Sales coaching and sales training is critically important. Ask any industry leader in just about any field you can think of and they’ll confirm this statement.

However, for every successful company out there that has benefitted from bringing in outside expertise, there are just as many excuses being offered by less successful companies for not doing it.

Sales training and sales coaching is a highly specialized field and no matter how good they are at their real job, your average sales manager lacks the teaching skills needed to complete this task effectively and efficiently.

A sales manager, after all, has different priorities. They need to focus on getting their teams to make more sales. They simply do not have the time it takes to keep up with all the latest sales and marketing approaches and techniques. Nothing against them. There’s only so many hours in a day and if teaching was their strength, they probably wouldn’t be working as sales managers.

Aside from trying to get one of your more senior managers to conduct training in-house, the next most common short-cut is to enroll employees in a skills program or send them to a seminar. While better than nothing, these options do little to help the employee tackle all the work they have on their plate as they’re learning the new techniques and skills.

Bringing in an outside sales trainer addresses all these issues as they are able to be onsite helping your employees learn in the “real world” working on actual tasks.

Ask yourself: How do the top companies in my industry train and coach their sales employees? Chances are they don’t ask a sales manager or someone from HR to take on the additional responsibility. They understand hiring a true sales coaching and training expert is always going to better – and more cost-effective than a DIY approach.

Truth be told, the benefits of sales coaching and sales training are obvious as the recent spike in the industry attests. All you need to do now is find an experienced professional with a stellar track record to help your sales people scale new heights of selling success.

According to a recent report, companies are dedicating only 10% of their learning and development (L&D) resources to improving sales. Indeed, the most common complaint among new hires is the lack of in-depth sales training. Find out why sales training is an investment your company can’t afford to overlook.

Why Invest in Learning and Development for Your Sales Team?

The 2019 Learning and Development (L&D) Report from professional search engine findcourses.com conducted a survey of over 70 L&D professionals. Of those surveyed, only 10% reported sales as a top training priority despite the proven benefits of learning and development. The report revealed a clear connection between learning and innovative business practices, diversity and inclusion training and financial growth, and current financial growth with increasing L&D investment.

L&D training is a key facet of running a successful and growing business. However, businesses are missing out on fostering long-term growth when they overlook sales training in L&D plans. By strategically increasing investment in L&D, you can maximize your potential for revenue growth, while cementing the sales team at the center of your business’ success.

So, what L&D strategies will help more sellers become more effective? If your goal is to lead your sales team to victory, practicing L&D professionals have identified some key training insights to boost sales and encourage innovation.

Create a Safe Space for Idea-Sharing

A successful sales team is one that openly shares and communicates their ideas in the spirit of collaboration and mutual support. Tiffany Poppa of Bonobos credits their high rate of innovation to their culture of trust and relationship-building: “Focusing on strengths creates trust; it creates a safe space to try something and possibly fail, have a conversation about it, and move forward.”

Similarly, Training Manager of CyberCoders Dani Chang emphasizes idea-sharing when hiring and training new sales recruits: “My team hire, manage, train, and ramp up individuals that have no prior sales or recruiting experience.” The training encourages idea-sharing and bonding among the new recruits which is then carried throughout their time with the company, ultimately leading to higher levels of innovation.

Stay Flexible and Adaptable

Businesses often require sales teams to switch tact quickly and efficiently. Keeping your L&D program agile will help you lead your team smoothly into any new structure that results from mergers or acquisitions. Consistent evaluation and recalibration are the best ways to keep exceeding expectations.

Tiffany Poppa, Director of Employee Experience at Bonobos explains that, “Focusing on what’s right with people makes for an inclusive environment where people can openly express themselves, their ideas and even their challenges.” Cultivating a working environment and an agile L&D culture that encourages openness is the first step to inviting innovation to your office, and to keep it there.

Embrace the Future of Sales with Virtual Reality

Harnessing the power of new virtual reality technology gives sales teams the opportunity to complement existing training with something relatively rare: practice-as-learning in a safe environment.

VR coaching company STRIVR’s Chief Strategy Officer Danny Belch has seen the impact of VR on L&D in real time. “With VR, because of the on-demand nature, a real-life experience can be fired up at the click of a button … it’s not role-play. You have this beautifully free space to practice, to stumble on your words,” Belch observes. He finds that putting the information presented in training into a real-life scenario gives you the repetition needed to get it right.

The Key Takeaway

Investment in sales training L&D will provide the tools to maximize your sales team’s success. Making that upfront investment in L&D, creating a safe space for idea-sharing,  researching the latest trends in technology and innovation and keeping your training agile and personalized are all techniques practicing L&D professionals have found successful. Boosting sales training is no small feat, but the research shows that investment in L&D is by far the best place to start.

Keely Witherow is a writer and content editor at professional training search engine findcourses.com and higher education portal educations.com. A native-Texan based in Stockholm, Keely has utilized her interest in cross-cultural relations to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

If you’re stuck trying to answer the question of how any can company (good, bad, and mediocre) improve and achieve greatness, you aren’t alone. Most people wonder how some companies can go from good (or bad) to some of the most elite companies in the world. In a sense, it falls on the sales managers and the sales teams. No sales team is ever going to be great if the sales manager settles for being good instead of the best. Being good is much easier than being great.

Who and What

Most people focus on the ‘what’ first, but you need to focus on finding the right people before anything. Your human capital is your best asset. Not all people are going to fit the bill, but that doesn’t mean you can’t utilize them in other ways.

You may need to shift people around, hire new sales reps, and let go of current ones. Once you have everyone in place based on their strengths, you can determine your strategies and vision for the company.

Consider a variety of questions to weed through your current employees. You should determine if there are people on the team that shouldn’t be there. You may also want to focus on moving team members to new positions that aren’t in the best positions or whose skills aren’t being utilized to the max.

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Confront but Keep Faith

Research has shown that you achieve results primarily when you make a series of good decisions. However, they must be executed at the right time and must be in sequence to work. Of course, perfection isn’t the key here, but to be great, you must make multiple good decisions one after the other, and you must make more good decisions than bad ones. Of course, to do that, you need the most accurate information.