Sales instead of PowerPoint: Why sales training should take place on the job

How well do you train your sales reps?

Not good enough - is the honest answer in many companies. According to Hubspot, the average sales rep leaves the company after just 18 months - an alarming figure. A key reason for this is inadequate onboarding and training.

When sales reps leave the company, it costs real money: recruiting, training, lost sales. Too much time often passes before new reps are really "on fire".

No classroom pedagogy

Inefficient, old-fashioned and impractical onboarding and training are still widespread. Presentations, role plays, outdated tactics - instead of performance, this ends in frustration.

Sales training is often still based on methods that are reminiscent of school. But adults learn differently: self-directed, motivated by practice and relevance - not through frontal teaching.

What sales teams need is training where the work happens: in real customer contact, in CRM, on the phone, in video calls.

Training with digital sales guidelines

On-the-job training means that sales reps are supported in their day-to-day work - with specific instructions, feedback and tools that help them in real time. This is exactly where digital sales guides come into play.

Digital playbooks can be integrated directly into existing systems such as CRM, video tools or helpdesk solutions. They deliver:

• Step-by-step instructions in the sales process
• Proven best practices
• Automated tasks (e.g. CRM entries)
• Feedback in real time

This creates a continuous learning process - without a training room, without time wasters.

Habits > Knowledge

Digital sales guides not only form knowledge, but above all habits: The best sales reps are often distinguished not by their level of knowledge, but by their routine actions on a day-to-day basis.

Sales leaders should ask themselves:

• What habits make our top performers successful?
• How can we systematically anchor this in the team?

Digital guides help to do just that - by scaling and automating best practices.

The business case is clear

Sales reps spend an average of 11 hours per week searching for information. If we calculate with €100,000 in personnel costs per year, this alone costs €22,500 per year per head - without having made a single euro in sales.

Digital sales guides bring back this time - and turn it into sales.

🎯 Curious how this works? www.linkando.com/playbooks