Training and coaching on workflows

Hey sales leaders: Want to improve a specific skill among reps? The solution probably isn’t a training on that specific skill.

Imagine teaching someone how to grill a steak without also making sure they know how to choose the right steak, turn on the grill to the appropriate setting, choose the right utensils, and move the steak from the grill to the plate when it’s done.

Sounds silly, right?

But that’s what almost every sales training is like.

We deliver a training on discrete skills — e.g., cold calling, asking discovery/qualification questions, telling customer stories, uncovering business impact.

We deliver a training on process — e.g., prospecting, handoffs from SDR to AE, sales stage exit criteria, deal desk.

We deliver a training on tools — e.g., Outreach/Salesloft, Salesforce/Hubspot, Gong/Chorus, ZoomInfo/Cognism.

We deliver training on content — e.g., a new discovery deck, a new proposal deck, a new case study.

But in real life, the stuff a rep is learning in any of these trainings is almost never applied in isolation.

In real life, almost everything a seller does is a combination of at least 2 or 3 of things things — skills, process, tools, content.

If you’ve got a discovery call, it’s obvious you’re using your disco/qualification skills. But you’re also using using at least a couple tools (Zoom, Gong, Evernote, etc); you also have to be mindful of your SDR-to-AE handoff criteria/process; and maybe you’re also using sales deck and a follow-up email template.

So if the act of discovery call requires a rep to use skills AND process AND tools AND content, wouldn’t it make sense to train reps on how to execute that entire workflow, start to finish?

In adult learning theory, this principle is known as Contextual Learning (or In-Context Learning). Adults learn best when what they’re learning is situated within the same context in which they’ll be applying it.

What does this mean for your enablement team when they’re creating and delivering training?

Before creating any training, think about the context in which the learning will be applied — including what they’ll be saying, the click path they’ll be doing on their computer, how they’ll need to transition from one tool to another, and how they’ll need to access and share any content. And train on that entire workflow.

I call this ‘workflow-centered enablement’. You can call it whatever you want.

But approaching training like this will almost certainly have greater impact … it will demonstrate to sellers that you understand them … and it will be seen by sales leaders as way more practical and actionable.

Happy selling.

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