Sales Training Techniques: The Best Approaches for Sales Teams

Sales training has evolved into a critical lever for driving performance, retention, and competitive differentiation. In today’s digital-first landscape, sales professionals need more than product knowledge—they need adaptive, high-impact techniques that align with how modern buyers make decisions.

This guide highlights 25 of the most effective sales training techniques used by leading organizations, covering everything from onboarding and negotiation to virtual selling and AI-driven coaching.

Keep reading to learn about the most effective sales training techniques for today’s sales leaders, enablement professionals, and reps. In this guide, you’ll explore:

Complete the form below to download the brief, Building a Sales Curriculum for every Sales Professional, to explore the importance of aligning training to the role each seller plays in your organisation.

What is Sales Training?

Sales training refers to any programme that provides sales professionals with the skills to win the sale. Often, sales training consists of many parts, including  instructor-led training, workflow tools, role-play exercises, and  post-training sustainment.

Sales training is either a single event or a series of engagements. Commonly, a sales training programme covers a single area of focus, like improved selling behaviours, negotiation skills, or prospecting.

Why is Sales Training Important?

Sales training is important because the customer’s purchasing behaviour is more complex than ever. Sellers and sales leaders need a more sophisticated set of skills to address buyers who conduct more of the purchasing process independently.

Sales training also equips sellers with the skills to engage the customer throughout their digital buying journey and to address the growing number of stakeholders involved in a purchase.

Making the most of the seller’s limited time means choosing the most effective sales training technique.

Frequently Asked Questions: Sales Training Techniques

Q: What are the most effective sales training techniques?
A: The most effective techniques include scenario-based role playing, personalised coaching, embedded learning in CRM tools, sales simulations, and microlearning for just-in-time reinforcement.

Q: How do I choose the right sales training approach?
A: Evaluate your team's experience level, the complexity of your sales cycle, and specific business challenges. Combine foundational programmes with role- or industry-specific options.

Q: Which training techniques work best for hybrid or remote teams?
A: Virtual selling techniques, adaptive eLearning, and asynchronous coaching modules are ideal for hybrid teams that need flexibility without sacrificing engagement.

Q: How should we measure the effectiveness of our sales training?
A: Key indicators include improved win rates, shorter ramp times, increased pipeline velocity, and behavioural shifts observed through manager coaching or call reviews.

Q: Is AI used in modern sales training programmes?
A: Yes. AI powers personalised learning paths, real-time CRM coaching, skill gap analysis, and even virtual simulations that adapt based on rep performance.

Top Sales Training Approaches

There are many different approaches to sales training. There are a lot of different ways to break down the different techniques - here, we are using 5 categories: foundational sales techniques, strategic and complex selling approaches, skill-specific training, virtual, inside & digital & sales skills training.

Foundational Sales Techniques

Consultative Selling

Consultative Selling prioritises relationships and open dialogue to identify and provide solutions to a customer's needs. It is hyper-focused on the customer, rather than the product being sold.

• Pros: This is a good approach for teams that want to make a complex sale while meeting the needs of many stakeholders.

• Cons: This approach is not suited to teams that have limited interaction with customers or teams selling commodity goods.

The Challenger Sale

The Challenger Sales Methodology equips sellers to lead with insight, challenge the buyer’s thinking, and guide conversations around business value rather than just product features. This technique is built on three pillars: teaching for differentiation, tailoring for resonance, and taking control of the sales conversation. It’s especially effective in complex sales environments with multiple stakeholders and evolving buying criteria.

• Pros: This methodology is ideal for complex B2B sales environments with multiple stakeholders and long buying cycles. It’s especially effective when selling disruptive solutions or when sellers must differentiate in highly competitive markets.

• Cons: Challenger selling requires a strong foundation in business acumen and confidence. It may not be well-suited for junior reps or transactional sales environments where buyers seek straightforward product comparisons. Successful adoption also depends on manager enablement and reinforcement.

Value-Based Sales

Value-Based Selling is the act of prioritising the customer’s needs over those of the sales professional. Value-based sellers refrain from the practice of pushing a solution at every stage of the buying process. Instead, they seek to bring meaningful value to customers without directly positioning the solution.

• Pros: Value-based selling is a good approach for teams that have the flexibility to take their time with the customer. Doing so means getting the full dimensions of the customer’s situation so that the positioning language is more resonant later.

• Cons: Value-based selling is not appropriate for sellers focused primarily on tight deadlines to reach a revenue figure driven by volume.

Relationship Sales Training

Relationship Sales training is an approach that prioritises trust-building in the buyer/seller relationship. Sellers learn how to grow into the role of an advisor so that their insights become valuable to buyers who seek guidance on strategy.

• Pros: This is a good sales training approach for teams that want to foster a deeper connection with customers. This style of selling lends itself to solutions that require a longer sales cycle, which affords sellers the time to create a rapport.

• Cons: Relationship sales training is not suited for sellers in a retail sales role in which the time with the customer is limited.

Inbound Sales

Inbound sales training teaches sellers how to engage customers who contact the organisation to inquire about a product or service.

Inbound sales refers to selling to leads that have already expressed an interest in the product or service. As a result, sales professionals have more background information about the customer's situation and can prepare for the sales conversation.

• Pros: This is a good sales training approach for sales teams that have an existing inbound sales process that can continually generate qualified leads.

• Cons: This is not a good sales training approach for field sales teams or sellers tasked with generating leads through prospecting.

Strategic and Complex Selling Approaches

Major Account Planning

Major Account Planning training teaches sellers how to develop a plan for generating high-value sales and raising the level of relationships in major accounts. This approach is intended to improve margins and defend the account from competitive threats.

• Pros: This approach is best for sales leaders and sales teams that need to reduce acquisition costs by expanding existing relationships and retaining priority accounts.

• Cons: This sales training approach is not suitable for sales organisations positioning basic solutions that do not present opportunities for expanded business within each account.

Strategic Account Planning

Strategic Account Planning is a customer-centric approach to identifying priority accounts, capturing, and analysing critical information, and developing a strategy to expand and grow existing customer relationships.

• Pros: This is a good sales training approach for sales teams that want to close deals faster and focus their efforts on only those accounts that have the greatest potential for expanded revenue.

• Cons: This is not a suitable approach for sellers who are just beginning to build their book of business. Strategic Account Planning sales training is about growing existing relationships.

Strategic Opportunity Pursuit

Strategic Opportunity Pursuit sales training prepares sellers to develop a selling plan that is buyer-centric, strategic, and differentiated. Doing so means developing the skills to understand the buyer’s new setting, the buyer’s emotions, and the factors that trigger the buying journey.

• Pros: This is a good sales training approach for sales teams that want to sell to buyers who work in an industry that is experiencing a dramatic change in a short period of time. This is also a good approach for sellers who engage customers with complex challenges.

• Cons: This is not a good sales training approach for sellers that are part of an inside sales team that have fewer opportunities for direct and ongoing communication with the customer.

Skill-Specific Training

Sales Prospecting

Sales Prospecting training helps sellers develop the new skills needed to generate leads. Modern prospecting skills are critical in today’s setting in which the buyer conducts more of the purchasing process independently and across digital channels.

• Pros: This is a good training programme for sellers seeking ways to become their own micro-marketer. Prospecting skills are also crucial for sellers who need a better way to generate qualified leads that represent larger selling opportunities.

• Cons: Prospecting sales training is not a fit for sales teams that have a separate, internal team tasked with providing leads.

Sales Negotiations

A Negotiation training approach prepares sellers to shape the customer’s perception of value while working toward a mutually beneficial outcome. Sellers develop the skills to justify the value of the solution and protect the deal size.

• Pros: This is a good sales training approach for sellers positioning expensive solutions to a group of stakeholders. It is also effective for sellers who are working within a highly competitive environment.

• Cons: This sales training approach is not appropriate for sellers who are new to the sales industry and still need to develop the foundational selling skills on which negotiation skills are built.

Sales Territory Management

Sales Territory Management training equips sellers to analyse geography and prioritise current customers and prospects.

Learners typically develop the skills to create monthly and quarterly action plans that build discipline and ensure smart time management. Sellers learn to make fact-based decisions on where to invest their time.

• Pros: This training is best for teams that need to improve their productivity and get more strategic in their ability to correctly identify the highest potential opportunities.

• Cons: This approach to training is not optimal for those who are not working within a territory sales model.

Channel Partner Selling

The Channel Sales approach is a methodology designed to help channel partner managers to develop and manage a portfolio of partners to generate higher levels of sales results. This sales training approach develops the skills required to effectively identify and recruit channel partners, jointly plan for partners’ growth and success, and significantly improve the level of relationship with channel partner organisations.

• Pros: This training is suited for sellers and sales teams that seek to increase partner productivity, increase profitability, and boost the efficiency of channel support resources.

• Cons: This is not a good approach for those in a field sales role or a team selling environment in which channel partners are less relevant.

Selling with Storytelling

Selling with Storytelling is the approach of applying a framework that crafts a setup, conflict, turning point, and resolution. Storytelling programmes primarily focus on two areas: how to build a great story and how to tell a great story.

• Pros: This is a good sales approach for those positioning complex solutions that involve a lot of data or technical detail. A narrative structure is critical for contextualising an array of information.

• Cons: Selling with Storytelling is not a good fit for those who are selling IoT and SaaS solutions that require discussions of technical details.

Virtual, Inside, and Digital Sales Skills Training

Inside Sales

Inside Sales training teaches sellers how to sell from a distance, often within an office setting, rather than via in-person interactions. Sellers learn how to leverage phone conversations, email, and online communications to win the sale.

• Pros: This sales training approach is best suited for teams in an office setting that are attempting to sell to a wide customer demographic.

• Cons: This is not a good sales training approach for sellers who are positioning solutions that would require approval from a diverse set of stakeholders.

Virtual Sales Training

Virtual Sales training teaches sellers how to sell to customers over a virtual medium. As more sales teams become geographically distributed and travel costs become prohibitive, virtual selling is becoming popular.

• Pros: This sales training approach is perfect for teams that are attempting to sell to customers across the US or internationally.

• Cons: Virtual sales training is less effective for those who sell tangible goods or products that must be seen working within a larger context, like manufacturing.

Social Selling

Social Selling training empowers sellers with the tools and techniques to connect with customers via social channels, highly customised content, personal branding, and open dialogue.

• Pros: This approach is good for sellers who seek to be more engaging with customers who are increasingly hard to access throughout the digital buying journey.

• Cons: Social selling is not a good fit for sellers who depend on face-to-face conversations to fully articulate the value of a solution.

Coaching, Enablement, and Pipeline Management

Sales Coaching

Sales Coaching training equips sales leaders and managers with the interpersonal skills to coach sellers when and where they need it most. As the buyer’s behaviour continues to change rapidly sellers need coaching that happens in the moment.

• Pros: Sales Coaching Training is a good fit for leaders that need a framework that can be used to support sellers as they navigate the new complexities of selling including the customer’s digital buying journey, stakeholder alignment, and deal qualification.

• Cons: Sales coaching is not suited for organisations that have not yet identified their sales methodology. Any sales coaching training must follow a formalised sales training methodology.

Pipeline Management

Pipeline Management training helps boost performance in the sales organisation by providing sales managers and leaders with the ability to quickly review their team’s sales pipelines and opportunities and provide meaningful and objectively based coaching that improves their sales team skills.

• Pros: This approach is good for leaders who want to develop a repeatable process for sales performance, improve pipeline forecast accuracy, and improve pipeline velocity.

• Cons: This sales training approach is not suitable for anyone who is not in a sales leadership role.

Sales training has become a precision instrument. Getting the right outcomes starts with a careful selection of the training that is the best fit for the sales team.

The key is for leaders to first build a training programme that gives the sales team a solid set of foundational skills, then to add to that foundation with specialised training topics suited to the specific challenges the seller faces.

Richardson is proud to offer a broad and ever-expanding suite of training solutions and delivery models. We take pride in our ability to customise programmes to meet the unique needs of our clients, regardless of industry, team complexity, or geographic location. Our 40+ years of experience lays the foundation for our continuous evolution as we strive to meet the needs of modern buyers, get to know us and you'll learn why we're the most trusted training partner in the industry.