4 Sales Training Mistakes You Should Never Make

Whenever I begin working with a client, I get asked the same questions. Time and time again, without a doubt the most common is: “What should we be training our new sales agents?”

My response to that is a simple: “You’re thinking about this wrong.”

Why is that?

You should train your sales staff EVERYTHING and ANYTHING that will help in their success and the growth of your business. Ever question whether you need to train on something or not? Stop questioning it and train. With that, though, there are mistakes we all need to avoid when training our sales staff. Thus, I’ve collected the top 4 mistakes that I see when overseeing sales training.

Mistake #1: Not Focusing Enough on Product Knowledge

Most entrepreneurs or sales management focus so much on the actual sales process and follow-up process that they often forget to train on the specifics of what’s being sold. Sure, sales process and follow-up are key to success, but what good is that process when your sales team is poked, prodded, and given objections to the sale? By empowering people purely based on processes, you’re actually limiting their potential.

Ensure that product knowledge on what’s being sold, whether physical product or service, is always a focus. That means beyond the initial onboarding of your sales staff, you need to ensure that product knowledge is continuously taught and tested. Do so by reviewing/teaching product knowledge on day one of onboarding. This way, the rest of your sales training process can revolve around literal facts, features, and benefits of what’s being sold. You’re able to teach process and train on product knowledge through consistent repetition.

Product knowledge is key to total sales success. After all, the potential customer is calling your sales agent and looking for an expert to enter that conversation. Ensure that your team is empowered and educated to fill that seat and become the expert that each customer is looking to speak with.

Mistake #2: Lacking Proper Ongoing Sales Training

So many people focus on the initial onboarding of a sale staff that they forget where true empowerment and success are built from. Ongoing training.

If you truly want your sales staff to annihilate every opportunity, education needs to be consistent and never ending for each and every one of them. Just as a business owner reads books and attends events to stay fresh on exponential growth, your sales team craves and requires the same to grow their numbers. So how do we ensure enough training occurs with our sales staff?

Morning team meetings are always key in the ongoing training process for a sales team. Use 15 minutes prior to the beginning of work to assemble your team (virtually or in person) and set goals, motivate them, and continue to train them. Have motivating surprise quizzes on product knowledge, sales processes, objection handling, etc. Make the most out of your morning meetings by ensuring your sales team is armed with the knowledge necessary for the day.

I also require team leads to prepare and hold weekly educational meetings with their team. This can be a 1 hour meeting that takes place at the same time and day weekly for the entire team. Typically, I ensure this time is used for additional sales training, homework, and intensive role playing on new methodologies. Purchase books for your sales team to read monthly, teach on the newest product knowledge, ask what roadblocks they’re encountering in order to get them fixed, etc. Do whatever it takes to provide high amounts of ongoing education and value to keep your team motivated, trying new sales techniques, and increasing their numbers.

Mistake #3: Focusing Too Little on Objection Handling

Handling objections is sales 101 when it comes to initial sales training, but I don’t always see enough focus when it comes to the training needed on the topic for each agent. There’s a key when it comes to handling objections properly: each agent will have their own successful way as it will never be one size fits all. Sure, some objections can be handled with a simple scripted response, but a true sales agent with proper sales training should have the ability to handle the most difficult of objections quickly and easily in their own comfortable way.

The key to properly training on objection handling lies in a 2 step process:

1. Standard scripted responses. These are the typical “I have to talk to my spouse” objections, that we all know, love, and love to conquer. The more difficult step is:
2. On the fly objection handling. This is an art that can only be achieved by ongoing sales training and embracing every agent’s individual personality. When we don’t do so, attempts at handling these objections will often feel scripted with little practice rather than natural with the right resolution.

Thus, remember that objection handling doesn’t stop when it comes to sales training. Ensure that this is an essential piece to each agent’s ongoing training, because agents who can handle all objections and make the resolution feel 100% natural are worth far more than the time spent training them.

Mistake #4: Teams vs Communities

One of the questions I hear consistently is, “What’s the most important thing that you can teach my team?” To me, the most important element when creating a successful team is to make sure you DON’T create a “team.” Instead, you need to create a, “community,” within your sales team. Why am I so specific as to what needs implemented during your sales training between those two words?

Let’s look at the definitions of each word:

• Team – a group of players forming one side in a competitive game or sport
• Community – a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

So, I ask you, would you rather simply have people forming a side or would you rather have a self sustaining fellowship that share common goals? With a community of sales agents, you get that magic effect where each agent helps one another rather than relying on the team lead to help. A community builds their own success and empower each other to be better.

The idea of community is simple, but the creation of a community is one of the most difficult items to achieve during sales training. Simply put, have them connect. Constantly. Pair them during initial training and ongoing training, create motivators that require teamwork, have them role play and provide positive critiques to one another, and even empower every single agent to help others with “what worked for me yesterday” sessions in your daily meetings.

By focusing on communities and not teams, you create the dream environment for any business. I remember the first time a saw a community come together after my sales training like it was a dream in my memory. It’s the moment Agent A has a terrible day on the phone and Agent B is crushing it. You begin to stand and head toward Agent A for spot monitoring/help and are beat to the punch by Agent B leaning over and saying, “Try this…”

Community. A self sustaining group of sales agents who truly care about each other’s success.