What are the best sales training methods and tools for remote teams?

Everyone learns differently. You need to provide a variation of learning mechanisms to your staff and develop a program which can span that, but some management and organizations do not like that. It is viewed as bloated and inefficient. Online and Certifications are a great tool, especially since the organizations do not have to maintain them. Good news they are relevant everywhere, so its not a proprietary "learning" and organizations can gain from this as there may be creative solutions for challenges not leveraged before learned from such activities.

This is just wrong to say, "However, traditional methods of sales training, such as classroom sessions, workshops, and role-plays, may not be feasible or effective for remote teams." The real issue is bandwidth when it comes to remote teams. Which then means you need more managers for your headcount. And if you don't want to pay for it, you will get the results you pay for. And the only way to maximize those training is through role-playing, period. Such as: 1. Discovery around the PAIN 2. ECONOMIC IMPACT of pains 3. Who the SKEPTIC is, not the DM 4. Vendor approval 5. Financial approval (negotiations) 6. Legal approval Gotta learn how to #EarnTheRight to ask the questions and which ones to ask

Agree. Leader trained sessions after completing the online modules are key. This is the time to evaluate comprehension of the information as well as help connect the dots for the trainee. Provide examples of how the information will be applied in their daily interactions. Also, bite size the information over an appropriate time frame and not cram too much in a short period.

Online teaching is great, I would say that though, it’s what I do. It is many times more effective if it is backed up with roadside coaching espousing the same approach. You can do roadside coaching by video call on your phone these days. It doesn’t even need you to be there, though the personal touch is always more powerful.

-Have a game plan for the team and individuals based on data and personalities. -Optional open zoom meetings -Data driven education that’s fun and engaging! (not death by PowerPoint). -Read the room: everyone has a different learning style and capacity for constructive criticism. -Lead with compassion and curiosity, the same way you would with a prospect. -Ask them what their goals are and align those with company KPIs, even if that’s a promotion or another role. Trust and loyalty are built by leaders who want what’s best for the team. -Focus on results not activity. This method yields better results than any arbitrary activity metric or KPI. -Make them feel valued: unexpected incentives and KPIs based on their personal goals.

video taping sales calls or having my sales people use me as the customer during training and recording the sales calls is a valuable training method that helps get them over their "stage fright".

In addition to the ones listed, a few other tools and platforms I think are great and helpful is Bravado, RepVue. Also I feel like services like SecondBody and The Practice Lab would be great ways to role-play.

Salespeople are, by their very nature, extremely competitive. However, this competitiveness is not just with others, but the best competitors, and salespeople for that matter, compete against themselves more than anyone else. Finding an incentive plan that taps into that extreme self-competitiveness will unlock not only the person, but the results as well.

Choosing the right peer to mentor is key. Choosing the incorrect peer can be detrimental to the learning process picking up bad behaviors. Meeting with the peer mentor prior to discuss specific topics, agendas, and delivery methods will make the learning session productive and effective for all stakeholders.

Using Slack or teams, it is helpful to have a designated person who reliably posts new tips and tricks in a forum on a weekly basis, and then separately keeps that information in some form of resource library that can be continuously updated. Some people don’t absorb the information as well scrolling through slack, so driving forward documentation of that knowledge in tandem is important. Capturing that tribal knowledge / wisdom can really come in handy for onboarding a new hire!

What I see consistently is that salespeople are great at features and benefits of their product or service they are representing. However, most do not have the strategic or tactical skills necessary to perform at an elite level.

I feel like you have to keep learning and developing in a profession like sales. A lot of things like sales tools, methodologies and buying behavior change frequently and it can be difficult to keep up with. There are a lot of methods you can use to increase your knowledge. What’s helped me is combining methods by author or a specific topic. For example, if I’m reading a book, I’ll also listen to podcasts that author was on, blog posts they wrote, etc. try and understand the concepts a little deeper.