Sales Training Techniques For Teams

Early in my career, I thought selling was about knowing your product better than anyone else. Twenty-three years later, I believe almost the opposite. The best people on our team are not the ones who can recite a specification sheet. They are the ones who walk into a plant and spend the first hour not talking about filters at all. They ask different questions. How often are you replacing that membrane? What happens to a batch when it fails a clarity check? What is this problem actually costing you every month? Because here is what I have learned: a customer does not want to buy a filter. They want a problem to go away. And you cannot solve a problem you have not taken the time to understand. The weakest sales conversation opens with 'here is what we make.' The strongest one opens with 'help me understand what is hurting.' One sells a product. The other earns a partnership. It is also why we train our team to walk away from a sale that does not fit. If our solution is not right for the customer's problem, saying so honestly is worth more over twenty years than a deal closed today and regretted tomorrow. Products can be matched by any competitor. Understanding the customer's problem better than anyone else is the one advantage that compounds. We are not in the business of selling filters. We are in the business of understanding problems, the filter is just where the answer happens to land. To my fellow founders and BD leaders: are your people trained to present, or trained to understand? The difference shows up in every deal. #BusinessDevelopment #Sales #Manufacturing #Filtration #FilterConcept

I’ve coached thousands of sellers on how to create the perfect sales pitch using a framework called the 5 P’s. Until today, I have never shared this with anybody except my coaching clients. Here’s why it’s so effective: when most companies create a first call deck or sales pitch, they make it all about their own company and how great they are.   𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬! The reason why is simple: customers don’t care about your products and services. They care about themselves, achieving their goals, and solving their own problems. Yet most pitch decks fail to speak to the problems which customers face and the pains they are causing. That’s why I created a framework which focuses solely on the customer’s challenges and how your solution can solve them. 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟓 𝐏’𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐏 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫: 𝟏. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦: What problem do most prospects you work with face that your company can solve? The problem should be very high level, and important to Senior Executives at the company. It should be a business problem, not a technical problem. For example, if I sell CRM, the problem I solve would be rep underperformance, low rep productivity, or missed forecasts. All of which are important to a CRO or CEO. 𝟐. 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧: Why does the problem exist? What is the root cause of the problem? By understanding the source of the problem, you demonstrate credibility and establish immediate trust with prospects because you are speaking their language. In the above example, I could say that reps often miss their forecasts because leadership has poor visibility to their sales pipeline and no way to accurately predict which deals are most likely to close, all of which a CRM solves for. 𝟑. 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧: What pain is the problem causing? The pain is always focused on the metrics that are impacted by the problem. For example, missed forecasts could mean a reduction in stock prices, missed revenue targets, and sales layoffs. 𝟒. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞: How does your company solve the problem? The promise should always solve the primary reasons you just outlined. So for example, AI driven forecasting would prevent inaccurate manual forecasting and low visibility to deals. 𝟓. 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐨𝐟𝐟: What metrics do you positively impact by solving the problem? Key payoff metrics for a CRM would be improved rep quota attainment, productivity, and accurate forecasting, all of which drive top line revenue & profitability. In this week's training video, I walk you through how to create the perfect sales pitch using the 5 P framework. You can find the training here: https://lnkd.in/gmu_Bdu3 PS - If you want to access a copy of the Problem Mapping Template so you can fill out the 5 P’s for your own solutions, get it here: https://lnkd.in/gASNe_em

They were hemorrhaging money on digital tools their managers refused to use. The situation: A retail giant in the diamond industry with post-COVID digital sales tools sitting unused. Store managers resisting change. Market volatility crushing performance. Here's what every other company does: More training on features. Explaining benefits harder. Pushing adoption metrics. Here's what my client did instead: They ignored the technology completely. Instead, they trained 200+ managers on something nobody else was teaching; how to fall in love with change itself. For 8 months, we didn't focus on the digital tools once. We taught them Change Enthusiasm®, how to see disruption as opportunity, resistance as data, and overwhelm as information. We certified managers in emotional processing, not technical skills. The results were staggering: → 30% increase in digital adoption (without a single tech training session) →  2X ROI boost for those who embraced the mindset →  25% sales uplift in stores with certified managers →  96% of participants improved business outcomes Here's the breakthrough insight: People don't resist technology. They resist change. Fix the relationship with change, and adoption becomes automatic. While competitors were fighting symptoms, this company cured the disease. The secret wasn't better technology training, it was better humans. When managers learned to thrive through change, they stopped seeing digital tools as threats and started seeing them as allies. Most companies are solving the wrong problem. They're trying to make people adopt technology. We help people embrace transformation. The results speak for themselves. What would happen if you stopped training on tools and started training on change? ♻️ Share if you believe the future belongs to change-ready organizations 🔔 Follow for insights on making transformation inevitable, not optional

Is your team is losing more deals or hearing “no decision” too often? I’ve been doing win/loss reviews with my clients, and some patterns are too clear to ignore. 🪄 The more you know, the more you win! In deals that closed, sellers knew more than five buying influencers. In losses, they knew about two. We call that multi-threading, but really it just means knowing everyone who matters. If your sellers do not, the odds are already against them. 🪄 No decision is still a decision More deals are ending with no decision. Buyers are exhausted. They have compared too many options, read too many AI-generated suggestions, and now everything looks the same. When they do not feel confident, they freeze. They stick with the pain they know instead of the change they do not. 🪄 Dump the BANT discovery Ghosting after discovery calls is out of control. Sellers tell me, “They were so engaged!” Then nothing. Buyers were interested, but the discovery call did not teach them anything new. It did not add value or show insight. So they went cold. Want to stop the ghosting? Make your discovery call the one meeting that actually helps them think differently. Always agree on a clear next step. 💥 What sellers need to know now The best sellers today know: What a day in the life of their buyer looks like What insights bring real value How to guide a team to consensus How to build buyer confidence Here is the truth. Most buyers do not know how to buy from you. This may be their first time buying a solution like yours. They might not even know how to get it approved internally. Your sellers’ job is to guide them through it. Share examples, insights, and stories from other companies that made similar decisions. Those sticking to outdated methods are losing deals. Those meeting customers where they are and bringing useful insights are winning. If you are the CEO, ask your leaders: ✅ Is our ICP still aligned with our best-fit customers? ✅ Are our personas actually involved in recent wins? ✅ Has our customer journey changed? ✅ Does our discovery process impress or bore buyers? AI has changed the way buyers buy. Has it changed the way your sellers sell? Use AI to learn and prepare, but let it make your team more human, not less. Your turn: What are you seeing in your own win/loss reviews right now? Where are your sellers getting stuck: multi-threading, no decision, or discovery? If this resonates, share it with a CEO or sales leader who needs to see it. 🪄 I'm Alice Heiman and I help CEOs drive revenue the easy way.

Every single sales team I’ve evaluated has one thing in common Their lowest score is on the closing competency. Most teams lose the deal long before they ever talk numbers. If your sales reps can’t clearly articulate the client’s pain, connect it to a specific solution, and build a narrative that positions your offer as the only logical next step. They’re not closing. They’re just quoting. ❌ Combining discovery and proposal into one call short-circuits the sales cycle and kills momentum. ❌ Leading with company-centric messaging instead of client pain points loses buyer interest early. ❌ Generic, uncustomized pitch decks fail to engage and don’t advance the deal. When I coach leaders through this, their close rates go up because the conversation shifts from "here’s what we do" to “here’s how we help you.” Here’s how I coach teams to flip the switch: Customize the proposal based on THEIR stated needs and pain points Start with their top 3-5 challenges (from discovery) Confirm you captured them correctly, it builds buy-in Connect ONLY the relevant solutions to each challenge Limit your company’s slides to 2- 3 slides with clear value proposition, this isn’t about you Share a relevant testimonial right before presenting pricing THEN present pricing once they see the value. If your team is stuck in the present and pray proposal cycle, let’s talk. It’s time to teach your sellers how to connect, position, and close with purpose.

Stop training salespeople on your product. Start training the team on your ideal clients needs. If your onboarding plan has a product demo on day 1, you are telling your salespeople that this is the most important thing you need to focus on. Trust me. The product can come later. Start with the discomfort - the issues, challenges and opportunities that your ideal clients face. What does your day 1 of onboarding look like? If your new reps spend the entire first day just with Sales....then THAT needs to change immediately. ↳ Hang with marketing ↳ Hang with Engineering ↳ Hang with CS ↳ Hang with Leadership Onboarding needs a shake up.

Some of my hardest lessons as a sales leader came when figuring out how to setup and run training (learn from my mistakes!) Me as a new leader: "Great we have 10 topics we want to cover... let's do 1 a week. 2.5 months later we will have covered SO much ground!" 🙃 Training was more of a "box checking" exercise. Someone shared feedback on what they wanted to learn, and it got added to the list Having one 30 or 60 minute training on any topic is never sufficient, and I did the team a disservice So what was missing? And what did I seek to add later? 👉 Focus Instead of 10 topics, we might go into a quarter with 1-2 priority focus areas. The deeper engagement on a narrower topic is not unlike narrowing your focus on a smaller set of ICP accounts This creates room for practice, follow up sessions, different voices delivering the material, and ultimately makes the content stickier 👉 Engagement from other departments Where applicable, involvement from other departments can add incredible value to your training program. For instance, when you are training on a new product category, it is valuable to: - Hear firsthand from Product how it's built - Align your training timeline with Product Marketing so that materials are ready to go as the training commences - Work with Marketing so that messaging aligns to how you can sell it and everyone has the same talking points from day 1 - Work with Rev Ops to identify a market opportunity to apply your learnings - Have Sales Enablement help prepare uses cases in your sales tech stack 👉 A system to encourage accountability Once the trainings are delivered, how do you know that the sales team was paying attention? That can take many forms: - Group activity like pitch practice - Measuring adoption through tools like Gong - Contest/SPIF to encourage initial matching sales activity - Knowledge tests in your LMS (my least favorite) 👉 Repetition There's a reason Sesame Street used to repeat episodes during the week - once wasn't enough to get the message home! While your sales team isn't full of 3 year olds, similar principles apply Bottom line: instead of thinking about any topic as a single "training", think about creating "training programs" for your team 🎓 Tying it all together for a training on "New Product A" Week 1: Product & Product Marketing introduce the new offering Week 2: Outside expert/marketing/leadership deliver the industry POV Week 3: Team gets together to identify prospects and practice the pitch Week 4: Team provides feedback on material and prospecting plans are built incorporating the training Weeks 5-8: Measuring adoption through Gong. Shouting out strong adoption and privately helping laggards identify gaps in understanding Week 6: Short contest to encourage cross/up-sell opportunity creation Week 12: Revisit/Feedback #SalesEnablement #SalesTraining #LeadershipLessons #CorrCompetencies

40-60% of deals end with no decision. Want to change that? Here’s why this happens—and how you can fix it. Most deals stall because buyers feel overwhelmed. They’re anxious about: → Making mistakes → Budget constraints → Implementation complexity But here’s what many salespeople miss: Buyers don’t wake up thinking, “I need this product.” They feel symptoms first: → Frustration from missed goals → Stress over inefficiencies → Pressure from their team If you don’t speak their language, they won’t listen. Here’s how to break through: ✅ Start with their symptoms Talk about their daily struggles and emotional pain points. Show them you understand their reality. ✅ Use open-ended questions Ask things like: “What’s your biggest challenge right now?” or “How does that problem impact your team’s performance?” ✅ Summarizing builds trust Reflect back what you’ve heard. For example: “So what I’m hearing is that you’re spending too much time on manual tasks, and that’s causing delays for your team?” ✅ Co-develop value Instead of pitch mode, invite buyers to explore solutions with you. Ask: “If we could solve this, what would success look like?” ✅ Shift from features to impact Focus on how your solution makes their life better. For example: “Here’s how we’ve helped teams cut manual work by 50%—free up time for strategy and growth.” ✅ Show proof Use case studies, testimonials, and data to build credibility. People trust results, not words. ✅ Offer low-risk steps Demo your solution or give them something they can experience firsthand. Let them see how it works for their unique situation. By address buyer anxieties early and speaking to symptoms, you’ll move deals forward—with confidence. What’s your go-to strategy for help buyers feel understood? Share your thoughts below. #SalesTips #EmpathyDrivenSelling #BuyerAnxieties #SalesPipeline

Every January, your sales team has a kickoff. New methodology training. Updated battle cards. Refreshed pricing. Three days in Vegas pretending to learn while nursing hangovers. Know what your buyers don't have? A "How to Buy Your Software" kickoff. As Todd Caponi reminded everyone during Sales Assembly’s Revenue Manager Lab the other week, these folks have never bought your category before. Maybe once in their entire career. While you've sold it 147 times just this year. Yet what do most reps do? - "So what's your evaluation process?" - "What are your next steps?" - "How do you typically make these decisions?" That's like a sherpa asking you which route you want to take up Everest. I don't know, man. YOU'RE the sherpa. I'm just trying not to die. Your buyers are lost. They're scared. They have no idea what happens next. Their last software purchase was a disaster that almost got them fired. And you're asking THEM to lead? Per Senator Caponi, here's what to do: - Stop asking: "What's your process?" - Start saying: "Here's what we typically see work for companies like yours." - Stop asking: "Who needs to be involved?" - Start saying: "Usually, procurement wants X, IT needs Y, and finance requires Z. Should we loop them in now or wait until after the pilot?" - Stop asking: "When do you want to make a decision?" - Start saying: "Based on your Q4 deadline, we need signatures by September 15th to have you live by October 1st. Here's the timeline that gets us there." Create the Mutual Action Plan, but not as some seller-centric checklist you force on them. Position it as your gift of experience: "Listen, we've done this 200 times with companies exactly like yours. Here are the seven things that always come up, the three that usually kill deals, and how we avoid them. Want me to map out what the next 90 days looks like?" Their relief will be palpable. Always, always, always remember that your buyers are drowning in uncertainty: - Will this work? - Will I look stupid? - What if we pick wrong? - How do we even evaluate this? - What questions should I be asking? Every time you ask them to lead their own buying process, you're adding to that uncertainty. Your job isn't to sell. It's to sherpa. You've been up this mountain before. They haven't. Act like it! Stop asking for their map. Start drawing them one. Because the difference between a vendor and a trusted advisor isn't expertise in your product. It's expertise in THEIR journey.

Line managers don’t wake up in the morning thinking about your learning and development initiatives... Instead, they’re thinking about targets, headcount gaps, performance conversations, customer issues, budgets, and the million other things that keep their world spinning. This is why, in my opinion, L&D struggles with buy-in. Not because managers don’t care about development, but because we often speak to them in “L&D language”, not in operational reality. If managers don’t see learning as a performance tool, they’ll treat it as a distraction. And that’s on us to fix. The phrases in this visual aren’t magic tricks. They’re practical prompts designed to shift the conversation so managers feel involved, not imposed on. Research backs this up, studies from CIPD and ATD consistently show that early manager involvement is one of the strongest predictors of learning transfer. Yet, most L&D teams still engage managers at the end of the process, when decisions are already made. Then we’re surprised when they resist. Another common issue: managers worry about losing control. When L&D parachutes in with a programme, it can feel like someone else is telling them how to run their team. Phrases such as: “You know your team best, what approach do you think will land?” “Would you be open to co-delivering or kicking off the session?” …give them ownership. And when people feel ownership, they support rather than sabotage. One of the biggest barriers to buy-in is fear, fear of extra work, fear of the unknown, fear of change. That’s why it’s essential to ask: “What concerns do you have about rolling this out?” You’ll surface resistance early, when you can still do something about it. And don’t underestimate the power of endorsement. Frontline teams take their cues from their managers. If a manager rolls their eyes at a programme, it’s over. If they champion it, engagement spikes. It’s that simple. So phrases like: “Your endorsement will make the biggest difference, can we count on your voice?” …send a very clear but respectful message: You matter. Your influence matters. We need you onside. L&D isn’t about content. It’s about performance. And performance improves fastest when L&D and line managers work as partners, not adversaries. Do you feel line manager involvement is important? -------------------------- Follow me at Sean McPheat for more L&D content and and then hit the 🔔 button to stay updated on my future posts. ♻️ Repost to help others in your network. 📄 Download a high-res PDF of this & 250 other infographics at: https://lnkd.in/eWPjAjV7