There’s no doubt about it: With the competitive business environment of today, sales pitch certification is more important than ever. After all, in order to do their job well, sales reps need to be aligned in terms of methodology and skills.
We’ll explain everything you need to know about sales pitch certification, including how programs often work, how you can do it at scale for your organization, and, most importantly, why it’s so critical to invest in.
What Is Sales Pitch Certification?
Sales pitch certification can refer to a few things, but it involves training your go-to-market teams on aspects like updated pricing, new company acquisitions, or new products and services.
So, for example, say a brand rolls out new products. Leadership and management then need to train the entire sales force on how to talk about the new products in a succinct, on-brand way to ensure they don’t alienate their existing client base.
When brands host massive, company-wide events like a sales kickoff, they typically encourage everyone on the sales team to do a mock pitch and then the best pitch wins a prize.
What’s a Sales Pitch Certification Program?
A sales pitch certification program can help teams learn the necessary skills and knowledge they need to efficiently do their job. If a company rolls out updated pricing, for example, a program or course aims to get everyone on the same page, especially with regard to branding and company messaging.
What Does a Sales Pitch Certification Program Cover?
Sales pitch certification programs cover a plethora of topics. Each program can vary based on the industry or company goals, but a program will touch on things like:
- Sales skills, methodology, and framework
- Sales process
- Service or product knowledge
- Performance measurement
- Sales enablement
Here’s a more detailed view of what that could entail.
Sales skills, methodology, and framework
One of the most critical aspects of any program is methodology, framework, and skills needed by the team.
A program will teach sales reps the skills they need to succeed. So, for example, some of the skills that might be drilled into a team during a sales pitch certification program include:
- Negotiation
- Effective pitching
- Closing deals
- Objection handling
In addition to giving a team the necessary skills, a pitch certification program will also narrow down the right methodology and framework for a company, depending on its respective needs.
It’s likely that the framework and methodology emphasized in the program include how to build genuine, meaningful relationships with customers, how to unearth the needs of their client base, and of course, how to efficiently communicate with prospects.
Sales process
Most certification programs also include information on the sales process. Making sure sales reps are confident, consistent, and effective throughout the sales cycle is a must.
Service or product knowledge
Depending on the needs of a company, a sales pitch certification could also include detailed training on the services or products offered by the company.
For example, if a company were to roll out a new product, their pitch certification could include detailed training on the product specs and benefits. Not only that, but the program can help sales reps understand how they need to position the service or product info within the market.
Performance measurement
The majority of sales pitch certification programs will also hone in on performance measurement. A large part of the sales process is being able to track, measure, and demonstrate the efficiency of a team’s sales performance. Programs can help teams identify the key metrics they should be tracking to better understand sales effectiveness.
For example, using the Kirkpatrick model and its four levels of evaluation could be used to assess a program and provide better evidence of sales efficiency.
Sales enablement
Nearly every pitch certification program will also include some form of sales enablement. This could be technology, tools, or other types of resources that can aid in a sales team’s efficiency and effectiveness.
How to Use AI for Sales Pitch Certification
Sales pitch certification isn’t always simple. In fact, there’s a lot of nuance, especially when large companies roll out product or company-wide updates. However, teams can use artificial intelligence to take their pitch certification to the next level.
Take Yoodli for example. Yoodli allows you to train your reps on your own terms, with your own methodology. No matter what methodology a company uses, from Dale Carnegie to Google, Yoodli will train relative to that respective framework.
It’s a virtual sales coach that uses generative AI to offer data-backed feedback to improve your sales team’s skills and most importantly, make sure everyone’s on the same page. It can make sure the reps on your sales team speak using the right methodology and brand language.
The best part?
Yoodli allows companies to conduct this pitch certification at scale. This guarantees that everyone at the company is talking about this new initiative — be it a new product, an acquisition, or updated pricing — in the same voice. Your leadership team defines the right messaging for reps and Yoodli ensures folks implement it. In other words, Yoodli can use your existing resources and implement that when training at scale.
Sales reps can use Yoodli’s realistic roleplay capabilities to practice using the updated verbiage with a variety of client types. This allows them to practice in multiple settings in a completely risk-free environment.
Plus, because the roleplay is completely customizable, you can have your team practice the right brand messaging in various scenarios, from cold sales calls to inbound customer discovery.
Check out more of Yoodli’s at-scale capabilities below:
5 Reasons Why Sales Pitch Certification Matters
Sales pitch certification is critical to a company’s overall success, and it’s really no surprise why. Here are the top five reasons why sales pitch certification matters when it comes to you and your GTM team.
1. It helps establish more consistency and professionalism.
First and foremost, pitch certification helps ensure a standardization across the organization. This consistency and standardization is an easy way to boost your company’s professionalism, especially when it comes to sales teams.
When all your sales reps have the ability to talk about a product, service, or other company-wide update using consistent messaging, it not only looks more professional to customers, but it also strengthens your brand’s identity.
2. It improves teams’ overall sales performance.
Perhaps the most obvious reason why sales pitch certification matters is that it improves a sales team’s overall performance.
When a company implements a specific methodology or framework and all the reps are on the same page, sales performance is positively affected. For example, it often yields more sales, reduced sales cycles, and higher win rates.
Not only that, but pitch certification also gives brands the ability to measure results more efficiently. With programs, demonstrating measurable results is often at the forefront, so tracking the effect on sales performance goes hand-in-hand.
3. It’s an investment in your sales reps.
Sales pitch certification is also important with regard to your sales reps and their abilities. You can consider it as a direct investment in your sales teams. When you invest in your reps this way, you can boost their confidence by giving them the information and skills they need to successfully close deals. Reps become more confident when they feel like they’re equipped to handle anything.
On an individual level, pitch certification can also make an employee more valuable to their company.
4. It gives your company a competitive advantage.
You’ll also be giving your company a competitive edge over other competitors through sales pitch certification.
Sales teams that are equipped with skills, knowledge, and a universal, company-wide methodology stand out from competitors and clients alike.
5. It can boost customer satisfaction.
As a direct result, this pitch certification can boost customer satisfaction through enhanced sales performance from your reps. When sales teams have the tools they need to not only understand their client’s needs but also to offer solutions, there’s a much higher chance that customers will leave the conversation feeling satisfied and happy with the service.
Customer satisfaction in sales is greatly important, especially when it comes to a company’s sales performance success.
The Bottom Line
Making sure your sales team is on the same page in terms of language and methodology is always important, but especially so when there’s company-wide updates. That’s what makes pitch certification so important for a sales team’s overall success.
Take advantage of Yoodli’s at-scale pitch certification and don’t wait to make sure your reps are on the same page.