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A Quick Guide to Using Videos for Sales Training Success

June 01, 2023
  • 1,104
  • 8 min

Every business needs a sales training program that’s dynamic, engaging, and effective. Such training would breathe life into traditional training methods, making them more interactive and enjoyable for your sales team. 

This is where the internal training videos come in. It opens avenues to demonstrate complex selling techniques that would be difficult to convey through dull text. Your business can adapt videos for sales training to easily understand complex concepts through visual storytelling and real-world examples.

This post will cover key aspects of leveraging videos for successful sales training.

Let’s begin!

Understanding the benefits of video for sales training

The fast-paced digital world is witnessing the rise of videos for all purposes — entertainment, education, e-learning, and even professional training. As a dynamic and interactive medium, it reshapes how businesses train their sales team and infuses skills for success.

Visual learners (around 65% of people) can grasp concepts better when presented in a visual format, while auditory learners (making up around 30% of people) benefit from hearing the information delivered through dialogue. Such an audio-visual learning experience can inspire the team to understand the learning context that helps them professionally.

Key benefits of using videos for sales training:

  1. Engagement and retention: Video content is more engaging and easier to remember than text-based content since it holds the viewer’s attention and enhances learning retention. One study found that individuals retained 65% of visual information three days later, compared to only 10% of auditory information.
  2. Consistency: Videos ensure uniformity in training content that remains consistent across different offices (geographically). Every employee receives the same message, eliminating discrepancies that can occur in live training.
  3. Convenience and flexibility: Videos can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This allows employees to learn independently, repeat sections as needed, and fit learning into their timetables.
  4. Cost-effective: Videos, once produced, can be reused for numerous training sessions without additional cost, making them a cost-effective training solution for businesses.
  5. Simulates real-life scenarios: Videos can simulate real-life scenarios, providing a practical perspective on sales strategies and techniques.

Choosing the right video content for sales training purposes

Once you decide to proceed with the video content for sales training, think of the exemplary content that adds value. Consider the goal behind such training, and plan the content you’d need to create accordingly.

For instance, introducing a new product would mean creating product demos and explainer videos. Improving your sales team’s negotiation would require training videos emphasizing role-playing scenarios.

Another important factor includes the audience understanding. Consider your team’s experience level, learning styles, and technological familiarity that help choose the appropriate complexity of video content. Understanding their needs and challenges helps identify easily comprehended content.

Tips for creating effective sales training videos

Training your sales team requires designing videos that engage and inspire them. For example, if your business is launching a new product, rolling out a new subscription plan, or widening the audience reach, the team would need videos that effectively educate on each area. In such cases, you may need to train them about product updates, subscription pricing, and customer profile for newly targeted geographic areas.

Instead of creating monologues, or sales training videos, opt for interactive ones driving inclusiveness and demand active participation to enhance the abilities of your sales staff.

Here are the key tips that can help you create top-notch sales training videos:

Keep it brief and captivating: The fast-paced world and dwindling attention spans require a gripping video that holds the team’s attention. Keep your videos short, focused on a 5-10 minute span per subject, coupled with captivating visuals, animations, and practical examples to keep their interest.

Have a microlearning approach: Break down sales training into small, manageable modules for easy understanding, focusing on a specific topic or skill. Such a micro-learning approach opens ways for flexible learning. Microlearning modules can benefit from short videos strategically teaching a particular sales technique or idea.

For instance, you may use short videos (from two to three minutes) to teach fundamentals of sales like:

  • How to build relationships with potential clients
  • The art of making the last sale
  • When and how to introduce yourself to potential clients
  • Tips and tricks to identify potential customers and know when to pursue them
  • What to do when a transaction has been made

Adhere to one theme per video: Ensure each video focuses on a specific topic or skill to prevent information overload. This tactic also provides simple reference points when a team member wishes to return to a particular topic.

Include tasks following particular instructions: Instead of waiting until the end of training to assess trainees’ grasp, incorporate constructive assessment tasks. Here, include the surprise quiz to captivate the interests of salespeople that help them focus on training lessons. Conduct tests like fill-in-the-blank quizzes, case study solutions, pairing customers with related customers, etc.

Best practices for implementing video-based sales training programs

Implementing a video-based sales training program can effectively educate your sales team by leveraging flexibility, scalability, and higher engagement.

But first, integrate your video training into your Learning Management System (LMS) if you have one. This can simplify tracking progress, managing sales training resources, and keeping a tap on the team’s grasp of knowledge. 

A clear training path should define which videos should be watched and in what order to guide your team through the training process. 

Begin with clear objectives: A clear outline with specific objectives for each video is a must before creating the training content. Begin with identifying skills you want your team to acquire or improve, current challenges in the sales process, and anything that directly connects to sales goals.

Customize training for sales roles: Each role within the sales team may need different skills and knowledge. Therefore, customize training videos to the specific needs of these different roles. For instance, a sales representative’s training program should differ from a sales manager’s one.

Use LMS: An LMS for video-based sales training can help deliver, track, and manage your training program. It may have features like progress tracking, reporting, certifications, incorporating interactive elements like quizzes and discussions, etc.

Seek feedback: Encourage the team to provide feedback on the training videos to identify areas for improvement. This ensures that the training program continues to meet the team’s needs, or you need to change the approach for upcoming sessions.

Ensure consistent reinforcement: Keep the video-based training from becoming a one-time activity. Instead, create opportunities for your sales team to revisit the video content for reinforcement. This aids in strengthening the concepts and skills they’ve learned while being able to revisit the same when they are approaching or closing a lead.

Measuring the Success of Video-Based Sales Training

No matter the type of training, measuring its success requires setting key performance indicators (KPIs) like the sales cycle length, lead closure rate, etc., to gauge efficacy. Ensure monitoring these KPIs to assess the effectiveness of your training and make necessary adjustments to create an impact.

Apart from training’s impact on KPIs, there are other aspects to measure its success.

Pre- and post-training assessments: Measure your trainees’ knowledge before and after the training. You can do this through quizzes, practice tests, or interviews wherein effective training will display a significant increase in knowledge afterward.

Performance reviews: Evaluate the team’s performance to identify who benefited most from the sales training. A successful training implementation will boost performance metrics like increased sales, higher conversion rates, or reduced sales cycle length.

Sales win rate percentage: Sales win-rate percentage, calculated by dividing closed deals by total pipeline deals, gauges the effectiveness of sales training. Rising win rates signify improved reps and successful training, challenging the myth that success in sales is solely a numbers game. Instead, it showcases the importance of skill enhancement over mere hard work.

Retention rate: Gauge how much of the information presented in the training is retained by the trainees. Usually, this means running quizzes or tests after a certain period following the training.

Return on Investment (ROI): Calculate the monetary impact of the video-based sales training by comparing the cost of the training (production, delivery, and time spent) against the gains in sales performance.

Wrapping up

Video-based sales training promotes knowledge retention, enables standardized training, and efficiently presents different content types that promote continuous learning for sales teams. However, the success of video training hinges on its quality and alignment with learning objectives that drive home the required outputs and results. 

Maintaining relevance, clarity, and engagement in your videos is necessary to gather feedback to help identify and enhance training effectiveness. With suitable strategies, such training can significantly improve team performance and business success.

 

About Author – 

Hazel Raoult is a freelance marketing writer at PRmention with over 6 years of experience. She has written extensively about business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and SaaS (Software as a Service). Hazel is passionate about helping businesses communicate their message effectively, and she is always looking for new ways to use her writing skills to make a difference. In her spare time, Hazel enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and traveling.

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