How can you effectively train your team on complex technical products?

Adjust to your audience: provide fitting and engaging training materials with the level of depth required for each internal audience type, including an easy refresher they can consult at their own time/pace. Make is simple and tangible: in my experience making complex tech products accessible to try / touch (think: demos, easy code examples, show how would a customer use it vs only what it does) and “see in action” takes you a long way and boosts sales confidence / comfort in offering a complex product to customers Support them out there in the wild: support sales teams during their actual work and questions from clients about this product (this has a double benefit as a product marketer/manager - you also get first hand insights!)

Does your team deeply understand your ICP and personas? Having a clear understanding of your ICP and personas is crucial for any successful product training. These are the filters that all information will need to pass through in order to be relevant and effective for your team. Before diving into any product training, it is essential your team has a deep understanding of who your target audience is and what challenges they face.

First things first. The most important thing about a product, is what this product offer to the client, regardless how complex is the technology involved. So, the first thing to do is to explain the real benefits that this product brings. Then you can enter into deep with technology and how it works.

First, I had a conversation with the team to understand the need for education or any gaps in the technical aspects of the product or new software. The next step is to determine which specific areas we need to cover and what a desirable outcome for the education session would be. With this information in mind, you can prioritize education modules and begin preparing content and selecting speakers.

Documentation, role play and live use cases are the foundation for solid training. Nothing replaces real customer experience but in the interim conducting demos with peers (recorded) and role playing will assist you in learning where you can get hung up, how smoothly the demo flow and give you an opportunity to “receive” the pitch — would YOU buy from YOU?

While it might sound counterintuitive, product sales training should not be centered on the product. Sales teams need a deep understanding of the buyers’ use cases and desired outcomes linked to your product. Salesforce, for example, focuses on use cases and develops content that explains the product’s value to customers by answering the question: How are customers adopting the product?

Guess what? If you have a product that is incredibly technical by nature, you're going to have a hard time articulating the benefits succinctly and comprehensively unless you truly understand your customer/audience. It can be even more complicated if your product is used by multiple regions and markets who may ultimately benefit from the same features but need the content translated to resonate across various use cases AND diverse spoken/written languages. If anyone has experience navigating a global B2B product marketing team, I would love to connect and exchange ideas!

Using tandem selling with a sales engineer model is a great way to educate greener sales reps efficiently. Sales engineers can focus on technical knowledge and differentiation from competitors and the field reps can focus on pre-qualification of prospects. While originally a bit siloed, field reps eventually learn as they go in real-world environments which is much more efficient. Sales engineers also have insight into product development roadmaps and timelines. Keep the field rep focused on hunting, and out of becoming a product specialist because honestly, everything moves too quickly now. Less deep training the better. Leave that to the sales engineer.

You should possess a clear understanding of your audience and the context they have. Based on that, you will know how much context to provide and the appropriate level of complexity for the material.

I'm starting from the principle that is "how to train your team" as in your Product Marketing team, and not other teams within the organization. For Sales training, for sure I totally agree with Rahim Kaba's perspective below, where we should start with use cases and jobs to be done, rather the product itself. But for PMM training on complex portfolios, having a close partnership with Product Management, Engineering and Customer Support is the most effective and easier way to start. Deeper product knowledge, specially in B2B tech companies with big or complex products, is fundamental for PMMs. Once the knowledge is gathered, another fundamental part is translating this knowledge to other teams in a actionable, valuable and sellable way.

Having trained diverse audiences on home automation systems which can touch lighting, hvac, security, shading, video, etc., nothing replaces a slide show like walking a real live project. Take your subjects on a field trip and immerse them in live demo's, seeing a client consultation in action. Role playing will educate and improve retention

Our company makes sure to educate us in different ways - A clear, comprehensive, but laid-back onboarding process (we're even thinking of gamifying it. - Sharing how-tos and guides on our Notion page - 1-to-1 or group workshops

One of the best ways to validate your team's understanding and reinforce their learnings is to make them perform demos in trade events or to other team members. Set the expectation that it's okay to have gaps in their understandings and ask them to have an open mind while incorporating the feedback from their audiences. It's critical to have a safe space with intenral audiences first where they can test it out before doing these demos externally

Hands-On Learning: Implement simulations to create realistic scenarios for your team, enabling them to apply their knowledge in a risk-free environment, boosting confidence and competence. Utilizing Gamification: Inject fun and competition into training through gamification. Not only does it make learning engaging, but enhances retention and application of knowledge in real-world situations. Adaptive Learning Platforms: Employ adaptive learning tools that personalize training content and pace, ensuring it aligns with individual needs and performance, maximizing efficacy and retention. Role-Playing for Practical Experience: Engage team members with role-play exercises, allowing them to navigate through practical scenarios.

Complex technical products can be daunting for any team, but interactive and adaptive methods can turn training into an engaging and effective experience. Here are some ways that worked for me as a Trainer: Hands-on activities: Instead of passive lectures, create scenarios, simulations, or role-playing exercises where your team applies what they learn in real-time. This not only reinforces knowledge but also develops problem-solving skills. Gamification: Introduce points, badges, or leaderboards to make learning fun and competitive. This can be done through online platforms, mobile apps, or even simple challenges during workshops.

I think that assumes you as a manager truly understand how the product works. The point is not to teach, but to learn together. There is no substitute for hands-on experience using the product yourself - understand the popular use cases, dig in, reproduce them. Talk to product gurus, scratch beyond the surface. Do this until you can confidently answer any question that comes into customer support. Have your team demo the product flawlessly, record it, and share for everyone's reference.

It is always best to have periodic reviews of how the knowledge is being used (for example by sales people on calls with prospects or clients), and even offer re-certification or re-train to close any gaps that may appear.

I think truly understanding, repeatedly using, and evangelizing any technology or techniques is a requirement to inspire your teams confidence to learn. If you take the time to learn it, they will feel like they can to, and all in a trusted environment.

Learning about a complex product is not a one-time session. In particular with a sales team, what I have done is the following: - Understand what is the current knowledge level with a simple quiz or discussion - We create a module and tailor it to those gaps we identified in the previous step - Then, we do a more interactive session. Practice helps you retain information - Arrange calls between sales + dev team to have some hands-on experience and use the product themselves - During the next 4 weeks we have a weekly meeting to have regular check ins where we all resolve common questions My objective is to offer a continuous learning environment

After every product, use case or market segment info sessions, it is extremely helpful to finalize with key takeaways, which circles back to the main topic of the session and summarize what the audience needs to internalize. You can also run surveys and questionnaires, but regardless of the answer take rate, reinforcing the key takeaways should always be present.

Typically, after the education session(s), I conduct a survey consisting of three straightforward questions: - Was the content useful? (Rate from 1-10) - Would you consider using this information in the future? (Yes/No) - What changes or additions would you suggest?

And if it is for a specific product launch - work with your enablement team and internal team leads to keep everyone accountable. Do you need to do a 30, 60, or 90-day follow-up and showcase great demos from other teammates, showcase recent wins and how they won the deal, what they showcased on the calls, what is working vs. what's not. And report with your GTM team on the progress of completion of the training across internal teams - are the sales reps in the west region only at 50% completion and way past their deadline? Then, work with the regional sales leader to ensure accountability that it gets done. And then showcase the success. I highly recommend using tags in conversational intelligence tools to track messaging use.

By consistently evaluating your training outcomes and taking action based on the results, you can ensure your team acquires the necessary knowledge and skills to confidently handle complex technical products, enhancing their performance and contributing to your organization's success. Remember, evaluation is not just about identifying weaknesses, but also about celebrating achievements and building upon your team's strengths for continuous improvement.

Challenge your team and push them always outside their comfort zone! let them read and try. They shall practice both theoretical and practical approaches. Allow them to do mistakes, but then discuss with them why this happened and how to do it better then give them the chance to redo the try. This is the best approach to train the team.

Objection handling is another crucial aspect of training. While it may not be possible to review all possible objections in advance, try to incorporate common objections or prospect confusions into your presentation and demo training sessions. Provide your team with a canonical FAQ of objections that they can refer to later.

Implement a structured training program that combines hands-on practical exercises, comprehensive documentation, regular Q&A sessions, and ongoing support to ensure a thorough understanding of complex technical products by your team.

Document an onboarding plan, share it with the new hire, then review progress towards the plan and outcome for each item in onboarding plan. Adjust as necessary and as new people join the team.