R
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recruiterguy

Associate Partner

Contributor
Fire Starter

Sales Training - Worth it?

I never really had formal sales training to be a recruiter... Just make calls and eventually you'll figure it out. I don't have an exact science of a process, I just know enough people that my business has been referred in circles.


Looking at the next generation at the firm, the talk of hiring a sales trainer or sandler or something of the sorts has kept coming up.


We work in a 100% commission environment but provide salary until a rep is profitable. 6mo - 1yr.

Is it worth it to partner with a professional sales trainer for new hires?

Attached poll
*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.
🥎 Training
🧢 Sales Management
🧠 Advice
12

22 comments

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CoorsKing
WR Officer
11
Retired King of the Coors Knights
Ehhhhhhhhhhhh I think it’s very hit or miss. I have found most “sales trainings” I have done to be hot garbage, however classes focused specifically on one part (negotiating, prospecting, qualifying, etc) have been good.

IMO - most “sales trainers” are failed reps who think they are hot shit and just say high level buzzwords enablement wants to hear. 

However like the more focused “master class” approach seem to pull in much more qualified teachers.
recruiterguy
Contributor
1
Associate Partner
I like this.... We have a slow ramp to teach youngsters the recruitment process, why couldn't we do that with sales...

Top of funnel training - period of performance - in on calls, meetings, etc. 
Phone training - period of performance - evaluate - in on negotiations calls, etc.

Sink or swim worked for me but it took me 7 years to get into real $. Gotta be a better way for the next gen of small firm lifers. Thanks!
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
4
sales
Yes, training is important. Ours was only about 2 weeks and you still felt like a baby bird hitting the phones, but getting the knowledge, resources to reference, practicing the process and memorizing material allowed us to be successful in month 2 instead of month 6.
recruiterguy
Contributor
2
Associate Partner
On staff sales training? Outsourced? 
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
0
sales
we have internal training. one guy trains everyone.
MinisterOfChaos
Politicker
0
Commercial Account Executive
I think a key aspect of any training is, like Grizzle mentioned, the resources for future reference. 

There's a lot thrown at you as you ramp in a role and the knowledge of where to go in the future to get the information you need once things start to click is super helpful and reduces the amount of time you go around asking others for answers to questions you can find yourself.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
4
🦊
Paging @BigCheese 
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
Beep beep 🦊
InQ5WeTrust
Arsonist
4
No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL
Investigate the program and person. Training 100% can be helpful but do your research 
GoldDigger
Fire Starter
0
Sales Rep
As someone newer in the industry, do you thinking checking with former trainees is a good place to start? I feel like any references they give you will be good ones. 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
4
🦊
Training is extremely important, and it needs to be specific to what you guys are doing. I've had so much time wasted in the past going through generic sales trainings that no one used once they returned to the field.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
3
Agency Recruiter
I came into my first recruiting gig with sales experience and acclimated much quicker than the rest of my class. I think it was extremely valuable. At the end of the day, recruiting is very much sales, and recruiters who don't realize or embrace that mindset generally fail. Another problem with recruiters is that most of the training is just that "make calls, you'll figure it out" strategy that you mentioned. While this may work with some, the majority are left without really knowing what they're doing and these are the recruiters that give the whole profession a bad rep. I highly recommend sales training to new recruiters (granted it's not a BS course).

Edit: This is all based on the assumption that you're hiring recruiters without any prior sales/recruiting exp.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
3
🦊
Cue the ghosting, spray and prays, no researching, etc.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
Ahhh the fresh-out-of-college recruiter starter pack
recruiterguy
Contributor
1
Associate Partner
Preach.... I've seen great recruiters that can't work full desk.... errr I was a great recruiter that couldn't work a full desk, but I never let myself have a 0 month. Had I not started my career at a small firm it probably wouldn't have  taken as long to make milestones. 

Any recommendations for trainers?  Is that not allowed on here? 
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
Idk some of those big firms are the ones with the worst and broadest training, but it's all subjective.

What do you mean in regards to recommendations for trainers?
TheNegotiator
Arsonist
1
VP of Sales
I strongly disagree with the results of the poll. Sales training is ALWAYS worth it. You can learn something from literally anyone, and in some cases when I watch absolute morons present asinine garbage, what I learn is how disillusioned they are, and how not to come across that way myself. I see value in that. . Education and learning can only benefit you. I’m not saying spend days or weeks listening to crap, but consume the content in an efficient manner and extract what you can. You don’t have to take and use all the data you’re exposed to, but chances are 99999/100000 you’re going to learn something you didn’t know, or gain exposure to a perspective you didn’t previously have. . For us in sales, that’s worth cold, hard 💰
Sheriff
Politicker
0
Sales Trainer
We relied on on the job training and shoulder tapping for a long time. Once we had a formalized onboarding and brought in training it drastically improved ramp times and success of our AEs.  We use the MEDDICC system and have an outside trainer come in for that. 
cw95
Politicker
0
Sales Development Lead
Spent a week at a training course in which all they taught you was a 40 year old robotic script. All forty of us on the course thought it was awful and constantly challenged them saying ‘yeah this really wouldn’t work in what I do’ they had none of it. At times they wouldn’t let you pass certain parts of the course unless you stuck to the script on a pretend phone call. Absolutely awful. Still got a certificate though.
IYNFYL
Politicker
0
Enterprise SaaS AE
I think the gap in sales training is most companies show you how to sell, but doesn’t reflect that back to the solutions you actually sell…so most reps have to connect the dots. Every deal and space is different, show showing that full puzzle is critical for rep success!
SalesPharaoh
Big Shot
0
Senior Account Executive
My problem with sales training is that usually their content is based on assumptions that you have the marketing prowess of companies like SalesForce, Google, Twillio, you name it so they are always non shalantly sharing tactics that could be useful when you work for fortune 500 because a lot of the awareness and educating of the name is already done by the marketing teams. 

Come to a startup, or scale up where nobody knows what you are it's a different story and having sales training to address this segment so far in my experience has always been a miss. Even though they might share some good ideas that can help you as a rep in general but it may not really make the difference to your day to day prospecting/sales activity you do if you are already shorthanded.

Invest that money with reps to choose education online of their choice that way each rep knows what they need to work on, whether you give them book vouchers or udemy, coursera, masterclass what have you.
Sniper
Valued Contributor
0
Enterprise Account Executive
The fact that only 5% think it depends on the rep is surprising

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