Salespeople are naturally inquisitive. In a study of the most successful sales reps, 82 percent scored extremely high levels of curiosity. This personality trait helps successful reps better understand their products and prospects, as well as get to the bottom of what could be holding back a close.
Smart sales managers can tap into that curiosity for even greater sales success by adding a Learning Management System (LMS) to the mix. An LMS is a software that helps you design, share, use, and track trainings. And when rolled out the right way to sales teams, they can empower reps to be better, faster deal-closing machines. Here’s how.
1. Redefine sales meetings
Daily sales meetings are a staple of the most traditional sales team. The group gathers at the beginning of the day to review the numbers from the day before, share updates, and get pumped up for a successful new day. But this traditional tactic doesn’t work as well in an increasingly less traditional world.
Sales reps today need to be available at different times and on different devices (chat, text, call, email) in order to meet customers’ rapidly moving lives. Taking time away from a meeting can at best, interrupt the flow, and at worst, cause a rep to miss a chance to connect.
Using an LMS, meeting updates can be disseminated remotely and managers can track that each team member has received the information. In-tool forums also allow teams to check in throughout the day and keep a helpful history of information.
2. Make learning modular
Week-long sales conferences not only take your reps away from the sales “floor,” they don’t work. According to research, five weeks after such an event just 50 percent of the content is retained. That’s a huge investment of time and money as well as plenty of valuable sales-closing ideas lost.
People learn better when information is broken up into smaller pieces versus taught all at once. Plus, most large conferences fail to cater to different learning styles.
An LMS tool solves both problems — training is bite-sized and blended. Your sales reps can learn something new every day on a schedule you set to coincide with team goals.
You can combine in-person pieces of training with eLearning, and use video, gamification, and other tools to vary style. Plus, you can set assessments to test information retention.
3. Provide training “just in time”
When a lead is hot, it’s essential to capitalize and close as soon as possible. However, sometimes a situation arises where a prospect has a question for a rep live on the phone, but the rep doesn’t have an answer. Or, there is a certain product feature that a rep knows would push a prospect over the edge, but that rep isn’t up-to-date on that particular information.
Just-in-time training is the LMS fix for this exact situation. Reps can access a database of information from their computer or mobile device to better understand a product and answer prospects’ questions.
Just-in-time training can also be proactive. When a product is updated or critical information is released, it can be sent in real time to every rep, everywhere.
4. Create competition
Reps are busy, so getting buy-in for extra training can be a challenge. However, they’re also naturally competitive. A gamified LMS system can capitalize and encourage reps to learn. Using the tool, you can create a leaderboard that shows which reps have completed which pieces of training. Taking extra courses becomes a competition, with every rep wanting to take the lead.
5. Train to learn
There is no better way to learn than to teach. Using an LMS, any member of your sales team can create a training course. Find the reps who are most successful in certain aspects of the job — Who is great at initial outreach? Who always gets the close?
Who writes the best emails? — then ask that team member to create a course. This peer training approach is helpful for the trainer, who gets a chance to learn, grow, and get recognized for their excellent work. And it helps the trainees, who enjoy and engage in peer learning experiences.
6. Teach the customer
The use of an LMS tool isn’t limited to just your internal team, your prospects and customers can use it as well. Through your LMS you can create product training from the point of view of the user. When a prospect needs a better understanding of how the product performs in order to close, the rep can provide the prospect with the training program for a live “look.”
Curious sales reps are sales reps who close. Feed your team’s inquisitive nature with an LMS tool that helps them learn when, where, and how they want.
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Taylor Burke is a contributor to TechnologyAdvice.com, covering marketing and sales. When she’s not in front of her screen, you can find Taylor reading, cooking, running, or hanging with her dog—but rarely all four at once.
