Onboarding sales representatives and delivering content to them across multiple locations can be challenging. United Rentals has created an innovative learning platform to roll out sales training consistently throughout North America that has led to reduced onboarding time, decreased turnover, and increased sales rep effectiveness.
United Rentals created a custom sales development initiative using the Brainshark sales readiness platform, United Rentals’ Sales Development Program. The program is focused on not only the equipment United Rental offers, but also the importance of the key messages associated with the company and its offerings.
“United Rentals provides a comprehensive Sales Development Program to help new sales reps learn the construction and equipment rental business. We teach and mentor on the best ways to sell and provide solutions for customers, as well as about our product advantages and differentiating features. We’re passionate about helping our people grow professionally and embrace teamwork in everything they do,” said Jeff Cummings, director of sales development at United Rentals.
The United Rentals Sales Development Program trains sales reps on four main pillars:
- Equipment industry knowledge
- Sales methodology and how the company goes to market
- Sales strategy and how it competes
- Sales tools, both internal and external
Cummings and his team found that having all the training and content available in digestible pieces – nothing was too long or in-depth – was critical to the program's success. Within Brainshark, United Rentals broke larger concepts into micro training to make it easier for sales reps to review and retain.
Leveraging Technology
United Rentals has three core technologies in the Sales Development Program: Brainshark as a readiness platform, a cloud-based CRM platform for call lists and account information, and an intelligence tool to help create talk tracks.
With Brainshark, reps can learn and practice, while managers coach and assess progress. Teams leverage the intelligence tool to listen to live calls which then provides feedback as to how many calls hit those talk tracks. It can also track the quantity and quality of calls.
“Our sales development technology stack allows us to deliver high-quality coaching and assessment remotely. The tools enable the company to understand which reps need more training and which are ready to perform. They assist managers in providing better assessments and deliver insights to help United Rentals deliver exceptional customer service,” said Cummings.
Information provided by United Rentals and edited by Alexis Sheprak.
