8 Must-Try Sales Role-Plays That Will Prepare Your Team for Every Selling Situation

Helen Waite on October 31, 2023

Whether you’re taking up a new hobby or developing on-the-job skills in a sales role, it’s true what they say: Practice makes perfect. There’s only so much that a seller can digest through sales onboarding and training content — and in order for a rep to truly hone their skills, they must practice through sales role-plays.

Role-play sales training exercises have long been recognized as a powerful training tool for good reason — because they work. They’re a proven way to boost a seller’s confidence in new material, familiarize themselves with messaging, and learn how to handle objections in a risk-free environment.

The value of sales role-plays

Sales role-play scenarios are an especially valuable coaching technique right now. As many sales forces have shifted to remote work environments, it’s imperative that sales training role-plays become a part of every seller’s routine. Because sales is such a people-oriented profession, many of the skills learned on the job are developed through shadowing, coaching and mentorship.

When reps are on their own, and less likely to develop these skills organically as they’re not working alongside their peers in an office, it’s important to foster this skill set through designated training sessions. After all, role-playing helps sellers practice and prepare for real-world buyer interactions so they know how to handle every selling situation thrown their way.

That being said, role-play is traditionally considered a team sport. So you may be wondering how it can be approached effectively while everyone is working remotely. The key is to use a “smart” role-play tool that comes with AI. A tool like this allows you to use AI to analyze a transcript of your reps’ video recordings or presentation voiceovers, giving you insights (with the help of keyword analysis) into the presenter’s articulation, product knowledge, enthusiasm, confidence, and comprehensiveness of response.

 

Compared to a traditional role-play conducted in person, virtual role-plays give reps the opportunity to take multiple passes at a scenario at their own pace, while also equipping them with concrete feedback that they can put into practice immediately.

Top 8 sales role-play scenarios

If you’re a leader or manager looking for sales role-play ideas that will get your team thinking on their feet and mastering new scenarios, we’ve highlighted our eight tried-and-true favorites.

As you think about the different types of role-play scenarios to practice with your team, it’s a good idea to first identify the key areas where reps typically struggle or face challenges, and equip them with the tools they need to prepare for those scenarios in the field.

Below are the top role-play scenarios — along with some suggestions for how you can effectively execute them in a remote environment.

This is an essential exercise for any sales rep, but particularly BDRs who need support in identifying the buyers’ problems. With a smart role-play tool, you’ll be able to provide contextual, in-video comments on their role-play, so reps know exactly where they can refine their talk track or ask stronger probing questions

A good elevator pitch is everything to a sales rep. Reps can practice their elevator pitches on a call or in the form of a recorded practice, which can then be reviewed and evaluated by their manager and their peers.

This role-play sales training is especially valuable for those transitioning from field sales to inside sales. This type of role-play scenario allows reps to practice sales conversations remotely with other team members or their managers. This might include handling new sales software or adapting their talk track for a virtual meeting — both of which can be evaluated with the right technology in place.

Your reps’ messaging needs to be precise and their product knowledge evident during demos, so it’s always a good idea for reps to role-play a product demo with a more experienced colleague or sales manager. These can be analyzed for keywords, filler words and to gauge reps’ confidence in the material, especially when unexpected questions come their way.

Objection handling role-plays gives reps the chance to practice answering tough questions and combat objections from buyers. This can be done virtually with top-performing sales colleagues and helps give less experienced sellers the chance to hear firsthand the types of objections that a typical prospect would have, then use their training to try to answer their questions or mitigate their concerns.

Great sales reps are skilled negotiators. Develop this skill in your salesforce by creating role-plays simulating buyers asking for a lower price based on competitor pricing or budget. Using AI can be extremely helpful when evaluating negotiation role-plays because it identifies the number of filler words used, tone and confidence, which are typically more difficult to effectively provide feedback on without concrete data.

 

When competitors come up in sales conversations, you want your reps prepared and ready to handle those situations with ease. To do this, sellers can role-play conversations that mimic situations when a buyer mentions a competitor or asks about comparisons. You can also encourage reps to set competitive traps in their product positioning and scan their role-play transcripts to ensure they’re hitting the mark each time.

Buyers love seeing examples of how other customers use and benefit from your product. Customer storytelling role-plays allow reps to practice sharing their best customer use cases and stories. Using a smart role-play tool, you can leave comments at specific points in each recording where you think messaging could be refined or strengthened.

Role-plays coupled with expert coaching: a winning combination

When it comes to effective on-the-job learning, we know traditional training materials aren’t enough, but neither is sales coaching alone — no matter how good it is. To actually drive changes in seller behavior, reps must also have the opportunity to practice their skills in live situations.

By offering reps the opportunity to conduct virtual sales role-plays in a remote work environment, while also being able to provide accurate and timely feedback through some of the AI-powered tools on the market, you’ll be able to set your reps up for success whether they’re near or far.

 

Better role-plays = More productive sellers

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This post was originally published in June 2021 and updated in October 2023. 

Virtual Sales Training Programs: 10 Skills Every Seller Needs to Master

Helen Waite on October 13, 2023

Some think great sellers are born, but more often than not, they’re made through virtual sales training, teaching, practice, and support.

Considering that most selling is done virtually today, and that buyer journeys are becoming more complex, it’s never been more important for salespeople to refine their skills in order to effectively engage prospects and customers.

What is virtual sales training?

An essential part of virtual sales training is keeping the learner engaged by making training more consumable. Virtual sales training requires a completely different approach than classroom learning because it comes with its own different set of distractions and tactics for being effective. Below you’ll find some of the essential skills and knowledge to incorporate into your virtual sales training program.

Below we outline 10 skills your sales team can develop with help from a virtual sales training platform.

Top skills for virtual selling success

Discovery

To have any hope of making a sale, a seller must be able to find accounts and buyers that fit your target customer base and ask insightful questions in order to provide relevant and meaningful outreach and content.

Uncovering a prospect’s pain points, priorities, objectives, and buying team dynamics during discovery sales calls is crucial for continued engagement as the prospect moves further down the funnel. Have top-performing reps share best practices for discovery with others on the team to help everyone hone this skill.

Time management

In a perfect world, salespeople could devote 100% of their time to sales activities: sending emails, making sales calls, closing deals.

But today’s selling experience is complex, requiring a lot of tasks that are seemingly minor but in fact, largely contribute to a deal’s success. For this reason, reps must be able to juggle it all, prioritizing the highest-value items on their to-do lists and responding to buyer requests in a timely manner.

One-on-one coaching sessions between manager and seller are useful for finding ways the rep can manage their time and maximize productivity.

Technology use

Numerous sales tools have been introduced to automate, streamline, and/or measure sellers’ daily activities. Whether it’s a content management system, conversation intelligence, or a revenue productivity platform, reps must be able to use technology effectively. It’s up to IT, sales, and sales enablement leadership to ensure salespeople are adequately trained on these systems.

 

Relationship building

Regardless of what territory a seller has and the type of prospect they’re working with, developing authentic relationships with buyers is critical.

Executives and other business leaders are flooded with sales calls and emails on a daily basis and won’t give the time of day to a vendor who doesn’t care to hear their feelings and opinions.

Your reps can engage more meaningfully by forming and nurturing connections. The ability to do this can be passed from the top down; if sales leaders and managers are empathetic to their teams, reps will replicate this behavior with their prospects.

Effective communication

Written and verbal communication skills are not just important for interacting with buyers; they’re also required for impactful internal relationships, whether between members of the same team, between manager and rep, or with colleagues from other departments.

To be successful in sales, reps must be assertive while mastering tone and delivery of the information they’re delivering. Encourage reps to practice different messaging formats and techniques, share ideas, and provide feedback with one another.

 

Storytelling

Shaping messaging into a compelling tale is a distinct skill that goes beyond knowing how to communicate effectively. Telling an authentic story to demonstrate how other customers have solved business issues with your solution appeals to emotions and stokes action. As with other important sales competencies, crafting persuasive narratives takes practice, so give salespeople plenty of opportunity to do just that within coaching sessions and team meetings.

Product knowledge

Today’s buyers have high expectations and can see through salespeople who pretend to know what they’re talking about.

Rather than memorizing a minute-long product pitch, having extensive product knowledge allows sellers to share the value of products more creatively and meaningfully. It also enables reps to answer nuanced questions buyers have about features and functionality. Provide plentiful virtual sales training materials surrounding your product suite and walk your sales team through product demos so they know the ins and outs of what they’re selling.

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Active listening

It bears repeating: Generic pitches and presentations don’t work with buyers today. Sales reps must demonstrate the value of their solutions differently based on a buyers’ unique use cases. And the only way to do that is by letting them tell you what those use cases are. Sellers must ask about goals, roadblocks, priorities — anything that gets them to the heart of what that buyer needs — and then stop and listen.

Active listening means staying in the present, taking in what the person is saying, and waiting until they’re finished to respond. By doing so, a rep builds further connection with that buyer and begins to position him or herself as a trusted advisor.

Negotiation

Once a proposal has been put together, sales reps must be able to command the subsequent negotiation process. This means not giving in to a prospect’s every demand and instead being assertive and presenting alternative solutions that benefit both parties. Train sellers on how to manage negotiations and give them the opportunity to practice with their peers.

Objection handling

It’s rare a buying team will accept everything a seller tells them without question. Rather than taking their challenges as obstacles, reps should take these as opportunities to get more visibility into how the buyers think. Ensure your salespeople are able to respond to common skepticism and objections with recorded role-plays scored by either AI or managers.

Sales Training in Mindtickle

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This post was originally published in October 2022 and updated in October 2023.

Hitting Targets Through Marketing and Sales Alignment with Christopher Lynch

Helen Waite on October 11, 2023

 

Episode summary

In the re-airing of our most downloaded episode of Ready, Set, Sell, we sat down with our very own CMO, Chris Lynch. In this episode, he shared why directness in internal communications is so important and the value of storytelling and messaging skills in marketing.

We kicked things off with Chris talking about how he approaches marketing initiatives with his own team. He discussed the importance of creating compelling digital experiences for prospects and shifting toward an “insight sell” approach.

Like many other marketing teams, those who are successful will be able to balance immediate business demands with long-term projects. In a time when many orgs have teams working almost entirely remotely, Chris said the importance of in-person collaboration can’t be underestimated, especially for creative brainstorming and for team-based roles like BDRs.

The hosts and Chris tackled a subject that many sales and marketing organizations struggle to solve: alignment and successful collaboration between their two teams. Shared accountability for both wins and losses is critical for successful alignment. In simple terms, he shared that – in his view – “Marketing plants ideas while sales brings them to life.”

“Marketing plants ideas while sales brings them to life.”
Christopher Lynch
CMO, Mindtickle

Lastly, Chris shared his outlook on what’s next in B2B marketing: improvements and growth in revenue and sales technologies will lead to more intelligent, data-driven decision-making.

Key takeaways:

  • Honesty and directness are key, especially when dealing with sales teams, to effectively address performance and challenges.
  • Marketers must be effective storytellers. Providing a unique point differentiates successful marketing initiatives from the pack.
  • Marketers and sellers roles can be crystallized down to this: Marketing’s role is to identify the addressable market, create a cohesive strategy, and plant ideas in prospects’ minds, while sales dives deeper into individual nuances to clarify value and insight.

Keep checking back here to see more videos of our podcast.

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What Makes a Successful Sales Training Program?

Helen Waite on October 5, 2023

Sales training is just one part of a seller’s roster of responsibilities. According to the 2022 LinkedIn State of Selling Report, sellers spend 17% of their time on training. Unfortunately, that time could be a complete wash if the sales training doesn’t improve the knowledge, skills, and behaviors you know reps need to close deals.

Time sellers spent on sales training activities
0%

 

But when sales training is effective, it becomes one of the most important investments in your sellers and an invaluable use of their time. In this blog post, we’ll define sales training, sales training programs, why they’re important, why one-size-fits-all sales training won’t work, the essentials for a successful sales training program, different types of sales training programs, how sales training technology helps, and how to use Mindtickle for sales training.

What is sales training?

A sales training program teaches sales reps the skills needed for every step of the sales journey—from first contact through the close of a sale. It’s the ongoing process of teaching sales teams how to create deal-closing interactions with buyers. This includes in-person learning, e-learning, micro-learning, gamification, or other training techniques to help sales reps improve performance.

Although sometimes used interchangeably, sales training is not the same as sales enablement or sales coaching.

What is a sales training program and why is it needed?

Organizations need to develop personalized sales training programs for their sales teams so they can achieve and maintain sales excellence across the organization.

Once you’ve mapped out your ideal rep profile and understand the specific selling skills, behaviors, and knowledge your salespeople need to succeed, you can plan out courses and programs that focus on each area.

Start by defining the outcomes for each training program. For example:

Focus on on different product features to help reps run product demos tailored to prospects’ needs

Help reps spot when they’re using filler words so they can reduce the frequency of using them on calls

Focus on on common objections to help reps handle prospects’ objections confidently

 

Why one-size-fits-all training won’t work

If you choose a sales training program with a one-size-fits-all manual, you may be throwing away time and money.

Despite significant investments in sales training programs, the average rate of quota attainment has been declining for years. In fact, according to some research, only 24.3% of salespeople exceeded their quota last year. One-size-fits-all training programs assume there is just one way to sell and therefore fail at the very thing they are teaching.

Reps who exceeded quota last year
0%

 

No two sales reps have the same needs or experience. Similarly, no two businesses are alike—a technology company and a retailer have different needs relevant to the industry and each has a unique sales process.

For example:

  • A retail sale — B2C —might require a shorter, but more personal interaction.
  • Reps selling products in B2B, like technology, require an intricate knowledge of customers, products, trends, and advancement in the industry.

In both examples, the sales rep must deliver a modern sales approach that can compete with information available online, and the complexities of each product require specific understanding. But the approach to these differing sales requires unique knowledge and techniques, meaning training must be suited to the individual rep, business, product, and customer.

While there is some benefit to be gained from any initiative, the results won’t be nearly as effective as those from an individually designed program that incorporates your company’s methodology and provides ongoing training and coaching opportunities.

The essentials for a successful sales training program

What are “the essentials” of choosing a sales training program, and why do they matter? Conventional training programs focus on behavior modification, communication, and negotiation skills. Those things play an important role in sales success, but other strategies can improve results faster and give your sales reps an advantage in the field.

The best sales training program for your company should include these six essential features.

Diverse training formats

Offering a number of different formats for presenting training material means teaching sales reps in the manner that they learn best.

Video provides a forum for role-play and live lectures, as well as narrated slide presentations to keep reps engaged.

Audio recordings work well for delivering training when complete attention is not necessary, like while driving or completing other activities.

Written materials allow reps to review and study resources in a written form with PDF files that can be made available for easy download and/or printing.

Gamification turns lackluster training modules into a fun, competitive learning opportunity. Video games, quizzes, and more can keep reps engaged and eager to continue their training.

 

Customizable platform

While standard training programs can offer the basics, a customizable program allows you to add content specific to your business, including techniques that work well in your market or with your product, and change and grow with your needs.

At the onset of the program, expect a framework driven by your organization’s sales strategy and a practical understanding of your products, services, and process. Intuitive real-time editing means that the program adjusts via sales rep input, evaluating what reps need according to what they have successfully completed, how they learn, and even existing or desired customers. Front-line managers can coach teams and review analytics by utilizing easy-to-use mobile tools.

Real-world scenarios

A successful sales training program uses real-world buying scenarios (and proven solutions) to train the team to handle any common situation. It must offer the flexibility to successfully address every aspect of a business reality. This type of program allows reps to practice real-world scenarios before they actually enter a high-stakes conversation with prospects or customers.

Structured reinforcement

Effective training takes time, repetition, and detailed individuality. A training program that offers customization enables your sales team to achieve milestones while continuing to successfully sell.
Reinforcement is key to helping salespeople retain what they’ve learned. Without systematic, continual learning and reinforcement, sales reps forget 70% of information within one week of training, and 87% within one month.

Tracking and metrics

How do you know if reps are using the program and if it’s working? A good sales training program should include progress tracking for each sales rep as well as analysis through quizzes, tests, and other assessments. This information should be used to generate performance metrics as well as to continually improve the program.

 

Different instructional modalities

Providing learning opportunities that meet your sales team where they are, physically and mentally, is the best way to get their attention and make learning fun and interactive.

Your sales team is always on the go. Training materials should be agile, available via streaming or download to mobile devices for use when the time is right.

Online lectures and virtual conferences provide a forum where everyone can participate without being in the same physical location.

Discussion forums, chat capabilities, and social interactions provide learning in an environment that enhances engagement through connection and discussion.

 

Micro-learning capabilities

Micro-learning offers information as bite-sized, easily accessed, individualized content for sales reps. Usually focused on one topic or problem, it is presented in a variety of ways like quizzes, videos, games, or simulations. Micro-learning uses information about how our long-term memory performs and incorporates the use of repetition over time. Learning that is fun and engaging—presented over time—helps learners avoid information overload and increases retained information. It is quick and easy to complete, and provides the opportunity for tracking, progress, and identifies gaps for future learning.

Gamification

When learning is less tedious and more fun, information is retained better. Reps are more likely to complete training modules if they come in the form of video games, leaderboards, social networking, and gamified quizzes, even when they aren’t assigned. Sales reps are motivated to do the work, becoming more and more skilled in the process. That drives revenue growth.

Different types of sales training programs

General sales skills include relationship-building, questioning, solution-building, negotiation, problem-solving, and proposal writing. Different types of sales training programs focus on different areas. When you choose just one area on which to focus, not all reps on your sales team will benefit.

Here are a few types of sales training.

Teaches information or steps that improve the chance of a positive outcome. Usually a standard format, it creates a common approach and language for sales reps and emphasizes skill development.

Long-form modules with in-depth subject knowledge that teach essential sales skills. Reps learn how to sell with fundamental skills like finding prospects, active listening, asking questions, negotiation, sidestepping objections, giving presentations, follow-up, and other administrative communication skills. These skills have no expiration date and continue to evolve over time, as your reps’ confidence and knowledge grows.

Focuses on the product features and benefits, giving a sales rep a solid foundation regarding what they are selling, so they can focus on the customers’ needs.

Information refreshers that reinforce knowledge from training modules. Small, frequent updates prompt knowledge retention and connect information that reps have already learned for improved results.

 

How sales training technology helps

Enlisting a data-driven sales training program can change the game for your business. Technology-based onboarding alone can propel your success rate forward. A quality, customizable program offers cost-savings, flexibility, logistical simplicity, accessibility, and the chance for self-paced learning and repetition as needed.

Online or off, effective sales training programs should be customizable to adapt to the changing needs of any business. Key metrics provide a barometer for results. Diverse training opportunities coupled with a variety of learning modalities can help you reach your sales rep and improve retention. Micro-learning and bite-sized updates provide refreshers and continual learning.

Choose a training program that uses technology to make learning easier, empowers sales reps, and drives excellence.

Mindtickle for sales training

With a comprehensive suite of sales readiness applications, Mindtickle provides your sales team with a positive learning environment and never-ending learning. Sales reps learn and practice concepts from engaging, accessible delivery platforms that convey knowledge, offer role-play opportunities for eventual success in the field, and improve mastery for customer engagement.

Tracked usage offers accessibility and visibility—a window into progress and performance, that emphasizes knowledge retention through quizzes, gamification, and coaching. Mindtickle’s data-driven approach provides easy mobile access that ties individual performance to revenue growth with metrics that reveal what’s working, what needs adjusting, where gaps exist, and how training is affecting sales outcomes.

See Sales Training in Mindtickle

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This post was originally published in April 2020, was updated in November 2022, and again in October 2023. 

Video: 3 Tips for Fostering a Coaching Culture

Helen Waite on September 20, 2023

 

Episode summary

In this video, Helen Waite shares some of the key takeaways from our Road to Readiness Roadshow stop in Chicago. This video focuses on fostering a coaching culture in sales orgs and offers some practical tips for how to create one at your own organization.

Key highlights

  • Leadership buy-in: To establish a coaching culture, it’s imperative that senior leaders, from the CRO to managers and reps, actively participate in coaching. Leadership buy-in sets the example for the entire team. Some organizations even tie coaching to sales manager compensation to incentivize regular coaching.
  • Coaching for coaches: Sales managers are often promoted from successful sales reps, but they may lack the necessary coaching skills. Providing coaching for coaches as part of onboarding and ongoing training is essential. Regular training sessions, whether quarterly or during annual kickoffs, help managers continually improve their coaching abilities.
  • Better together mindset: Encouraging collaboration among managers and reps fosters a coaching-friendly environment. When managers work together and reps collaborate, it creates a safe space for conversations, enabling continuous learning. This “better together” mindset ensures that coaching isn’t a competitive activity but rather a collective effort to help the entire team achieve their goals.

Transcription

Our second stop on our Road to Readiness Roadshow in Chicago brought together sales leaders from ChowNow, Couchbase, Cisco, SCI, and more. A lot of the conversation was around a coaching culture in your organization. So here we’ll share three tips for fostering a coaching culture.

The first tip is leadership buy-in.

You’re not going to get your entire team to adopt a coaching culture and coach on a regular basis unless your leaders are doing the same thing. So enablement can’t drive this function alone, you need to make sure that your senior sales leaders, your CRO down to your managers, and your reps are all bought into coaching on a regular basis, so everyone can get better.

We’ve seen success in organizations even building coaching and as part of a sales manager’s compensation, just to encourage and make sure that they’re doing that coaching on a regular basis.

The second tip is coaching your coaches.

We often see that sales managers are typically sales reps who did really well and were promoted. So it doesn’t always mean that they have the skills needed to learn how to coach their reps effectively once they do become a manager.

Make sure that you’re coaching your coaches as part of your onboarding and training for your new managers. And then making sure you’re doing that on a regular basis, whether it’s once a year, providing training to all of your managers on how to coach their reps effectively. It could be on a quarterly basis, or twice a year during your kickoffs, making sure that you’re not only doing a coach the coach as part of your onboarding but also including that on a regular basis for your managers to make sure that they’re always learning from each other, learning how to be better coaches for their reps.

And finally, the third tip is developing a better together mindset.

We heard as part of our sessions, that it’s really important that your managers work together and that your reps work together. And that really fosters a coaching environment where you can have a safe space to have conversations, whether it’s manager to rep, or rep to rep.

Your managers can learn from each other, and so can your reps, and that can help making sure you’re coaching on a regular basis. If they’re all learning from each other, better together. And that coaching can really help the team all hit their numbers together and it’s not kind of pitting team or region against each other. So having that better together mindset helps with that culture.

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The 20+ Sales Coaching Metrics You Should Measure for Effective Skill Coaching

Helen Waite on September 13, 2023

The reality is, deal coaching is probably happening pretty regularly at your organization. Managers are meeting with their teams as a whole, and individually to discuss open opportunities in flight, how they are progressing, and how they can help get them to closed-won.

But, the same can’t typically be said for skill coaching across the board. That’s because skill coaching traditionally takes more prep, data, and tracking to be effective. Since it is more of a time commitment for managers, it gets pushed to the back burner, with other pressing tasks taking precedence over it.

With a bit of guidance, you can ensure skill coaching is consistent across your organization and impacting rep performance quarter after quarter.

What is skill coaching?

First, let’s start with a quick overview of what skill coaching is. And how it’s different from deal coaching.

Focuses on the deals in front of a seller, and the open opportunities they have and are actively working. This type of coaching typically takes place between a manager and a rep weekly, discussing the details of each deal, any blockers, the next steps, and the probability of closing.

Focuses on the seller themselves, and more specifically the key skills they need to be successful at their job. Skill coaching sessions typically happen on a monthly or quarterly basis, as it takes time to show improvement.

Improvement in win rate
0 %

Deal coaching and skill coaching are both strategic techniques for guiding sellers on how they can be more effective. Paired together, they can result in an improvement of win rates by 27% or more.

Why do skill coaching metrics matter?

Now that you know the why of skill coaching – what is the point of measuring and tracking performance related to skill coaching?

Metrics matter because they are the driving force behind delivering effective skill coaching.

If you have a team of reps and want to start focusing on delivering skill coaching, without any data, you may just result to picking one skill to coach your team on each month.

For example, you choose discovery and focus on assessing and building this skill for each rep. If one member is already very strong in his or her discovery skills, this could be a waste of time for this person. While another member may have a larger gap in discovery skills and needs more than a month for developing this skill.

Without metrics, you can’t deliver tailored skill coaching that focuses on the individual skill gaps of each of your team members.

20+ coaching metrics for effective skill coaching

In order to start tracking skill coaching metrics, you must first know exactly what skills make up a top performer in your organization. And this varies by role, industry, and product/service offering.

For example, a Sales Development Representative at a tech company may need strong skills in:

  • Active listening
  • Market research
  • Written communication
  • Self-motivation

While a seasoned Account Executive at a manufacturing company needs really strong:

  • Discovery
  • Problem-solving
  • Negotiation
  • Presentation

Now using these competency frameworks, you can start to measure the critical metrics that will drive your skill coaching efforts for each of your customer-facing roles.

Let’s break down the metrics by commonly used skills for go-to-market roles.

Product/service knowledge Product/service program scores
New product/service release update scores
Correct answers on assessments and quizzes
Certification completions
Active listening Conversation intelligence call scores
Talk time % on calls vs attendees
Conversion rate of calls to meetings booked
Written communication # of emails sent
Sentiment score on emails
# of responses to emails vs emails sent
Building rapport Conversion rate of calls to meetings booked
Conversion rate of emails to meetings booked
Presentation Video role-play scores
Conversion by deal stage
Talk time % on calls vs attendees
Filler words used
Sentiment on calls
Questions asked by prospect in calls
Questions asked by presenter
Monologue length
Multi-threading # of contacts engaged per opportunity
# of contacts accepted/attending meetings
# of c-level contacts engaged per opportunity
Objection handling Sentiment on calls
Questions asked by prospect in calls
Questions asked by presenter
Competitor mentions

 

Measuring the impact of your skill coaching

Seeing all of these metrics in one list can be a bit overwhelming. We recommend starting small. Focus on 2-3 top skills for your direct reports and start tracking a handful of metrics for each of these skills to gauge where individuals are excelling or where they may need some focused skill coaching. Then, you can continue tracking these metrics over time to determine the effectiveness of your coaching and add additional metrics to track. All of these skills should be measured against larger KPIs and business goals of your reports, like:

  • Revenue generation
  • Quota attainment
  • Pipeline conversion
  • Average deal size
  • Conversion by deal stage

There are many solutions out there that can help track these metrics, which may result in jumping back and forth between systems to gather all of this data. If you’re interested in a coaching solution that consolidates your sales enablement and ops data for actionable coaching insights, reach out to a Mindtickle expert.

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This post was originally published in November 2022 and was updated in September 2023. 

Podcast: A Conversation with a CRO on Scaling a Successful Sales Team

Helen Waite on September 8, 2023

 

Episode summary

When it comes to growing, scaling, and developing an excellent sales team, there’s truly a fine art to it that can’t be learned overnight. In a re-airing of this episode of Ready, Set, Sell, Hannah and Tony sit down with Stephanie Valenti, who was Chief Revenue Officer at SmartBug Media at the time of the original interview.

In her role, Stephanie led sales, marketing, and all client services and delivery departments at the company. She’s also spent more than 15 years learning the best strategies for fostering sustainable growth, leading a team, and helping B2B sales organizations scale up, so she has plenty of wisdom to share about leadership and the customer journey overall.

During the episode, Stephanie shares lots of insightful advice and plenty of actionable tips that you can benefit from, no matter your current role within your organization.

Keep checking back here to get more episodes of our podcast.

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The Five Pillars of Pharmaceutical Sales Training Excellence

Helen Waite on August 28, 2023

Complex pharmaceutical products, strict regulations, and the uniquely critical role healthcare professionals play in decision-making form a challenging selling landscape for pharma reps.

To be successful, reps need a distinct skill set, comprehensive product knowledge, and a sharp awareness of ethical considerations. Given these circumstances, efficient and effective sales training is especially important in pharmaceutical sales.

In this blog post, we’ll outline the unique challenges faced in pharmaceutical sales training and provide practical solutions.

What are some challenges in pharmaceutical sales training?

Pharmaceutical sales training faces several unique challenges that require tailored approaches and solutions. These challenges include:

  • No insight into field activities

    Traditionally, it has been difficult for sales managers to gain visibility into the daily activities of their sales reps in the field. This lack of insight makes it challenging to provide timely feedback, identify sales coaching opportunities, and assess the effectiveness of sales strategies.

  • Hard to ramp new reps with breadth and depth of offerings

    The pharmaceutical industry offers a wide range of products, each with its own unique features, indications, and benefits. Onboarding and ramping up new sales representatives quickly and effectively, ensuring they have a comprehensive understanding of the product portfolio, can be a big challenge.

  • Less time in front of healthcare professionals

    COVID-19 drastically reduced the amount of face-to-face time sales reps have with healthcare professionals. This shift to virtual interactions requires sales training programs to adapt and equip representatives with the skills needed to engage effectively in a digital environment.

  • Strict regulatory requirements

    The pharmaceutical industry is subject to strict regulatory guidelines, including compliance with laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations. Sales representatives must be trained to ensure they adhere to these requirements in their interactions with HCPs. Furthermore, with compliance requirements changing regularly, pharmaceutical companies must ensure their field team has the most up-to-date versions of collateral.

5 must-haves for an effective sales training program for pharma reps

In order to tackle these challenges and develop pharmaceutical sales training that actually enables your reps, follow these five pillars.

1. Onboard and ramp new reps fast

To address the challenge of onboarding and ramping up new sales representatives quickly, leading pharmaceutical companies leverage technology-driven training solutions. E-learning platforms and virtual training sessions can provide comprehensive information on product portfolios, disease states, and selling techniques. Additionally, interactive modules and quizzes can assess knowledge retention, ensuring new reps are well-prepared to engage with HCPs.

Gone are the days of in-person onboarding and hours of snooze-worthy training videos. By using a platform created to train and enable sellers, you can transform your training approach from stand-and-deliver to engaging, real-world practice and reinforcement.

Key elements of your pharmaceutical onboarding and everboarding should include:

The ability to deliver bite-sized, engaging training in multiple modalities like videos, quizzes, and presentations.

A mobile-friendly delivery of content and training for reps to complete as they commute across their territories.

Everyone likes healthy competition, especially sellers, ensure you are incorporating leaderboards, badges, and scoring as part of your training programs.

2. Enable reps on new products & regulatory requirements quickly

Pharmaceutical companies frequently introduce new products and updates to existing ones. Training programs should incorporate efficient methods to disseminate information on new products and regulatory requirements. Utilizing online training modules, just-in-time content, and virtual workshops training and development departments can enable reps to quickly understand product features and newly issued regulatory guidelines.

Having a centralized and searchable platform for training and enablement means pharmaceutical reps can find the most up-to-date information on the products they are selling at any time, from anywhere. Ensure this platform supports offline browsing so that reps can access training and content even in remote areas or while commuting across their territory.

Ensure your sales training platform is compliant with applicable regulations, like HIPAA, ISO (ISO 9001:2015, ISO/IEC 27001:2013, and ISO/IEC 26580:2021), and FDA 21 CFR Part 11

3. Scale role-plays to practice before reps are in office

Leading sales training platforms facilitate role-play exercises to enhance sales representatives’ communication skills and fine-tune their product pitches. Previously done largely in-person or over a conference call, AI-reviewed role-plays allow reps to practice their presentations, handle objections, and refine their selling techniques remotely.

By setting parameters and giving examples of top pitches, reps can hone their messaging and pitches virtually, before they are in front of HCPs. These pitches are not only reviewed by AI, but managers, business unit leaders, as well as marketing can all review and provide feedback.

This scalable approach ensures reps gain experience and confidence before engaging with HCPs and verifies their ability to be on-brand and on-message.

Top role-play use cases for pharmaceutical reps:

Before launching a new product, test the effectiveness of your training on how well reps can pitch the new talk tracks with a new product launch role-play.

If there are critical regulatory changes that affect how reps can pitch products in front of HCPs, test their delivery with a regulatory role-play to ensure they are on-brand and use compliant language.

Have marketing set-up a role-play to test pitches of new collateral to see how comfortable reps are pitching updated or new marketing materials.

State common objections HCPs bring up to field reps, give a sample ‘top response’ as well as talking points, and have reps record how they would respond.

 

4. Document coaching and ride-alongs

Manager ride-alongs and coaching sessions are invaluable for sales representatives’ development. However, tracking and documenting these activities can be challenging. Oftentimes, there is no streamlined way to gather feedback from ride-alongs, resulting in a manager waiting until the end of the month or quarter to document their feedback to reps. This results in varied and generic feedback that doesn’t help the rep grow and perform better.

Utilizing a sales training platform, managers can review a rep’s performance during and right after a ride-along. This feedback can then be used to deliver targeted training and coaching for the individual to continually improve their in-person interactions and performance.

 

5. Improve rep coverage with data-driven insights

Pharmaceutical companies can leverage technology to gather data on sales representatives’ activities, including call frequency, territory coverage, and engagement levels with HCPs. Integrating their sales training platform with their CRM, like Veeva, enables training and development leaders to analyze what programs are most effective in driving business results.

Furthermore, leaders can uncover which managers provide the most valuable and consistent coaching, improving rep churn and performance.

Pharmaceutical sales are ever-evolving, especially with less and less time granted for reps to get in front of HCPs. With a data-driven approach to sales training, learning, and development leaders can ensure their reps are prepared for every interaction, are staying compliant, and delivering value to HCPs.

 

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Meet Mindtickle Copilot, Generative AI to Boost Productivity for Revenue Teams

Helen Waite on August 23, 2023

Copilot is here! Mindtickle has released a suite of generative AI features across its revenue productivity platform to help everyone in the revenue organization.

Generating revenue doesn’t fall on one department, it’s a critical responsibility across go-to-market teams including sellers, enablement, customer success, operations, and management. Yet 72% of salespeople expect their team to miss annual quota in 2023 according to Salesforce.

Recent generative AI technologies have the ability to make these teams more productive so they can focus on their high-value revenue-generating activities.

That’s where Copilot comes in.

Copilot helps revenue teams:

  • Discover data-driven insights faster
  • Create personalized experiences quickly
  • Execute revenue-generating interactions exceptionally
  • Uphold security and ethical standards with a secure generative AI platform

This not only saves time for enablement professionals but also ensures that sales teams have access to up-to-date, engaging, and tailored content that resonates with their target audience.

Discover data-driven insights faster

Copilot gets you the answers you need to make data-based decisions, without reviewing lengthy calls or navigating dashboards and reporting pages.

AI call navigator

Get quick insights into every call fast

Copilot can analyze any call in seconds and answer top-of-mind questions without having to sift through a transcript. Sellers can get a quick call summary, craft detailed follow-ups, and receive self-coaching tips on how to improve future customer and prospect interactions. Managers can prioritize reps to coach by call scores and quickly review underperforming calls to foster detailed coaching sessions.

Copilot - Analytics

AI analytics navigator

Get the answers you need about your data in seconds

Copilot can efficiently analyze training and enablement reports in Mindtickle and produce succinct answers based on data. Empower all enablement and sales training professionals to derive quick and actionable insights from data, making informed decisions easier than ever.

Create personalized experiences quickly

AI-powered training creation

Copilot creates assessments based on training content and role-plays based on real-world selling scenarios

Have Copilot create an assessment based on learning content to quickly and succinctly test knowledge. Copilot reviews existing training content quickly and creates an assessment based on the parameters you outline to quickly reinforce training being delivered.

Copilot - Assessment

Copilot can also create a sales or renewal simulation to practice and hone skills and messaging before money is on the line. Give Copilot some guidance on the type of role-play you’d like to test teams on, and Copilot generates a detailed scenario, guidance, and scoring rubric.

Execute revenue-generating interactions exceptionally

Copilot - Mission review

AI-powered role-play reviews

Provide instant AI-powered feedback and scores of role-plays

Scale the mastery of new skills with role-plays reviewed by Copilot. Customer-facing roles can submit role-plays and receive automatic scoring, reviews and insights from AI to continually improve. Sellers can hone their pitches, presales can practice a new demo or flow, and customer success/account managers can test their renewal or upsell messaging with AI-powered insights on how to improve.

Copilot - Email

AI-generated content sharing

Generate contextual emails about content you are sharing with prospects

Quickly draft and send contextual and detailed emails to customers and prospects when sharing collateral with Copilot. When sharing an asset within Mindtickle, have Copilot generate the email copy based on the content being shared saving your sellers, customer support, and account teams valuable time.

Uphold security and ethical standards

Customers can ensure they are using a safe, enterprise-ready, and ethical version of AI with Copilot. Mindtickle has been driven by a security-first approach to implementing AI within the platform. Mindtickle’s model will not learn from or share customer data across instances, and ensures users’ personal data is not enriched and that information is only temporarily shared with machine learning systems. Mindtickle has also opted out of sharing customer information, even in the pseudonymized or anonymized form, to train or improve AI models.

Copilot is a tool that your revenue and security teams will love. For more on the Copilot release, check out our press release on the announcement. If you are a Mindtickle customer interested in getting on the Copilot waitlist, reach out to your CSM and click here if you want to see a live demo of Copilot.

See Mindtickle Copilot in Action

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How Revenue Enablement Teams Can Leverage AI

Helen Waite on August 21, 2023

Revenue enablement professionals play a pivotal role in driving growth and success for organizations. Their expertise lies in equipping sales teams with the right tools, strategies, and knowledge to excel in their roles.

As technology continues to advance, one of the most promising tools is Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize revenue enablement, offering innovative ways to enhance training, content creation, customer interactions, and data analysis.

Let’s look at four examples of how revenue enablement professionals can leverage the power of generative AI to impact revenue.

Dynamic content generation

One of the significant challenges in revenue enablement is the constant need for fresh and relevant content. Generative AI can alleviate this burden by automating parts of the content creation processes.

  • Creating rich visuals and videos: design tools like Canva and Adobe now incorporate generative AI to easily create specific designs just by describing what you want to make and can sync up background music with a video with one click.
  • Creating knowledge checks: generative AI offers the ability to quickly review training content and create knowledge checks, like assessments, to test that the training being delivered is being retained

This not only saves time for enablement professionals but also ensures that sales teams have access to up-to-date, engaging, and tailored content that resonates with their target audience.

Enhanced training and simulation

Effective training is at the core of revenue enablement. Generative AI can revolutionize training programs by creating dynamic simulations that mimic real-world sales scenarios.

These simulations can provide sales teams with learning experiences, allowing them to practice objection handling, negotiation techniques, and customer interactions in a risk-free environment. As a result, enablement leaders can deliver more impactful training programs that lead to improved sales performance.

Intelligent customer insights

Understanding customers’ needs and preferences is essential for successful sales interactions. Generative AI can analyze vast amounts of customer data, including past interactions, to generate actionable insights.

By identifying patterns and trends, AI can provide enablement professionals with valuable information to help sales teams tailor their pitches and inform the creation of tailored, up-to-date training and content. This not only enhances customer engagement but also builds stronger relationships by demonstrating a deep understanding of the customer’s unique requirements.

Data-driven decision making

Revenue enablement professionals rely on data to make informed decisions and drive strategic initiatives. Generative AI can assist by processing and analyzing large datasets at remarkable speeds.

By leveraging AI-powered predictive analytics, enablement professionals can gain valuable insights into sales performance, identify potential bottlenecks, and predict market trends. This empowers them to proactively adjust sales strategies, optimize resource allocation, and drive revenue growth.

See generative AI in action

As the field of revenue enablement continues to evolve, the integration of generative AI holds immense potential to elevate its impact. By harnessing the power of dynamic content generation, training simulations, intelligent customer insights, and data-driven decision-making, enablement professionals can redefine their roles and drive unparalleled success for their organizations. Embracing generative AI not only streamlines processes and enhances efficiency but also enables sales teams to deliver more personalized, engaging, and effective interactions with customers.

See Mindtickle Copilot in Action

Check out our live demo webinar of Mindtickle’s upcoming generative AI capabilities.
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