Sales training can be one of the more difficult parts of sales. It can be hard to explain what you're looking for; difficult to convince your sales team that they should do things your way; and a trial to get your sales team to actually do the things you've just trained them in. No one looks forward to sales training. But unfortunately, it's an inevitable part of any company involved in sales. So in order to make things a bit easier for you, here are 6 suggestions of things to avoid during sales training.



1. Avoid training that promises fun and games. As tempting as it may be, sales training that promises fun and games to your employees is not always the most efficient way to train. Some experts say that trying to get your staff all riled up can be a waste of time and money, especially if the effort comes late in the day. If your company cannot offer job satisfaction in general, no amount of fun and games will be able to fix it. This is not to say that you should never offer fun and games during sales training, just that you should chose to do so with caution.

2. Don't wait until the end of the day. Anyone who has ever had a job knows how slowly the afternoon can drag on. Most people count the hours until they can go home. So planning a sales training meeting (which can already cause irritation in some employees) at the end of the day can be very ineffective. Your employees are already tired and bored, and the last thing they need is a boring meeting on how to improve their sales.

3. Teach your sales representatives how to fish, don't just give them a fish. You've heard the old saying “give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you'll feed him for a life time.” The same thing applies in sales training. You want to teach your employees how to get better sales. Don't just feed them one-liners or give them a product that is sure to sell with or without any assistance. Teach them principles that will improve their selling skills.

4. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Don't pack too much information in your sales training meetings. If necessary, schedule another meeting to finish going over the thing you've been discussing. But don't keep your employees in training meetings for hours upon hours. They will only get bored and frustrated and no one will learn anything useful. You'll just be wasting your time. So be sure that your sales training meetings are concise and brief. Each employee should come away with enough learning to make a difference in their selling, but not so mach that they'll ignore everything you say.

5. Avoid passing fads. Sales scripts are often taught as magic bullets: “if you use this script you're guaranteed X-number of sales…” This approach is often popular among sales representatives, but is often very ineffective. In doing this you're not teaching your sales reps the skills they need to succeed. Sales training that follows fads, jumping from one sales system to another, may confuse sales people or turn them into cynics.

6. Avoid fear of motivational speakers. Sometimes what your employees really need is some motivation. Maybe they are already equipped with the best tools for sales; they just need to be motivated to do their best. Inviting a motivational speaker to one of your sales training meeting can be a very effective training technique.