In 1982, a little league team from Kirkland, WA, won the Little League World Series by defeating a team from Taiwan.

It was a remarkable victory. No American team had won an international Little League World Series Championship in more than 10 years. Taiwan had been riding a 31-game winning streak. Few gave Kirkland much of a chance.

But the players and coaches knew they were prepared for success. They had practiced hard. Coaches had meticulously tracked each player’s progress and helped them improve. They kept things simple.

And then, they won.

 When it comes to sales training, you can learn a lot from the Kirkland team.

Practice makes perfect

No team ever walks onto the diamond and instantly achieves a championship. The best teams practice. They start with the basics – hitting, running, catching, throwing – and then put their players in real-world situations.

Your sales training should do the same for your team.

Teach them the basics – focus on the customer, ask good questions, and solve problems – and then put them in real-world situations by roleplaying.

Roleplaying prepares your team to use the tools they’ve developed during sales training in the real world without having to worry about making mistakes that will actually cost the company a customer.

It works. Do it.

Track numbers in a graph

No other industry makes the most of data like baseball – even little league baseball.

Data is critically important to helping players improve. Tracking data lets managers know where their players are excelling and where they can improve.

Can they hit a curve ball? How fast can they run from first to third? How does the team do during night games? Managers track all of this information and then use it to improve practice and figure out how to help the players get better. They also graph the information so the players can see and track their own improvement.

It’s a powerful tool for improvement and motivation – and you can do the same.

Make sure your team can see – on paper – where they're measuring up and where they might need to put in a little more work. Tracking sales numbers – including number of calls, conversions, and new customers – is an important step towards helping your team hit its numbers.

It can also help you improve your sales training. Every time you teach a new skill, immediately start tracking its impact in the real world. You’ll know in a hurry whether or not it worked.

Conduct sales training in short, specific topics

In a way, sales people are like little leaguers. They’ve got enthusiasm. They want to succeed. And they don’t like to be bored.

No kid likes to spend an entire practice playing one position, and no sales person likes to spend an entire sales training listening to the same lecture. Mix it up. Make it fun. Focus on specific areas in short, inspired bursts. Your sales people can’t bore people into buying anything, and you can’t bore your sales team into retaining the knowledge and skills you need them to have.

The '82 Kirkland team used the techniques listed above to win a historic championship. They'd practiced. They'd tracked their progress and used the data to improve. And most of all, they had a blast doing it. Even though you're not coaching a bunch of kids, you can (and should) use the same techniques to improve your sales team.

If you do, they just might hit a home run or post some historic numbers of their own – and keep your company heading in the right direction.