Here’s Our List of the Top 7 Sales Training Ideas

Need the Perfect Sales Training Idea?

Regular sales training is one of the biggest differentiators between great sales people and average ones.

Studies show that companies offering high-quality sales coaching see an average 7% increase in annual revenue growth. Plus, companies with active sales coaching programs see an impressive 28% higher win rate.

At Growth Forum, we’re big believers in the power of sales training. And in this guide, we’ll be introducing you to seven different kinds of sales training you can try to elevate your (and your team’s) performance.

Let’s get started.

Why Listen to Us?

At Growth Forum, our Sales OS program has helped 13,205 founders, sales teams, and salespeople drive predictable revenue growth for their companies. How much revenue growth exactly? Over $7.5 billion and counting.

Our proven frameworks, strategies, and tactics are backed by real-world results. But in case you’re still not convinced, we also offer a money-back guarantee. If we don’t 2X your sales in 30–60 days, we’ll work with your company (for free) until we do.

And if we can’t? You’ll get your entire investment back.

What Is Sales Training?

Sales training is an umbrella term that encompasses any effort to improve a salesperson’s or sales team’s skill set. 

This can include training on: 

• Sales techniques (e.g., cold calling)
• Product knowledge
• Buy personas
• Communication skills

…and more. 

Sales training can take a wide range of forms depending on the needs and goals of the business—from 1-on-1 coaching sessions to group workshops and seminars. Regardless, the ultimate goal is (usually) to equip salespeople with the skills and confidence necessary to close more deals and crush their quotas.

For example, at Growth Forum, we offer a range of sales training solutions for individuals and teams.

Our Sales OS program is a comprehensive course that covers everything from mindset to prospecting to closing. However, we also offer more targeted sales training tools like workshops and webinars on specific sales topics.

But more on what we do later.

Benefits of Sales Training

Increased Deal Closures

Sales training is important for increasing deal closures. HubSpot's research shows that 96% of prospects conduct their own research before engaging with a sales rep, and 71% prefer to do solo research. These stats highlight the importance of equipping reps with the skills to engage effectively with informed customers.

Improved Confidence

Sales representatives can see their performance improve by 20% after receiving sales training. This boost is a result of gaining valuable knowledge and skills during the training sessions, enabling representatives to communicate, negotiate, and close deals effectively with clients.

Better Skill and Knowledge Retention

Sales reps often struggle to retain their training, with studies showing that 84% is forgotten within just three months. However, implementing ongoing and effective training programs can help address this issue. By offering continuous learning opportunities and reinforcing key concepts, sales reps can improve their overall performance and productivity in the field.

Here Are Our Top 7 Sales Training Ideas

1. Join a Sales Program or Course

A great sales course or program is the most comprehensive sales training option out there.

These courses typically offer end-to-end training on every aspect of the sales process—from prospecting to closing the deal. They also focus on developing skills like communication, negotiation, and relationship building.

For example, our Sales OS program is a complete course designed for founders, sales managers, and salespeople looking for reliable, repeatable, and effective sales strategies. Whether you’ve just started in a new role, or you’ve been in sales for years and want to refresh your skills—our program has something for everyone.

It’s divided into four modules:

1. Building a Winning Mindset
2. Define Your Target Market
3. Power Prospecting Process
4. Managing to Close

Within each of these modules, you’ll find tons of units, lessons, strategies, playbooks, frameworks, and one-on-one coaching designed to help you put our proven Sales OS into practice at your company. 

And if you don’t 2X your sales in 30–60 days, we’ll work with you until you hit your goal.

2. Try Role Playing (Live or Virtual)

Role playing is a fun (and effective) way to practice different prospect-facing scenarios and improve your sales skills. It’s also a great way to engage team members who learn best by doing rather than just talking and listening.

Cold calling is one area where this kind of training really shines.

To run this kind of training, choose a tactic to focus on and explain it to your team. Then, pick a scenario for them to role-play. This could be a difficult objection you often face or a common sales pitch that needs improvement.

You can also use tools like Hyperbound to simulate cold calls using AI.

3. Hold a Sales Kickoff

If your sales strategy or business has changed a lot in a short period of time, you might want to think about realigning your sales team with a kickoff event. 

These events are usually half motivation and alignment and half practical training. Leaders and managers will introduce new goals and strategies, while also providing hands-on training or workshops to help team members improve their skills.

Not sure where to start?

Growth Forum can help you put together a sales kickoff meeting that inspires, motivates—and most importantly—educated your team. We’ll supply expert speakers who can address your specific goals and challenges, as well as introduce powerful techniques, strategies, and tools.

4. Hold an Intensive Workshop

Intensive sales workshops are similar to kickoff meetings in that they’re aiming to equip you and our team with new skills. That said, the focus with this type of training is much more practical—you’ll usually focus on one or two core skills and spend several hours working on them in a hands-on environment.

Possible sales workshop topics might include:

• Effective cold calling techniques
• Building rapport with clients
• Negotiation strategies and tactics
• Social media selling tactics
• Time management for sales professionals

At Growth Forum, our sales workshops are half-day events—long enough to dive deeply into a topic, but short enough to fit into your busy schedule. Our workshops are also highly interactive, allowing you to practice and refine your skills in real-time with the guidance of our expert trainers.

5. Train Your Team on New (or Existing) Tech

Tech can be a major sales enabler—but without training, it can also be a major hindrance. 

Make sure you’re up-to-date on the latest tools and technologies that are relevant to your team. If you think a tool might be helpful, learn how to use it yourself, put together a trial team, and train them on the basics.

You should also regularly audit existing tools to see whether they’re being used effectively. If not, consider running targeted workshops that cover important skills and processes within the tool.

6. Subscribe to Newsletters and Podcasts

Not all sales training activities need to be active—passive learning through reading, listening, and watching is a great, flexible way to supplement your training.

We recommend checking out the wide range of sales-focused podcasts, newsletters, YouTube channels, and blogs out there and subscribing to content that speaks to you. At Growth Forum, we create content across a range of mediums, including:

• Blog posts (like this one!)
• Our How to Sell newsletter
• Our How to Sell podcast

You can also check out podcast clips on YouTube if that’s your preference.

All our content is designed to be actionable, and packed with real-world tactics and strategies that you can apply to your selling processes.

7. Try a Customer Feedback Session

In the course of a sales cycle, it’s not uncommon to pick up bits of customer feedback. This becomes much more common if you actively seek it out—which you definitely should be doing. At regular intervals, it can be useful to analyze customer feedback (either together as a team or on your own) to look for patterns.

There are all kinds of directions to take this kind of training.

For example, if you’re doing a team analysis and one sales person is getting consistent praise for their follow-up skills, you can have them lead a training on that topic for the rest of the team. If you notice that pricing is an objection that comes up frequently, you can work on strategies for handling it.

Conclusion

Sales training is key if you want to expand your skill set and reliably crush your quotas each month.

There isn’t one way to go about it, but there are certain types of sales training that are especially effective. At Growth Forum, our Sales OS program offers founders and sales teams a comprehensive training in all areas of sales—from mindset to closing deals. 

Plus, we offer intensive workshops, sales kickoff meetings, and speaking engagements to help reinforce the skills learned in our program.

Book a free strategy call with us and take the first step towards doubling your sales.