A sales training exercise is an important part of any successful sales training program. They help trainers assess the skills and knowledge of their participants, and give participants the opportunity to practice what they have learned.
In this article, we will discuss three types of sales training exercises that every trainer should know about.
Sales Training Exercise Games and Ideas to Boost your Team
In the United States, there are more than 13 million American salespeople. They spend weeks, if they are lucky, training to excel in their job.
Because of the variety of responsibilities, industries and team structures salespeople face, it’s difficult for us to recommend a single-size fits all approach to sales training. Your reps must have the ability to retain and learn the company-specific skills in order to succeed.
We’ve compiled a list of the top sales training activities, games, and ideas. To help you choose the best programs and tactics to train your sales reps, read through the following list.
Sales Training Exercise Team Games
1. This pen is yours for sale
Have you ever seen the Wolf of Wall Street?
Leonardo DiCaprio, real life investor Jordan Belfort, delivers the following line to a group. He challenges them to create an immediate buyer’s need in their eyes.
To solve the problem, you could use any object in the room or office. The problem should be identified by your reps and the obscure solution suggested. The rep should then attempt to sell the prospect the obscure product through mock sales situations.
2. Match Game
List all the software and products that your company sells. Write down a few sentences about the benefits that a potential customer might get from the product.
To determine if someone is a good fit, turn both lists over. Here’s an example.
3. What is a …?? ?
This activity will keep new hires interested.
Once a new sales team is hired, inform them that the company has given instructions to the rest of the company to approach new sales staff at any time during their day and ask ” What?” Then, add the name of your company, your product, or your software.
Salespeople need to be able quickly and clearly explain what they sell. This is especially important if you sell complex software, or if your company has a younger, less well-known clientele.
This can also be used to introduce new employees into other departments.
4. Jeopardy!
Your training ends with a quiz to help new hires. Each category has five questions. Each question is of increasing difficulty and points.
This game is particularly useful for large onboarding classes and retraining large numbers of reps.
Jeopardy! Lifewire has created a list of templates you can use to quiz salespeople regarding product training.
5. Elevator pitch (or EPitch).
The elevator pitch, also known by e-pitch or e-pitch is a simple concept. You are in an elevator with someone to sell to. You have between 30-60 seconds and present your case to them before they get off.
E-pitch competitions can be a great way for new hires to learn. They force reps communicate the product’s worth quickly and clearly. To continue your sales training, you can also hold epitch contests.
This involves placing random objects and ideas into a hat and asking salespeople which one they would like to use to create a pitch. This will improve their public speaking, persuasion, and brevity skills.
6. Pop Quiz
If you reinforce the most important information during training, your reps will retain it. Pop quizzes will make your salespeople more engaged in training and onboarding.
Mobile-based quiz platforms like Kahoot allow you to distribute the quiz and ensure everyone takes part. After the quiz is over, you can analyze the data gaps in your group.
7. Make a commercial
The trainer or sales manager divides reps into teams and gives each group a random object. It could be something abstract like a Lego-like building or an everyday item in the office.
Each team works together to identify the item’s purpose, identify its pain, then write messaging to “sell it” to the group.
Vote and award the best commercial after the presentations.
This game will help you improve your creativity, positioning, and presentation skills.
8. S’up
S’up is a well-known sales game that boosts reps’ confidence.
Your team should meet in public places, such as a mall, or at a networking event. To share the responsibility, have them form a team. Each rep should start a conversation about a stranger. The prospect should request personal information.
Information that is harder to find (e.g. Information that is more difficult to find (e.g., what they ate for lunch) is less valuable than information about their childhood.
9. Still Don’t Get It
This game is similar to S’up and can be played in public. Each rep should be instructed by the other to approach a stranger and ask them a question. The most common way to play this game is to ask for directions.
However, any question will work.
Reps must ask the stranger to provide more information when they receive the answer. Reps earn points depending on how often they push the stranger to find out more. This allows sales reps to better understand prospects and to know when to stop or push harder.
10. Bingo by Cold Call
One of your representatives can make cold calls while the rest of the team listens on speakerphone. Each listening rep will have a Bingo! Every listening rep will have a bingo! Each bingo card contains common milestones and sales skills (such as “price objection” or “need/pain identify”). The goal of this exercise is to encourage team members and to learn from real examples.
Reward the bingo player! Reward the winner and cold-caller for a successful Bingo! achieved.
11. Next Logical Question
Larger new hire classes can play the role of prospects and have reps ask the next question after the statement.
A rep might ask you ” What made you contact us?” Next, you would describe the problem that a potential client might be facing. The rep will then decide which question to ask to address the need.
If you are unsure of the answer or if there is silence, feel free to chime in with your thoughts and guidance. Keep track of all the answers so that you can be the one to ask the most logical questions.
No matter which sales training activities, games or ideas you use in the office, they all should have one purpose: Improve the performance of your salespeople. Ross Nibur, Director Revenue Operations and Strategy (and former director of business development at Toast), suggests a four-step process for developing and implementing any type sales training idea.
These are the questions that sales trainers must answer sequentially.
- What skills or knowledge are necessary to sell people?
- These skills are essential for business growth and success.
- How can we ensure that salespeople are knowledgeable?
- How can we help salespeople who have difficulty learning the skill?
You might decide, for example, that your salespeople must be experts in your product. This answer answers question 1. This information is vital for reps to communicate with prospects about products and set appropriate expectations for end users.
Question three asks you match a training activity to teach or outline the things you want to learn. This could be a sales rep showing a product, which is a great idea for training.
Concerning question 4, reps who fail demonstrate their demos might be given additional documentation, recordings or coaching sessions to improve their skills.
This is an example a training plan with purpose, a clear goal, and concrete next steps to ensure knowledge retention.
Sales Team Building Games
1. Common Ground
This game is particularly useful for teams working in virtual environments. Use the conference room feature in your virtual meeting software to divide your team members into smaller groups. Ask them to think of three things they share, even if it’s not work.
Each group should look at different topics before finding common ground. This builds trust and familiarity among team members, which is essential for creating a supportive work environment.
2. Guess Who
Each member of your team must submit a fun fact about them that the team doesn’t know. Then, play the game. Each member of your team should present a fun fact about them. You can also make a slide with fun GIFs for each fact. Next, have your team identify the person it belongs to.
3. Virtual Escape Room
Escape rooms are a great way to bond with your team and solve problems together. Modern technology makes it easier to do this activity in virtual escape rooms.
Teams often work together to solve complex puzzles, collect virtual clues, or solve difficult riddles in virtual escape rooms. The Escape Game provides guided virtual escape rooms that can be accessed from anywhere via Zoom.
Sales force meetings are not the most exciting part of your week. These activities will make sales team meetings more enjoyable.
Sales Meeting Games
1. Product Jeopardy
What is your team’s knowledge about your company’s products and services? To help your team improve their knowledge, create a Jeopardy board that focuses only on your company’s history.
Start by creating five categories that relate to your company’s offerings. Five categories can be created that relate to your company’s offerings. These categories could include company values, mission, customer stats, and product names.
Next, create five questions per category. Each question will have a point score between 100 and 500, which is related to the difficulty of each question. You can make this game remote-friendly using a template in PowerPoint or Google Slides.
2. Circle of Kudos
Sales reps might feel underappreciated if they work in such a competitive and high-stakes industry. This “circle-of-kudos” exercise will ensure that everyone feels valued.
Every member of your team should shout out recent accomplishments or strengths to another member. Once a team member is praised, it’s time to say something kind about another member of the team. Keep going popcorn until all of your reps have shared their praises.
These games and ideas can be used to improve the skills of your existing team or as part of onboarding training for new sales hires.
Conclusion
A sales training exercise program is an important part of any successful sales training team. They help trainers assess the skills and knowledge of their participants. Plus, it gives participants the opportunity to practice what they have learned, which helps improve the sales teams.
