It is a well-known principle that leaders coach and develop leaders. It’s a philosophy of management that goes back more than a century in various forms. How you develop and train your leaders to determine the performance of any department or team within your organization, and sales is no exception to this rule. It is critical that your sales management team have the best possible training if you want them to deliver the best possible results.
To begin this process, you first need to define what sales management is and what a sales manager does. Next, you need to define what effective sales manager training looks like based on their role. Finally, you need to choose the best sales management training courses for your team leaders, and we have seven excellent recommendations for you. Take a look at what we found.
What is Sales Management (To Your Company)?
What is Sales Management (To Your Company)?This question isn’t so much about the broad definition of sales management in any industry or business sector, but rather defining sales management for your business. What are the expectations you have for the person or persons who will lead your sales team? What are their day-to-day responsibilities? Quarterly? Annually? How will conflicts between reps be resolved? What system will be used for lead acquisition and distribution?
All these questions are valid and important, and they need answers before you bring a sales manager onboard or promote your top sales representative into the role. The ability to sell is only part of what makes a great sales manager: they also need to be exceptional leaders. This is why
What Makes a Sales Management Training Course Effective?
Once you have defined what it means to be a sales manager for your team, you can make decisions about what will or will not be effective for training your sales manager or managers. The course that will be most effective are the ones which most closely align with your company objectives and values, so start by looking for sales manager training that lines up with who you are as a business first.
Are our long term customer relationships important? Consider a course that covers account-based sales management. Do you value the presentation of facts and transparency over buzzwords and flashy visual aids? Check out the Sales Enablement system. Decide what kind of company you want to be, then choose courses for your sales managers that will allow them to build a sales team that best represents your values to customers. That’s what makes sales management courses effective.
The 7 Best Sales Management Courses
Even companies with established values and well-defined sales management roles may not know where to start when choosing a sales management training program. Here are our top seven to help you get started.
-
The Complete Sales Management Courses for Beginners
Provided by Udemy.com, this program is an exceptional value for the very low cost. Everything your sales managers will need to know about developing their sales management skills is covered in this 1-hour on-demand class.
Upon completion of this course, your sales management team will know and understand the following fundamentals:
- Establishing processes
- Teaching sales techniques
- Learning how to approach each step of their sales management process
- Developing their own sales and lead generation methods
- Understanding sales team organization and planning
Keep in mind this intends to be a beginner’s course. However, if you need a starting point for new sales managers, this is an excellent program for the price point.
-
Winning by Design: Frontline Manager Training
Specifically designed for sales managers, Winning By Design is a training program for sales managers to build the skills necessary to develop their own successful, high-performance sales teams driven by data-based decisions.
This is a highly specific training course, and like all specialized courses, that means it will also carry a higher cost. The knowledge and skills your sales managers will gain from this program, however, can make the difference between hitting sales numbers consistently or explaining why they have missed yet another quarterly goal. Visit their website for more details, and take the time to read testimonials from other satisfied clients. Winning by Design may be expensive, but it is definitely worth the investment.
-
Wilson Learning: Coaching for Sales Performance
An integral component of any sales manager’s responsibilities is coaching salespeople to meet and exceed sales goals. Over time, this role also begins to extend to personal and professional growth goals, too. Not every leader is prepared to take on the role of the coach in the lives of the sales professionals who they work with daily, and without direction and a proven system it can be difficult to establish that coaching relationship.
Wilson Learning has worked with countless organizations around the world to train sales managers who are experts at coaching and developing sales personnel to achieve success year after year. The cost of the course varies according to how many participants there are and the size of your organization (differences in scale call for different programs), but you will find that their track record of proven results makes them well worth the cost.
-
“Coaching Salespeople Into Sales Champions” Manager Training
Keith Rosen’s program is perfect for sales managers who want to shake up their team, shake up their routine and eliminate wasted time and money on wasteful practices that don’t work. The course covers sales management methods and techniques like time management for managers, streamlining organizational workflow, helping underperformers overcome a slump and how to attract and retain the best sales talent.
Best of all, this program is available virtually and offers an excellent cost to value ratio. If you are looking for a comprehensive training program for your existing sales managers, definitely check this program out.
-
Applying The Art and Science of Sales Enablement
Emphasizing cultural changes over procedural changes, Roderick Jefferson’s Sales Enablement program seeks to develop a culture of learning within your sales team. The end goal is to help your salespeople develop their understanding of both their roles and responsibilities within a sales enablement process and how it impacts both revenue and a customer/buyer’s journey.
The program includes downloadable resources for you to keep, and comes with a certificate of completion. For the money, it’s a worthwhile investment to help your sales managers develop a vision for their team. Additionally, this will establish systems and processes that can help your entire sales department achieve success.
-
Sales Management – No theory, just practice!
Sometimes all your sales managers need is a nudge in the right direction and the tools to do their job effectively. This course from Julia Neicovcian is designed for just that: a practical approach to developing better sales management skills.
Your sales managers will have access to two and a half hours of video and eighteen downloadable resources. These will help them become better managers, motivate their team and hire the right people. Moreover, this will let them effectively manage time to minimize stress among the sales team. Julia also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you don’t find the results you are looking for from her course. If you have sales managers that need a refresher or to polish up their skills, this is an excellent choice.
-
Problem Solving Skills for Sales Managers
Data-driven decision-making is a critical skill for any sales manager, especially when it comes to problem-solving. This course offered through Udemy.com teaches important concepts like trend analysis, pattern detection, moving average and segmentation analysis. The statistical studies are incorporated with a 5-Step Observation Technique, Cause Brainstorming, 5 Why Analysis and Root Cause Analysis for Sales Problems.
What all this means is that upon completion of this course, your sales management team will be equipped with all the tools necessary to perform accurate data analysis of their sales numbers. Additionally, develop effective solutions to help the sales team achieve their goals. The course material is a bit dense, but the knowledge and skills it offers are invaluable. If you have identified statistical analysis as a weakness for your sales management team, this course is definitely worth considering.
Conclusion
There are hundreds (if not thousands) of sales management training courses and resources available in person and online. Choosing the best course depends on what your expectations are for your sales management team members. You also have to consider your values and goals as a business. We’ve recommended our top seven here today. However, don’t be concerned if you can’t find something from our list that works for your business. The best program for your needs and budget is out there. Take your time, do your research and you’ll find it in due time.