Getting up and running with any new tool can be a daunting prospect. You find that there is all this new functionality available to you, that is going to improve the way you work, how you track your time, the way you plan your projects. In this blog, Rowley Cubitt takes us through the sales training process that will enable you to experience a smooth and successful sales training adoption.
Where do you start?
It is a problem you see time and time again, from company to company, industry to industry, especially in the digital age where no business is untouched by the use of digital tools for their day to day operations. This problem isn’t unique to any specific industry tool. But certainly IS present when you talk about HubSpot.
Over the course of the last 14 years, since its founding in Cambridge (USA not UK), HubSpot has grown and grown, adding amazing functionality and when it could add no more, it just built some more tools, to help more and more employees. This resulted in one industry leading business platforms, but also a huge amount to get to grips with. Across Marketing, CRM, Sales enablement, Service, CMS and I bet, some more just around the corner.
Talk about a daunting prospect to do alone.
But fear not, there are plenty of ways you can educate yourself, be educated or just roam free, picking things up as you go (i’d not recommend the last one...again)
As a Sales enthusiast myself (said no-one ever), I see a huge amount of challenges based around the change management of us salespeople. We do not, generally, welcome change too kindly. We tend to make it an uphill battle to shift the comfortable way we work into something different. Change what we are comfortable with to something new. And oh boy do we cry about it!
Saying that, one we see something that would make our lives easier, make our day to day more streamlined or the holy grail we all look for a tool that minimises sales admin, you’ll get people onboard faster than the first public space flight.
And that is where we see HubSpot earning its stripes. Salespeople love it!
Training options:
You have all the enthusiasm possible for a new tool you have championed and your team, company, C Suite are onboard, raring to go, but there is something in your gut telling you to make sure this is done correctly. To be done in line with ‘best practice’. And your gut is right.
Going ahead and letting a load of people lose on a new CRM, new sales tools is a big no no. You could get custom fields created for every sales person, templates added that go against the sales messaging you have spent years crafting, pipelines that have no consistency and data to report on. I shudder even thinking about it.
That is where some real world guidance and use cases in the form of training comes into play.
So, what options are there to train your team on this new way of working? Good question, but you should probably take a step back and look at what stage you are at first.
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Are at the stage of “We’re onboarding HubSpot and want to train our team”
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Or perhaps “We’ve got a new employee who needs HubSpot training”
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Or even “We’re HubSpot users, but want to improve our usage”
Each scenario will give you different options.
When going through the onboarding phase, training is a huge aspect of getting your team invested and skilled with the new tools you’ll be expecting them to use in the come days/weeks/months. This will be the foundational work that will set them up for the length of their stay at your organisation, even far into their career. So it is important to have a well thought out programme to do this.
Training can be broken into two batches depending on the size of your team.
If you are less than 10, this is something that can be done in one sitting.
More than 10, you should look to break this into groups.
In the days before Zoom, you could keep people's attention for hours, but nowadays, 10 minutes is a struggle.
With less than 10, you’d be looking at having two sessions, looking at the CRM, how to create a contact, how to create a company, where your templates are, how to add a deal to the deal pipeline.
Then you should look at some one on one time with each rep as there will be slight differences between them, how they work, their sales style, their typical target customer. So you must think about that tailored, personal approach. We see this way being the most effective to uptick with the tool. You're also ensuring the HubSpot sales extensions are loaded up correctly in each Outlook/Gmail instance.
For more than 10 team members, you will need to look at multiple sessions, and even multiple focuses. BDRs vs Sales Rep vs Sales Managers. All will have a different focus, a different drive and different requirements.
Certainty when considering teams spread across different regions and different time zones, this adds in more complexity.
For the large team (50+), there is a great way to cement training. And that is through champions.
Champions are there to be the first boots on the ground. The first guys through the door and they tend to have the highest levels of enthusiasm for the new processes. Tools, new ways to work. When you get the champions onboard, you then have an ally in each camp. That is the main thing, make sure your champions are made up of different team members, from different regions or seniority. The purpose being that they can then go and (alongside additional team training) provide in house guidance to their team members on best practice and how to do X, Y, or Z. Perfect for effective, quick roll outs of new tools to large teams.
When looking at new starters, you want them to hit the ground running with as much minimal downtime as possible.
One effective way of doing this is putting them on an intensive training course with some one on one support for a period of time. This coupled with the internal champions who will provide the in-house guidance and a shoulder to learn on in those inevitable times where they are stuck, will be a sure fire way to get that newbee onboard at lighting speed.
The third scenario is based around a team refresher. Certainly something we all could do with at certain stages of our careers. In this case, it could be a few half day sessions looking at how your organisation should be using HubSpot and alongside their sales process - almost a friendly nudge to say, you should be doing it this way. A follow up session looking at the new features of the tools, and how they should be used in certain situations. An option to have an open discussion about how they would fit in or help in certain scenarios. Here is a review that was left for us based on this exact situation (and what a coincidence, it name drops me).
Alongside all of these options, you have the self learning platform that HubSpot provides called the HubSpot academy. This is a huge amount of educational material designed for complete self service. You can digest blogs, eBooks, Webinars and even exams that reward you with certifications (only once you’ve passed the exams). It is a must for all levels of your company as it will ensure they are thinking more about the “why” am i doing this as much as the “how”. One person you’ll recognise who is your guide and professor along the way is Kyle Jepson. He has taken HubSpot learning to another level and produces HubSpot tips and trick videos on his LinkedIn channel - connect with Kyle as it is a must watch series.
When looking for people to help with your training, there is one thing about all else I would look for. Make sure they are a HubSpot Certified Trainer. This is an award that HubSpot themselves provide as an accreditation to people who are physically assessed by HubSpot to ensure their knowledge, training style and capabilities are upto a certain standard. It is just that rubber stamp of approval to say, this person knows what they are doing and talking about.
With all of these situations, the key is to develop a training plan that will match up to how best to serve your team. When considering this, you should look at:
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You teams size
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Your teams regions and timezones
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Your teams function e.g. BDR, Sales Manager, VP of Sales
Once you have considered these aspects, you can look to defined the type of scenario you are in:
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Onboarding with HubSpot Sales and CRM
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Getting a new starter up and running
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Providing a refresher to the team
When considering these aspects, you’ll be able to match up to the appropriate training for you, but the thing is, all training is different and should be. The way one company sells is very different to another and the teams need to be training in the way YOU sell.
That is where Tailored training is the only option. And you’ll be surprised to know, Huble Digital does just that.
If you want to know a bit more about options for training your team, what a typical agenda would look like, our training team, you can find out more here:
Or book some time with the team to talk through your training schedules and plans.
