In this blog post, we will discuss how to train your inbound sales team. We will cover what inbound sales is, the benefits of inbound sales, and how to get started on Inbound sales training for your team in a productive manner.
What is inbound sales?
Inbound sales is a sales methodology in which sales representatives focus on providing solutions to customers, rather than simply trying to close a deal. Inbound sales teams work to attract customers through targeted content and engage them with personalized communications. By aligning sales and marketing efforts, inbound sales teams can create a seamless experience for prospects and customers alike.
There are many benefits to Inbound sales training because it can lead to a stronger sales culture, including:
Imagine you have just launched your new business and have brought in a sales team of 5 experienced and junior sales representatives. You are facing issues with your new sales and can’t really decipher where you should put your focus on. You might be telling your old friend who runs a business consulting firm the below:
“I manage a sales team that is not using standard Inbound methods. This means that our sales are suffering and we’re not reaching our potential customers. I’ve tried to get the team trained as one unit, but it’s been difficult. The team members don’t have the same skillsets and they’re not connecting with potential customers on a personal level. This is frustrating because I know we could be doing so much better. I’m going to keep trying to get the team trained, but it’s going to be a challenge. Where do I start with my Inbound sales training?”
This is a problem that not only you might have, but many other new and seasoned business owners are facing. Let’s find out how we can tackle this issue.
How to get started with Inbound Sales Training for your team
If you’re interested in training your inbound sales team, there are a few things you should keep in mind. You have to first set up your company to be successful in Inbound. That means, first, it’s important to align your sales and marketing efforts. Creating cohesive messaging and consistent branding across all channels is vital. Next, you’ll need to create targeted content that will attract your ideal customer. Finally, you’ll need to engage your prospects with personalized communications. By following these steps, you’ll be on your way to creating an Inbound environment.
Only now you can properly train your sales team for Inbound. In the rest of this post, we will recommend the top 4 ways to improve and train your sales team with Inbound. These are:
- Make training a part of your daily conversations
- Get your team trained with certification courses online
- Use Sales tools and mobiles apps for better engagement
- Get training done in-house by a professionals Inbound Training Provider
1- Make training a part of your daily conversations
The most transformative change your sales team can experience is when they learn and apply inbound marketing.
Find out what part of your inbound lead generation sales cycle your team needs to improve through interactive activities with real examples. There are a number of interactive activities that can help you identify which part of your inbound lead generation sales cycle your team needs to improve and where they need to be trained the most. Here are a few examples:
By doing these activities, you can get a better understanding of where your team needs to improve in order to close more deals.
Another way to get your team in the right inbound training mindset is to get inbound into your daily conversations. For instance, review the quiz below and bring up parts of it in your next team gathering or lunch hour. This will spark interest and open up new ideas. Click on the image below, download the zip file and you will find an Excel sheet with the quiz:
2- Get your team trained with certification courses online
A more direct way to get your staff trained and their skill sets updated is through online certification courses. There are several providers and organizations who you can connect with to take part in their online courses. As a leader in the field of Inbound, HubSpot has and will always provide comprehensive online courses available to anyone interested, whether you are already using HubSpot software or not.
HubSpot has several amazing courses in the HubSpot academy for your sales staff whether just beginners or seasoned professionals. A few of courses are as follow:
(LINK Inbound, Inbound Sales, Inbound Sales Software)
3- Use Sales tools and mobiles apps for better engagement
Companies need to invest in Sales training for their employees. It is essential for motivating the sales staff and to boost the performance of the sales team.
It is important for companies to educate their sales staff about digital tools available on the market to help them achieve better results. Mobile apps and software can provide this training both through educational content and through a digital mock-up of an organization’s processes.
Inbound Sales training is a valuable use of the Sales tools which helps to keep the sales team up-to-date with the latest sales techniques and approaches.
Though Sales teams can avail this kind of training from different companies, they can also leverage mobile apps that benefit them in their work. Find a list of some of the top apps used by sales reps and managers below:
Best Mobile Apps For Sales Reps
It’s a Sales Rep Communication Software
- SLACK:
It’s a beneficial and reliable app to increase communication seamlessly with your team/colleagues through its handy chat app.
- SPOTIO:
SPOTIO is a full sales engagement solution with a range of capabilities like appointment scheduling, customer mapping, sales rep tracking, CRM integrations, and custom reporting. It removes the need to manually track tasks.
- EVERNOTE:
A world favorite note taking app, Evernote is an all-in-one note taking solution with applications available on all different mobile and desktop platforms. With its seamless integrations on browsers and devices plus sharing capabilities you can’t go ever go wrong with Evernote.
Available for iOS/Android
- KEYNOTE:
Mac and iPhone users all around the world have been presenting powerful and professional presentations for years with the popular PowerPoint equivalent for the Apple environment. Beautiful design and user friendly interface are key features of Keynote.
Available for iOS/MacOSBest Prospecting Apps For Sales Reps
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn is a user friendly prospecting app through which you can find the right prospects and build successful business relationships with them.
Bear in mind that its always best to take a look at the person’s LinkedIn profile before walk into the meeting with him/her.
It’s just going to take seconds, so there’s no excuse.
- Hunter.io
Do you need your prospect’s email address? By knowing his/her first name, last name, or even the company website you can benefit from Hunter. Hunter (Web App) is an email verification tool which can search more than 50,000 domains on record and verifies any of them.
- BuiltWith
BuiltWith (Web App) is a website scanning tool that lists all of the technology that powers a website. BuiltWith can help a sales rep gain a better understanding of their prospect’s needs and determine how their product can meet their needs. Not to mention if you are building plugins or integrations for a specific technology, you can find your prospects that are already using the technology this way with super speed.
Best Lead Management Apps For Inbound Sales Reps Training
- HubSpot CRM
If you looking for an easy-to-understand dashboard app for evaluating and managing your sales team activities, the HubSpot CRM is a handy and effective app. HubSpot CRM is free to use with millions of contacts and can later integrate easily with the Marketing Hub or Sales Hub software suites from HubSpot.
Best Appointment-Setting Apps For Reps
- Calendly
Do you need a friendly user app where your leads can check your availability to set up a meeting with you? Calendly is a wise choice.
- Google calendar
Do you need to organize your meetings, send invitations and schedule appointments, see your meetings timeline in one place with a clear calendar, someone or something to remind you of the appointments? You can set all of them up in Google Calendar easily.
Best File-Sharing Apps For Sales Teams
- DROPBOX
Sales reps require the opportunity to share & access files in a highly secured platform without size limitation. Even when they don’t have a laptop at their disposal they will be able to easily connect to the Dropbox mobile app.
It is a cloud-based document storage app, and has been around for many years now.
Best Note Taking And Recording Apps For Sales Reps
- DRAGON
Sales reps who rely on speech-to text transcription can use the Dragon app. Dragon app is among the best mobile dictation apps with unlimited word input and is significantly accurate in editing recorded notes.
You can share your Dragon document via all well-known cloud-sharing documents such as, Evernote, email, and Dropbox.
Best Apps For Closing Sales
- DocuSign
If you work as a sales rep in an organization with prospects around the world, you need to use an eSignature system to close a contract with your prospect/client online.
DocuSign is a popular app for remotely collecting signatures. It enables your prospects to sign the contract whenever and where ever they are. Just make sure to download the appropriate mobile app.
- HelloSign
It is the same as DocuSign app. Through HelloSign you can sign the paperwork and documents online and remotely.
Moreover, it uniquely approves document signers, enables you to check who signs your documents.
Best Apps For Sales Tracking
- HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub benefits you in monitoring deals progress and organizing sales team activities. As well it helps you to schedule meetings with your prospects easily, and communicate with them through live chat within Sales Hub.
Best Expense Tracking Apps For Sales Teams
- Expensify
As a sales rep, for a commercial trip you need to collect and record every expenses. To simplify and manage every expense just use Expensify app. It would handle every single step of the expense reporting process for you just by linking your debit or credit card with your Expensify account.
With Expensify you are able to convert the expense reports into a customized invoice with a click.
4- Free Inbound Sales Training with HubSpot Academy Online Courses
HubSpot Academy is the worldwide leader for whomever wants to advance their career in digital marketing, sales, and customer support, or businesses wanting to grow based on the Inbound methodology to generate more leads, engage more prospects, and ultimately sign more customers. These will all lead to growth in a business’s bottom line.
HubSpot Academy Link:
HubSpot Academy is the free online training provider with useful training paths and courses especially for sales reps.
Learning paths combine HubSpot Academy certifications, courses and lessons hand-picked by HubSpot experts to prepare you for your next role, career or business move.
Be sure to have a look at the learning paths made available by the HubSpot Academy below and choose the ones that best help you or your sales team members:
HubSpot Paths link:
https://academy.hubspot.com/learning-paths
5- Get Training Done In-House by a Professional Inbound Sales Training Provider
We know accepting new technology isn’t always easy. Hubspot supports you all the way with the training your whole team needs at different levels, and we are there with you to customize and adapt it using courses and hands-on workshops to your requirements. Book a call with us to review your needs and have a look at our extensive in-house or remote training options.
https://meetings.hubspot.com/seyed-m-abbasi
Actionytics Marketing Solutions is a HubSpot Partner and offers a full range of services for Hubspot and Inbound. Have a look at our other HubSpot services here:
