Rising interest rates, the highest inflation rate in decades, and war in Europe… 

These are just some signs that a recession may be on the horizon. Despite these worrying developments, selling during a recession is possible. Use these strategies to position yourself to succeed in the next recession.

Step 1: Change your relationship with the business news

The first step to selling successfully in a recession is to change how you view the news. Start by understanding the impact of the negativity bias on media outlets. 

Ever come across the news saying: “if it bleeds, it leads”? The phrase, which first appeared in print in 1989, describes a tendency in journalism to focus on the violent, depressing and negative. If you’ve ever wondered why the media focuses on crime, war, and other negative reasons, negativity bias is a crucial reason.

The negativity bias is the human tendency to scan the environment for threats regularly. In an evolutionary sense, this predisposition served us well in the past. Yet, the negative emphasis of much news reporting is unhelpful to sales professionals. 

Think about how you feel when you read articles about unemployment, people struggling to pay their bills, and shortages. You probably start to feel worried about your future. At best, spending a lot of time-consuming negative news coverage distracts you from your work. At worst? Consuming significant amounts of negative news coverage will leave you feeling sad, discouraged, or stressed out.

The solution is to change your approach to consuming the news. Specifically, we recommend going on a low-news diet. In a recessionary environment, the quantity of negative economic news is likely to skyrocket. However, very little of this information is actionable. By only consuming news information directly relevant to your sales goals, you’ll save time and minimize the chance of distraction.

Action Step: Set up Google Alerts for your top 10 current customers and 10 target accounts. 

By focusing your news consumption on specific companies relevant to your sales goals, you will free up time and free up energy. To set up your Google News alerts, you will get information about companies and people that matter to your sales work. 

Advanced Tip: Break Your Morning News Habit

Some of you may have the habit of starting your work day by reading the news. In that case, it will take more effort to change your habits. Instead, shift your focus to reading a good sales or business book. We’ve published a guide to our favorite sales and business books here.

Step 2: Deepen relationships with customer relationships

The first step was about changing unhelpful habits. This step focuses your attention on how you deal with customers. Most salespeople are trained and incentivized to focus on landing new accounts. Let the sales commission compensation program and management direction guide your emphasis is perfectly natural.

In an economic downturn, your customers will likely be affected in various ways. Some will be directly hit by declining revenue, supply chain problems, and worse. Other customers may suffer indirectly – like experiencing feelings of fear, doubt, and uncertainty. Sometimes, your customers may be under pressure to cut costs like doing business with your company!

To protect your company’s current and prospects, now is the time to deepen your relationships with customers. At a minimum, set aside a few hours each week over the next quarter to reinforce your key relationships. 

Action Steps

Use these tips to deepen your customer relationships:

1) Check-in with customer service for any open issues with your customers.

Nobody likes to feel ignored or unimportant! Yet, that is the exact feeling your customers are likely to experience when their requests and complaints go unanswered. Start by checking internally with your customer service colleagues about your top customers. If there are open issues, do what you can to escalate these issues and get them solved.

2) Reach out to customers to find out what’s new

Over the last few years, many people have changed jobs and found new opportunities. Avoid assuming that the data you have in your CRM from 2020 or 2019 is still current. On your next call with customers, find out about your customer’s work context. Do they have a new boss? Has there been a reorganization? Are there new executives? New policies that might affect purchases?

3) Express your gratitude to customers

There is a new generation of scientific research exploring the power of gratitude. Researchers at Berkeley found that gratitude exercises – including writing letters of thanks – can improve mental health and help people avoid toxic thoughts. In that spirit, set yourself a goal to write thank you notes to your top 10 or 20 customers. To really stand out, consider sending a card in the mail. Few people send cards so it is a great way to stand out and be remembered.

Step 3: Evolve your sales techniques for the downturn

The final strategy is to evolve your selling techniques to respond to downturn scenarios. The specific implementation of this strategy will vary depending on what you sell and your customers. The following principles will help you to get started in fine tuning your approach.

Action Steps

1) Spend more effort understanding your customer’s worries and concerns

Understanding your customer is a longstanding principle. The change here is one of emphasis. In an economic downturn, potential customers may be preoccupied with negative news. For example, they may have seen a colleague at their organization lose their job due to layoffs. Taking the time to understand these concerns in greater depth before making a pitch is an effective way to show you care.

2) Look for recession-friendly benefits in what you sell

Even in a recession, the economy keeps running! Even during the depths of the Great Recession of 2008-2009, trillions of dollars of purchases were made in the United States. With that in mind, remind yourself that there are still plenty of sales to be made. One way to unlock more potential sales lies in finding recession friendly benefits like cost savings and risk reduction.

For inspiration, read through your company’s case studies and talk to your own past customers about what they liked most about your product.

3) Raise your sales activity levels

In tough times, sales cycles tend to get longer. For example, a B2B sale may now require multiple people to approve it, including executives. Given these kinds of changes, it is vital to double down on what you can control as a salesperson: your daily activity. Set yourself a goal to increase your sales activity (e.g. cold calls, referral requests, cold emails) by at least 5% to keep your pipeline healthy.

Economic Downturns: A Great Opportunity To Find New Sales Talent

Mass layoffs have already hit multiple firms in the technology industry. While those job losses are tragic, there is an upside. Recruiting new sales people to join your organization now is easier. Work with Peak to discover how we can help your organization get salespeople with a proven track record today.

Visit our blog section for more Insights!

Salespeople usually close on winning new customers. This guide will help your salespeople look at your current customers differently.

The Risks of Short-Term “Hunter” Thinking In Sales 

By tradition, most if not all salespeople see themselves as hunters. This mentality is often captured in the phrase “eat what you kill.” In some environments, like 100% commission-based roles, no new sales mean no income for the salesperson. Indeed, landing new customers is crucially important. Without a steady stream of new customers joining the organization, your company’s growth will stall and eventually stop.

The dark side of this focus on new customers means that existing customers sometimes become a secondary priority for salespeople. As a result, there are fewer opportunities to lift customer satisfaction, earn referrals and grow the bottom line with upselling. It’s not just missed opportunities that sales organizations need to be concerned about.

Put yourself in the shoes of a salesperson whose career progression and income are measured mainly on new sales. Given a choice between prospecting for a new opportunity and checking in on the customer you closed last quarter, prospecting will win every time. Over time, it’s no surprise that some salespeople focus on short-term wins rather than strategies that maximize long-term customer satisfaction.

Growing Accounts After Customers Sign On The Dotted Line

Salespeople can grow revenue by making time for their customers. First, your organization’s sales compensation plan focuses on net new sales. Second, salespeople spend the majority of their time working on new deals. These strategies are designed to be executed 2-4 hours per week.

Strategy 1. Create A Post-Purchase Sales Communication Plan

Nearly all professional salespeople have digital calendars and customer relationship management (CRM) tools at their fingertips. Use these tools to support your post-purchase sales communication. 

Suppose your typical customer relationship lasts for twenty-four months at an enterprise software company. In that case, use the following schedule to stay in touch with your buyer.

• 15 Days After Purchase: Check in to confirm the customer has received the product and see if they have any questions.
• 30 Days After Purchase: Get in touch with the customer to invite them to a free customer webinar where they can get answers to questions.
• 90 Days After Purchase: Ask the customer to share feedback about the product (i.e., what features do you like the most and what do you wish we had?)
• 6 Months After Purchase: Get in touch with the customer and ask them to write an honest, positive review of your company on G2.com or Capterra
• 12 Months After Purchase: Send the customer a card or gift to recognize their first customer anniversary.
• 15 Months After Purchase: Get in touch with the customer to offer a renewal promotion (i.e., get 15% off your annual plan if you renew for 12 months).

The key to successfully executing this strategy is consistency and leveraging reminders. Therefore, set aside 20 minutes after closing a new sale to add these reminders to your preferred tool.

Strategy 2. Request Introductions

People tend to know people like themselves. Accountants know other accountants, marketers know advertising people, and so forth. You can use this rule of thumb to your advantage by thoughtfully asking for referrals.

The way you execute this strategy depends on your company’s business model. In B2B sales, look for departments regularly interacting with your current customer. 

For instance, let’s say you have sold a sales software tool to a Fortune 500 business based in California. That business likely has multiple sales units across the country and internationally. In this case, you might phrase your request like this “Do you know Jane Smith, sales director of  the Northeast Sales division? If so, can I ask you to send a short introduction email on my behalf – I have a draft message you can copy and paste.”

With business-to-consumer sales, your objective is to seek introductions to people with similar needs. For example, a real estate salesperson might focus on serving urban professionals between the ages of 30 to 40. Your past customer probably has a few friends who might be looking for a home. 

Strategy 3. Reach Out With Value

The first two strategies were aimed at producing value for the salesperson. Only contacting your customer with requests may not be wise. You don’t want customers to see you as someone who makes demands! This strategy comes into play.

With this strategy, your goal is to simply remind the customer of your existence and that you care about them. The way you implement this strategy will depend on your natural strengths. Some people love remembering occasions like birthdays by sending gifts. Others enjoy sharing links to informative articles or books.

The marketing assets produced by your company may be helpful here. However, there is a caveat – personalization is king! If your company has produced a 20-page ebook and you think it would be relevant to Edward, do the work for your customer in your outreach message. For example: point out that chapter 2 (pages 7-10) have tips on automating compliance – a concern that Edward mentioned in your last call.

Regarding frequency, it is best to use this strategy every 2-3 months with your top customers. If that feels overwhelming, identify your ten most valuable customers and implement this strategy for them.

Strategy 4. Follow Up On Customer Complaints and Requests

The fourth strategy is reactive, so we are covering it last. We live in an imperfect world: it’s likely that your customers are going to want something new or have a problem to solve. Today, a customer might contact you with concerns about a delayed shipment. Next week, a customer might contact you to ask for something new (e.g., we’re opening an office in Mexico – does your software come in Spanish?)

When problems arise, you may not have the skills or time to solve the problem for the customer personally. That said, nobody likes to feel shifted from department to department to get a problem solved. The solution is simple – take note of the customer’s problem and refer it to the appropriate department. 

The next step is where you have the opportunity to shine as a salesperson. Keep following up internally and with the customer to verify that the problem has been solved. Acting as an advocate for your customer internally is not only the right thing to do, but it makes them more likely to take your call in the future.

No Capacity For Sales Followup?

The above strategies are best seen as ways to deepen customer relationships and increase customer lifetime value. Focusing your efforts on these strategies is often worthwhile, but they have drawbacks. Growing existing customer relationships is a long-term play – it could take months or even years to pay off. 

If your company needs to produce results faster, bringing new sales talent to the organization is your best bet. Contact Peak Sales Recruiting today to grow your sales team. Whether you need account executives, sales development representatives, or other sales talent, we can help.

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Recruiting top-tier sales talent with Peak Sales Recruiting is a powerful way to grow your sales force. Once you have excellent sales talent on your team, it’s important to coach and support them to hit their goals. One meaningful way to support salespeople is to find high-quality sales leads. Conferences are one of the best ways to help new sales hires find incredible leads.

Why Conferences and Events Are Great For Lead Generation 

Attending events as a salesperson is worthwhile for a few reasons. First, conference attendances are actively open to meeting new people and learning new ideas. That’s a great mindset for a salesperson looking to make connections. Second, conferences offer informal opportunities like dining, drinks, and more that make it easy to connect. Together, these two factors mean it is far easier to make high-value connections in just a few days.

Fortunately, business conferences are coming back in a big way. Deloitte expects that 2022 business travel spending will be about 55% of 2019 levels by the end of the year. With that trend in mind, there are specific strategies you can use to take advantage of the rebound in conferences as a salesperson. 

Know Your Conference Options

There are three primary strategies for using conferences to get leads. Each strategy has a different effort and reward ratio. 

• Your Company’s Conference

Various businesses organize conferences for their customers like Oracle, IBM, and Salesforce regularly. When you use the specific steps outlined below, these events offer outstanding lead generation potential. Participating in your company’s events offers the best return on your effort. If you can only use one strategy from this guide, focus on this one. 

• Industry Conferences

The strategies below will help you maximize this opportunity. Overall, industry conferences offer a moderate return on effort.

• Conferences As Industry Research

As a sales professional, it is valuable to understand your prospects’ needs, fears, and jargon. Without this knowledge, your cold calls and other outreach efforts are less likely to be relevant. Reviewing conferences as a source of industry trends can be helpful. It is best to see this conference strategy as secondary – it does not generate leads, but it does help you to understand your leads more effectively.

Make The Most of Your Company’s Conference 

Many companies like Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, and Salesforce organize their conferences. These are great opportunities to deepen existing customer relationships. To get the most out of this event, use the following tips:

• Get the conference attendee list.

Reach out to your marketing department or the event organizers to get the list one or two weeks before the event. As you review the list, highlight any current customers and people you have interacted with in the past year. 

• Set up in-person meetings in advance.

Using the list from the previous step, reach out to people you already know and set up meetings with as many people as possible. Make it your goal to request referrals and introductions from as many people as possible in your meetings.

• Look for “land and expand” opportunities.

This tip applies mainly to B2B sales situations where you may start your relationship with one department of a large company. For example, let’s say that you are working with one brand of Proctor & Gamble. At the conference, aim to deepen the relationship with your current customer and meet with other people at the same company.

• Seek out centers of influence.

Conferences usually feature keynote speakers, panels, and other experts sharing their perspectives with attendees. As a salesperson, these experts may not be able or interested in buying from you. Despite that fact, don’t ignore these expert participants. Instead, aim to build a relationship with them by asking questions, buying their books, and following them online. In the medium to long term, experts have the potential to help you meet many leads. 

• Schedule post-conference actions

Attending a multi-day conference, especially if travel is involved, tends to be a tiring experience. It’s best to plan and block 2-3 hours on your calendar for post-conference follow-up activities the day after the conference. That means sending emails, making calls, and connecting on social media. 

The biggest mistake in attending conferences is looking at the event in isolation. Making the most of a conference is a three-part process: pre-conference preparation, working the conference, and post-conference activities. Simply showing up at the conference and hoping for leads to fall on your lap is a mistake. 

Getting Leads From Industry Conferences 

Gaining leads from industry events, trade shows, and conventions is more challenging than using your organization’s events for a reason. To some degree, people attending your company’s event already know and trust your brand. In comparison, attendees at a general audience industry event may not have heard of your company.

The good news is that you can put the odds of success in your favor by applying a disciplined process. Use the steps outlined in the previous section, especially pre-event and post-event activities, to find people to meet and schedule interactions during and after the event. 

Let’s say that you have the capacity and funding to attend up to two events in the next twelve months. With that constraint in mind, use these tips to filter for high potential events for lead generation.

• Ask current customers what events they are attending.

The people who are currently buying from you can give you the best insight about which events to attend. Contact 5-10 customers and ask which business events they’ve attended and why they found them valuable. Pay close attention to any event that gets mentioned multiple times.

• What other purchases do your buyers usually make?

Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes – what do they purchase after buying from you? For example, a new home buyer is highly likely to buy more furniture. A startup company that works with a lawyer to set up its corporate structure will also need to buy accounting services. Use these insights to find more business events.

• Use Google to find more local options 

Some salespeople struggle to attend events because they cannot get approval for plane tickets and other expenses for far-away conferences. There are two workarounds for this constraint. Start by using Google to find events within driving distance. 

For example, let’s say that you are looking to meet chief financial officers and you live in Chicago. Use these searches to locate additional conference possibilities:

• Accounting conference Chicago

• Accounting event Chicago

• CFO conference Chicago

Use these search ideas as a starting point to identify potential local events. In addition, look for top events that have hybrid and virtual tickets so you can attend from home or the office.

Conferences As Industry Research

From a lead generation standpoint, it’s tough to beat attending a conference in person. Virtual attendance is a great alternative option. If you cannot attend a conference this year, you can still benefit from using conferences as a research tool.

To continue the example from the previous section, let’s assume you have a list of three events where CFOs – your ideal buyer – are attending. You can still gain lead generation insights by reading conference websites for inspiration. These websites will give you clues about the trends, worries, and opportunities facing your market.

Choose Your Lead Generation Strategies And Execute

Conference based lead generation is a powerful way to augment your sales team’s effectiveness. If your employees are well supplied with leads, they may need sales coaching support. Use our guide to sales coaching techniques to lead your sales team to a higher level of success.

Please take the time to read further blogs!

The vice president of sales is a key player in any organization — although in some industries you’ll find more than one per company. Charged with meeting the revenue goals, hiring, organizing and overseeing the sales force, the required skill set is both extensive and unusual. Sales VPs typically come up through the ranks of sales, but most talented salespeople will not make effective VPs. 

Great salespeople are hunters. Great VPs are hunters who’ve learned how to organize and lead hunting parties. 

How much a VP/Sales gets paid is influenced by factors that include: 

• Track record
• Years of experience
• Size of employer
• Years of tenure at an employer
• Employer’s industry
• Industry knowledge and connections
• Method of compensation
• Location

Compensation Type

This plays out in how VP/Sales are paid. There’s typically a substantial base salary garnished with varying amounts of bonus money depending on the company and the industry. For example, an “average” VP/Sales in the financial industry is not unique in their organization; there may be dozens of VP/Sales in a large firm. 

For software companies or manufacturers, there may be just a few — or only one. As a result, total VP/Sales compensation (OTE, On-Target-Earnings) in some industries is lower than you might expect. 

There are also many types of additional compensation. Startups or tech companies may offer a mix of bonus cash and stock for reaching or exceeding goals. Others may stick with straight commission sharing. 

Location

In addition to its industry, where a company is located and its geographic footprint are major determinants of total income for their VP/Sales. A regional business in the Midwest is not going to pay what a global business pays. Large national/multinational companies tend to pay in the same ranges as others in their industry because they are competing for the same talent. 

Average Pay

According to research from Glassdoor, the average base pay for a VP/Sales is $100,000 across all industries and all experience levels. When you factor in the size of the company and years of experience as a VP/Sales, large differences in compensation emerge. For our analysis, we looked at average pay in four scenarios: 

• Low — less than one year experience at a small company with fewer than 50 employees total
• High — average salary for VP/Sales with 15 years experience at large companies (1,000 or more employees)
• Highest — Highest average salaries for AEs with 15 years experience at large companies
• High total comp — Total compensation for highest earners when OTE was included

Averages can be deceiving of course: There are VP/Sales making less than $100,000 and some making ten times that amount when total compensation is included. 

• Average: $100,000
• Low: $66,000
• High: $268,000
• Total Comp: $288,000

There’s significant variation between industries, too. In some, additional compensation is modest, keeping total comp down, while other industries have almost unlimited potential. 

BioTech & Pharma

The biotech and pharmaceutical world was rocked by the arrival of COVID-19 and the reverberations continue. While the direct impact was felt most acutely by the firms engaged in combating covid, the increased demand for healthcare supplies of all kinds affected many others. Rapid change will be a major factor going forward, as mass therapies (blockbuster drugs) give way to highly tailored individualized treatments. This will allow Pharma sales executives to stay on top of a fast-moving marketplace: 

Bio-sensors, big data and IOT will accelerate the changes. 

• Average: $190,000
• Low: $82,000
• High: $221,000
• Total comp: $365,000

Business Services

The covid pandemic poured fuel on an already hot marketplace as digitalization of business processes and new digital services were transforming the business landscape. With an annual growth rate north of 10%, the demand for more business services — especially digital tools — shows no sign of slowing. The spread between the lowest and highest earners reflects the growth and importance of digital services.

• Average: $142,000
• Low: $64,000
• High: $296,000
• Total comp: $547,000

Consumer Services

Some of the major drivers of consumer services were walloped by restrictions and anxieties around coronavirus: travel, hospitality and recreation all took huge hits. As the pandemic eases, money will likely surge back into these sectors, producing some good years until the pent-up demand is satisfied. The amount of services spending in the overall economy is reflected in relatively higher pay for VP/Sales positions in the industry.  

• Average: $172,000
• Low: $113,000
• High: $249,000
• Total comp: $391,000

Health

An ageing population plus more available treatments and increasing diversity of delivery points should continue to foster a steady rise in health spending in the years ahead. Consolidation among traditional healthcare companies such as hospitals and medical practices is somewhat offset by the proliferation of “health adjacent” settings offering services such as administration of cosmetic treatments and dietary/lifestyle coaching. 

• Average: $168,000
• Low: $97,000
• High: $182,000
• Total comp: $327,000

Tech: Hardware & Software

It’s not surprising that there’s a lot of compensation available in computer hardware and software sales. From established “blue chip” leaders like HP, Dell and Apple to startups making the IoT happen, digitalization is well established and shows no sign of slowing. The application of AI across the entire spectrum of our business and personal lives is already underway and will only accelerate in the years ahead, creating even more opportunities for sales leaders who can crush goals. 

• Average: $188,000
• Low: $102,000
• High: $222,000
• Total comp: $548,000

Tech: Services

Cloud-based software has conditioned the market to renting rather than buying, which promises to further boost spending on tech services, which has been clipping along at a growth rate of about 11%. New modalities — SaaS, blockchain, AI — have appeared and are setting off another major wave of digitization. As with their compatriots in the hardware/software sector, sales execs on the services side are paid very well. The numbers skew a bit lower, possibly because many companies in this sector are startups, which tend to pay a bit less but also offer big upsides through stock options.  

• Average: $194,000
• Low: $88,000
• High: $359,000
• Total comp: $516,000

Financial Services

Looking at the profits of big financial institutions and the pay scales for VP/Sales might raise the question of who’s getting all that money. Part of the answer is that some players, especially banks, have multiple VP/Sales, literally spreading the wealth among a larger number of executives. Financial services has been doing very well, but there are some questions about the future: Blockchain technology will be implemented throughout the industry, possibly reducing regulatory burdens and making more services more widely available. However, the counter trend is that cryptocurrencies may lead to significant assets moving out of traditional financial services companies. 

• Average: $135,000
• Low: $57,000
• High: $230,000
• Total comp: $391,000

Manufacturing

Companies with “digital maturity,” ones that have already adopted and implemented digital processes throughout their organizations, have done better over the past few years than their peers who are less mature. Labor shortages and supply chain issues continue to roil the industry, and over-reliance on low-inventory models has damaged companies who rely on a steady stream of shipments from their factories. 

Manufacturers who can bring production closer to home markets while maintaining margins stand the best chance of prospering. For VP/Sales, a company’s capacity to deliver will continue to be a key determinant of marketplace success. 

• Average: $185,000
• Low: $88,000
• High: $220,000
• Total comp: $353,00

Telecommunications

Change is a constant in the telecom world and the coming decade will be no exception as 5G rolls out across the world. Intense competition is the norm and that won’t lessen anytime soon as wire-based telecom solutions compete with fiber optic, cellular and even satellite providers. The global appetite for moving data is enormous and growing. The Iot alone promises to add trillions of bits to the packets moved by telecom providers, so the future is bright. For VP/Sales in this arena, the fights will be long and hard, but the rewards could be massive. 

• Average: $185,000
• Low: $126,000
• High: $208,000
• Total comp: $351,000

Read more of our Insights and get tools to help flourish your sales career.

Elite athletes, even the best of the best, invest constant time and resources into training. Famously, Michael Jordan spent time drilling fundamental skills even as he achieved win after win. To sustain high-performance levels, salespeople need to find consistent training opportunities.

Why Traditional Sales Training Isn’t Enough

Reading classic sales books and taking courses is a fantastic way to get started for a new salesperson. Some companies go beyond these steps and invite external experts to run occasional workshops. These resources can help.

Off-the-shelf external sales training resources are rarely a perfect fit for your specific needs. Sure, with the right amount of effort and reflection, your sales staff may be able to draw lessons from general-purpose sales training. However, asking busy professionals to participate in training and then connect the dots about how it might be helpful to their work is asking a great deal. 

One solution to that challenge is to pay an expert sales consultant to provide coaching and training. When you find the right expert, this approach is often an excellent way to inspire your team and quickly increase their results. The downside is that sales consultants know their value and charge high prices.

When you need to boost the skills of your sales team, consider looking inside your team for insights. Running a virtual lunch & learn session to train your salespeople is a powerful way to identify and spread best practices.

5 Reasons To Start Offering

Virtual Lunch & Learn Sales Trainings:

You might not immediately see the value if you’ve never offered a virtual lunch and learn session to train your sales team. There are five reasons why running these sessions is worth your time and effort.

1. Built-In Credibility

When a successful salesperson on your team runs a training session, the person has instant credibility. As a result, it is easy to minimize the typical doubts and skepticism that reduce training effectiveness.

2. Focused “Just In Time” Format

A virtual lunch and learn session is intended to be short and focused. We recommend keeping your session to a maximum of fifty minutes. This allows your staff to take a break before diving into afternoon meetings.

3. Building A Custom Sales Training Library

By recording your virtual lunch and learn session, you can gradually build up a library of training sessions. Over the course of a year, you can build up a sizeable body of knowledge. That resource will become a resource that you can use to onboard future hires and support ongoing coaching.

4. Increase Teamwork

A virtual lunch and learn does not need to be designed or presented by a single person. In many cases, having two or three presenters is ideal because it adds a variety of perspectives to the topic. For example, you might have two high-performing sales representatives in different offices who haven’t worked together. Giving them the chance to work together on the presentation means each person will have a more robust internal network.

5. Strengthen Remote Employee Engagement

More and more sales jobs are fully or partially remote. To promote engagement, give your remote staff the chance to participate in, and create virtual training.

Including remote employees in training projects is just one way you can help them to succeed. See our post on How to Succeed as a Remote Salesperson for ten powerful ways to hit your goals in today’s work anywhere environment.

Planning A Virtual Lunch & Learn Session

Now that you know why these virtual training sessions are valuable let’s break down how to plan your first session.

1. Choose Your Sales Topic Wisely

Selecting the right topic is critical to making the session valuable. There are three types of topics that tend to work well in this format: emerging sales trends, current challenges, or success stories. 

For example, you might have an SDR (Sales Development Representative) achieving incredible results with cold email or video messages. Asking that person to deliver training based on their achievement is brilliant. Alternatively, you might ask your top account manager to share tips on the strategies to boost customer retention.

Before settling on a topic, ask yourself, “Can these ideas, tactics, and strategies be applied this week?” If the answer is no, look for another topic.

2. Call For Volunteers

Ask for volunteers to come forward to lead the training. If there is limited interest, invite your team to suggest different topics. If your sales team is overwhelmed right now, accept that feedback and make a note to revisit training in a few weeks. 

3. Schedule Your Session

Avoid scheduling the training session close to standard sales deadlines like quarter-end or year-end. If you have sales teams in several time zones, you may need to plan several sessions at different times to cover everyone.

4. Create The Presentation

The next step is to create the training presentation. Encourage your presenters to include exercises. For example, roleplaying a sales call for a few minutes might be helpful if the presentation relates to objection handling.

5. Record The Presentation (optional)

Once the presentation is ready, use a video conference app like Zoom that supports call recordings. You can share the recording using Google Drive, SharePoint, or other secure file-sharing services.

If your presenters are uncomfortable with recording the session, don’t insist on it. It’s more important to ensure quality participation. 

6. Collect Feedback

After delivering the lunch and learn presentation, gather feedback from attendees on what they liked. In addition to asking what they liked about the session, invite suggestions for future sessions. 

7. Add The Training To Your Library (optional)

After the sales lunch & learn session is completed, upload it to your training library. You can certainly leverage a learning management system (LMS) if you have a learning management system. Smaller companies can use a more straightforward solution like uploading the video recordings to a service like Dropbox.

Want Even Faster Sales Results?

Upskilling your sales team through training is worthwhile, but it has a downside. It can take weeks or months to create a new training program. Creating an internal sales training program also assumes you already have a few high-performing sales professionals to leverage. 

If you are rebuilding or expanding your sales force to new territories, it might not be the right time to focus on training. Peak has a track record of finding and recruiting successful salespeople. Contact us today to discuss your sales needs.

Looking for a topic for your first sales training session? Considering starting with the Challenger Sales Model. You can learn more here.