Virtual Training With A Human Touch: Training Your Sales Reps Right

It’s not a secret that technology has affected all learning, including in sales. As we move towards a more distance learning platform we’re starting to replace the human element, something that is felt negatively in sales specifically.

Sales is a face-to-face game, whether it be via Skype, another platform or an actual face-to-face conversation with a customer. As you move into deeper relationships with clients human interaction becomes vital. This cannot be replicated in a technology environment. Though technology can become a powerful tool when reinforcing skill sets, it’s hard to use it to teach them for the simple reason that it eliminates feedback. Rehearsing things like how to deal with customer objections is much more effective in a classroom setting, where important feedback can be shared easily. These instances of experiential learning are critical in developing successful sales reps and are almost impossible to replicate within distance learning.

Online training is great for some things: product or service information, safety procedures, HR policies, these are all areas where we’ll see technology grow. But, when it comes to things like leadership and sales (areas that involve lots of human interaction), we see technology being good for reinforcement not initial training. Individuals should learn and practice the skills in a classroom setting, then implement them as a part of the cultural transformation that the company embeds into the organization. Though training is important, the transformation is critical; this is where technology/distance learning continues to prove beneficial.

While sales is going to continue to transform over time, the human element of sales isn’t going anywhere and will actually become more important over time. It is here where the creation of value will happen, not on the technology side. People don’t want knowledge, they want insight and to get that, salespeople need to become an information resources to clients, not a database.