A sales development rep needs to log calls and hand over leads. A sales manager needs to read the pipeline and find deals that have stalled. Each person learns a short list of tasks and practises them on realistic records.
Spot the signs that training missed the job
Look for these patterns before you plan anything. They suggest the training covered the screens and missed the work.
- People ask the same questions months later. Repeated questions about logging calls may mean people need more practice, clearer guidance or a simpler screen.
- Each rep fills in the same record differently. One rep writes the next step in notes, while another uses a task.
- Managers chase updates before every meeting. The data only appears when someone asks for it.
- New starters learn from whoever sits next to them. Habits spread, including the wrong ones.
List the tasks each role does
Sit with one person from each role for an hour. Watch them work, and write down every task they do in the CRM. Then sort the tasks by how often they happen.
Here is an example list for a business-to-business sales team. Your roles and tasks will differ, so treat it as a starting draft.
| Role | Task | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Sales development rep | Log calls and emails against the contact | Daily |
| Sales development rep | Work through the task queue | Daily |
| Sales development rep | Qualify a lead and hand it to an account executive | Daily |
| Account executive | Record the next step and its date after each meeting | Daily |
| Account executive | Update deal stage, amount and close date | Weekly |
| Account executive | Close deals that meet the agreed closure criteria, with a reason | Weekly |
| Sales manager | Review the pipeline report before the team meeting | Weekly |
| Sales manager | Check stalled deals: no next step, a past close date, or no buyer activity for 30 days | Weekly |
| Marketing coordinator | Check new leads have a source and an owner | Daily |
| Marketing coordinator | Build a list for a campaign | Weekly |
| Account manager | Log customer check-ins and update the renewal date | Weekly |
| CRM administrator | Merge duplicate records and fix user access | Weekly |
The 30-day stalled-deal threshold is an example. Set yours to match your sales cycle, and use the same figure in reports and one-on-ones.
Keep each role's list short. Train the daily tasks first, because people repeat them often enough to form a habit.
Check each role's permissions while you build the list. A person cannot follow a step if they cannot see the record or edit the field.
Write a one-page guide for each role
Turn each task list into a single page people can keep open on a second screen. Use the words your team already uses, and match the field names in your CRM.
| Task | When | Steps | What a good record looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record the next step | Within an hour of each meeting | Open the deal, add the next step, set its date, create a task | Every open deal has a dated next step |
| Update the close date | When the buyer's timeline changes | Edit the close date, add a short note on why | No open deal has a close date in the past |
| Follow up a quiet buyer | When the buyer has not replied for the agreed period | Log each attempt, set the next follow-up date | Every quiet deal has a dated follow-up or a closure decision |
| Close a lost deal | When the buyer declines, or the agreed follow-up steps get no reply | Set the stage to lost, choose a reason from the list | Every lost deal has a reason |
Agree the follow-up and closure criteria with managers before you train them. A buyer who stops replying may be on leave, busy or waiting for budget.
Include the exceptions people meet in practice. Examples include a deal that splits into two orders, a contact who changes company, or a lead with no clear owner. Write the steps for each, or name the person to ask.
Make each guide accessible. Use real headings and text that screen readers can read. Keep screenshots few, add alt text, and mark steps with words as well as colour.
Build each session around real work
Run one short session per role. Each person works through their own tasks on records that look like the ones they handle each day.
Use a sandbox or test copy of the CRM where one exists. It keeps practice records away from customers and reports.
If practice records must go in the live CRM, exclude them before the session starts. Keep them out of emails, workflows, integrations, billing and forecasts. For example, assign them to a test owner that every workflow and report filters out.
Deleting test records afterwards does not undo the emails or updates they triggered. Use invented names and details, and keep live customer data out of training material.
Example: a 45-minute session for account executives
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 0 to 5 minutes | Explain which fields the rep uses to plan, and which reports the manager uses. |
| 5 to 15 minutes | Trainer shows the three daily tasks on one test deal. |
| 15 to 35 minutes | Each person updates five test deals from a short written brief of each meeting. |
| 35 to 40 minutes | Open the rep's deal list and the pipeline report together, and look at how the updates appear. |
| 40 to 45 minutes | Each person names one task they will do differently this week. |
Show how each update helps the rep plan the next action. Then show how it helps the manager support the deal.
People keep a habit when someone uses the result. Before you train a field, check that a manager or a report uses it each week.
Check that each person can do the task
Attendance shows who came to the session. A competence check shows who can do the work.
- Give each person a short written brief for one task, at the end of the session or a week later.
- Watch them complete it on a test record, without prompts from the trainer. They can use their one-page guide, as they would at work.
- Compare the result with the "good record" column of the guide.
- Where the record falls short, book a short follow-up on that task only.
Plan the rollout
Here is an example schedule over four weeks. Adjust it to the size of your team and when people are available.
- Week 1: Watch each role at work, build the task lists and check permissions.
- Week 2: Write the one-page guides. Run the first session for the role with the most daily tasks.
- Week 3: Run the sessions for the other roles. Hold a 15-minute drop-in each afternoon for questions.
- Week 4: Run the competence checks. Check a sample of live records against each guide, and run follow-ups on the tasks that slipped.
Add the guides to your onboarding pack so new starters learn the same tasks in the same way.
Check that the training worked
The competence check shows that people can do a task. The records show whether they keep doing it.
- Choose two or three outcomes from the guides, such as open deals with a dated next step.
- Run a report on those outcomes before training starts, so you have a starting figure.
- Run the same report again after the last session, for example at two and six weeks.
- Share the team result in the next team meeting, and ask what still gets in the way.
Look at the result for the whole team first. Where one task slips across many people, the guide or the process probably needs to change.
Avoid these common mistakes
- Training before the process is agreed. If managers disagree on what a stage means, the training spreads the disagreement.
- Leaving managers out. Reps follow what their manager checks, so managers need the same guides as their team.