Building a B2B Sales Training Programme

B2B Sales Training Delivers Meaningful Results

Successful B2B organisations aim for two primary goals. First, they need to keep pace with changes in the buying process, and second, they need to stay ahead of their competition. These goals rely on the success of the sales team and their level of output.

In turn, organisations must ensure their salespeople remain agile and strive for continuous improvement. For many B2B businesses, continuous skill-building at scale is not an easy task.

The B2B sales process involves identifying the right skills, the right people, the right sustainment path, and the right metrics to measure. These skills work together to shorten the time of the B2B sales cycle and increase results. To implement these skills in their sales teams, organisations need to have proper planning and expertise. They need an effective B2B sales training programme.

With so many moving parts, implementing a new training programme can feel overwhelming. To help you start, we've compiled five B2B sales tips to build an effective business-to-business sales training programme. Use the following tips to learn how to roll out your initiative to increase B2B sales and close more deals.

1. Start at the Top

Leadership buy-in and commitment is critical. From the vision they communicate through the behaviours they display, leaders need a clear path and set of skills to lead the change. This trickles down to the sales team and creates the foundation for your B2B sales training programme. With support and a clear vision from leadership, sellers are more likely to approach the training with commitment.

2. Make It Personal

Every salesperson and sales manager comes to the table as a unique individual with strengths and gaps. To make sales development effective and lasting, it needs to be personal.

Personalisation begins by giving the team visibility into their unique needs to create buy-in and engagement. Customised, contextualised content drives immediate relevancy. Targeted learning paths drive individual behaviour change and are achievable at scale.

But how do you know you're helping your sellers build the right skills to move your business metrics? Richardson's Accelerate Sales Performance System can help identify the most relevant skill gaps for individual sellers. This system creates a personalised and engaging seller experience. Using information from your RevTech stack, it creates personalised learning journeys organised around a set of defined sales capabilities.

3. Focus on Agility

The sales process and methodology a sales organisation employs drives consistency and a common language for sales coaching. But, agile B2B sales skills are what drive momentum with potential buyers. Agility balances the seller’s need for flexibility with the manager’s need for defined standards for selling.

Focusing on agile selling skills is crucial in developing a B2B training programme. With an agile mindset, sellers pivot and adjust in the moment as new information about the pursuit emerges. Agility wins sales because sellers are responsive to change, no matter how large or frequent.

Change is constant, and the sales cycle isn't linear. With this in mind, the most successful business-to-business sales organisations are highly skilled and can make shifts during the sales pursuit. Embracing agility helps them not only adapt, but thrive. Agile sellers are more likely to stay out in front of their B2B buyers by providing the most relevant information.

4. Plan with the End in Mind

Sustainment and measurement strategies should be planned at the beginning of a sales transformation initiative. Understanding the critical business metrics you need to improve will drive the behaviours you change. Sustaining your transformation is the best path to realising the full return on investment.

5. Use Data to Keep Getting Better

Using real-time data and analytics shows more than progress. It also allows for in-the-moment adjustments for the most targeted improvement efforts. Commitment, engagement, behaviour change, and performance improvement are all key, measurable elements. These elements should be tightly woven together in an accurate data set and delivered in a way that leads to actionable insights for your business.

During the sales process, sales representatives need to build momentum to the close of the sale while preserving the bottom line. This requires a strategy that takes place before, during, and after the sales call.

At Richardson, we offer programmes like our prosperous account strategy training. This helps sales reps build an intentional plan to engage their customers and B2B prospects. These programmes combined with those that focus on selling conversations like Consultative Selling, Sprint NegotiationsTM, and Sprint SellingTM build a powerful solution for improved sales performance.

^{Learn more about Richardson Sales Performance's Connected Selling CurriculumTM}

Selecting a Training Modality For Your B2B Sales Training Programme

In most cases, a blended learning solution will be most effective for professionals who sell B2B products or services because it minimises time out of market and maximises time spent in the classroom. A balanced, pragmatic approach to learning helps promote the acquisition of knowledge; mastery; application; and long-term, sustained behaviour change in the field.

A blended learning solution incorporates a wide range of training delivery modalities that might include:

• Instructor-led training
• Virtual instructor-led training
• Digital learning platform
• Live or recorded webinars
• Video-based learning scenarios
• Mobile Reinforcement
• Gamification

In a common blended learning approach, sellers spend around 55-75% of their time doing various online activities. Then, they spend the remainder of the time in the classroom. This creates a balance for learners.

At Richardson, we've determined which skills are best learned in person versus online. This gives sellers the best chance of retaining new information and prioritises their time.

Building an effective B2B sales training programme can be a daunting task. Reach out for support in creating a programme that engages your sales team and drives results for your organisation. Contact Richardson Sales Performance to learn more about how you can partner with us to drive success.