Sales Training – that’s the news of the day!

Sales Training

First off, every vendor can do sales training. So, when you see the marketing hype as though on any learning system site, that notes it. Yeah, everyone does it. BTW it is the same spin for micro-learning platforms or a vendor saying they do micro-learning as though they are unique. EVERYONE CAN DO MICRO-LEARNING. Micro just means short, and oh, I love how vendors note micro, then you see a course, that takes 25 hours, but the chapters are four minutes long. This is not micro learning. Trust me.

Back to sales training. Here are some nice tidbits.

• When looking for sales training content – you want a vendor that either – this is all they do – i.e. sales training content, whatever it might be, OR the vendor has sales training content which is constantly updated, tweaked, modified, and added. I mean there were days when Zig Ziglar was the king of content, and the main person for everything sales. I think he is dead – let me check. Yep, dead. So, he isn’t making any more content. Anyway, his books still are really popular and there are a lot of sales folks who know who he is. The challenge is whether or not his content is still applicable today? Probably in some cases. The other challenge is how to find it, if you want it? Good news – it is on his web site. But if you want it, can you get it on your platform?

Therin lies the problem. There are a lot of “top experts in sales performance, sales this or that,” which has content on their site, using their platform, and only their platform. Even if you wanted the content – courses here on your system, let alone in your vendor’s marketplace, it may not be doable. What can you do, if you’re really want it? Talk directly to the sales vendor. But not the salesperson who answers the phone, instead:

Option 1

• Ask to speak to the person who oversees business development or partnerships. It may vary on title. Think of this person as the “bridge”. Sell them on the idea of the benefit of having their content sit on your system.

Option 2

• Ask to speak to the person that oversees sales. Their goal is to make money for the company – to boost sales, to land constant ARR – expand even – and they achieve this by making customers happy. An NPS – which many vendors now taut as verification of their success – relies on a key item called Promoter. This is the one they want. Someone who will rave about them. Tell others. When you see NPS scores they always note their Promotor. The benefit then is to get a Promoter. Because you should say, if we can make this deal, you will have someone who will tell others about your content and your company and recommend them to anyone you know or see that needs sales content.

I’ve gone both routes, when I ran training. Option 1 with Rosetta Stone, who at that time, didn’t offer their content, except on their platform. I landed a deal working with Biz Dev. Next thing, I knew, the courses I wanted with all the bells and whistles was on our system. Win-Win for everybody.

Option 2 – worked as well, when I sought sales courses with a provider who had it tied to their platform – and that was it. In due time, the courses I wanted and needed sat on our LMS too.

Neither option gave me a price break, in fact, at that time, with Rosetta Stone was very expensive – in the end though, I knew the courses would help our employees, and our agencies (46 of them). Still today, what does Rosetta Stone get from me? A Promotor. Going on 15 years. Now, that is a win-win.

And proof that with sales training in this regard, the benefits for a sales company that has their own platform, but offers courses you are seeking – outweigh the cons. In other words, sell the courses (after all, you are in the business of sales training) to a company who wants to have your content on their system too. Without having to use your platform. Who would you rather want? My guess? A sale, plus a lifelong Promotor.

What about buying sales courses via an aggregator? Or what if I go the route of a 3rd party publisher that offers sales courses?

I am a fan of the latter. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with an aggregator, but for folks like GO1 (which I like) and OpenSesame (which I like) is that in working with an aggregator rather than directly with the 3rd party publisher are:

• Updating of the courses/content, adding new ones that are relevant today, and removing ones that are outdated; the onus is on that publisher in the aggregator. Sure, the aggregator may go through and reach out to the publisher to do this or that; but there is only so much you can do.
• You may never find the publisher that truly has the best sales courses in an aggregator – Why? Aggregators bring together lots of publishers. As a client, you pick in this case, “sales courses” and whichever ones you want – if you want to build a bundle. Or you get the entire course library – which sure, lots of courses, but you have to monitor the usage – and ask the aggregator to provide you with some data (which a lot of folks – i.e. the folks running L&D or Training or HR or whatever department is overseeing this) for such data. If you ran sales, and thus sales training is under you, how much time are you going to focus on requesting this data from an aggregator and knowing how often the publisher on the aggregator is updating or adding? Surprise you don’t.

One bonus is when you check out one of the aggregator’s site, and their listing of sales courses – there a few you click, and it goes to a “404” not found page. Yep, nothing breeds confidence like a missing link to the site’s catalog. Especially when you are trying to entice people to buy your content!

Going specific with sales training content that is updated, added and modified with sound instructional design techniques.

For me, one really stands out – and yes, it is from Dean Pichee, an early pioneer in instructional design, including that of online courses too.

Biz Library – They have about 250 courses. Yes, not as many as one aggregator – whose catalog shows me how many. However, by using one publisher – you can find out how often they update, modify, add, and their entire process. Plus, in this case, Biz Library is known as a top tier 3rd party course publisher.

I should note that BL does have other 3rd party publishers – around 40 to date. That said, I know that BL does check constantly to make sure that each publisher’s content is validated to be top quality.

Sales Training Role-Playing

The best way to ensure your sales training is really working isn’t just relying on courses/content. Rather it is leveraging role-playing (with validation of context using AI) and having a coach to constantly help them.

As someone who believes in AI but recognizes the current challenges that exist and the importance of having both AI and a human element as the coach – one to verify and validate and recommend (AI) as your initial coach, and next to communicate in real-time with an actual human being (not AI) is crucial.

The challenges in the past, and in some cases currently for those who rely heavily on face-to-face role-paying and coaching, is that you are leaving it up to the human, who says they are a great coach in that subject area, without really addressing whether or not that person needs all of what is being “coached’”

Tapping into AI first, and then identifying strengths and areas to improve with recommendations, is a better way for sales training. Plus, it saves money and time for the client.

This is why, for 2023-24, the Product of the Year (for learning tech) was Bongo Learn. Even today, it is by far the best solution for training, because it uses the combo of AI and a human for role-playing, credentialing as well. Plus, skill development. Another win with Bongo is that you can use it as a standalone without having a learning system or use it via an API into your current learning system (if it is not available directly into the platform) or find vendors who have Bongo Learn as an add-on (it is ready to go).

When it comes to sales training with Bongo, the best vendor out there for it is Thought Industries, which is also one of my top two best for sales training learning systems. What I tend to find, is that for sales training and learning systems, the ones that work quite well are those who are in the B2B and can do B2C too. In other words, customer training, including the association market.

With Bongo, there are vendors who already have it, as an add-on.

Best Learning Systems for Sales Training (Overall)

• Thought Industries – Has a nice list of clients using their system for sales training
• Eurekos – Strong list of clients using their system for sales training. For those who believe a company in Denmark is a factor to hold back, they do have clients in the states using their system for sales training – including two well-known companies.

Two of the three, already have AI for those curious, and Thought Industries still is the only vendor in the industry that truly offers headless technology, as HT is defined. Plenty of vendors say they do, but their HT is not the one that is really HT.

I digress.

Bottom Line

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The hot news here is that sales training is not as simple as finding some courses, having folks take the courses or ideally focus on the areas they need to improve upon, rather than taking it via a linear method. Which is as though you are reading a book, Chapter 1, then I go to Chapter 2, etc.

The best way is to go non-linear – bounce around as they say.

Sales Training is a complex, intricate process – when it comes to truly achieving success. It is a combo of personalized training – which can be 100% achieved with online learning. Tapping into an AI coach with a Human person at the end, rather than just relying on an AI coach only (a really bad idea, knowing the cons of doing so, without a human check or in this case having a human as the additional coach to reinforce or recognize via role play) is an additional step. If you believe that having everybody across the country or world, come to a specific place for sales training – you are wasting your money.

Rather, utilize a web conferencing platform, within a learning system – yours should be able to do it via API, and there are vendors who already have Zoom for example, integrated and ready to rock and roll.

Webinars – multiple at a time, focused on various topics, ensuring that the right audience of sales folks are in the right place, without limiting them to a room, where people come and go – and hey, let’s get into a group, grab that whiteboard and start adding your notes down. Yuck.

In the end, the goal is simple – develop, expand, enhance your salespeople, with skills they need. Maybe they have them already, but just need a bit more, refreshing. Or perhaps they have the skill, but are not delivering their sales goals. You assume it is X, but with role playing and real world scenarios, it could be Y (something you didn’t see or unaware is the blocker).

The difference between winning and losing when it comes to sales, well, are those in the position to do something about it.

Rather than here – take some courses, hope they are good, make them assigned (awful idea for sales training, unless it is a certification or credentialing program), and let’s do some get togethers to talk numbers.

When you do that, you are ignoring the goal:

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