What is Good Sales Training? (and why does it matter?)

What is Good Sales Training? (and why does it matter?)

Selling is vital to our businesses and economy, yet why is basic education in this skill so lacking? As a top sales training company, Scorecard Sales asks: how many salespeople went to college to study selling? This skill set drives everything—not only our revenue but how we influence one another. Investing in professional sales coaching is the only way to master these foundational selling skills that are often ignored in traditional education.

Selling, in its primal form, is persuading others to agree with your wants, needs, and ideas. Even in the context of poor results, we resist making an investment in training. We avoid professional sales coaching because we are afraid of new things or ashamed of the “salesperson” label. We accept achieving less than we are capable of simply to avoid the work.

Sales, speaking purely academically, is not that complicated. It’s like basic math. No matter how a teacher tries to “debunk old methods,” the concepts do not change. Professional sales coaching should focus on the fact that closing the deal will always be closing the deal.

An educational blueprint for a sales training curriculum showing the progression from foundational modules to advanced selling techniques

What is Good Sales Training?

Good training should always be simple. You need an effective instructor teaching foundational selling skills through digestible concepts and proper exercises. All professional sales coaching should have homework and quizzes; not just certificates and acronyms. You need a trainer who covers the process in its entirety: from prospecting and presenting all the way through closing.

Good training involves drills. When the foundational selling skills are learned, we need to put them to practice through rehearsal and role-playing. This rehearsal is ongoing; it is not something completed in a week. Once you are in the field, putting your professional sales coaching into practice, role-playing stays relevant as a “Sales Pop Quiz.”

Sales is the most crucial component to any business. It is frightening to see how under-invested companies are in their team’s development. How much value do you put into your training? Or have you been leaving your foundational selling skills mostly to chance?