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Does Your Sales Training Have a “Learning Loop”?

Jamie Shanks
Jamie Shanks

 Sales Training

A Learning Loop is a process in which a sales rep is embarked in continuously education, and the loop helps sales rep move from one sales tip to the next.

Why is this important?

Let me focus on the problem first.

The average sales training program is a paper workbook, PowerPoint slides, ½ day workshops and maybe, maybe some video. Basically a sales rep is forced into a classroom setting, gets product or sales training shoved down their throat… and is expected to remember and implement immediately.

In reality, this does not translate into habitually routine. This does not transform their selling behavior. Training isn’t about knowledge transfer; training is about affecting change.

Most sales organizations don’t have anything that resembles a learning loop. There is no process that helps the knowledge transfer to be so imbedded into the sales reps process, that it’s part of their DNA. Trust me, we’ve trained over 40,000 sales reps; I’ve seen the effects of sales training getting deep into someone’s bones!
Social Selling Expert

Is it expensive and time consuming to create this?

Expensive = Not at all. Making video is free.

Time Consuming = Not really (creation of content – YES, training the sales reps – NO). But, I HATE the excuse that “I don’t want to take my sales reps off the phone”, or “they have so much on their plate right now, I don’t think they can handle anything else”. Bullshit!

Most of the things your sales reps do every day aren’t overly impactful anyways. You don’t want to take them off the phone, where they’re getting <5% contact rates? They can’t spare a little time each week to become world-class?

Here is our “Learning Loop” for clients… feel free to let it inspire you!

We know a sales rep can’t fully digest something after seeing it 1x. We need to reinforce the behavior over and over.

Learning Loop

Step 1: Instructor-Led Training – sales reps love hearing how to solve a sales problem in real-time. Ask questions, make it dynamic, and make it human. The more real-life examples, the better. Tip: don’t provide more than 3 tips in any one session. Our sessions are no more than 1 hour (as sales reps have ants in their pants).

Step 2: Reinforce with a Video Tip – we’re starting this shortly, where 24 hours after training, they are emailed a sales tip (using a Digital Postcard) from the latest training session. Not just a tip, but a reminder on their assignment/goal for the week, and a success story from a sales rep that actually implemented that tip!

Step 3: Digital Library within a Learning Management System – we use a Learning Management System with 100’s of videos, guides, quizzes, assignments and KPI tracking. You can just create a library for your sales reps to go to after the training session. Give them small videos and documents they can reflect on WHEN they have questions. Trust me, they’ll have questions.

Step #4: Open Office Hours for Questions – For all those questions, we have a centralized process for this as we have 1,000’s of students. You can block off time each day/week for sales reps that need to talk through what they just learnt. It’s not meant to redo that training session, it’s meant to do role-playing and “what would you do in this situation”.

Step #5: Start all over again with a new set of Tips – you’ve now given each sales rep a huge opportunity to learn that topic, and now you’re going to build upon that with a new tip!

Are you ready to overhaul your team’s sales training and increase success rates? Contact me using the link below.

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