Who hasn’t been bored to tears with an in-person trainer talking “at” the audience?  I’m a baby boomer, but can strongly relate to our newest crop of salespeople when it comes to in-person training. In fact, a few years back I was held captive in a three-day public workshop put on by a well-known, national sales training organization with whom I was partnering.  I spent much of the day checking my phone and I hate to admit this, but I completely bailed on the last day.  I just couldn’t take one more monotonous minute listening to the trainer drone on as he slogged through a 200-page consultative sales process manual. If you’re training millennials to sell the way we’ve all been taught since the 80’s, you’re going about it all wrong.

By 2025, experts predict that millennials will make up 75 percent of the global workforce with approximately four million entering each year.  Sales recruiting is already a daunting task given old stereotypes.  It’s equally challenging onboarding new salespeople and getting them productive which normally takes a lengthy 12 to 18 months.  To be most effective at sales training, L&D professionals need to understand the 20 and 30- something mindset. This checklist of critical sales training elements will help ensure success:

• Adapt training to their social learning style and mobility.  Millennials are technology savvy and always plugged in.  They are all about their smart phones and are said to check their devices about 43 times throughout their day.  They have little patience, so their preference for technology makes this the perfect platform for microlearning.  Because of short attention spans, mobile-based  sales instruction is best offered in brief chunks of no longer than five minutes  for highest levels of engagement. Being highly visual learners, short selling videos that can be accessed real-time out in the field are a meaningful method.
• Understand their motivation and tie it into the learning.  Millennials aren’t very driven by financial security as baby boomer salespeople were (and still are).  They are excited by personal development, wanting to sell value and making an impact on the world.  To guarantee engagement, trainers need to tie the company mission and goals into the learning to make learning resonate.
• Clearly define training outcomes and expectations.  With a penchant for instant gratification, millennials are wired to better focus on immediate selling behaviors.  These sales activities should be Specific, easily Measured, Attainable, Relevant and Timely (SMART goals).
• Incorporate graphics and interactive components.   Many of today’s salespeople are in their 20’s and 30’s and grew up playing video games – enjoying the fast pace, immediate satisfaction of earning rewards and moving ahead levels.  Gamification is providing scalable, dependable cloud-based technology — providing web-based games and applying it in a training setting to significantly improve sales productivity.
• Include a collaborative component. “Compared to other generations, millennials tend to be more collaborative, are accustomed to working in teams & have a passion for pressure,” said Joanie Connell, author of “Flying Without a Helicopter: How to Prepare Young People for Work and Life.” Training activities that include teamwork in brainstorming sample selling situations, discussing case studies and role playing are very effective.
• Repetition and practice.  Repeat sales messaging often and in different modes.  With management coaching, new-hires need to have plenty of opportunity and support when practicing their new skills – leveraging what works and tweaking what doesn’t in getting results.
• Provide frequent feedback on sales performance.  Remember, these are the “trophy kids” who grew up with constant parental praise.  Meaningful conversations and interconnectedness matters.  As a result, they both want and accept management feedback to obtain quicker sales results and career progress.

Overall, get better sales training results by asking yourself, “Is this a place where a young person can get excited about doing something great for the world?” Focusing on their unique learning style, motivation and expectations, coaching and feedback needs and team work will provide your company with the edge for faster salesperson on-boarding, increasing sales while lowering costs with higher new-hire retention rates.