15 Lessons for Every Sales Enablement Program

Want to take your sales team to higher peaks. Then, it’s time for a sales onboarding revolution.

The first few months on the job are critical for sales reps. There’s a lot of information and skills to learn to get up to speed, hit quota and become an all-star rep. While this is an essential time for a sales rep, many organizations struggle to create and build an effective sales training program. Most leaders we’ve talked to say that onboarding takes too long and fails to actually prepare reps for their role.

In short, we need a better playbook for sales onboarding. And that’s why the Lessonly sales enablement team is releasing theirs.

We’ve gathered the 75 most important lessons in our sales onboarding for AEs and SDRs. The guide features lessons across five phases and organizes lessons by topic and skillset. Each phase also includes knowledge topics reps need to succeed, practice exercises and certification stages. Any and every sales team should be able to turn around and deploy these in their sales training—so reps can get up to speed faster and close more deals.

Here’s a sneak peek at 15 of the 75 lessons that will help you reimagine your sales training program. Want to jump right into all 75 lessons? Get the entire ebook here!

Phase One: Show New Reps the North Star

The first phase of onboarding is all about getting new sales reps oriented. They should spend time learning about the company, who to sell to, how to sell and how to structure the first call.

Buyer Persona Overview

Buyer personas help sales reps better understand their customers. Companies may have more than one persona, so it’s important to deliver training on each one.

Cold Calling Structure

No two calls are the same. Share important characteristics of a successful cold call including the purpose statement, pitch and meeting ask.

Phase Two: Focus on Demo Skills

Once reps understand how to set first meetings, it’s time to focus on demo skills and complete first-call practice scenarios.

The Art of a Demo

A personalized demo is a great sales tool. Help reps learn the basics of delivering a demo and provide guidance about what makes for a successful conversation.

Avoiding Common “Demo Crimes”

Not all demos will go perfectly. Help reps overcome challenges and avoid “crimes’ often committed during demos.

Practice: Delivering a Demo

Once reps learn what goes into a great demo, it’s their turn. Give reps different scenarios that empower them to test their knowledge and hone their demo skills.

Phase Three: Navigate the Deal Cycle

While the first two phases of training focused on generating opportunities and delivering demos, the next phase teaches reps about the deal cycle.

Understanding Opportunity Stages

Getting the opportunity stage right is essential to accurate funnel visibility. Help reps build a robust sales pipeline with a deeper understanding of opportunities.

Pricing Basics

Pricing is a critical conversation in the buying process. Provide reps with a high-level overview of pricing strategy for the products or services (platform fees, user tiers, SKUs, etc.).

Practice: Proposing a Solution

Proposing a solution, discussing pricing and signing a contract is an extensive process. Give reps a new role-play scenario that requires them to create an example proposal and discuss it with a prospect.

Phase Four: Share Best Practices

Phase four focuses on getting reps comfortable with sales best practices, including negotiation and closing a deal.

Maximizing LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a powerful sales tool. Teach reps to maximize and leverage their LinkedIn profile to make more connections and close more deals.

Transparent Negotiations

It happens; prospects push back on price, contract length and payment terms. Help reps tap into the art of negotiation so they can overcome a challenging deal.

Practice: Path to Launch

This practice scenario requires reps to piece together every aspect of deal progression. The goal of this roleplay is to practice closing an opportunity.

Phase Five: Do Better Work

Now it’s time to focus on fully raming reps to deepen their sales skills, close more deals and do better work!

Partnerships Overview

Partnerships with other companies are invaluable to your sales team—and to your entire company. Be sure to share your organization’s partnership strategy and explain how it helps drive sales leads.

Competition Overview

To beat the competition, reps need to fully understand who they’re up against. Provide reps with a competitor analysis on your company’s biggest competitors.

Customer Stories

Customer stories are the lifeblood of a good sales process. Provide reps with different case studies that will help them learn and share with customers.

It’s Time to Transform Sales Training

Designing a roadmap and training program that leads to sales success can seem daunting. We hope these lessons help you reimagine your sales training efforts and puts every new sales rep down a winning path.