How to Coach Your Sales Team on a New Product Launch?
5 minutes read
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Launching a new product is a journey full of excitement and a touch of nerves. A culmination of countless brainstorming sessions, late-night work marathons, and endless cups of coffee. But the success of that launch doesn’t just depend on the brilliance of the product itself. No!! The execution matters. It’s also about having a sales team that’s ready to rock any conversation. In today’s business world, sales teams need more than just a pep talk and a pat on the back.
So, let’s get real for a moment and make a few checks before your next product launch:
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Does your sales team understand the new product inside and out?
Are they able to identify the target audience and tailor their approach accordingly?
Are they trained enough on key selling points and objection handling?
Are they able to practice product-specific role plays?
Last but most important of all, are there enough trainers to train each one of them and provide 1:1 guidance?
This is where two-way AI coaching comes in.
What is two-way AI coaching?
In simple words, two-way AI coaching is a both sides interactive and personalized coaching with an AI persona. Sales reps can engage in simulated conversations with AI, allowing them to practice various sales scenarios in a supportive environment. Be it opening the conversation, handling objections or even getting personalized feedback on improving their pitch, right use of keywords etc.
Pro Tip: Excellent sales coaching leads to 94.8% quota attainment.
Every successful launch comes after handling its challenges. From training sales reps to refining product marketing strategies, the pre-launch phase is a crucial period. Especially in large enterprises, there’s a new product launched every alternate month. Let’s look into the top 4 challenges.
Challenges for Large Teams during Product Launch
To ease our understanding, starting with an example. Say, Mr. Smith owns a massive corporation with a sales force of 10,000. All gearing up for the next big product launch. It is exciting, but it comes with a significant challenge. Even investing just 30 mins for training becomes a costly endeavor, with the added concern that not every rep will receive individual attention. Yet, the critical task remains. Ensuring that each one of his reps is fully briefed about the new product, all while staying up to date on the existing ones.
Limited Training: Without regular role-playing exercises, sales reps may lack opportunities to refine their sales skills of new products.
Shortage of Trainers: Without personalized training or say 1 trainer for each rep, the delivery of guidance and coaching impacts overall performance.
Training Budget Constraints: As the team grows, so does the demand for effective training. This often shakes off available resources and investments.
Knowledge Retention: With multiple product launches in large enterprises, ensuring information retention among sales reps is a challenge.
Navigating these challenges demands a comprehensive approach that not only addresses immediate concerns but also meets long-term success.
Two-Way AI Coaching as a Solution
A solution designed to empower large teams and optimize their performance.
How does Two-Way AI Coaching work, you ask?
It’s like a virtual coach that engages your sales reps in realistic role-plays. Large teams can overcome geographical barriers and ensure consistent training and messaging across the board. So, let’s read how we can re-image the whole process of a new product launch.
1. Product Launch Team Huddle
To commence the launch, assemble everyone for a one-hour call to unveil the new product, discuss training, and address related details.
2. Pre-Launch Training
Sales reps are front warriors. To keep them adept about every feature of the new product, its crucial to let them practice how they will pitch. This is where two-way AI coaching can help. Reps can practice a two-way conversation with an AI persona. They can open a conversation, address objections, emphasize key features, and close the call. Based on real-life scenarios, these can be customized, and reps can get detailed feedback instantly to improve
3. Launch Day Sales Tracking
This is the D-Day and everyone just has one question- what’s the sales number? To keep everyone posted, live track your sales during the product launch. To instantly visualize their sales performance right from Day 1. This real-time insight provides a clear picture of how and which territory is progressing and allows for immediate adjustments.
4. Flexible Coaching
As marketing for the launch begins weeks in advance, reps must stay updated to meet evolving demands and pitch effectively. Two-way AI coaching offers a solution. Enabling reps to access personalized coaching and training materials from their mobile devices or laptops. This flexibility ensures reps stay updated. Be it product information, sales strategies, and best practices, enhancing their preparedness for customer interactions during the launch period.
5. Data-Driven Insights for Sales Optimization
During a product launch, sales managers require instant visibility into their team’s performance to refine strategies. With SmartWinnr reports and scorecards deliver crucial metrics like engagement levels, knowledge retention, and sales effectiveness. These metrics empower sales managers to recognize top performers, offer tailored coaching to struggling reps, and leverage data-driven decisions for maximizing success after the product launch.
Conclusion
As we wrap up our exploration of two-way AI coaching, it’s evident that this innovative solution holds immense promise. By providing personalized, interactive, and accessible training experiences, it empowers sales reps to navigate the complexities of product launches with confidence and skill. So, if you’re gearing up for your next
product launch, feel free to try our two-way AI coaching.
SmartWinnr’s Neo AI is the future of sales coaching. Empowering your sales team with advanced sales role-play activities.
You can register yourself here or share your queries at contact@smartwinnr.com
Need Pre-Survey questions for your new product launch?
Read here: Survey questions to ask your sales teams before your new product launch
Looking to read more such articles? Check below:
Sales Training and Communication Playbook for New Product Launch
5 Reasons to Use AI Role Play in Your Sales Process
Role-play Scenarios for Your Sales Team to handle any sales situation
Published on Fri May 3 2024