Developing well-coordinated training programs for new salespeople and existing salespeople alike can provide tremendous ROI.   . In working with clients, we at Acumen Management often find that sales-training programs suffer from problems such as inadequate new-employee orientation, sporadic and unfocused ongoing training  and nonexistent or ineffective role-playing scenarios. The good news: Sales- training programs don’t have to be sophisticated or expensive. At Acumen, we believe in creating a detailed three-week new-hire training plan. MORE >>

Obviously, trying to drive sales reps in the field to a document management portal they don’t use to obtain the materials they need isn’t a winning strategy. Fact: Most sales people use some form of CRM system. Fact: We use Salesforce.com as our CRM, including the Chatter application. Fact: We use Sharepoint as our internal document management portal. Create a multi-channel, automated process to market the training material to the Sales team and track how they were absorbing it to determine what tweaks to make for subsequent campaigns. MORE >>

Clearly document your current plan and tabulate payments against results over time. 9.    Increase your investment in training of sales skills, product/service knowledge. Review your past efforts, take an inventory of training needs based on individual salesperson comparisons against your desired profile. Schedule on going training programs. Develop your own internal programs to ensure your salespeople fully understand and can sell your product/services and then arrange for commercial sales skill training programs. Find ways to be different! The reason? MORE >>

Additionally, the study documented that "the gulf between the early adopters and those waiting to take the plunge has actually widened.". Step 4: Track and Measure Social Media Leads - Regardless of how you track your prospects (CRM, spreadsheet, etc) make sure to designate a lead source. Social media is offering efficiencies to companies, most notably in the customer service side, but also in areas like communications and training. study by Bain & Company , " Putting Social Media to Work ," confirmed that many companies remain on the sidelines of adopting social media. MORE >>

After talking to eight of the top thought leaders in sales training and sales technology we wanted to bring their insights to you. Every time they receive a referral, email or leadership content, salespeople can highlight names mentioned in document, then research mentioned leaders, clients and customers — even competition — and send a note or invitation asking to join their conversations via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. Interviews Sales Intelligence Social Media Tips Social Selling B2B b2b sales crm 2.0 “ Miles Austin. Marge Bieler. MORE >>