Three Important Things to Remember When Training Technical Sellers | Kristen Taraszewski - 1589

Sales isn’t rocket science. However, we want to cover our bases just in case. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by former NASA flight control engineer and CEO of ElevenPoint2, Kristin Taraszewski, to learn how sales organizations can adequately train their employees with technical knowledge to close more sales.  Many sellers require technical training to sell their products, and that training has become more scarce. In 2021 alone, 39% of all salespeople switched jobs. Unfortunately, that shift led to a huge need for training that hasn’t been fulfilled. It’s difficult to keep up with the rapid changes of the world as quickly as the solution is needed. Many companies don’t have a definitive onboarding and training program beyond a few online courses. It’s expensive to pull salespeople out of the field to train, and lecture-based training historically has a 10% retention rate, making it challenging to implement successfully. Give sellers a clear map. When training sellers, a clear pathway with clear direction is necessary to help people succeed and thrive. You can’t shortcut the learning map. Ask your technical team, sales team, and other necessary departments to determine what information is critical for the seller to know. Then, devise and implement a plan that teaches those elements. Think in the context of the customer. Teaching and training should be integrated. Learning one segment of the process at a time, like tech or applications, is not as helpful as full exposure. To get your foot in the door, a seller needs to prove they have something the buyer requires that solves a problem they experience. Utilize gamification to build successful programs: Training should be individualized as much as possible to help the people retain the information in the best way for them. To implement gamification, replicate the scenario a salesperson might experience while training. Get the trainee to explain the technical aspects, starting from the macro level and refining into finer details. Without a way for sellers to get better at their jobs, a company will begin to stagnate. Implementing strategies and tools to increase learning knowledge is synergistic for all levels of an organization. For more content and information from Christina and her company, visit their website at elevenpoint2.com. This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad. Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we’re speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we’ve found the solution. Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson’s workflow, so you don’t have to change your habits. Scratchpad