7 Of The Best Sales Training Exercises To Boost Your Sales Team

Who said sales training had to be boring? (It certainly wasn’t us!)

When you think of sales training exercises, what most likely comes to mind is the dreaded obligation of watching boring powerpoints, cringy out-of-date videos and being put out of your comfort zone to push a theoretical sale. 

But what if it didn’t have to be that way?

You and your sales team are ultimately both striving for the same goal: to close sales, make money and be successful. So when your sales team is feeling the pressure, it is important to consider how you, as their leader, are going to give them the confidence and skills they need to achieve those goals. 

Creating an effective sales training program isn’t necessarily easy; there are a variety of industries, team structures and responsibilities salespeople encounter that make a one-size-fits-all approach mediocre at best.

That is why it is absolutely essential to create out-of-the-box sales exercises that are fun, engaging and interactive with lessons that stick around long after the training is over. Which, in turn, will elevate your sales team and boost that revenue!

Why Sales Training Exercise is Important for Every Sales Team

We now know what it takes to generate profitable sales training exercises, but why exactly are they so important?

Implementing more effective sales training exercises will:

It’s pretty simple: great sales training exercises lead to great results. Taking the time to fully invest in your sales training is one of the smartest things you can do in making your team and business thrive.

Sales Training Exercises and GamesSales Training Exercises and Games

Game-based sales training is an excellent cost-effective approach to training that enhances retention and adds a nice bit of fun to your work environment. 

According to Review42, 95 percent of employees like to use aspects of gaming in their work, which is a statistic no sales leader should ignore!

Here are 7 of the best sales training exercises to boost your sales team.

1. Know the Product Jeopardy

A playful spin on a classic favorite, this game is a fun option to end your training with.

Just like the beloved television game show, you will quiz your team on several categories. Each category contains up to five questions, which will increase in difficulty and according point value. 

You can quiz them on your company products, services or even create a scenario for them to solve. Whatever you feel is extremely vital for your sales team to know and remember before ending their training, put it in!

To find a great Jeopardy! style template, check out Lifewire. They have a wide range of useful templates you can customize and use to train your sales staff on product information.

2. The Virtual Escape Room

Escape rooms have been a huge hit for all ages in the last few years, and many companies are using its buzzing popularity to their advantage. 

Not only do virtual escape rooms improve information retention, but they also encourage experimentation and critical thinking which enhances overall performance levels. 

To complete the game successfully, your sales team must access training elements that they need to analyze, decipher and use to solve puzzles.

It’s a challenging, yet engaging sales training exercise that stimulates quality performance and results.

The Best Commercial Game

3. The Best Commercial Game

This exercise is designed to create some friendly competition while also getting real-time practice in persuasive selling.

To start, split your reps into teams, and then assign an object to each team. For smaller groups, you can do individual teams. 

The object you give them can be something silly like a rubber duck, or it can be an office item like a notepad.

Each team will then collaborate to choose a purpose for their object or “product.” Have them use the same sales tactics that you’d want them to use on your clients. This can be things like identifying the pain points it solves, what value it provides and scripting it as a commercial to sell their product to the group.

After all groups have presented, determine the winner for the best commercial with a vote. You can also provide a small prize for extra excitement.

At Selling Revolution, we know from experience that your employees will have so much fun that they won’t even realize they’re getting in good practice!

4. The 30-60 Second Elevator Pitch

The Elevator Pitch is a cool sales training idea that is quite fun and simple to execute.

The game is a roleplaying scenario where the participant has to pretend they are in an elevator, and they need to make a sale with a 60 second pitch, or the person they’re selling to will exit the elevator.

Elevator pitch competitions are an excellent tool to train new hires since they encourage salespeople to understand the value of a product quickly and concisely in order to win.

It is a very useful exercise to try in continued sales training as well. Instead of using your product, you can use random ideas or objects and challenge your more seasoned salespeople to pick one and brainstorm a smart pitch. 

This sales game is great for developing better presenting and negotiating skills when carrying out a sale.

5. Matching Game

Matching games are one of the simplest ways you can stir in more visual aids into your sales training.

It is particularly beneficial for businesses that sell multiple services or products.

To start, make a list of your company’s services and products and then write out a brief scenario for each that demonstrates how it would benefit a potential customer.

Next, simply mix the lists and ask your sales staff to match each solution with the problem it solves.

This training exercise helps your sales team learn to best match your company’s solutions to individual customer needs.

6. Bingo With a Twist

Another classic favorite turned into an excellent sales training tool– Bingo!

With this form of Bingo, you will have your sales team focus on strengthening their cold call finesse. 

Create a Bingo! cards with common sales steps and tactics. Examples include price objection, identifying customer pain points or closing the sale.

Have salespeople take turns cold calling clients on speakerphone while the rest of the team listens actively, filling out their Bingo cards.

The whole idea is to encourage your team to actively listen for and identify prospect handling techniques while observing and experiencing a live example.

7. The Lead Inspector

Lead Inspector is all about trying to get to know as much as you can about your prospective customer.

Place your sales team into groups and give each team one name from your company’s list of prospective clients. Be sure to use the profiles of leads who have never bought before so teams can take what they’ve learned and can utilize it in real life. 

Encourage each team to use all available tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, CrunchBase, Glassdoor, directories etc. to research as much as possible about their target. 

The team that digs up the most exciting and the largest amount of data on their lead wins the game. The bonus is that everyone will have now gained some familiarity with your company’s lead prospects as well as be able to clearly identify buyer personas.

Sales Training Exercises and GamesSales Training Makes an Impact When It’s Fun

As you can see, there are more than enough ways to mix in a little fun and excitement when incorporating sales games into your training program. Notably, all of these sales training activities are quite easy to implement and relatively quick to get through. 

We know how difficult it can be as a sales leader with already enough on their plate to even consider putting the extra time aside for sales training, but with these simple exercises, you will find that your team will enhance their performance to a point where they are even independent of you, which in the long run, leaves you with way less to worry about!

At Selling Revolution, we understand that quality sales training is the catalyst to business success. We help create customized training solutions that your leaders own and your employees follow.

To learn more about how you can achieve better leads and higher conversion rates, book a call with us today!