Overcoming Upskilling and Development Challenges With Virtual Sales Training

The future of work is evolving quickly. As technology continues to intensify the timelines in which skill sets must change, organizations and their teams must learn how to navigate these ever-shifting professional needs expertly. With the ubiquitous adoption of efficiency-based tech like AI and geography-widening platforms that encourage remote work, organizations that choose to enhance their workers’ skill sets are set to succeed as their industries adapt.

In fact, according to Mercer, 98% of companies surveyed in 2023 have significant skills shortages. This should ignite an upskilling and reskilling revolution among organizations; however, not all organizations find this approach necessary.

In a recent edX survey of more than 800 C-suite executives and 800 employees, “51 percent of the executives surveyed said their companies’ existing L&D programs feel like a ‘waste of time.’” That same study found that 84 percent of employees expected their employer to provide sales training and education necessary to stay up-to-date with changing skill sets in their industry.

With such a sharp divide in worker expectations and leadership’s perception of program efficacy, a crucial solution is to utilize sales training and professional education that is not only scalable but also where results are measurable and trackable. Let’s explore some of the challenges that sales teams face and ways through which online video training platforms can act as catalysts for improvement.

Sales training challenges and solutions

Organizations face a few key challenges in maintaining high-quality sales teams—recruiting top talent, training at scale, customizing training for specific sales needs, and measuring training’s impact. Finding solutions to these obstacles can unlock next-level performance for organizations.

Recruiting top talent

Great teams require capable, engaged, motivated workers. Identifying potential sales team members with the appropriate experience can be challenging, especially for organizations that operate in a particular niche industry or are limiting the geographic confines of their talent pool.

A helpful tool that has allowed organizations to circumnavigate this obstacle has been the rise of remote and hybrid work environments. By opening your recruiting process up beyond your immediate zip code, the ability to identify more potential sales team members with the prerequisite culmination of experiences is immediately boosted. In addition to the increase of video web conferencing tools designed for professional use, virtual sales training platforms have also made onboarding and training new team members much more accessible.

Sales training at scale

Not only do those online video training platforms provide a method by which your organization can onboard new sales team members, but the best virtual sales training platforms allow you to offer training at scale. This enhancement means you can deliver the top-quality sales training your team members have thrived on in an efficient, easily expandable way. As your sales team succeeds, it can grow without compromising on the caliber of onboarding or ongoing training.

This isn’t a new concept. Over a decade ago, in 2012, Harvard Business Review noted the importance of “training new hires in a consistent, measurable way” in its article for building a scalable sales team.

Customizing sales training for specific needs

Developing top-notch sales training programs at scale is essential for the ongoing growth of your organization; however, as your team grows, there’s an increased likelihood that sub-teams will form to work on more targeted campaigns. This is where the true impact of a purposefully built online video training platform can be seen.

The capability to properly organize and present on relevant training videos, recorded practice call audio files, product one-sheeters, sales scripts, SWOT analyses, and more for your organization means each team member has appropriate access to what they need without the confusion of pulling another team’s information.

Measuring the impact of your sales training

Simply offering virtual sales training is only a surface-level approach. Accurate, reliable data takes your team’s performance to the next level in two significant ways—and the best online video training platforms leverage these vast troves of analytical insights.

First, the ability to audit your own sales training programs is crucial to fine-tuning its efficacy. With industry-leading virtual sales training platforms, not only can you see who’s attending sessions, but you can also see where their engagement spikes or drops off. During synchronous virtual training sessions, participants can even deliver real-time feedback to the instructor to speed up or slow down through functionality only the instructor can view. Understanding which parts of your training are statistically having the highest and lowest impact can allow your team to continue tweaking for maximum results.

Second, correlating the utilization of virtual training sessions and files to overall team member performance can allow organizations to see the actual value of their commitment to sales training. In the edX survey noted above, over half of the leaders surveyed believed their existing learning and development programs to be a waste of time. With real-time analytical insights, those same leaders could measure just how valuable those upskilling and reskilling efforts are for the organization.

Next-level impact, no matter the location

Often, virtual sales training platforms are seen only to be relevant for team members working remotely; however, as shown above, the ability to measure engagement and impact alone makes this a viable tool for any team, regardless of where workers report to work. Additionally, the scalability these platforms provide means never having to compromise on the quality or uniformity of your sales training experience—especially knowing that top-end online video training platforms offer not only scalability but customization as well.

Are you ready to explore the measurable impact an online video training platform could have for your organization? Talk to a Class team member today, and let’s take your organization’s upskilling and reskilling process to the next level.