Does your company have a complicated IT system environment? Let's look at an example, does your company have one system to create quotes and orders for your sales force worldwide or do you have a myriad of standalone systems, spreadsheets and processes that all need to be integrated? If you work for a multinational company you probably have different systems (some integrated and some are standalone) in different parts of the world (e.g. In North America you use one system for your Sales Force while you use another system for your team in Europe or Asia). The complexity gets even higher when various regional business and IT teams for these systems need to work together and agree on any changes. In this environment it is pretty obvious that a high quality training for your Sales Teams is key to being successful. Don't get me wrong the system complexity needs to be addressed (!) but that can't happen overnight in most cases and in the meantime you still have a business to run and therefore to make the best out of what you got.
Many systems have a a lot of functionality that most Sales Teams don't use. How do you train your Sales Force on the essential functions (while you work on getting better systems!) of your systems?
Does the Sales Force get appropriate product training? Do they know how you approach your customers? Do they know your systems and processes once the Sales Process starts? Can they create a quote or order themselves or do they need support from anyone?
In any case you should spend the time to put together a solid training schedule that every Sales Rep should go through. Yes, this is an investment and if it is done well it will pay back dividends. If you have a simpler system the training will be shorter and if you have a more complex system the training will be longer. Face-to-face meetings are the most efficient while you can use webinars or other audio/video options as alternatives. Because of budget concerns the cheaper options are mostly preferred but they require a different approach (e.g. an assessment at the end of the class). A good training includes a business case example in the system, a reference document that every particpant gets with the key lessons and a questionnaire at the end to evaluate the class and presenter. Once you have this all together you can bridge some system gaps and shortcomings until your systems catch up. Not ideal but practical.
