When partnering with a sales training coach, smart leaders at Lake Forest companies make the most of our expertise by asking key questions upfront. Below I’ve outlined answers to the most frequent and important FAQs I field from local businesses exploring enablement:
How Do You Tailor Programs to Our Business?
Effective sales training cannot be one-size-fits-all. That’s why I work closely with leadership to understand your specific offerings, ideal customer profiles, branding, messaging, and points of differentiation. This allows me to customize the approach, examples, roleplays, and practice scenarios so reps master sales conversations that authentically resonate for your industry and buyers. My goal is sales messaging that sounds like your company, not generic platitudes. Everything I teach is targeted to your business context.
What Methodologies Do You Apply?
Depending on your needs, I pull from proven sales methodologies like spin selling, challenger, solution selling, and value selling. I’ll also employ techniques like the pyramid principle to structure powerful presentations. These researched frameworks provide guardrails while leaving room for creativity and personality. My process involves assessing which methods best align to your ideal sales cycles and conversations. I’ll always explain the science behind my coaching strategies.
How Do You Avoid Overloading Reps?
Even the best sales training only sticks when properly paced and reinforced. I’m careful not to overload reps with too many messages and tactics at once. Our sessions focus on a single principle at a time through repetition. I’ll have reps practice one new aspect of a sales conversation until it feels natural. Mastery takes time and patience. We make the most progress going inch wide but mile deep on core skills.
What’s Your Approach to Roleplaying?
Practice scenarios are core to my programs, but I don’t force reps into uncomfortable situations. I’ll first model new tactics myself until the reps gain confidence to try. For realism, I portray potential customer objections based on the traits of your actual buyers. The goal is creating low-stakes experiences mirroring common sales interactions. We celebrate small wins to build momentum. I keep the environment positive and fun, using roleplays to reinforce tactics rather than put reps on the spot.
How Do You Handle Different Learning Styles?
Sales training must flex to varied learning styles. First, I assess how each rep best absorbs principles: by seeing, hearing, or doing. I’ll demonstrate new methods, explain concepts verbally, and provide hands-on exercises. For less vocal participants, I’ll draw them into discussions with thoughtful questions. I watch carefully for signs of confusion, inviting clarification. My goal is resonating with both extroverted and introverted learners.
What Sales Metrics Do You Track?
I partner closely with your sales ops team to continuously track program effectiveness through your CRM system. We’ll monitor deal progress velocity, win rates, average contract values, and other key performance indicators before and after training initiatives. I’ll also conduct qualitative surveys with reps on skill application, providing feedback to leadership. Solid sales training proves its ROI through hard metrics, so tracking progress is critical.
How Do You Sustain Momentum Long-Term?
One-off workshops lack lasting impact. My engagements involve follow-up coaching cadences to reinforce training. We’ll meet 1:1 to practice tactics through roleplaying. I’ll sit in on live sales calls and provide immediate feedback. Refresher sessions reactivate knowledge. To sustain skills, sales enablement requires immersive, ongoing partnership between your team and myself. I become your on-demand coaching resource.
How Can Training Support Managers?
Great individual reps mean nothing without empowered frontline sales managers. My programs train managers to better lead their teams through coaching mindsets and skills. We’ll roleplay situational 1:1s focused on improvement. I’ll also advise managers on supporting adoption of new processes and tools that underpin training. Your entire sales org must work in harmony to execute strategy.
What’s the Right Training Mix?
While my customized workshops provide intensive upfront capability building, I balance those activations with microlearning for more bite-sized, ongoing development. This includes social learning through collaborative discussion boards, mobile-friendly training videos and decks, and gamified skill-building apps. Varied formats and cadences ensure skills stick. I’ll advise the right mix for your learners and sales workflows.
The companies that get the most value from sales training ask thoughtful questions upfront to ensure programs sync to their specific needs and representatives. As your Lake Forest coaching partner, I welcome any other questions as we design high-impact enablement together. My name is Vibha Chawla, let’s start a productive dialogue on sharpening your team’s selling skills.
