The Sales Performance Meter
Learn where you're strong, where there's room for improvement, and what you need to do to future-proof your sales team.
What will you learn?
Our sales training programs provide individuals and organizations the techniques to:
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Manage sales opportunities better
Learn the process and tools needed to conduct a strategic analysis for accounts with multiple decision makers.
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Create impactful client interactions
Through a simple, repeatable structure, sellers learn the essentials for succeeding at both planned or spontaneous meetings with buyers.
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Protect and grow accounts
Learn the three key stages that sellers can employ to not just renew strategic accounts but increase their value in our sales training classes – data gathering, strategy sessions and execution.
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Win complex sales deals
Break down complex sales into understandable components by adopting a roadmap like the iconic Blue Sheet and Green Sheet to drive organizational strategy to abide by common language and practices.
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Reach high-level decision makers
Overcome buyer hesitations and explore unrecognized needs and learn how to develop a tailored message and presentation style to reach and impact executives.
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Win intricate negotiations
Regain control of the room when things go down the wrong path, preserve client relationships, and secure time with high-level prospects.
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Identify defining moments
Build a foundation of customer service excellence to create loyal and long-term customers.
Let us be part of your success story
Contact us and see how our consulting services can help you achieve your business goals.
Explore our sales training courses
Transform your sales team's performance & improve customer experience
We have pulled together our training courses into two powerful learning journeys – one for sales teams and one for customer service teams. Each journey starts with defining what success looks like in a specific role.
Why Korn Ferry sales training?
Sales role is to inspire, not just inform
As buyers change the way that they want to interact with sellers, organizations must understand those changes and adapt. A seller’s role is no longer just to inform but to inspire. Sellers must be able to develop and add perspective at every stage of the sales process; to help the buyer to learn and expand their thinking and understanding as part of the engagement.
We offer:
Research-based sales training
With more than four billion total data points, including 74 million assessment results, we can predict performance in any role. We use this data to cluster around 8 groups that we call personas. Personas provide a blueprint for how an individual learns. We combine this with assessment data to produce a personalized learning journey for salespeople and managers. We recruit approximately 17,000 sales professionals each year which further informs our point of view on what makes a successful salesperson.
Practical and comprehensive sales training programs
With over 40 years of experience, we have the deepest and richest vault of sales training programs for all roles across the sales process. We combine sales methodology with skills to drive immediate changes in performance. With more than 80 end-to-end programs, available in all modalities and up to 25 languages. We also bring the most comprehensive sales leadership content focused on sales leaders to enhance their abilities and truly bring them into the change process.
Sales training integrated with technology
We use innovative technology to not just reinforce sales learning but bring it to life through the daily work of sales professionals. We create individualized rich learning journeys and deploy components that identify and close critical skill gaps. Our CRM application, Korn Ferry Sell, incorporates sales skills and methodology into daily workflow. It shows sellers, in real time, the actions that drive success; give access to relevant learning; and provide data for sales leaders to inform coaching and development.
An effective approach to sales training
Backed by research that demonstrates what works for sellers, our sales training programs continue to produce successful sales leaders. The effectiveness approach to sales training lies in our understanding of the art and science of sales. From developing hunters and farmers to onboarding new team members, our portfolio of sales training courses creates an optimal learning path for every team.
Ready to improve your organization's sales performance? Contact us.
Korn Ferry named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales Training Service Providers
Powered by the proven, industry-leading sales methodology of Miller Heiman Group, which is now part of Korn Ferry
Frequently asked questions for sales training
Why do I need sales training?
Less than one quarter of buyers see sellers as an important resource to help them solve their business problems, which is why sellers need to not just meet, but exceed buyer expectations. To exceed expectations, sellers need to execute top-notch interactions, focus on business success, come highly prepared and provide insights that educate the buyer. But the reality is that most salespeople lack the skills to do this, resulting in a need for training.
What are the benefits of professional sales training?
Sales training can help sellers:
- Own the conversation - learn key conversational skills, enabling sellers to engage customers and accurately identify buyer pain points, developing stronger buyer-seller relationships
- Ask the right questions - use thoughtful questions to develop a clear understanding of buyer needs allowing for compelling, customer-centric interactions
- Resolve customer concerns - recognize and resolve customer concerns, openly addressing any skepticism buyers have about your solutions or message
- Close the deal - practice and perfect the three-step process for securing customer commitment
How do I select the right sales training programs?
The best sales training programs focus on both the what and the how of successful selling; knowing what needs to be done is very different from possessing the skills to do it.
- What to do focuses on instilling a framework for a robust, effective sales process and looks at planning and executing client interactions, managing opportunities and growing accounts. This includes the ability to initiate opportunities, manage opportunities and grow relationships.
- How to do it focuses on areas such as building credibility, negotiation, securing meetings, asking effective questions and gaining commitment.
How can I maximize value from my sales training programs?
Talent gaps in sales teams are the number one internal challenge cited by many sales organizations. And the reason for this is these organizations often lack the sales training programs they need to enable sellers to reach their full potential. Leading organizations leverage four key practices to get the most out of their sales training:
1. Have a clear definition of a top seller
It’s extremely difficult to replicate winning behaviors in other sellers if the true reasons behind top sellers’ success isn’t clear. Rather than equating quota attainment with success or using their gut instinct to make training decisions, sales organizations need to take a deeper dive into their sellers’ capabilities. They should avoid lagging indicators of success like quota attainment and win rates and focus instead on selling behaviors, including what sellers say and do that helps them close deals.
Data-driven assessments are crucial to help sales leaders isolate key competencies and skills—such as learning agility, curiosity and connectedness— that drive top sellers, and start closing the gaps in performance for their less successful sellers by creating targeted, individualized sales training programs to develop those skills.
2. Personalize sales training programs for each individual
Many sales organizations offer training, because they know they should. But they don’t offer differentiated training that caters to the individual; instead, they treat everyone the same. While this may seem like a fair approach, it’s not an effective one. Not all sellers need the same skills development, nor do they prefer to learn in the same way, whether that’s in a group or individual setting, online or in person, or in a scheduled way versus in their own time.
3. Treat sales training programs as ongoing development
Many sales organizations train on a skill once, often at employee onboarding. But effective learning doesn’t take place at a single point in time; it’s a journey. Organizations that supplement the sales training program with formal coaching have win rates that are 32% higher than those who take a random approach that leaves the coaching process up to sales managers’ discretion.
4. Continually reinforce learning
Even the best sales training program won’t stick if it’s not reinforced. Our tendency to rapidly forget what we’ve learned is explained by the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, which suggests that people forget an average of half of what they learn within an hour, 70% of new information within a day, and 90% within a week. Research also shows that the best way to beat this forgetfulness is to repeat the information learned at spaced intervals. That’s why reinforcement is so important for sales professionals. The key is to make learning, or relearning, convenient. One way to do that is to offer sellers information at the point of work, through your CRM for example.
