Sales onboarding is almost always a mess. New hires get tossed a stack of PDFs, a handful of slide decks, maybe a “buddy” who’s just as confused as they are, and then—ready or not—they’re dialing prospects. If you’re running sales at a B2B company, you know the pain: wasted ramp time, inconsistent messaging, and that sinking feeling when someone blows a deal because they just didn’t know better.
There are a million tools out there promising to fix this, but most just layer on more noise. If you’re looking for something more practical, Brainshark is worth a closer look. This isn’t some magic bullet, but it does have features that can actually make sales training and onboarding less painful—and maybe even useful.
Let’s break down how Brainshark helps, what it gets right (and wrong), and how you can use it without making your process even more complicated.
What Is Brainshark, Really?
Brainshark is a sales enablement platform. Translation: It’s a place to create, organize, and track training content for your sales team. Think of it as a cross between a video course builder, a quiz engine, and a dashboard for managers who want to know who’s actually paying attention.
The core idea is simple: get your sales playbooks, product updates, and best-practice tips out of scattered inboxes and into a centralized, trackable system. That way, new hires (and veterans who need a refresher) have one reliable spot to get up to speed.
But let’s be clear: Brainshark is not a CRM, and it won’t magically fix bad content or a broken sales process. It’s a tool, not a miracle.
How Brainshark Improves Sales Training and Onboarding
Here’s what Brainshark actually does for B2B sales teams:
1. Centralizes Content (So You Stop Losing Track)
- All-in-one hub: Sales decks, product videos, competitive battlecards, scripts—everything lives in one place.
- No more version control chaos: Updates sync everywhere, so you don’t have rookies pitching last year’s features.
Pro tip: Don’t just dump files into Brainshark and call it a day. Organize by onboarding stage, role, or product line. The less clicking around, the better.
2. Makes Training Interactive (Instead of “Death by PowerPoint”)
- Video-based learning: Record your top reps demoing a pitch or objection handling—way better than a static doc.
- Quizzes and knowledge checks: You can’t fake your way through a quiz. These catch gaps before they become lost deals.
- Microlearning: Break big topics into short, focused modules. People actually remember this stuff.
What works: Video walkthroughs and scenario-based quizzes are genuinely useful. They’re quick to create and actually get watched—especially if you keep them short.
What to skip: Overproduced, hour-long “training sessions.” Nobody finishes them, and your team will resent you for trying.
3. Tracks Progress (So You Know Who’s Actually Ready)
- Completion reports: See who finished training, who’s stuck, and who’s just clicking through to get to the end.
- Scorecards and analytics: Track scores on quizzes and see if knowledge gaps line up with real-world performance.
- Certification workflows: Make sure people are actually certified to sell your most complex products before they go live.
Honest take: The reporting is solid, but don’t obsess over 100% completion rates. Focus on what knowledge actually moves the needle.
4. Speeds Up Onboarding (No More “Sink or Swim”)
- Structured onboarding paths: Assign new hires a sequence of must-complete modules. No more guessing where to start.
- Self-paced: People can move fast if they’re motivated, or take time if they need it—without waiting for a group session.
- Real-life scenarios: Use recordings of real calls (with permission) so newbies hear what “good” actually sounds like.
Watch out for: Going overboard. If your onboarding path is 40 modules deep, nobody’s finishing it. Start lean and add only what’s needed.
5. Enables Ongoing Training (Because Stuff Changes)
- Push updates: New product launch? Regulation change? Push a quick refresher to everyone who needs it.
- Just-in-time learning: Veteran rep forgot how to position a feature? They can rewatch a 2-minute clip before a call.
- Skills reinforcement: Use quizzes and “booster” modules to make sure knowledge sticks.
Don’t overthink: Not every update needs a video. Sometimes a well-written FAQ or a quick slide deck does the job.
Where Brainshark Actually Delivers (and Where It Doesn’t)
What Works Well
- Easy content creation: If you can make a PowerPoint, you can build a Brainshark module. No special skills needed.
- Accountability: Managers finally get visibility into who’s trained and who isn’t.
- Integrations: Plays decently with Salesforce and other big CRMs, so you’re not stuck re-entering data.
Where It Falls Short
- User interface: It’s not the prettiest or most modern system out there. Takes a bit to get used to.
- Mobile experience: Works, but can feel clunky on a phone—especially for longer videos or detailed quizzes.
- Doesn’t fix bad content: If your training is boring or out-of-date, Brainshark just makes it easier for everyone to ignore.
Stuff You Can Ignore
- Advanced “AI coaching” features: The promise sounds great, but most teams never use them. Focus on getting the basics right first.
- Overcomplicated analytics: You don’t need to track 50 different metrics. Stick to completion, quiz scores, and maybe time-to-ramp.
Getting Started: How To Use Brainshark Without Making a Mess
Here’s a simple, no-nonsense approach:
- Audit your current training. What’s working? What’s just noise? Kill anything nobody uses.
- Pick your essentials. Identify what every new rep must know in their first 2 weeks. Build those modules first.
- Use short videos. Record your best reps demoing real calls, not just reading scripts. Keep videos under 5 minutes when possible.
- Add knowledge checks. Simple quizzes or scenario questions are enough. Don’t stress about making them fancy.
- Assign clear paths. Set up onboarding checklists for each role. Make it obvious what comes next.
- Track, but don’t micromanage. Use the reports to spot who’s falling behind, but don’t obsess over minor details.
- Iterate. Watch where people get stuck or give feedback, and tweak your content. Training is never “done.”
Pro Tips for Real-World Success
- Get buy-in from frontline managers. If they don’t care about Brainshark, neither will the reps.
- Reward completion (but not just with “badges”). Tie training to real perks—like getting good leads, not just a digital sticker.
- Archive old content ruthlessly. Outdated info is worse than no info. Keep it current or delete it.
- Keep it human. Use real voices, real examples. Your team tunes out anything that feels too corporate or generic.
The Bottom Line
Brainshark won’t magically “transform” your sales team—nothing will. But it can make onboarding and ongoing training faster, clearer, and less painful, especially if you keep things simple. Focus on the must-knows, skip the fluff, and use the tracking to spot problems early.
Don’t wait to make it perfect. Start with what actually matters, see what helps your team, and keep improving from there. That’s how you make any sales enablement tool—Brainshark or otherwise—worth the price.