Enable and Entertain: 5 Activity Types

If you're looking to enable your sales and customer success teams to perform at their full potential (and who isn't?) nothing has proven more effective than solid training. Training speeds up ramp time, boosts productivity, and helps with retention. But how do we take that training to a new level?

One word: Activities.

Activities use real-world situations and interactive experiences to reinforce, train, and practice. They can range from role-playing exercises, to online workshops, to PowerPoint presentations, to fully immersive and gamified experiences. They're at the core of any enablement program and are critical for both initial knowledge transfer and reinforcement, so be sure to look at your design and deployment holistically. This will help keep the exercises engaging and relevant to team members. And be sure to identify a "coach" for all activities—someone to lead the exercises, keep team members on task, offer objectivity, and ensure that real progress is made.

Need a few thought starters? Here are five types of sales enablement activities that are sure to get your team going:

ROLE PLAYING

This is a tool that helps develop and sharpen knowledge using situations that closely replicate what they may experience in the field. Real-life scenarios in which team members "play" the roles of customers, sales reps, and customer success roles. A largely underrated technique, these improv situations can have a huge impact on boosting your team's skill level. It creates familiarity with the types of individuals your team is most likely to interact with and builds empathy for your customers by having your team actually perform and think as they do. They'll also learn conflict resolution, through the acting-out of interactions with dissatisfied clients.

CONVERSATIONAL TRAINING

Essentially this is learning the "gift for gab." Developing the skill to initiate and sustain a dialogue that is personal, positive, and productive. Possessing strong verbal skills means your sales and customer success teams can confidently engage anyone they encounter, from the receptionist to the company CEO. Introduce them to communication courses. There are tons of them out there. Hey, it's no secret: opportunities are usually presented to those who are likable and confident. And that means more revenue.

To pump up your team's conversation game, check out these bullet points.

• Listen—What you hear is often more important than what you say
• Be on the lookout for non-verbal cues—body language often says more
• Keep eye contact—Trust is all in the eyes
• Have empathy—Let them know you're on their side
• Pay attention to details—It's the little things that make a big impact

SKILL DEMONSTRATION

Basically, this is the practice of showing others what you can do—strengths and weaknesses—how well one knows their material, and how effective they are. Skill demo participants can do so in a simulated environment or actually on the job. But the key is to conduct these demonstrations with a coach or manager present so real-time feedback can be given in real-time.

GAMES FOR LEARNING

This is the practice of using play to teach. Contests or matches where team members engage in amusing or challenging activities where the desired outcome isn't necessarily to win but rather to acquire a better understanding or skill. Games are fun, they tap into one's competitive nature, and they give your team a "safe space" to try, win, lose, and ultimately, learn. If you need more convincing, just let the numbers do the talking.

IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES

Let's face it, sometimes a thorough, well-crafted PowerPoint preso just won't cut it. People need to be entertained, dazzled, and wowed. Dropping them into an immersive experience like escape rooms, VR, digital twins, or visualizations allows your team to feel the training, not just ponder it. The result is learning that's more profound and lasting and does wonders for team building.

As a key part of the CLEAR Enablement Framework, activities can be an effective way to not only prepare your sales and customer success teams but keep them performing at the highest level—regardless of learning style. And don't hesitate to get in there and be a coach.

Get involved, provide feedback, and let your team fail forward. Because when you invest in enablement activities and building capabilities, success is just around the corner.