How to choose the best onboarding software and online sales training tools for your team

Sales training and onboarding software are critical to ensuring your sales team’s success. When you invest in proper training, coaching, and onboarding, sales reps can excel at their work. When they know you’re investing in them, they’re more likely to invest in you.

With the Great Resignation and the influx of remote work over the last couple of years, employee expectations are at an all-time high. Employees no longer feel obligated to stay with a company if they don’t feel valued.

Did you know that 94% of employees see career development as a reason to stay longer at a company? Or, 40% of employees will leave a company after one year if it doesn’t offer good training?

So, how do you retain, engage, and grow your sales team?

It all starts with the right sales team onboarding and online sales training tools.

Sales training is an intermittent process that keeps employees engaged and learning even after they’ve been onboarded. The right sales training and onboarding software allow organizations to implement new hire sales training programs and infuse continuous upskilling into their engagement strategy.

If you don’t want your sales reps to look like this:

Sales in real life (video)

Then keep reading.

Today, we’ll be sharing the different types of online sales training tools your organization needs and the various benefits you’ll experience by implementing a modern sales training LMS.

Different types of online sales training tools

Though your company needs may vary slightly depending on your industry, at their core, online sales training tools can benefit the sales team at any company in any market.

Here are some of the top tools you should consider implementing.

1. Learning management system (LMS)

A sales training LMS should be at the foundation of your new hire sales training programs. This type of onboarding software provides a platform for:

• Delivering training programs
• Tracking employee progress
• Upskilling current sales reps
• Storing key onboarding content
• Creating custom learning content
  
  

Since remote and hybrid work are the norm now, a great LMS should also be easily accessible from laptops, tablets, and mobile devices anywhere in the world.

2. SCORM authoring tool

SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model. While this tool is a bit more technical, it’s key for organizations that create their learning content from scratch. These authoring tools help you:

• Build assessments
• Create simulations
• Record video-based lessons
  
  

The SCORM technical specifications ensure developers and programmers incorporate the correct back-end coding, so learning content will be compatible with their LMS platform.

(Or, you could have an experienced team help you create custom content without having to worry about this backend coding yourself!)

3. Micro-learning platform

Micro-learning delivers information to employees in bite-sized pieces, making learning easier, quicker, and more effective. A microlearning platform is an interactive sales training tool that provides salespeople with easily digestible training of five minutes or less.

Bite-sized content can include:

• Infographics
• Short videos
• Blog content
• Mini apps or games
  
  

With a micro-learning platform, you’ll also have the ability to deliver on-the-spot upskilling anytime your team needs it to stay ahead in your industry.

4. Virtual instructor-led training tool

Even with all the advancements in sales training and onboarding software, there’s still a lot of value in instructor-led training (VILT). With VILT sessions within your sales team onboarding strategy, your employees will feel an immediate sense of community through a more immersive and collaborative learning experience.

When onboarding salespeople, live training sessions (even virtual ones) allow new team members to meet, learn, and create connections, even from their home offices.

5. Communication tool

Every member of your organization can benefit from an online communication tool as part of their everyday work life. Slack, Teams, and Salesforce Chatter are just a few options. These tools support communication between different teams, and managers should include the introduction of these tools in their sales team onboarding.

Communication tools support productivity in fast-paced environments for both remote and in-person teams. Instead of making a phone call, sending an email, or walking to another desk, employees can exchange information quickly while tracking everything in writing.

Quality sales tools and onboarding software offer exciting new ways for organizations to develop killer sales teams in an online environment. Now that you know what some of these tools are, let’s discuss the benefits of using them.

Benefits of using online sales training tools

Sales training is an intermittent process. As the remote workforce trend continues to grow, online sales training and onboarding software are essential to attracting and retaining a talented sales team.

Here are just a few of the benefits of using online sales training tools:

• More consistent employee performance
• Enhanced adaptability to changing market conditions
• Better employee retention
• Increased employee engagement
• Improved productivity
• Stronger bottom-line
  
  

As you can see, there are compelling reasons why you’d want to invest in interactive sales training tools. Whether you’re using these tools for onboarding, training, or upskilling, your team and organization will benefit from ongoing professional development.

Key qualities to look for in online sales training tools

As you look for the best sales training software for your business, there are a few things to keep in mind. The online sales training platform(s) you choose should have the right mix of:

• Flexibility for you to customize content
• Ability to support multiple training formats and delivery methods
• Accessibility from anywhere
• Security protocols and privacy protections
• Analytics and real-time feedback
  
  

In addition, the best onboarding software and online sales training tools should allow for results and measurement. They will provide you with insights, feedback, engagement, and learning measurement. All of these metrics can:

1. Help inform future decisions regarding sales training
2. Provide insight into what’s working and what’s not
   
   

We recommend making a list of what’s most important for your sales training and onboarding software before you start searching. There are a lot of tools and systems out there and knowing exactly what you need can help you find an option that checks all your boxes.

Secure the best sales training and onboarding software with Unboxed Training & Technology

Imagine finding a sales training and onboarding software that combines elements of all the necessary online sales training tools like a sales training LMS, SCORM authoring tool, communication tool, micro-learning platform, and virtual instructor-led training tool into one system.

Now, imagine that system can seamlessly integrate both your existing content and custom content.

Stop imagining, because that’s what you get with Unboxed Training & Technology’s Spoke® Learning Technology Platform.

Spoke® makes learning new skills fun, engaging, and collaborative. Keep your e-learning, sales training, and skill-building content organized in one efficient and productive tool for all new hire sales training programs.

Here’s what you can expect with Spoke®:

• ​​Continuous employee coaching
• Social and collaborative learning
• Intuitive configuration and customization
• Security and scalability
• Micro-learning and gamification modules
• Collaboration and team building
  
  

It’s also a sales enablement tool that allows sales reps to have easy access to vital sales resources, like infographics and demo videos, so they’re always ready to engage new clients/customers.

Request a free demo of Spoke® to see how our sales training LMS and onboarding software works to empower your sales team from day one.