There was a time when organisations might have hundreds of people in their sales team, but no organised internal sales training function. 

Fortunately, over the last 10 years, more and more organisations have made the connection between a well-organised sales training function and their ability to reduce the time it takes to get new members of the sales team productive. 

Yes, as more companies invest in sales training/enablement teams, more individuals have to build their training programs from scratch. 

When starting a sales training program from scratch, where you do start? 

Do you launch quickly with an MVP or spend lots of time building a finished program?

How do you engage managers in both sending their team members? 

Should managers and internal subject-matter experts be part of the program delivery?

In this interview, we aim to answer these questions and more. 

Anna Hiett has spent over 10 years creating and running award-winning programs in both green field, high growth, and post-merger environments.

Key Areas of Discussions with Anna Hiett, Leadership Executive Coach at Finastra:

• How to start the process of building a sales training program from scratch.
• How to evolve your training program to reduce classroom time and increase “on-the-job learning”.
• Why using internal subject-matter experts keeps training programs relevant and “real”.
• Training your sales leaders to support training follow-up and assessment.
• Building a library of  “best in class” recordings of sales calls, and video meetings. 
• Why running a regular cycle of “updates” or “briefings” helps solve current sales challenges and increases internal stakeholder engagement. 
• How to implement an exec coaching program for sales leaders.

Anna’s Book of Choice:

Anna recommends ‘The Challenger Sale – by Brent Adamson & Matthew Dixon

About Anna Hiett:

Anna has spent over 10 years creating, delivering and evolving sales training programs through multiple mergers, acquisitions and business model changes. 

Currently, Anna is an exec sales coach for Finastra, a global leader in financial services technology. 

Prior to this role, she led Finastra’s sales training function, supporting the 750+ sales team across multiple countries and product lines. 

Under Anna’s leadership, Finastra won a 2018 ‘Princess Royal Training Award’, for outstanding innovation in training and development programmes that drive measurable business results. 

Prior to Finastra (formerly Misys/Turaz), Anna was Sales Operations Manager at Thomson Reuters Trade & Risk Management, where she supported a global sales team of 70+, operating with multiple languages, cultures and currencies. There, she defined, created and implemented automated business processes.