There is often a gap between what sales professionals believe they need training on and what their buyers expect. While sales teams are quick to focus on traditional skills like objection handling and closing techniques, buyers tend to have a different perspective on what truly drives success in sales. This misalignment can have a significant impact on customer relationships and sales outcomes.
Let’s explore what buyers, sellers, and businesses each consider important in sales training, and why the buyers’ perspective might be the key to achieving sustainable success.
What Buyers Think Sellers Need Training On
Buyers are often on the receiving end of sales pitches, giving them a unique vantage point to assess what truly works in engaging with sales professionals. From their perspective, the following areas are crucial for sales success:
- Industry Knowledge
- Business Acumen
- Active Listening & Consulting Skills
What Sellers Think They Need Training On
Sales teams, however, tend to prioritise more tactical elements:
- Objection Handling
- Closing
- Negotiation
What Many Businesses Mostly Train On
Organisations typically focus on areas that may not align with what drives buyer trust and credibility:
- Product Knowledge
- New Pricing & Packaging
- How to Enter Opportunities Correctly into CRM
The Case for Buyer-Focused Training
What’s truly horrifying about this disconnect is how obvious it should be. The fact that any business would focus on anything other than what buyers think sellers need training on is baffling. Sales teams have one job: help the buyer to buy. Nothing else should matter. Not internal processes, not pricing updates, not slick closing techniques.
If a seller’s training doesn’t focus on making them credible and useful to buyers, they are missing the entire point. Buyers want to engage with people who understand their industry, comprehend their business, and listen actively to provide tailored solutions. Yet, many companies still insist on training sellers on product features and administrative tasks, which have little bearing on what buyers actually value.
The core of sales should be about providing value to the buyer. All training must revolve around this—everything else is a distraction. If a seller is not seen as credible, knowledgeable, and consultative, they’re not helping the buyer, and without that trust, deals will simply slip away. Sales teams need to stop focusing on what feels comfortable or traditional and instead align themselves with the true measure of success: how well they serve the buyer.
