5 minute read
There’s no denying it: we’re living in the new digital golden age.
We consume quickly and on-demand. Remote working is here to stay. And no one thinks twice about how words like ‘Zoom’ became part of our lexicon overnight.
Social media has made the world smaller by making our online community larger, enabling us to be more connected than ever before. The more friends and followers the better. The more likes and comments the greater the clout.
Dopamine is just a click away.
Yes, technology is rapidly evolving how we interact. But there is one form of communication at risk of becoming completely extinct, and it’s the very interaction at the crux of traditional selling: talking on the phone.
The fall of the phone in today's top sales techniques
Forget speed dial. If you were born before a certain time, you didn’t just have a Rolodex of landlines sitting on your desk. You had the numbers of your nearest and dearest etched into your brain.
Remember how we’d use those numbers daily, picking up the phone, unannounced and unscheduled to either make plans or chat for sometimes hours at a time?
And yet, here we are in 2022 where 81% of millennials get apprehension anxiety when faced with the prospect of making a call. This aversion to phone communication is such a prevailing issue among millennials that they’ve been dubbed the ‘mute generation’.
When did the thought of someone answering on the other end with a simple ‘hello’ start filling us with dread?
Now, you might be wondering, what hope does the younger generation have of succeeding in sales if they can’t even muster the moxie to pick up the phone?
No wonder 40% of sales representatives today say that prospecting is the hardest part of their job.
The good news is that there are simple ways to apply tried-and-true classic techniques to the modern world of sales without a complete reinvention.
Do these techniques rely on the telephone? Not so much. But are there ways to leverage technology to drive home the principles of old-school sales training techniques? Absolutely.
Innovative sales training techniques: old school meets new school
As a sales manager, it’s your job to give your sales team the tools they need to be successful.
You might be worried that you come from a different generation than your younger team members. But, there are ways to engage millennials without coming across as a dinosaur.
All you need to do is:
- Stay open
- Be willing to embrace change
- Be flexible
After all, if you don’t have the right mindset, how will you be a manager that leads your team to success?
Here are five ways to instill time-honored sales techniques in innovative ways:
5 modern sales training techniques
1. Digital information sharing
Sharing information as a coach and a mentor is a training technique as old as time. But the information you share doesn’t have to come from your own lived experiences.Tap into the internet’s wealth of knowledge and share the resources you find online with your team. Tag them in LinkedIn posts, invite them to follow inspirational online leaders, and send valuable youtube videos their way.
Go one step further and encourage your team members to share resources with each other. Why not implement a weekly ritual in which relevant industry news and inspirational tidbits are shared in a team email thread?
2. E-training
Training is as crucial today as it’s always been. Your team requires ongoing education, whether it’s for different selling techniques, sales methodologies, or the product or solution they’re selling.Companies that invest in formal, ongoing training processes can yield up to 50% higher net sales per sales rep. This is why devising a long-term growth and development plan for your team is a critical part of your job as a sales manager.
But times have changed. Due to factors such as travel and remote or hybrid working, it’s becoming more of a challenge to get everyone in the same room.
E-training allows team members to brush up their knowledge on the go and from anywhere in the world. It also enables you to provide training more frequently, which brings us to our next point of microlearning.
3. Microlearning
You only need to look at all the open tabs on your computer screen to accept that we consume and process information differently than we used to.It’s true, humans are evolving along with technology, but we still have our limits. Being given too much information at one time can be overwhelming as well as counterproductive – 87% of new skills are lost within a month of sales training.
So what’s the answer? More frequent training, but in bite-sized pieces. This will require more sales management planning on your end but will pay off in the long run.
4. Social selling
Social selling – which is not to be confused with social media marketing – is the practice of using a brand’s social media channels to connect with prospects and potential leads.57% of B2B buyers now use social media to research vendors, so if your team isn’t on those same platforms, making themselves available and actively engaging, then you’re sleeping on a massive opportunity.
Social selling also provides an environment that allows your salesforce to
- assert themselves as experts in their field,
- share relevant information that has value,
- and access a greater network than ever before.
5. CRM software
This one’s less of a technique and more of a tool that’s crucial to succeeding in today’s high-paced sales climate.
If you’re a sales manager, your process already includes Customer Relationship Management – a system by which you manage the interactions your team members have with customers and prospects. Investing in CRM software is a great way to use technology to your advantage.
CRM software provides you with an online system that helps you:
- Streamline processes
- Build customer relationships
- Increase sales
- Improve customer service
- Increase profitability
Time management and planning is half of your job as a sales manager and always has been. But now there are countless online tools to help you streamline your sales management process, which can result in a 17% increase in sales.
The secret sales training technique you can't do without
Sometimes it can seem like we’re playing catch-up. Especially, as we constantly attempt to keep up with new technologies and the latest sales techniques.
But the truth is, success isn’t defined by the sales techniques you apply, the best practices you implement, or the CRM software you use.
Your results are determined by your behavior, and your behavior is determined by your mindset. And mindset is timeless. So here’s the one thing you need to remember, no matter how the world is transforming around you:
Follow the people, not the tech
The world has changed, but human behavior hasn’t.
As we mentioned earlier, the best thing you can do for your team is to invest in their ongoing training. The best kind of training focuses on shifting your mindset and changing your behavior instead of simply telling you what to do.
Because it’s only when you change your behavior that you can change the outcome. And we’re talking about the kind of change that lasts a lifetime.
It’s possible for you to have a team that is:
- Conscious about their behavior, with the ability to adjust it because they’re able to recognize how and most importantly, why they are acting that way
- Agile, anti-fragile, and able to adapt to a new situation (trust us when we say that in this transformative era, new situations will arise constantly)
- More aware of what they need to do to be successful
- Capable of shifting their mindsets independently and bringing about unprompted transformation
Want to transform your team for the better? Transform your team with Krauthammer.
Transformational behavior training with Krauthammer
Krauthammer training has a proven impact.
Our unique methodology provides participants with a set of processes that can be applied in any situation, making it a methodology that’s completely future-proof.
There are countless Krauthammer training programs to support your team’s learning journeys and bring about transformative change.
