Sales training videos might be one of the last items on your to-do list, but they can push your team’s efficiency and performance forward. Only 74% of sellers achieve 70% or less of their sales quota, but imagine what those numbers might look like if your team was equipped with the latest and greatest sales techniques.
Of course, knowing the benefits of sales training videos is one thing, creating them is another. Where do you start when your to-do list is already swamped with sales calls, spreadsheet analysis, and playbook updates? And how do you create sales training that your team actually engages with and doesn’t distract them from client-focused work? Finally, how do you check all these boxes and create training videos without breaking your budget?
Learn how to create, share, and update sales training content that helps your team hit higher numbers, and how to use tools like Loom’s screen recorder to create a scalable sales training library.
How sales training videos can help your team reach their potential
A library of sales training videos is the foundation for a successful sales training and coaching program, and here’s why:
Scalable, accessible learning: Sales representatives can access videos for asynchronous training that works with their schedules. You spend less time managing tedious training content updates, and your team can benefit from the most recent, high-quality information that boosts teamwide sales success.
Shareable: Training videos are an easy way to promote sales and marketing team alignment—two teams that work better together and that 14% of high-performing salespeople are likely to describe as “strongly aligned.”
Visually engaging: It’s not surprising that 44% of people prefer to learn via short videos instead of ebooks and manuals (16%) or presentations and webinars (5%). After all, video is an engaging format that makes complex and abstract concepts easier to understand.
Bite-size: Short videos can deliver bite-size learnings that serve as a quick refresher, and your sales reps can access them between meetings and sales calls. Microlearning modules are also ideal for making more complex information easier to digest.
Personalized: You can create training videos for specific industries, scenarios, and even clients. Additionally, peers can create informal screen recordings using tools like Loom to share new learnings and strategies.
Cost-effective: Once you’ve created them, your sales training videos can be rewatched at any time. This makes them a cost-effective solution compared to recurring in-person training or webinars.
Usable for multiple scenarios: The power of video training doesn’t end with sales topics. Use video recordings to onboard employees during new hire orientation, as a team communication tool for delivering client updates, or to simply say “Hello!” and foster strong bonds between teammates. Put your sales team in the driver’s seat, where they can use video messaging to deliver engaging sales presentations.
Boosts retention: Ongoing training and development opportunities can improve employee retention on your sales team and company-wide. The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) found that, when career fulfillment—including opportunities for career growth—is high, employees are 12 times more likely to rate their workplace culture as good or excellent. And when employees view workplace culture as good or excellent, they’re 83% less likely to actively look for a new job.
Along with these benefits, training videos can adapt to your sales team’s needs to create effective, engaging learning experiences.
5 effective ways to use sales training videos
Part of what makes video training content so versatile is that it doesn’t all have to look the same. Here are some different types of sales training videos you can use to educate and empower your team:
1. Product knowledge videos
This training content shares detailed information about your company’s products and services, helping business development representatives hone in on the features and benefits to highlight in their next sales pitch.
2. Sales technique videos
Visual training content is excellent for demonstrating core selling skills like prospecting, closing, negotiation, and handling objections. Better yet, creating your own training videos lets you pick and choose which techniques to teach, aligning training with your company’s sales process.
3. Real-life scenario walkthroughs
Videos are a helpful way to share all the context of real-life sales situations so sales reps can learn how to replace traditional prospecting with social selling or follow up to boost response rates.
4. New technology and trends training
New tech, including AI, is shaking up every industry, sales included. A 2024 survey by RAIN Group found that 50% of sales leaders and sales reps find it difficult to keep up with AI advancements—and 85% haven’t had any sales-specific AI training.
Video training can help your sales reps stay ahead of the curve when it comes to trends like social media sales methodologies and new sales prospecting tools.
5. Onboarding videos
Did you know that we forget up to 90% of new information within a week? This is based on the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve concept, but you can improve retention during critical times, like new employee onboarding, with just-in-time training that creates engaging, interactive experiences through video.
How to create the best sales training videos for your team
Start building your sales training program by creating engaging videos with these best practices:
Keep videos short and focused
It’s recommended that microlearning videos take learners five to 10 minutes to view, making it essential for them to focus on a single topic or skill.
This not only keeps viewers’ attention, but it makes it easier for them to retain the knowledge and reference it later. Microlearning also fits into their busy schedules, so they still have time for sales prospecting and admin tasks.
Include real-life examples
Using real-world scenarios and even sharing peer experiences helps sales reps connect the dots between the skills they’re learning and how to apply them in their day-to-day work. In other words, video demonstrations help sales professionals understand what “good” techniques look like in every stage of your sales pipeline.
Some ways you can incorporate real-life examples in your video training include:
Case studies
Sales call recordings
Role-playing
Peer demonstrations and sales tips
These real-life examples also help bridge the gap between theory and practice so your sales reps understand how to apply their new knowledge.
Encourage active learning
Ditch the yawn-inspiring training modules where instructors talk at the camera and adopt active learning techniques instead. Active learning engages trainees and improves retention by allowing them to learn by doing.
Some ways you can incorporate active learning in your sales training include:
Knowledge checks and quizzes
Learning management systems (LMS) that offer gamification with badges, point systems, and leaderboards
Group learning experiences, including role-playing, discussions, and shadowing
Enterprise sales software that offers AI-powered feedback on sales calls
Additionally, sales leaders can check in with their team after training to assess understanding and answer any outstanding questions.
Include visual variety
Varying the visual styles in your training videos maintains attention and improves engagement. For example, you might interview a high-performing sales rep about their account-based sales techniques. Or you could use a whiteboard video to demonstrate effective versus ineffective sales strategies.
Certain styles, like animations, may also make it easier to convey abstract concepts that would otherwise be difficult to explain.
Make videos accessible to all
Ensure your entire sales team has equal access to training by creating high-quality sales training videos with these tips:
Set up your surroundings to get the best audio and lighting for video: Remove distractions, use natural light to illuminate your face, and record with software that reduces or removes background noise.
Choose the right narrator: Select someone who clearly enunciates and speaks in an engaging, friendly tone to narrate your sales videos. If you’ve got the tone and enunciation down pat but find your training videos are full of filler words and pauses, software like Loom AI can automatically clean up your audio.
Turn on closed captions: Captions help viewers understand quiet dialogue and accents—especially viewers with auditory processing difficulties. Help everyone follow along by turning on closed captions.
Add transcripts: Similar to closed captions, transcripts can help viewers understand the messaging included in your training videos.
Video creation tools often include annotations and features like highlighted mouse clicks that can further enhance your training’s accessibility.
Use videos to enhance a broader sales coaching program
Sales coaching can incorporate video training, but at the end of the day, one-on-one coaching sessions are necessary to create a sales culture that empowers your team. Cultures that focus on seller empowerment are 2.8 times more likely to see improved sales performance, according to Gartner.
If your sales team works remotely, coaching is still essential but likely looks different. Combined with training videos, job shadowing can provide new salespeople with coaching opportunities as they learn alongside more seasoned sellers.
Videos aren’t just for training: Find out how Qwilr increased sales by adding videos to customer emails.
Avoid these sales training video pitfalls
Maintain a high bar for quality and create effective sales videos by avoiding these common pitfalls:
Don’t overwhelm: Avoid cramming too much information into one video. If you need to cover numerous key points, consider creating a video series instead.
Don’t ignore mobile learners: In 2023, 96% of people worldwide used their cell phone to access online content, making mobile phones the tool of choice for accessing information. Ensure your sales reps can easily access training content on their phones by optimizing your videos for mobile viewing or using a video creation tool that automatically optimizes your videos for mobile, like Loom.
Don’t skip content updates: Regularly review and update your training content to reflect current industry and market trends, company product and service information, and sales team processes.
Be sure to archive any outdated content, as well, to avoid teammates accidentally accessing old videos.
Where to share and store sales training videos for easy access
If you don’t already have an established training library, it’s time to create one. Here are some options for creating an easily accessible collection of sales training content:
Cloud storage services: Use services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive to store and share videos and documents.
Dedicated video platforms: Video creation tools like Loom often include hosting services. For example, the Loom Library automatically saves videos you create and lets you organize them into folders, set sharing permissions, and download or archive them.
YouTube: Uploading your videos to a private, unlisted YouTube channel is another alternative.
LMS: If your company uses an LMS, you can embed or link to your videos in training content.
Embed your Loom training videos in your sales CRM: You can easily embed Loom videos in Zendesk for easily accessible training.
How often should you update sales training videos?
Here’s how to find a balance between keeping your sales training content current and avoiding unnecessary updates that take time away from coaching and closing deals.
Regularly review content: Assess your training content at least quarterly to clear outdated videos, flag content that needs an update, and note any gaps.
Refresh every 1 to 3 years: Updating your content annually keeps it relevant by refreshing graphics and audio, and replacing references to dated real-life examples, client stories, and sales video software. Evergreen content, like training for foundational sales skills, can be refreshed every two to three years.
Pair training refreshes with company updates: If you’re reworking your sales playbooks, scripts, or even company products and services, take a look at your content and update it as necessary.
Refresh based on data: Keep tabs on engagement data like video completion rates and update videos with declining engagement. Sales team performance data can also indicate when training content needs an update to re-engage employees.
It’s also helpful to gather input from your team about which video training is most effective and whether they have any content suggestions.
Unlock the full potential of your sales team with Loom videos
Creating engaging sales training videos is worth the effort. Using video creation and editing tools like Loom can streamline your process without requiring specialty production skills or breaking the bank.
Loom’s easy-to-use webcam and screen recorder captures the full context of your screen along with nonverbal expressions, making it the perfect sales coaching and training tool. Features like Loom AI help you create a comprehensive and high-quality training library by generating video titles, chapters, and summaries, removing filler words and awkward silences, and even turning your videos into standard operating procedure documents.
Along with creating engaging sales training, Loom helps sales teams increase outreach, onboard new clients, and close deals. Find out how your sales team can use Loom for lead generation, scalable personalized product demos, and inspire prospects to take action with embedded CTA buttons.