Tips for Training Sales Managers

Some of my hardest lessons as a sales leader came when figuring out how to setup and run training (learn from my mistakes!) Me as a new leader: "Great we have 10 topics we want to cover... let's do 1 a week. 2.5 months later we will have covered SO much ground!" 🙃 Training was more of a "box checking" exercise. Someone shared feedback on what they wanted to learn, and it got added to the list Having one 30 or 60 minute training on any topic is never sufficient, and I did the team a disservice So what was missing? And what did I seek to add later? 👉 Focus Instead of 10 topics, we might go into a quarter with 1-2 priority focus areas. The deeper engagement on a narrower topic is not unlike narrowing your focus on a smaller set of ICP accounts This creates room for practice, follow up sessions, different voices delivering the material, and ultimately makes the content stickier 👉 Engagement from other departments Where applicable, involvement from other departments can add incredible value to your training program. For instance, when you are training on a new product category, it is valuable to: - Hear firsthand from Product how it's built - Align your training timeline with Product Marketing so that materials are ready to go as the training commences - Work with Marketing so that messaging aligns to how you can sell it and everyone has the same talking points from day 1 - Work with Rev Ops to identify a market opportunity to apply your learnings - Have Sales Enablement help prepare uses cases in your sales tech stack 👉 A system to encourage accountability Once the trainings are delivered, how do you know that the sales team was paying attention? That can take many forms: - Group activity like pitch practice - Measuring adoption through tools like Gong - Contest/SPIF to encourage initial matching sales activity - Knowledge tests in your LMS (my least favorite) 👉 Repetition There's a reason Sesame Street used to repeat episodes during the week - once wasn't enough to get the message home! While your sales team isn't full of 3 year olds, similar principles apply Bottom line: instead of thinking about any topic as a single "training", think about creating "training programs" for your team 🎓 Tying it all together for a training on "New Product A" Week 1: Product & Product Marketing introduce the new offering Week 2: Outside expert/marketing/leadership deliver the industry POV Week 3: Team gets together to identify prospects and practice the pitch Week 4: Team provides feedback on material and prospecting plans are built incorporating the training Weeks 5-8: Measuring adoption through Gong. Shouting out strong adoption and privately helping laggards identify gaps in understanding Week 6: Short contest to encourage cross/up-sell opportunity creation Week 12: Revisit/Feedback #SalesEnablement #SalesTraining #LeadershipLessons #CorrCompetencies

Want manager training that works in real life, not just in workshops? Then I want to share my checklist of things you should be exploring. Because lately I’ve been having some brilliant conversations with leaders who know their new managers need support…(and don't we LOVE to see this?!) But, understandably, they’re still feeling burnt by training programmes that didn’t land. And it's usually because it wasn't relevant, or based in the messy reality their managers were dealing with that week. No wonder so many new managers feel stuck and CFOs are side-eyeing the budget. So here’s the questions I use in discovery, and the same lens I use to design training that actually shifts behaviour and supports managers now, not “eventually”. (And I hope it gives you a few ideas for your own planning too 🫶) 1. Start with what’s actually happening this week Define the problem to solve. Where are managers getting stuck? What conversations are they avoiding? Where are decisions slowing down? This gives you the focus and framing for the training. 2. Map everything to your operating system Managers sit at the centre of how you communicate, decide, do feedback and deliver. If your training doesn’t reinforce these parts of your operating system, it’s not just managers who will struggle, the whole business will feel the drag. 3. Build solutions into your rhythm, not on top of it If the learning can't be applied in your existing ways of working, it won’t stick. Managers need time and better tools for what they’re already doing, not more tasks. Training should strengthen your operating cadence, not compete with it. 4. Weave training inside the workflow This is where things start to feel different. Conversation scripts, decision prompts, real scenarios pulled from your world. Support should show up as they work, facilitating their flow. That’s where you'll see the confidence grow. 5. Stress-test everything with real scenarios The tricky stakeholder, the tense feedback moment, the project sliding or the decision no one wants to make. Give them a safe space to practice the moments that actually create pressure. 6. Define what ‘better’ looks like in 4 weeks Small, visible shifts tied directly to progress and performance: From faster decisions and clearer communication to fewer escalations and more ownership. That’s how you prove ROI, and how you build the programme backwards from those outcomes. This is the work I love: helping new and "accidental" managers stop feeling like they’re guessing, and start feeling equipped, confident and capable right now. If you’re exploring how to support your emerging managers in 2026, hopefully this gives you a good place to start. #Leadership #EmergingMangers #L&D _______________ If you’re new here, hi 👋 I’m Alicia, co-founder of The Future Kind. I collaborate with people leaders and founders to build cultures, systems, and experiences that enable your teams to be at their best.

LESSONS FOR A NEW SALES MANAGER A field guide from someone who learned every lesson the hard way. When I first became a sales manager, I thought the job was about being the best producer in the room. I was wrong... Leadership isn’t about showing strength. It’s about building it in other people, even on the days you’re running on fumes. Here’s the truth I wish someone had handed me on Day One: 1. The title rewrites the scoreboard. Your numbers don’t matter anymore. Theirs do. Their success is your success. Coach to that, and you'll win. 2. Your standard becomes their ceiling. You don’t set culture with speeches. You set it with what you tolerate. 3. Structure beats intensity. “Go make it happen” isn’t coaching. Architect the week. Protect prospecting time. Create rhythm or chaos will do it for you. 4. Coach the human before the metric. A missed KPI is rarely about skill. It’s fear, confusion, self-doubt, or a broken process. Remember, data reports. Conversation transforms. 5. Role-play protects them. You don’t practice for perfection. You practice so they don’t break in front of a real buyer. 6. Guard their focus like it’s revenue. Most reps aren’t losing deals, they’re losing attention. Great managers are shields against noise. 7. Celebrate discipline, not luck. Outcome-only praise creates gamblers. Behavior praise creates professionals. 8. Don’t pretend to be perfect. Your team doesn’t need a superhero. They need a human being who has walked their road. Get out in the trenches with them. Stay in the fight. 9. Grow people, not just pipeline. Quota achievement is temporary. Personal growth is permanent. Better humans, make better business people. 10. The legacy test: Are your people better because they worked for you… or in spite of you? That’s the question that defines every leader’s story. ➡️ Lead with standards. ➡️ Coach with honesty. ➡️ Protect their time. ➡️ Raise their confidence. And build the kind of people who one day say: “That leader changed my life.” "Lead Different. Sell Smarter. Win with Purpose." --- ♻️ Share this post with a sales leader who needs to hear it. Follow me for more strategies to grow your team and results and drop a comment about how you drive performance… 👇 👉 Follow me on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/eA7csH2q 👉 Beyond The Funnel Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ed3iMb8x 👉 My latest e-Book: https://lnkd.in/eytkJd7Y PS: Thanks for reading!

How Sales Managers SHOULD Spend Their Time (But Often Don’t) Many sales managers think their job is to: • Close the biggest deals • Handle escalations • Solve daily fire-fighting issues • Sit in endless internal meetings But real sales leadership looks different. The most impactful sales managers focus on three core areas: 🔹 25% – Coaching Salespeople Not just reviewing numbers — but improving skills. Call reviews. Objection handling. Negotiation guidance. Strategy planning. 🔹 25% – Motivating Salespeople Energy drives performance. Encouragement, recognition, clarity of targets, and belief in the team. 🔹 25% – Measuring Performance & Accountability What gets measured gets improved. Pipeline health. Conversion ratios. Activity vs outcome tracking. The rest? Recruiting. Strategy. Crisis management. Direct selling. Internal coordination. Important — but not the core. If a manager spends most of the time firefighting, the team stays dependent. If a manager spends most of the time coaching, the team becomes independent. In B2B and industrial sales, long cycles demand strong teams — not hero managers. Great sales leaders don’t create followers. They create closers. Where are you investing most of your time as a sales leader? #SalesLeadership #SalesManagement #B2BSales #IndustrialSales #BusinessDevelopment #SalesCoaching #TeamPerformance #LeadershipDevelopment #RevenueGrowth #Entrepreneurship

Your reps nodded during training. Some even said it was great. But a few weeks later? 💨 The insights are gone. 🧠 The habits haven’t changed. 📉 And results? Still flat. Why? Because most sales training is built to teach – not to stick. That’s what I wanted to help fix. I’ve written plenty about sales training design principles, but this time, I wanted to make it all about practicality. So, in partnership with Hyperbound, I put together 22 powerful sales training activities (exercises, ideas, games) that make learning last and actually build skills. In the guide, you’ll find 3 categories: 🧩 Skill-building exercises like: → Negotiation stopwatch → Case study diagnosis → Value prop do-overs ⚙️ Programme design ideas like: → Spaced learning calendars → Peer coaching carousels → Blended learning labs 🔥 Competitive games like: → Deal closing tournaments → Demo treasure hunts → Objection handling bingo Each activity includes: ✅ Objectives ✅ Clear steps ✅ Practical materials ✅ Tips to reinforce behaviour change ✅ And debrief prompts to turn insights into action --- If you’re done with “Great session!” feedback and want to create training your reps actually remember… Comment “sales training activities” and I’ll send you the high-res one-pager + the full in-detail breakdown. ✌️ #sales #salesenablement #salestraining