Sales Agility 101: Guiding Your Sales Team to Rapid Product Knowledge

Strategies to Keep Your Sales Teams Informed

1. Hold Regular Product Training Sessions

Instituting regular product training sessions is fundamental. These sessions should not merely be a review of product features but also a forum for discussing customer feedback, competitive positioning, and successful sales tactics.

2. Create Streamlined Communication Channels

With information coming from multiple sources, it is crucial to establish clear, streamlined communication channels. A central repository for product updates, FAQs, and related collateral can ensure that sales representatives have a single source of truth to refer to.

3. Use Interactive Learning Tools

Leveraging interactive learning tools can increase engagement and retention of information. Quizzes, flashcards, and gamified elements can make learning about product updates more engaging for sales teams.

4. Peer Learning and Knowledge Sharing

Creating an environment that encourages peer-to-peer learning can be highly effective, especially when it includes opportunities like data science courses. Sales professionals often learn best from their colleagues experiences and insights, and this can be facilitated through regular knowledge-sharing sessions, collaborative platforms, and by incorporating relevant data science courses that enhance their analytical skills and decision-making abilities.

5. Establish a Continuous Feedback Loop

A feedback loop between the sales team and the product development team can help sales professionals understand customer reactions and product reception in real-time, allowing for more relevant and timely sales strategies.

Supporting Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing

To implement these strategies effectively, companies need innovative solutions to support continuous learning and knowledge transfer – day in day out, week on week.

An example of an organization that has done this really well is a marketing insights organization where their sales senior leader was overrun with onboarding new sales reps, unable to get his work done and simply being a walking FAQ.

Getting sales reps up to speed with and selling their complex product was nothing short of a nightmare not only for revenue, but also for the satisfaction of new sales reps who were chomping at the bit to get started. 

Using Hive Learning’s products, their sales teams are able to access sales information on the go, at the point of need via their mobiles as well as providing a collaborative space where team members can share product knowledge gaps and difficulties with objections. As a result, new sales reps are selling 6 weeks quicker than before which has contributed to a 30% increase in company sales.

Adopting such products could lead to a sales force that is not just informed but also equipped to connect products to customer needs effectively – after all, as it currently stands 58% of buyers state that sales reps aren’t able to adequately answer their questions. This is essential for not just maintaining but also growing the client base and securing a strong market position.