PRIME+ Selling System Blog

Many beer and wine sales managers have asked about how to train sales reps for the best results. Ongoing sales training is a long-term solution that can change the trajectory of your sales numbers. However, the efficacy of your ongoing sales training is not just about the content of your training. It is about taking a data-driven approach to choosing the right people, assessing their skills, giving them the right tools to succeed, and measuring growth.

A highly motivated beverage sales team expects to be supported with learning and development opportunities. They look for opportunities to grow and take their own time to develop knowledge and skills if given the opportunity for on-demand learning. In fact, 31% of employees 31 and under and 29% of executives list training and development opportunities as one of the top three retention strategies. This post will outline some of the top strategies for hiring and developing highly successful sales teams.  

1. Assess Your Salespeople 

Building a high-performing sales team doesn't just happen by the luck of the draw. Even intuitive sales managers know that taking a data-driven approach to hiring and assessing the capabilities and growth of their sales reps is one of the keys to having an exceptional sales team. Assessing your candidates helps to indicate what skills they already possess and reveal their motivations and potential. Formal assessments can identify gaps in coaching and performance to create a baseline for sales competencies. 

2. Use a Fact-Based Selling Approach

Fact-based selling gives credibility to your sales reps. It involves using documented, quantifiable facts in the form of metrics and data to support your suggested strategy for solving customer issues. Fact-based selling inspires a deeper level of trust between your salespeople and their customers. When there is an improved trust relationship, the customer sees the sales rep as an advisor, ultimately improving sales and performance.  

3. Align Features and Benefits with Customer Needs 

Training sales reps is a more concise way to impart the necessary skills to solve customer needs effectively. Sales training teaches critical trade math, listening skills, and other objectives to solve customer needs. Being able to compute discount percentages, the volume required to meet both customer and team member sales objectives, or which tactics will increase profits are all vital for helping customers achieve their goals and overcome issues. Industry-specific sales training gives your wine and beer sales team a more in-depth understanding of how your company approaches sales and details about the vineyards, vintners, brewers, and techniques used to create your products.  

4. Create a Continuous Learning Culture 

Training is not just a one-and-done effort. Creating a continuous learning culture means championing, supporting, and rewarding your employee's professional development efforts. It also means providing online sales training that contributes to the growth mindset within your organization. Statistics show that:

• 93% of workers want convenient, easy-to-complete training.
• 91% expect their training to be personalized and relevant.  
• Continuous learning produces 30-50% higher retention rates, increasing stability, productivity, and employee satisfaction.

5. Use Your Tools 

There are several tools available to you as part of a continuous learning culture, including assessments. At Fox Selling System, we have four different assessments that facilitate better coaching conversations and, ultimately, increased sales. Our sales rep scorecard gives managers the ability to make notes as they observe behaviors on ride-alongs for easily accessible reference when it comes time for reviews or coaching meetings that can be compared with the self-assessment that the salesperson fills out themselves. We also have scorecards for sales managers, key accounts, and sales meetings that provide key insight into what behaviors and techniques are effective and which could use improvement, giving you a 360-degree view of your sales organization's capabilities and growth opportunities.  

Another invaluable tool available is our Sell Sheet Generator. This visually impactful, fact-based tool presents what-if scenarios in graphical form to exhibit the revenue impact of sales rep suggestions. By presenting the options objectively, the customer can see the profit and margin stories discussed in the consultation. The Sell Sheet Generator strengthens the relationship between the rep and their customer by improving the salesperson's ability to align the selling solution to the customers' needs.  

Improve Your Beverage Sales with a Strong, Capable Team 

Building a high-performing team starts with assessing the skills, capabilities, and potential of your candidates. However, that's just the start. Developing, engaging, and retaining top talent depends on giving them the tools and techniques that inspire confidence in themselves and trust from their customers. By using Fox Selling System tools like our sales rep, sales manager, key account, and sales meeting assessments, along with the Sell Sheet Generator, your team can reach new levels of success.