5 Features Your Sales Reps Need in AI Sales Training Software
Your organization likely invests in a considerable amount of technology designed to track and monitor sales processes and individual performance metrics. Your sales managers can probably tell you how many leads are currently in the pipeline, which reps are on track to meet their quotas, and which of their top performers have closed the most lucrative sales.
If their data shows your business is kept afloat by a handful of top performers carrying the weight of their entire team, maybe it’s time to upgrade your sales training practices with something more advanced.
AI sales training software uses the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning to evaluate individual skill sets and provide actionable feedback. Upgrading your training methods using AI is a smart investment that benefits not only your employees but also your entire sales force.
When you incorporate essential features into your sales training, your reps become more engaged, gain confidence, and improve the skills needed to succeed. Once you know how sales teams nationwide are making the best use of AI-enhanced training software, it’s easy to see why choosing the right combination of in-demand features is a worthwhile investment.
AI Sales Training Software: A Strategic Investment that Can Transform Your Sales Force
Sales managers and team leaders often strive to ensure every rep understands the value of implementing strategies covered in group training sessions and one-on-one coaching. They also have a lot on their plates. Many are simply unaware when their reps deviate from their training.
Some new hires regress once they’re working unsupervised because they’ve not had ample opportunity to practice what they’ve learned. More experienced reps sometimes resist adopting suggestions discussed during coaching because they feel their status as a top performer proves they’ve mastered the fundamentals or because they’re resistant to change.
Lack of practice and resistance to training aren’t the only obstacles sales managers are up against. Many find themselves with too little time for consistent coaching, role play, or other time-tested methods of ensuring every rep functions at the same level of proficiency. Sales managers and team leaders supported by AI-powered role-play exercises and automated coaching have an efficient, effective way to provide guided learning and shorten onboarding time by as much as 42%.
How AI-Driven Software Gives Sales Reps a Competitive Edge
It takes about three months before new hires are ready to interact with customers, three-quarters of a year to reach full competency, and more than 15 months to rise through the ranks as a top performer. Supporting a highly successful sales team requires teaching and reinforcing critical skills that can’t be absorbed from sales manuals, training videos, or job shadowing alone. Although many successful managers use role play to help their reps close more sales, the majority of sales reps would do just about anything to avoid participating because they feel awkward, uncomfortable, embarrassed, or judged.
AI sales training software can bring reps and managers together in a way that’s more productive (and less awkward). Reps tend to practice 6x more in an AI-driven practice environment, and managers tend to provide 4x more coaching. Perhaps that’s because AI sales tools allow the conversation to focus more on data than on opinions or perceptions.
Related: How to Develop Sales Role-Play Scenarios Your Sales Team Will Actually Use
AI sales training software helps reps refine their skills with role-play and sales simulations at their own pace in a far less stressful environment. Within minutes of completing an exercise, your reps have a detailed analysis of their performance along with actionable AI-generated guidance designed to ensure they’re well-rehearsed and confident—without the audience.
The 5 Essential Features Your Sales Reps Need to Elevate Their Performance
Sales teams are under considerable pressure to generate leads, deliver engaging, audience-relevant presentations, and hit their metrics. Yet polls suggest that most feel they haven’t completely mastered the skills they need for optimal success.
Most often, they can recite “best practices” and know what they should say to counter most objections but have difficulty putting everything together on the spot. In other words, they have barriers while working with clients that their supervisors might not pick up on during role-play sessions.
Today’s most in-demand AI sales training software is designed to see, hear, and evaluate every nuance of your rep’s visual and verbal performance—behaviors and habits other software solutions, and even human observers, often miss.
Sales simulators give your reps access to a virtual sparring partner who’s available on-demand for an unlimited number of practice sessions. Along with providing a full complement of essential features, the best service providers use machine learning that allows you to “train” realistic avatars on your messaging, product line, and market.
Check out the following essential features to see how AI can boost your sales reps and enhance your training program.
Essential Feature #1: Realistic AI-Powered Practice Partners
Many sales representatives argue that role-play exercises are too far removed from reality to translate to real-world scenarios. More specifically, they don’t provide much insight into overcoming challenges as they actually happen. AI-driven software overcomes that obstacle by providing realistic-looking avatars programmed to respond as your organization’s typical client.
When your sales rep asks a question, the avatar answers. When avatars are trained to react and respond as an actual customer would, your reps have ample opportunity to interact in a more authentic setting with scripts that mirror recurring sales scenarios unique to your organization.
Essential Feature #2: Capability Analytics in Multiple Aspects of Sales Rep Performance
Sales managers often rely on in-person observation of sales calls to assess communication skills, adherence to standard sales processes, product knowledge, and the representative’s understanding of their client’s needs. While in-person observation provides valuable insight, subjective evaluations are prone to confirmation bias, stereotyping by age, gender, or experience levels, or a halo effect—the idea that minor flaws are overlooked because the rep is well-liked.
If you’re concerned about performance subjectivity, look for training software featuring capability analytics and AI-driven insights that provide unbiased data in multiple aspects of performance, such as analyzing rapport building, knowledge, messaging, and sales processes. Software capable of scoring, benchmarking, and summarizing key metrics empowers your sales managers with data-driven recommendations.
Essential Feature #3: System Integrations & Real-Time Call Monitoring
With AI sales training software, managers know at a glance how closely their team and its individual members are tracking regarding their sales targets, close rates, and cycle times. For that to happen, select a training platform capable of integrating with your customer relationship management (CRM) tools and sales enablement applications.
Related: How AI-Powered Sales Coaches Can Transform Training Programs
To give your team leaders the ability to capture live video presentations in real time, look for compatibility with today’s popular video conferencing platforms like G-Suite, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. Your sales managers and leaders can secure recordings to evaluate at a later date, identify areas for further development, and provide evidence-based feedback.
Essential Feature #4: Certification & Reporting Capabilities
Most sales reps spend a considerable amount of time preparing for product messaging and certifications. Yet even with detailed scoring rubrics, most are evaluated subjectively and sometimes hastily. Investing in AI-driven training software with certification and reporting capabilities ensures your sales reps are practiced, well-prepared, and assessed according to verifiable data.
Not only does AI sales training software speed up certification processes, but your sales managers will appreciate the level of certainty that an unbiased evaluation process provides. They’ll also be impressed with how much faster new hires gain confidence with products, processes, and best practices in their initial weeks of training. They can know without a doubt that every trainee is ready to sell once their onboarding is complete.
Essential Feature #5: Management Training & Coaching Role Play
Sales manager positions are often filled by people who have demonstrated an impressive level of proficiency in sales. Although it takes a great sales manager to lead a successful team, many organizations don’t provide ongoing training for those responsible for motivating and monitoring their sales reps to refine their leadership methods and coaching skills. Although a recent poll suggests that 76% of sales managers believe they know how to motivate their teams, only 40% of sales reps agree.
When your AI sales training software has leadership development training and “coach the coach” capabilities, your sales managers and team leaders gain access to the same advantage of AI-enhanced role-play exercises and automated coaching—the ability to work on their skills in private with an unbiased AI simulation developed to provide objective feedback and a personalized plan for ongoing development.
Discover How AI Sales Training Software Can Empower Your Sales Team
Most sales managers don’t have the time (or budget) to devote days or weeks to custom-fit role-play exercises. With AI-enhanced role-play and sales simulation training software, you’ll gain an impactful, cost-effective business solution that feels just as real as a video call. Your sales reps can interact with avatars programmed to mirror recurring sales scenarios unique to your organization. To learn more about using advanced AI technology and machine learning to empower your sales team, visit Quantified. At Quantified, everything we do is grounded in behavioral science, research, and data. Our AI-enhanced technology analyzes more than 1,400 behavioral signals and generates scores based on 24 performance attributes of rapport building, knowledge and messaging, and sales processes. To see a Quantified AI-powered sales coach in action, request a demo today.