L&D for your Sales Org
Sales Reps need to be trained (in case you didn't realize this) - Sales Training will absorb a part of your bandwidth as CEO/Founder.
Recently, I wrote about building a Field Ops team - where I had pointed out that I haven’t covered L&D (Learning & Development) for a Sales Org.
Since most Indian Sales Orgs are massive & run on razor thin margins - most tools & techniques popularized in the West (primarily for B2B Enterprise SaaS Sales) cannot be applied in the Indian context.
Most points below apply to ANY Sales Org - though some specific items such as call recording listening might apply only to an Inside Sales team (and not to a Field Sales team)
As promised - here’s that post - along with a basic framework for you to get started with L&D at your company:
You can click on the image below & download it for use later
10 practical tips on how to get started
DIY - Do It Yourself - for the first 90 days
Here’s the harsh truth: No one likes making L&D modules
Here’s another one: No one knows the customer, product & mission better than you do
L&D is the SINGLE highest leverage activity you can do as a Founder to influence your Sales Org
IF YOU record the training videos - they hear from you (CEO) about the company, mission & product - right from the start
This creates a unique bond between you & the frontline Sales team - from their 1st day at work
Below is an actual screenshot from our new Sales hire training schedule
It has URLs to Loom Videos & PPTs
It has prompts for the Sales Trainer on how to introduce a topic
Then, hire a dedicated Sales Trainer
At ~15 Reps, it might be a good time to hire a Sales Trainer / Quality Analyst
If your Reps take ~60 days to fully ramp up, give the QA at least x2 the time to ramp up
You will need to spend ~30 minutes per day with your QA hire for the first 1-2 months until they are fully self sufficient
Make sure you PUSH them hard to give you feedback & contribute to material from Day 0 of joining (outsider’s perspective helps a lot in the early days).
L&D is NEVER done: Requires constant investment of time & effort
Context: I record 1-2 videos make 3-4 updates to existing material each week
PLEASE make sure you maintain L&D material so that changes sync across your entire team
In fact, we block download of the L&D files from Google Drive precisely because we want ALL changes to be done on the cloud version :)
Video > Audio > Images > Text
This is a personal learning: We ALL watch video daily - why don’t we watch videos during Sales Training?
Wherever possible - use videos to engage your Sales Org
You can find an example of a Loom Video I have recorded for our new Sales Reps below
Your contribution as Founder/CEO to L&D
Sales is 50% Money, 50% Motivation
Motivation is what is missing at most Sales Orgs - the management team doesn’t want to engage with frontline Sales Reps
I spend 2 days per week with the frontline Sales Team:
Doing a “welcome briefing” with all new Reps
Walking around the Sales floor - speaking to Reps
Visiting a new customer
There is SOME things you can do which no one else can - create a shared purpose
Explain how today’s targets for each Rep roll up into the company’s mission
Explain how company growth creates opportunity for personal growth
The company story - how it got started? why should it exist?
Lay down a structure for others to follow
You MUST solve the “blank canvas” problem for your Sales Trainer
If you can chart an initial course - basic list of topics with some videos - the the Trainer can pick it up from there
At a high level, your structure should be:
New Rep Classroom Training v/s On Job Training
Explainer Videos v/s Topic PPTs
About Company v/s About Product v/s “How To Sell?”
Involve non-Sales staff into L&D
Here’s the strange thing: Sales sells what is built - but if what is built is not sold - everyone will get laid (off).
Therefore, company success is closely tied to Sales success.
Why isn’t the rest of your company engaging with the Sales team?
For new releases - bring your EPD team to the Sales floor to communicate what has been released? (also, publish release notes)
Your EPD team should spend 3-5 days per quarter with the Sales team to get unfiltered feedback.
As a rule - our EPD team spends a minimum of 3 to 5 days per quarter interacting with Sales.
Cheap & cheerful: Tools you can “exploit” for L&D
If you’re building for India - your margins are going to be so low & Sales Org size is going to be so large - that any fancy western Sales Training tools are out of budget
Have no fear - Jugaadu Rahul is here.
Video recording: free Loom tier (get team members to join your workspace for 25 free videos) - the 5 minute recording limit forces you to be concise.
Your video library would look something like this:
Assessments: Slido (great way to run interactive quiz sessions & get real time scores for competitive dynamics)
Written material: Just use Google Slides
Training calendars: Use Google Sheets (example shared above)
Don’t trust - always test
A few weeks ago - I wrote about trust issues, this isn’t really a trust issue - but in India - we always say “yes” to the boss
In Training - “yes” isn’t a sufficient response - seeing scores from tests is a sufficient response
For your tenured Sales Reps - you want to have at least 3 tests per month; for new Reps - about 2 tests per week makes sense.
Incentivize emphasis on training
Most Sales Org’s underestimate how much regular training can impact Sales performance.
I would suggest that IF a Sales Rep cannot score a {minimum threshold} in the weekly tests - they should NOT be eligible for collecting their month end Sales incentives
IF you roll out such a scheme - watch how everyone takes training seriously
FAQs section
{This is a placeholder which I will update based on questions}
Closing thoughts
L&D is THE difference between a top 5% and top 25% - even if you have a great product - if your Sales Org doesn’t know much about your product, company & mission - it will NOT be able to sell. Sales is the lifeblood of any business - L&D is the pacemaker that keeps Sales going.
Hopefully, the 10 “How to start” tips, the sample Loom video, images of our training material & the sketch above will give some ideas on HOW to build L&D capabilities for your Sales Org.
As always, I look forward to your thoughts, comments & feedback. Please do share this on Social Media if you found it useful.
I enjoyed reading this well structured article