling

Pricing: $13.99 at the time of publication, normally $74.99 per user

The B2B sales masterclass by Kevin Dorsey is a compilation of his best sales techniques focused on centering the potential client throughout the process. The course consists of three hours of on-demand video, three articles, and certification at course completion. 

17. Sales Training by Richardson Sales Performance

Best sales training resource: Solution Selling® Training

Pricing: On demand via quote

This program offers a unique acceleration approach designed to shorten the time taken to complete a sale. The course includes virtual instructor-led workshops meant for sales professionals and managers looking to better manage their pipelines. 

18. Sales Training by ASLAN

Best sales training resource: Virtual Selling Skills

Pricing: $5,000-$7,500 for a half-day workshop, $9,000-$12,500 for a one-day workshop, or $14,000-$19,500 for a two-day workshop

This multi-format training program improves teams’ virtual sales performance by unpacking the unique challenges of virtual-only sales, looking at how to bring in clients and drive better engagement and connections. 

19. Sales Training by Sales Readiness Group

Pricing: On demand via quote

The customized sales training programs by Sales Readiness Group are developed with the intent of transforming sales behaviors. Each course is tailored to the unique requirements of a sales team and include both on-site and virtual instructor-led training. 

20. Sales Training by Whole Brain Selling

Pricing: On demand via quote

The Secrets of Whole Brain Selling seminar is an all-encompassing sales training program that covers all the fundamentals of effective sales. Each seminar is spread over two days. However, the duration can be customized according to a company’s time requirements. 

21. Sales Training by Asher

Best sales training resource: Close Deals Faster

Pricing: $395

A comprehensive program created to enable teams to compete in tough sales markets, Close Deals Faster consists of several modules, each covering a vital sales element that modern teams struggle with. 

22. Sales Training by Revenue Storm

Best sales training resource: Strategic Selling Done Virtually™ Workshop

Pricing: On demand via quote

This virtual instructor-led training program includes workshops on compelling call plans, breakout groups, interactive exercises, and strategic conversations. Conversions are any specific marketing or sales call. It’s a beneficial sales training course for everyone involved in your company’s sales framework.

23. Training a Sales Team by Winning By Design

Best sales training resource: Training a Sales Team

Pricing: $1,500 for sales, prospecting, and customer success courses; $2,500 for the sales management training

This four-week sales training course is designed for account executives and other high-ranking sales officials. It helps with late-stage sales techniques and improving communications.

24. Sales Training by Pareto Law

Best sales training resource: Sales Excellence Course

Pricing: On demand via quote

This program is for advanced sales professionals and is based on moving from consultative to transformational selling. It’s ideal for keeping your teams competitive in a dynamic sales landscape, improving existing sales skills, and building new ones. 

25. Zoho CRM

Best sales training resource: Training for Sales Reps

Pricing: On demand via quote

This hands-on training course by Zoho is tailored to a sales team’s needs with respect to learning and selling on the Zoho One CRM platform. CRM is an abbreviation of “customer relationship management.” The training helps maximize day-to-day sales performance and streamline sales tasks.

26. Sales Training by HubSpot Academy

Best sales training resource: Techniques for a Human-Centric Sales Process

Pricing: Free with a Coursera membership

This training module by HubSpot Academy is part of their sales training for high-performing teams. It offers the chance to build subject matter expertise, upskill entire sales teams, and reach higher profile prospects.

27. Pipedrive Masterclass: Turbocharge Sales and Retain Clients

Best sales training resource: Turbocharge Sales and Retain Clients

Pricing: Normally $44.99 but they sometimes offer discounts

This sales performance enhancement course comes courtesy of Pipedrive and is centered on streamlining the sales pipeline and understanding the capabilities of Pipedrive toward sales success.

28. ActiveCampaign & Interest Driven Sales Funnels

Best sales training resource: ActiveCampaign & Interest Driven Sales Funnels

Pricing: Normally $79.99 but they sometimes offer discounts

This course by ActiveCampaign CRM teaches sales reps how to use the platform to create automations that gauge the interest level of your subscribers, enabling you to sell more at the right times. It’s ideal for teams looking to create interest-driven sales funnels. 

29. Sales Training by Factor 8

Best sales training resource: Lead Your Sales Team | Manager 6-Pack

Pricing: $397

Developed with sales management in mind, this program offers insight into what makes a successful sales team manager. The certification program includes six individual online sales training courses, quizzes, and lots of downloadable tools and resources. 

30. Master Digital Selling by Corporate Visions

Best sales training resource: Master Digital Selling

Pricing: On demand via quote

This course is designed to aid in digital-first selling mediums with extensive insights into selling without being face to face with your leads. It’s designed to help your sales team connect with buyers, close communication gaps, and align sales goals.

31. Sales Training by GoSkills 

Best sales training resource: Introduction to Sales

Pricing: $29 per month if billed monthly; $17 per month if billed annually; seven-day free trial

This introductory course is perfect for newly recruited sales professionals with minimal experience. Created to upskill new professionals, the course covers the fundamentals of modern sales.

32. Sales Training by Keap Academy

Best sales training resource: Intro to Sales & Marketing Automation

Pricing: Free with a Keap account

Delving into the concept of sales process automation as it exists today, this course looks to introduce sales teams to automation principles while offering insights and strategy examples. It helps streamline sales for smaller teams.

33. Salesforce Sales Training

Best sales training resource: Salesforce Sales Operations Professional Certificate

Pricing: Free with a Coursera membership

This foundational sales certification by Salesforce seeks to introduce experienced sales professionals and new recruits alike to running sales in Salesforce while upskilling them with winning strategies that help scale operations in the long term.

34. Vasco Patricio Executive Coaching 

Best sales training resource: Ultimate Persuasion Psychology – Persuasion and Influence

Pricing: Normally $69.99 but they sometimes offer discounts

This course delivers elite-level influence and persuasion techniques that are based on the newest cognitive psychology principles. It’s designed to help you better communicate with clients and convert faster.

35. Sales Training by University of Michigan

Best sales training resource: Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills

Pricing: Free with an edX membership

This negotiation and persuasion-based course teaches you how to negotiate more lucrative sales and create opportunities for repeat business as well as better deals on ongoing calls.

36. Sales Training by Queen’s University

Best sales training resource: Professional Certificate in Enterprise Sales

Pricing: $510

This Queen’s University sales certification program consists of three skill development courses over the course of five months, at five to six hours per week. It will teach you to analyze current trends and sales methodologies for consistent performance improvement.

37. Sales Training by Smith School of Business

Best sales training resource: Sales Enablement & Analytics

Pricing: Free with an optional $189 certification

This sales training course by the Smith School of Business is designed to enable sales professionals to deliver customized guidance, consulting, and insights to clients. It runs over six weeks, with four to six hours per week of on-demand training.

38. National Association of Sales Professionals

Best sales training resource: Online Sales Training Program & Certification – CPSP®

Pricing: $795

Created for anyone looking to gain an edge in sales, this high-level certification program provides knowledge and insight into the habits of some of the highest performing professionals within the space.

39. Cold Email Guide by Hunter

Pricing: Free

The Cold Email Guide by Hunter.io offers an extensive look into the secrets of a winning cold email, including the structure, contents, and outreach strategy that get consistent responses. Readers can expect to optimize their outbound setup and create effective campaigns time and time again.

WEBINARS

40. Apollo.io

Webinar: The Ultimate Inbound Sales Process

This shared webinar looks at inbound sales management within the Apollo sales engine, including lead flow fundamentals and lead sequencing. Inbound sales focus on leads who come to you through marketing and other tactics.

41. Selling Power

Webinar: Revenue Enablement 2.0: How to Sell More Using Sales-First Tech and Automation

This webinar is available on demand from May 8, 2024. It is designed to enable sales leaders across a vast array of industries to revolutionize their sales strategy by improving team efficiency, streamlining tedious processes, and building a responsive sales approach. The webinar is upcoming but a copy will be available on demand once it airs.

42. RAIN Group

Webinar: 24 Sales Tips for 2024

This on-demand webinar is designed for sales professionals to update their sales approach according to today’s standards. It will teach your team to do an honest analysis of their current sales capabilities and learning skills that have already proven successful. 

43. RocketReach

Webinar: B2B Intent Data

This on-demand webinar by RocketReach delves into intent data and its potential for driving higher sales revenue. Sales reps will learn how to search for and target higher value accounts, identify and attain potential customers, and reach key decision-makers among their target market. 

44. Gartner

Webinar: The Tech-Forward Tactics of Sales Leaders Shaping the Future

Gartner’s on-demand webinar explains the sales habits of leading sales performers, focusing on how they leverage tech to improve their sales numbers.

Some of the important touch points the webinar discusses include implementing the right technology into the sales workflow and measuring the impact of sales enablement, which is the process of providing resources to sales reps to help them win.

45. HRDQ

Webinar: Customers for Life: 5 Easy Steps for Turning a Goal Into Reality

Sales expert Bruce Matza conducts this on-demand webinar on customer retention basics, including how to identify individual opportunities to retain existing customers, and build longer lasting relationships with prospects.

46. Leadfeeder

Webinar: Call Coaching: 16 Actions To Take Today

This free webinar looks at some easy techniques to enhance sales performance and make more engaging calls with prospects. The discussion includes some of the common call coaching mistakes and how to resolve them. 

47. Selling Power

Webinar: The Moves Sales Execs Need to Make to Convert the Unreceptive Buyer

Selling Power’s on-demand webinar for executives examines how sales managers can come to terms with buyer resistance, lack of engagement in reps, and ineffective sales coaching. This is a joint session by ASLAN Training and Selling Power, number 18 on our list, the webinar identifies two key changes that will help improve lackluster sales.

EBOOKS

48. Pipedrive 

Ebook: Sales Pipeline Course

This free ebook offers an in-depth guide to optimizing a sales pipeline and making efficiency adjustments over time. Designed for sales reps, it helps them work smarter, manage time better, and boost revenue as a result. 

49. eLearning Industry

Ebook: The Sales Enablement Guide: Sales Training Strategies To Hit Your Targets

This free ebook by eLearning Industry highlights the importance of sales reps staying up to date with evolving sales techniques and shifts in current methodologies. It enables teams to make the most of training and teaches how to build an effective sales team. 

50. Writer

Ebook: Full-Stack Generative AI for the Enterprise

This ebook explains the need for implementing generative AI into the enterprise framework to meet modern content generation needs. Sales teams can use this to learn how full-stack generative AI applies to sales conversations, as well as the process streamlining potential this represents. 

51. TalentLMS

Ebook: The Power Of Persuasion: Developing A Strong Sales Team

Highlighting how persuasive sales delivery can be a game-changer for sales teams, this ebook goes over the fundamentals of an effective sales team and the inherent qualities of its members. 

52. Baker Communications

Ebook: 7 Steps to Creating a Culture of Customer Obsession

Based on the popular buzzword “customer obsession,” this ebook goes into why it’s important to center the entire process around the customer, as well as the necessity of creating the ideal customer experience. 

53. Proven Sales Training

Ebook: Motivators and Connectors

Made for sales professionals who find it tough to motivate potential buyers to move with them to the close, this ebook helps address various sales objections that reps may face, and teaches them how to add some persuasive professionalism to their delivery when talking with clients. 

PODCASTS

54. PandaDoc Podcast

Best episode: Selling to a CTO Who Ignores Every Sales Email

Much like most of their episodes, this one featuring the co-founder of PandaDoc talks about how the sales role will evolve, how to sell to tough prospects, and the vital aspects of product-led growth that many companies ignore. 

55. Proposify Podcast

Best episode: Stress Less and Sell More With Jeff Risely

The Proposify podcast has tons of informative episodes that talk about excelling in sales, and this episode in particular is valuable for sales professionals who struggle with achieving their targets. 

56. Daily Sales Tips 

Best episode: Sales Tip 864: The Outbound Cheat Code – Jason Bay

This episode on the Daily Sales Tips podcast talks about getting responses to cold calls and sales emails while providing some actionable insights on how to make your outbound sales efforts more effective. Outbound sales focus on contacting targeted leads via phone, email, social media, or other communication channels.

57. Sales Gravy 

Best episode: Networking Tips and Tactics for Introverts

Meant specifically for introverted folks who believe they need to have the gift of the gab in order to succeed at sales, this episode talks about how introverts can actually be more effective at prospect outreach than their extroverted colleagues. 

58. The Sales Evangelist 

Best episode: Tim Kintz | Knowing the Right Time to Ask for the Sale

The Sales Evangelist podcast has over 1,000 episodes, and this one in particular is important listening for sales reps looking to determine the right time to pitch, close, and ask for the sale. It also covers how to build more meaningful relationships with clients.

59. The Sales Engagement Podcast

Best episode: Becoming a Better Salesperson: Making It to the Top 10

If you’re looking to learn how to engage with prospects and get the most out of every sales call, this is the podcast for you. It features important insights from the daily workings of sales leaders and has tons of educational tidbits you can use in your sales interactions.

60. The Sales Hacker Podcast

Best episode: How to Turn Relationships Into Revenue With Gauri Chawla

From the brilliant folks over at The Sales Hacker, this podcast provides tips and tricks from thought leaders in sales and goes into how sales teams can drive better revenue, as well as strategic thinking that transforms how you sell. 

61. 30 Minutes to Presidents Club 

Best episode: Booking 80% of Your Calls From Instagram DMs (Tara Horstmeyer)

This podcast offers unique perspectives from several key sales figures in the industry. Topics include how to use solely social media outreach to book calls and leverage existing sales platforms for better results.

62. The Inside Selling Podcast

Best episode: Kyle Coleman on Cold Emailing

Created by Josh Braun, this podcast explores the secrets of effective outreach. This episode focuses on how to write cold emails that get positive responses from prospects.

63. Make It Happen Mondays 

Best episode: The JB Sales Team On Email Effectiveness

This podcast has top sales trainers, reps, managers, and CEOs explaining sales essentials and talking about things that every sales professional should know before making their first outreach attempt.

64. Selling the Sandler Way 

This data and research-backed podcast offers real-world insights into sales effectiveness as well as discussions with sales leadership across a wide variety of industries. 

65. The Modern Selling Podcast

Best episode: How to Go From Rep to Sales Manager with Scott Leese

This podcast looks at the bigger picture of sales and explores what goes on in the minds of the best performers. Experts such as Josh Braun and Chris Walker provide insights for every level within the sales organization.

66. Close Call: The Revenue Acceleration Show 

Best episode: How to Boost Your Sales Confidence & Improve Cold Outreach

This podcast is all about practical pointers on improving outreach and implementing tried and true techniques into outreach for better responses.

67. Sell Or Die

Best episode: Bring Your Sales Back to Life With Chet Lovegren

Based on using sales as the primary revenue driver at a company, this podcast features discussions between successful sellers who use a tactical approach to sales.

68. The Advanced Selling Podcast

Best Episode: Removing the Guesswork From Sales

Hosting well-known figures in the sales space, this podcast offers a wealth of advanced sales knowledge that benefits both buyers and sellers.

69. Conversations With Women in Sales

Best Episode: Learn How to Really Sell and Become Too Good to Be Ignored

Run by some of the most successful female sales leaders, this podcast looks at how to become a top sales rep by using fundamental sales techniques in new and unique ways to boost sales. 

BLOGS

70. IRC Insights Blog

Best blog post: Sales Automation: How to Automate Your Sales Process

The IRC Insights blog is filled with unique information on how to take your sales to the next level. It offers actionable advice that has been used to improve revenue, create a more streamlined sales process, and assemble a winning sales team.

71. Copper Blog

Best blog post: 4 Sales Training Strategies to Create Confident Reps

The Copper blog touches upon several key areas of sales that most reps struggle with, including building confidence for outreach and being more informative. This post in particular goes over how to become a better sales communicator. 

72. Growbots Blog

Best blog post: 10 Highly Effective Practices for Sales Reps

On this blog, the Growbots team expands on what sales reps can do to reach the level of top performers in their space and benefit the entire sales foundation at their companies. 

73. Sales Hacker Blog

Best blog post: Entrepreneurial Selling: The Simple Mindset Shift That Wins More Deals

A high-value offering by the people at The Sales Hacker, this blog offers a wide variety of best practices for selling, deep dives on what makes a great sales leader, and how to think like an industry leader.

74. Aircall Blog

Best blog post: How Sales and Support Teams Can Adapt to the AI-Powered Customer Journey

This blog from Aircall offers tech-focused advice on how to streamline sales, speed up the sales process, and implement technology such as AI to make the customer journey more rewarding.

75. HubSpot Sales Blog

Best blog post: 7 Habits of Highly Successful Prospectors, According to Sales Leaders

The HubSpot Sales Blog offers sales advice for individuals and teams at any level. It features insights into how to become more effective prospectors, regardless of where you are in your sales career.

76. Kixie Blog

Best blog post: Everything You Need to Know About Google’s Bulk Email Crackdown

The Kixie blog has up-to-date information and features important trends in the world of sales, all of which are relevant to the modern sales professional competing in a dynamic environment.

77. RAIN Group Blog

Best blog post: 7 Ways to Build Rapport in Sales and Connect With People

Building good relationships with your customers is a universal factor in sales, and the RAIN Group blog offers tons of tips and tricks on how to do just that, on top of building a strong sales framework.

78. LeadFuze Blog

Best blog post: How to Find Someone’s Phone Number [In 5 Easy Ways]

The LeadFuze blog covers the lesser discussed topics in the world of sales, such as how to boost sales using a winning content marketing strategy or how to find someone’s phone number for prospectors.

79. The Sales Blog

Best blog post: 34 Lessons We’ve Learned About Building Consensus 

The Sales Blog comes from sales expert Anthony Iannarino and offers unique sales approaches and game-changing strategies that will improve the performance of all of your sales team members. 

80. Qwilr Blog

Best blog post: Mastering Sales Excellence: Strategies, Culture, and Tools

This blog touches upon what sales excellence means, the ideal sales technology for modern teams, and how to increase the productivity of the sales team overall, among other important topics. 

81. SaaStr Sales Blog

Best blog post: 7 Things the Best Sales Reps Get Right

The SaaStr Sales blog contains lots of valuable content from the global SaaS sales and marketing community, with both fundamental information and high-level strategies that build revenue.

82. JustCall Blog

Best blog post: Secret to Sales Success in 2024: Create a Smart Workflow (A How-to Guide)

The JustCall blog has tips on delivering the optimal customer service during sales and techniques to drive better sales numbers, as well as creating better workflows. 

83. LinkedIn Sales Solutions Blog

Best blog post: 6 Resources to Sharpen Virtual Selling Skills 

Containing top-tier advice from the biggest business community in the world, the LinkedIn Sales Solutions blog has everything today’s sales professional needs to know about success in the space.

84. Clockify Blog

Best blog post: Overcoming Planning Fallacy and Its Negative Effects

The Clockify blog is ideal for anyone looking to better manage their time and make more sales calls in the allocated time.

85. Cerebral Selling Blog

Best blog post: Stop Selling and Start Telling: The Power of Prescription

If you’re looking for advice on becoming a more persuasive seller and improving your sales psychology, this is the blog post for you. 

86. Zopto Blog

Best blog post: Automating Your LinkedIn Campaigns Safely

LinkedIn campaigns are of high importance, and automating them in a healthy way is vital for a modern sales strategy. This Zopto blog post contains advice on that and more. 

87. Gong.io Blog

Best blog post: What Is Value Selling?

This blog provides basic information regarding several key sales elements, all backed by the latest data.

Value selling is hearing customer pain points or buying criteria and matching them to features, capabilities, and end-benefit of your product.

88. Entrepreneur – Sales Blog

Best blog post: 5 Tips for Having Better Sales Conversations

The Entrepreneur blog has a wealth of sales and business knowledge for any professional at any stage of their sales ladder, with in-depth advice on practical sales excellence. 

89. Close Blog

Best blog post: How to Create a Sales Pitch (Ultimate Guide) for Sales Reps in 2024

The Close blog has multiple valuable posts on subjects such as improving the sales process, writing better cold emails, and new AI-driven sales tools.

90. Wilson Learning Blog

Best blog post: Sales Methodology as the Force Multiplier

This blog contains high-level advice meant to build better sales professionals, boost sales via more effective methodology implementation, and maximize account management. 

Sales team training resources for the top sales methodologies

91. NetHunt

Methodology: The Ultimate Guide to the Challenger Sales Model

This methodology challenges the traditional sales model and discusses the inherent qualities of powerhouse sales reps. 

92. HubSpot

Methodology: SPIN Selling

This methodology talks about abandoning legacy sales techniques in favor of becoming value providers and trusted advisors to clients.

93. HubSpot

Methodology: SNAP Selling

HubSpot’s summary of Jill Konrath’s book defines what SNAP selling is, expands upon what makes this type of sales methodology successful, and talks about how to adopt it within a current framework.

94. Pipedrive

Methodology: Consultative Selling

Consultative selling is based on building deep relationships with clients by listening to their needs and providing real value – instead of just pitching a product. This resource defines how it works in detail.

95. The Investor’s Podcast

Methodology: Straight Line Selling

From the mind of the legendary Jordan Belfort, this methodology offers a tested method that guarantees better sales performance.

96. HubSpot

Methodology: Sandler Selling System

The Sandler system emphasizes qualifying sales instead of closing them, by building mutual trust with prospects and addressing their concerns. Qualifying is the process of prioritizing efforts on the best sales opportunities.

97. HubSpot

Methodology: Inbound Sales

A common methodology used by sales professionals worldwide, inbound sales is based on creating value that brings customers to you, instead of you reaching out to them. 

98. Qwilr

Methodology: Gap Selling

This methodology is about identifying the gap between a prospect’s current state and their desired future state in terms of product necessity, and providing value to fill that gap.

99. Scaling With Systems

Methodology: Cold Calling 2.0

Another tried and tested methodology that’s popular around the world, this version is a unique look at traditional cold calling that prioritizes using data and insights to identify promising prospects.

100. Walnut

Methodology: Conceptual Selling

A solution-based methodology, conceptual selling focuses on pitching the ideal outcome of using a product or service, instead of the product itself, and leveraging product knowledge to inform customers about how it can solve their pain points.

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How to Build a Sales Team in 7 Steps

Posted on by irc

The heartbeat of any thriving organization is its ability to drive revenue and secure a market presence. Building the right sales team is key to growth, resilience, and success.

However, this requires more than simply bringing in talented individuals. It involves defining the right sales strategy for your industry, creating a step-by-step sales process, establishing clear key performance indicators (KPIs), hiring the right people, and making continuous development a non-negotiable priority.

It’s vital to provide your employees with effective training and motivation to maximize their sales skills and transform them into a highly effective sales team.

Throughout this article, we’ll use a wide variety of industry terminology. We’ll define the terms as we go, but if there’s anything we don’t cover, please see our extensive glossary.

Here’s how to build a sales team that will give your organization an edge in today’s business landscape.

Step 1. Define the right sales strategy for your industry

The types of sales representatives you need to hire depends on a few things:

  1. Your price point.
  2. The products or services you sell.
  3. Your target audience.

Determine whether you need inbound sales reps, outbound, or both. Along with hiring the right type of sales representative, having the right sales methodology will be the foundation for the success of your sales team. It will give your team the framework to organize their approach when connecting with prospects.

Your price point is crucial when devising your sales strategy. With a lower price point, you should prioritize marketing over sales resources. With a higher price point, you’ll need more sales resources, yet marketing will still be important.

The strategy you choose may also impact your technology. With a marketing-heavy strategy, a CRM like ActiveCampaign will work. With a sales-only strategy, a CRM like Close would be effective. And, finally, with a strategy that is heavy on both sales AND marketing, a CRM like Hubspot is best.

If you need more insights into sales technology, check out our sales tools article.

Lastly, it’s important to determine how to target the right leads for your product or service. Targeting is finding potential leads and their contact information. By identifying potential customers through various channels like industry databases (such as Guidestar for nonprofits) and targeting tools such as Leadfuze, you can effectively target your efforts and allocate resources where they are most likely to yield the best results.

Here are a few potential lead sources you may consider:

  • Targeting tools: Software solutions to find leads and their contact information.
  • Lead lists: Leads and contact information purchased from a contractor.
  • Industry databases: Databases, groups, and associations your targeted customer tends to be part of.
  • Inbound leads: Leads who come to you through marketing or advertising.
  • CRM leads: Past customers or backlogged leads.
  • Outsourced: Leads found by a vendor through outsourced prospecting.

Some sales teams will only use one lead source – one source for potential customers – while others may use all of the above types of lead sources.

For example, in B2B sales, utilizing LinkedIn may be effective for finding potential clients. And for B2C sales, it may be more suitable to direct your outreach strategy toward direct mailers or a social media platform that directly connects with your target audience. Here’s our guide to boosting your sales on LinkedIn.

Step 2. Map out a step-by-step sales process

The sales process is the step-by-step process for turning prospects into customers, and it’s key to your team’s sales performance. If the sales manager wants their team to hit the target, they need to take the guesswork out of their process. They need to know where to go and in what order. Mapping out a step by step sales process requires you to look at what you want the customer to experience when engaging with your company.

Although a step-by-step sales process should be customized for your product and industry, there are a few common steps that can be included in your process.

Below you will find an example of a sales process for medium to high-priced B2B solutions. However, as the price point for your product gets lower you can first remove the needs assessment step, followed by the presentation and qualification steps to streamline your approach.

Qualifying means prioritizing your sales efforts on the best sales opportunities. These are deals that have a high chance of closing and earning high revenue and profit. If you spend time and resources on bad-fit prospects, you’ll have fewer sales and earn less revenue. Qualification is especially important in long sales cycles, as those can amplify the amount of time you waste on the wrong prospects.

  1. Prospecting: Identifying and reaching out to potential clients you have identified in your ideal client profile (ICP). An ICP is detailed descriptions of your ideal customers.

  2. Qualification: It’s important to spend your time with prospects who are a good fit and have a realistic chance of becoming a customer. A “qual call” doesn’t need to be its own call, but you need to qualify the contact you’re speaking with, the company they work for, and the opportunity as a whole.

  3. Needs Assessment: In the first or second call with a potential client, your team should do an in-depth discovery. A discovery call is a meeting where both parties learn if an opportunity is worth pursuing. It allows your team to ask a series of questions that uncover the prospect’s use case and any specific requirements they seek when purchasing a new product or service.

  4. Presentation: Once you understand the specific needs of the prospects, your goal is to showcase how your product or service is a viable solution for their use case. This of course should highlight what your product or service has to offer, but your team should also focus on personalizing the pitch to solve your prospect’s needs.

  5. Overcoming objections and negotiating: Whether in your presentation or sales follow-ups, overcoming objections is key to getting your prospect ready to purchase from you. This allows you the space to address and anticipate potential concerns, such as implementation, as well as discuss terms, pricing, and any customization they may need to become a customer.

  6. Closing the sale: Up until this point, the sales team has done an immense amount of work to guide your prospect along the sales process. Now is the time to secure the commitment. Closing deals can look like a variety of things and is dependent on your industry’s next steps, but usually it means a signed contract, agreement to a trial period, or purchasing your product or service.

Step 3. Establish the right KPIs for success

KPIs, or key performance indicators, are crucial sales targets necessary for success.

Setting strong KPIs is essential for business growth as they reveal how your organization is performing, provide guidance for your team’s objectives, and offer insight into the path to success. KPIs are measurable factors that reflect how effectively a team is achieving their business goals. For example, are you aiming to increase revenue, acquire new customers, expand into a new market, or boost your annual contract value (ACV)?

Once you’ve established your overall objective, you must then identify the metrics necessary to achieve those results. For instance, if acquiring new customers is your objective for this quarter, you may consider looking at the length of time it takes to acquire a new customer.

Below are three examples of other factors you could look at when it comes to acquiring new customers, but see our sales team structure article where we have much more detailed KPIs for each team structure:

  1. Lead generation rate: How many leads are you generating each week or month from your sales efforts? If you’re focused on cold calls, you may want to look at the number of sales calls that were made this month and how many of those turned into meetings.

  2. Conversion rate: This measures the amount of prospects you speak to that ultimately becomes a customer. You find this number by dividing the new number of clients acquired by the number of opportunities (leads) created.

  3. Customer acquisition cost (CAC): This is how much it costs to achieve one new customer. It will include any sales and marketing efforts related to acquiring a new customer, including advertising costs, sales rep salaries, and any other overhead expenses such as the cost of the CRM tool used. Find your CAC number by dividing the total acquisition costs by the total number of new clients within a given period.

The CAC KPI is important to make sure you are not over or underspending in your efforts to acquire new clients. It will also help you direct your efforts to the tactics that are financially best for your business model.

Step 4. Hire the right people

Hiring the right sales team members will be the foundation to your success. Just because they have sales experience doesn’t mean they have the right sales experience for your business.

It’s about finding the right person at the right time, who can bring as much knowledge as possible in areas like the product, industry, and customer. The rest is up to the company – to make them more knowledgeable and persuasive through training and technology, and to give them incentives.

When it comes to the hiring process, do the following to find the best sales reps for your team:

  1. Recruit for the experience you need: Whether you need to hire a sales rep or account executive for inbound or outbound sales, the goal is to look for a candidate that has relevant, positive experience with this exact role, relevant experience in this exact industry, or experience working at the companies they’ll now be calling on. Consider whether they have product, industry, or customer knowledge they can bring to your organization, and if they have a proven track record of meeting or exceeding goals within this role or industry.

  2. Define expectations: Do this prior to the interview process, even if it’s just preliminary numbers. You want to be able to ask questions in your interview around these potential metrics, such as quotas. It allows you to assess if your candidate has had previous experience at this volume and get their initial reactions to the role’s expectations.

  3. Develop skill-directed questions: Focus more on a candidate’s soft skills rather than their experience with a specific CRM. You will have a good understanding of the characteristics you are seeking for this role and should tailor your questions accordingly. Role-play scenarios are a great way to see how your candidate responds to specific sales situations.

For the skill-directed questions, here are some examples of role-play prompts:

  1. Imagine I was a prospect and you were a salesperson. How would you sell me our product (to the best of your current abilities)?

  2. Let’s go back in time and pretend we’re at your most recent sales role. I’m a prospect and you’re the sales person. How would you walk me through a sale?

Listen for the following positive and negative signs in their responses. They won’t ace the questions about selling your product – you’re just looking for how they approach it and how they sound when they answer.

Positive Signals: 

  • They ask questions first then sell later.
  • They clarify details before beginning their response. For example, buyer demographics.
  • They mention digging or follow-up questions.

Negative Signals: 

  • They immediately start pitching and selling to you.
  • They sound “salesy” or off-putting.
  • They seem embarrassed.

Step 5. Set Up an Onboarding Process 

The next step is onboarding your new sales team. This step is important to ensuring your new reps are equipped with all the skills they need to be successful within their new role and your organization. 

The length of onboarding can vary from a few weeks to a few months depending on the level of training your team needs. That said, your onboarding program should include anything your sales professionals need to be successful in their new role, such as:

  • Company or product knowledge.
  • Your company’s sales process and approach.
  • The competitive landscape.

A well-planned onboarding program improves your team’s time to productivity.

Here are three tips for building a successful onboarding program: 

  1. Set learning milestones: You want to know that your new reps are making progress as it relates to the training you have developed. Set key milestones within your training that check for comprehension on particular topics.

  2. Utilize role-playing exercises: These exercises enable your new sales rep to increase their confidence and practice their sales skills in a controlled environment. Role-playing facilitates learning through experience and repetition while providing them with challenges in a more structured setting.

  3. Practice and review: It’s important for the new hire to understand the material, but it’s even more important for them to demonstrate they can implement their new skills in various sales activities. For example, if you’re training on your cold calling phone script, review with your sales rep what needs to be covered on the call. Then have them make a cold call, and afterward set aside time for feedback on what went well and what areas have room for improvement.

Step 6. Train and retain top talent

Sales departments can experience high turnover and struggle to retain top talent because they often believe that once they have hired the right people, their job is done. However, once you have found the right person, you must nurture and grow that talent, starting with the onboarding process.

Unfortunately, this is where most organizations fail. It’s easy to hire a team and focus on goals, but if you truly want them to hit their sales goals, you need to focus on their development. Without ongoing learning and reinforcement on a systemic level, 84% of sales training is forgotten within the first 90 days.

That’s why continuous development is an important factor to improve retention, maximize your team’s performance potential, and encourage a company culture of continuous improvement. Your ongoing training program should cover everything from product knowledge and sales techniques to communication skills and customer service. 

Even though development seems straightforward, it can be tough for companies to find the right starting point for their program.

Here are a few things to do when developing your training roadmap:

  1. Assess and identify needs: Development needs can vary from team to team, so it’s always a good idea to start developing your program based on where your team’s skill level is right now. A few things to assess include product knowledge, sales techniques, communication skills, and industry-specific training.

  2. Create your development roadmap: Once you’ve established where your team is with development needs, it’s time to create your initiatives for the team. Prioritize these in order of how much it would improve the business objectives. If it moves the business needle more, start your roadmap there and work your way down to less critical skills.

  3. Implement “outside” learning opportunities: If you or the sales leader within your organization is the one doing all the training, consider getting some outside resources to assist. A skill can be developed more efficiently by coming at it from a few different angles.

Ongoing training is essential to your team’s performance, and it’s worth the investment. Research shows that for every dollar you invest in sales training, you can expect $29 in incremental revenue. In fact, sales reps who receive as little as three hours of coaching per month exceed quota by 7%. This increases revenue by 25% and average close rates by 70%.

Step 7: Leverage technology

Modern sales tools like HubSpot and Salesforce are pivotal to today’s sales process. Technology helps sales professionals become more productive by automating repetitive tasks and giving real-time, data-driven insights into potential prospects.

Leveraging technology within your sales team can improve a variety of metrics including customer engagement, improved communication, and scalability rate. 

Let’s take a look at how it can improve a few areas of your sales process: 

  1. Data-driven strategies: With so much intent data out there, sales teams can target ICPs who are actively looking for a product or service like yours. They can do this with targeting tools like Dealfront and analyze the keywords they’re searching with Google Search Console. This allows you to reach out to potential prospects with the messaging they are using in their search efforts and connect quicker to their specific use case.

  2. Improved lead generation: With the right technology, such as LeadFuze, salespeople can find and qualify potential prospects quicker. Instead of combing through an endless list of people that may have outdated contact information, they can search the prospect directly and find all the right contact information within seconds.

  3. Scaling and growth: Sales process automation has made it possible for one sales rep to perform the work of two. With features like automated workflows and AI assistants handling outreach, sales reps are able to reach out to more accounts. This results in improved connection rates with potential prospects through predictive touchpoints.

Knowing how to build a sales team is just the beginning

Building a successful sales team is not a one-time achievement but an ongoing commitment to evolution and improvement.

Incorporating these seven essential steps into building your sales team helps ensure not only success for individual sales reps but also the lasting success of the entire team and your organization.

As we have discussed, building a highly effective sales team requires a multifaceted approach that requires you to identify the right sales strategy for your organization, develop a step-by-step sales process, set clear KPIs, and hire, develop, and retain the right sales professionals for the job.

Furthermore, leveraging technology has become a crucial step in ensuring a high-performing sales team in today’s sales world. Organizations that invest in building a strong sales team and leverage the right sales solutions and processes will be better positioned for long-term sustainable success.

Use our Sales Team Starter to build and improve your sales team

Our Sales Team Starter is a blueprint for you to design your own sales team. Created by professional sales consultants responsible for more than $100 million in sales, its purpose is to make your sales team function and perform better than it did last month.

This digital product is continually updated, improved, and expanded. It includes templates, examples, and instructions on how to create your own. It offers professional guidance from industry experts on:

  • Hiring sales reps.
  • Prospecting strategies.
  • Sales management.
  • Commission structures.
  • Techniques.
  • Technology.
  • Automation.
  • Sales methodologies.
  • Other sales channels.

The Sales Team Starter also includes these resources:

  1. Compensation modeler that allows you to quickly pinpoint a plan that will incentivize your reps without jeopardizing profits, based on your sales numbers or estimates.

  2. CRM selection tool that leverages our countless hours of research and experience with dozens of CRMs. It will help you sift through pricing tiers, compare capabilities, and choose the perfect CRM for your company.

  3. Quota generator for determining how many phone calls and emails your sales team needs to make in order to hit your sales goals.

Buy our Sales Team Starter today.