Your Sales Training Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It.

Humble. Helpful. Empathetic. Active listener. Customer-oriented. Flexible. Solutions-focused. Knowledgeable. Authentic.

When you hear these characteristics, who do you think of?

I think of a star salesperson.

You might disagree, and that's okay. Representations of salespeople in popular culture (and frankly, the personality profile we've been taught to associate with a "typical" salesperson) haven't always fit this mold.

是时候进行心理重置了。最好的销售人员有always成为主题专家，将客户放在首位，并以其真实的自我领导。但是，今天，买家对我们的信任比以往任何时候都比以往任何时候都更加激烈，而且这些特征不再将最好的销售人员与仅仅是好的销售人员区分开来。这些是您的销售团队生存所需的技能。

If you want to develop a more effective salesperson, start with how your organization coaches and trains them.

Mini-Me的问题：非典型职业的指导课程

从个人销售人员到销售经理的过渡中存在独特的紧张，这可能导致无效的教练。我经常与思考的新销售经理合作“如果这些策略和脚本对我有用，它们将为我的团队工作。”In effect, the manager aims to create a team of mini-me's who will sell and act the way they do.

63% of reps have difficulty changing their methods once they find a system that works for them.

Sometimes, this works. But if this is your management philosophy, I'd bet your team is performing below their full potential.

十年前，当我第一次开始在HubSpot工作时，我自己经历了这种紧张局势。

I didn't always want to go into sales. I enrolled at Harvard Business School after spending a few years in finance. On my third day, one of my professors said something that lit a fire: Most Harvard MBAs don't know how to sell. They might build a brilliant product, but they're clueless about how to promote it and demonstrate value to potential buyers.

这个概括包括我。除了没有销售经验外，我还是您的典型性格内向。我以为如果我想在职业生涯中取得成功，我需要改变自己的个性，以更接近外向的理想：直言不讳。这种转变的一部分意味着学习如何出售。

I interviewed for an account executive position at HubSpot and bombed it. HubSpot told me it was a "no."

我通过电子邮件发送了销售副总裁，并告诉他我不同意他不雇用我的决定。我什至愿意为佣金工作三个月，以证明我可以学会卖得很好。

后来，我了解到我处理这种异议的方式表现出了销售潜力。即使我的行为或听起来不像2009年的典型Hubspot销售人员，管理团队认为我很聪明，可以教练，并且可以增加价值。最重要的是，他们知道我致力于学习。我在里面。

My excitement didn't last long. On Day 1, I was rejected more than I'd been in my entire life. I sounded terrified on the phone.

我的第一位经理是经典的性格外向的人，他花了数十年的时间在销售上，试图为我提供特定的线条和音调供电。他很快意识到我没有通过模仿他看到结果，所以他枢转。他为我设置了成功的销售人员，他们比我更像我，所以我可以遮蔽并观察它们。

最终，我找到了我自己的全部风格mystrengths: empathy, listening, and problem-solving. All I had to do to be successful was guide prospects through how to improve their marketing efforts. I wove solution selling into my process starting with the first connect call.

It was a rough start, but within three years I'd been promoted to a sales manager. Today, I'm the vice president of our Global Agency Partner Program. What I assumed would be a six-month gig turned into a 10-year career.

My journey in sales was anything but typical, but I learned three crucial lessons along the way:

1.不再有典型的销售人员。

几十年前，销售人员是信息的守门人。前景有与您交谈以了解产品或服务，因为没有独立研究的机制。选择的买家被认为是首先伸出援手的人，将异议分解最快，并让他们在虚线上签名。个人关系可能会达成或打破交易。

今天，这与事实相距甚远。买家独立研究自己的问题和潜在解决方案。产品比以往任何时候都更具复制性，并且买家通常拥有数十个供应商选项（即使不是数百个）。人际关系和信任与以往一样重要，但它们并不是建立在浅滩的基础上。买家正在寻找他们可以信任的业务顾问，为他们的独特情况制定独特的解决方案。

销售人员已经不再是看门人了 - 没有我们，销售流程可能会在很大程度上发生，我们需要在确保我们的潜在客户选择我们而不是竞争对手的过程中增加独特的价值。

The profile of a "good salesperson" has evolved. Changes in buying behavior have shifted the center of gravity in the sales process from personality to trust-building, opening the door for historically atypical personas (like me) to have amazing sales careers.

This doesn't mean people who do look like the historical sales persona can't be successful in 2019 — but they need to build new muscles and layer a customer-first mentality on top of their existing skill set. Nor does this mean we should startonly雇用内向或商学院的毕业生。

However, itistime to acknowledge that the idea of a "typical salesperson" is dead.

2. The best sales coaching is individualized.

销售量managers who try to create teams of mini-me's will be successful … to a certain extent.Some指导总比没有好，剧本是任何有效销售过程的关键部分。但这还不够。

Hubspot的销售支持和生产力副总裁Andrew Quinn说：“销售经理就像专业体育教练一样。”“他们可能不是最好的球员，甚至没有参加职业运动，但他们在教练专业运动员方面表现出色。最好的销售经理可能不是最好的代表，但是他们知道如何指导他们的团队以获得成绩。”

Truly effective management is about individualized attention, helping someone find their voice, and teaching them how to think about the business problems your company addresses.

There is no effective one-size-fits-all coaching model that accomplishes these goals — I'm living proof of that.

It's worth pointing out that this mini-me mindset has likely contributed to the negative perception consumers have of salespeople.只有5％的前景认为销售人员是值得信赖的, and many buyers find it difficult to建立个人联系与代表。为什么？我敢打赌是因为我们很多人都在努力像我们不是一个人一样行事，而买家可以通过它看到。

Source:HubSpot Research

We need to take a cue from our buyers. Every sales process looks different — buyers vary in sophistication, where they are in the sales lifecycle, the goals they're trying to achieve, and problems they're trying to overcome. With so many variables at play, it's difficult to be effective through rote memorization and following sales scripts. Instead, managers should tailor their advice to the selling motions a salesperson is struggling with, in a way that leans into the salesperson's strengths.

3.建立信任时，真实性的重要性远不止外向。

The best salespeople lead with their authentic selves. When I started out in sales, I got fairly basic advice for building rapport — identify commonalities, mirror a prospect's tone and language, and create familiarity through small talk.

如果这是您与人建立联系的真正方式，那么这些策略可能会有效。但是，如果他们不是自然而然的，那将是显而易见的。今天的买家很精明，当他们觉得您不真实地展示自己的那一刻，他们就会开始怀疑您的其余建议。更重要的是，他们将不太愿意向没有真正的伴侣透露自己的问题，痛点和目标。

How to Develop a Coaching Strategy

At a high level, there are two ways for managers to teach their teams:训练by example and by inquiry.

Training by example是经典的教练技术。经理展示了代表成功的录音，脚本和技术，以便他们应用其工作。这是有效的，只要经理提供对代表销售风格的真实示例。

Training by inquiryis more personal. Managers recognize that reps are able to independently solve a problem, so instead of concrete examples, they provide guidance based on the rep's selling style.

Content-wise, sales organization should invest in three types of training: Systems and operations, process, and solution.

1.系统和操作

系统和操作培训通常在新员工培训和入职中涵盖。销售人员是否在他们的CRM上设置？他们是否可以访问正确的潜在客户视图和报告仪表板？他们是否了解您的销售堆栈的不同部分如何一起工作，以及每个工具都能使用什么功能？他们是否了解每个工具提供的哪种类型上下文，如何访问它以及如何在呼叫上利用它？

这种类型的培训建立了销售人员需要完成工作的最低能力标准。将操作培训视为在新员工可以到他们的桌子上，打开笔记本电脑并了解如何度过一天之前的所有事情。

2. Process

销售量people need two types of process training: a qualification process to determine who's worth moving through the sales process and an array of sales methodologies to apply to calls in real time.

资格

资格培训指导销售人员如何prospect and qualify good-fit buyers. Who are your most successful customers, and what do they have in common? What problems are they typically trying to solve? Just as important — what red flags should salespeople be on the lookout for? Who is your anti-persona?

This process is unique to each business and typically can't be replicated from company to company. Root this training in real data and results, keeping an eye on churn, retention, and customer success. Work with your customer support and service teams to understand where customers stumble and succeed and how to control for this in the buying process.

销售量Methodologies

销售方法是使销售人员能够建立技能并提高其在销售过程不同部分的效力的框架。它们是产品不足的，适用于广泛的销售情况。通常，它们将其品牌和出售为培训套餐，书籍等。

You're likely already familiar with many well-known and widely-used methodologies, including SPIN, Challenger, and Sandler — you can read more about the most common sales methodologieshere。

3. Solution

Just as good-fit training teaches salespeople how to identify good-fit buyers, solution training focuses on how to handle different types of buyer problems they'll face on calls. Solution training has two parts: Product training and solution training.

Product training gets your team up to speed on what they're actually selling. Salespeople should be soup-to-nuts experts in their company's products and services — this is the bare minimum.

解决方案培训使该产品知识更进一步。您的买家面临哪些常见问题？您如何与买家合作制定战略以实现目标？解决方案培训可以像为您的团队提供竞争性交易的战斗卡一样具体，或者与教授业务敏锐度和积极的听力技巧一样广泛，因此销售人员拥有有效的对话所需的工具。

Coaching Mechanisms

最后，一个关于如何this training gets delivered.

Just as training is not a one-size-fits-all process, the medium you choose for training will deeply affect the outcome. Use a blend of one-to-one, one-to-many, and peer-to-peer coaching depending on what the scenario requires.

一对一的教练通常发生在经理和他们的直接报告之间，它分为两个桶：管道评论和个性化的教练。一对多的教练最适合基线培训（例如产品功能的季度更新）或诸如呼叫评论之类的练习，其中团队聚集在一起为一名销售人员提供反馈和建议。最后，对等教练是销售人员的宝贵，通常是非正式的渠道，可以从当地人那里获得其他人的帮助。

Source:HubSpot Research

HubSpot如何更好地训练

在HubSpot，教练首先要确定传入代表的知识，技能差距和创建增长计划。

Quinn将新的销售代表的原始技能分为三个水库：知识，技能和意志。

"Every individual has a mix of those three things, and that's going to shape the way I engage with them based on where those levels are from empty to full," says Quinn.

Our customers feel the same way.

Pamela Firestone，销售主管Skift说,“教练的目的是开发萨尔es talent to meet their goals, but also develop them into independent thinkers who can continue to grow and take on more responsibility."

Internally, we invest in a wide array of销售培训that fall into the three buckets above. This training is part mandatory, part informal, and partially driven by the individual salesperson (versus mandated by HubSpot). We believe in allowing people to learn in the way that works best for them, so we also use many different mechanisms to deliver this coaching.

1. Operations

所有新的HubSpotter都参加了所有销售员工的标准入职范围。然后，根据角色和细分市场，我们提供了另外两到四个星期的销售会议。这些培训涵盖了如何导航HubSpot CRM，访问引线，创建模板和序列等等。定期，当我们更新销售堆栈时，我们将运行新的团队范围内的培训，但在大部分情况下，在入职期间涵盖了运营培训。

2. Process

过程培训是在HubSpot不断进行的，并且某些部分被用作晋升的标准，因为雇用了从业务发展代表到配额的销售人员的进展。

在新的雇用培训中，我们要求所有销售员工扮演买家的角色，并使用HubSpot产品来创建和发展企业的在线业务。这项工作是正式提出的，并通过记分卡进行了评分。还对HubSpot的资格框架，角色等进行了广泛的培训。

To be promoted from BDR to salesperson, candidates go through multiple one-to-one certifications with a hiring manager. They must demonstrate mastery of their day-to-day process, provide recorded connect calls for review, and role play a mock discovery call. To standardize the process, we use scorecards to evaluate each of these conversations.

3. Solution

Solution training is a combination of formal and informal training.

During the first two weeks of new hire training, salespeople learn to use HubSpot. Then, new sales hires are required to pass methodology and product-specific certifications onHubSpot Academy。Our sales enablement and training teams regularly produce team-wide certifications or trainings as we add to the HubSpot product.

在非正式的情况下，管理人员会加深对特定销售动议的培训，例如制作有效的电子邮件，积极的聆听和谈判。我们的一些细分市场以正式的节奏进行了此培训，而另一些则使用团队会议或致电评论。

Creating a Collaborative Culture

Culture is one of those vague concepts that has concrete implications for how well your sales team operates.

Creating an open culture where knowledge sharing is the norm is one of the best investments you can make in creating a virtuous cycle of continuous learning.

One way we do this is providing mentors for anyone new to their role, even if they're not new to HubSpot. Typically top performers, sales mentors join a new rep's calls and act as a safety net to help answer specific questions. Mentors step back over time as mentees become more independent, but this is an effective way to build peer relationships and encourage knowledge sharing.

Source:HubSpot Research

We also employ "ding notes": emails that are sent to the entire sales team for every deal that gets closed. The email includes information on the buyer and the process of closing the deal. Not only is this a great way to celebrate wins — the dozens of replies you get after "dinging" your first deal are a treasured HubSpot rite of passage — it's also a source of invaluable information the entire team can learn from.

Michael Swope, Chief Business Officer atHomeSmart，还鼓励他的代表公开分享他们的成功。Swope说：“我们的代表每周打电话，他们在上周分享最佳实践，工具和成功。”

那些无法像对待个人一样对待代表并培养其独特才能的经理创造了不太可能表演的团队。指导代表真正出售，将导致他们更多地倾听，建立更好的关系并专注于客户的需求。

While coaching, you may discover that there's a gap between who your sales team is and who your prospects are. Next week, we'll be talking about bridging this divide throughhiring in sales。