Growth of a B2B sales consulting firm is tied to delivering sales training to customers that is relevant. Salespeople hate sales training that is out of date and does not help them produce revenue. Hate is a strong word, but ask any B2B salesperson, and that’s the word you’re most likely to get.
Hopefully you’re the kind of B2B sales consultant and trainer who likes to keep things fresh.
Is your training relevant? Here’s how to tell:
- You’re retaining most of your clients. World-class B2B sales consulting firms retain a minimum of 90% of their customers every year. What is the annual retention rate of your firm?
- Ask your clients to make sure your training is relevant in today’s sales culture. A simple survey delivered by Survey Monkey will tell you what is important to your customers. Why guess?
- Identify foundation elements and stick to them. It is true that things change over time; however, there are some things that will always be relevant. Here are a few of our evergreen training topics:
- Account List Management
- Appointment Setting
- Developing a Personal Brand
- The Needs Analysis Process
- What things don’t matter anymore? A quick audit of your sales training resources will tell you what to eliminate from your sales training toolkit. Consider eliminating the obvious things or modify less than relevant B2B sales training elements.
Make the Changes and Stay Relevant
Developing relevant sales training can be a hurdle for many B2B sales consultants because it costs money and takes away time that could be spent with customers and prospects.
Relevant training is training that is delivered online and/or onsite. Relevant training allows sellers to develop revenue while learning. You can develop training on your own, which will take a lot of time, or you can ask someone on staff who has expertise in the area of sales training development to conduct it for you. Do you have someone like that in your organization?
There’s one other option you haven’t considered yet. You can expand your sales training expertise by participant in a partner program that allows you to earn a commission and stay relevant.
Staying relevant as a result of developing new training resources is a slippery slope. You don’t have to do it alone these days. Many partner programs are available for B2B sales trainers and consultants. Here are some options and links to information on each:
To learn more tips on how to run a successful B2B sales training and consulting company check out this free ebook: The 5 Hurdles Every Successful Sales Consulting & Training Firm Must Clear
