AVP, Sales Training Specialist

Kearny Bank•Fairfield, NJ

19h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Sales Training Specialist is responsible for designing, delivering, and continuously improving internal and external sales and client service training programs that drive behavioral outcomes across Retail Banking teams to provide prospective and current clients with the right financial solutions and increase profitability. The Sales Training Specialist provides employees with the education and development needed to confidently identify opportunities, conduct relationship building conversations to uncover client needs, engage in consultative selling conversations to drive business growth, retain and deepen existing client relationships, strengthen referral behaviors to other business lines and close deals. All external business development training programs incorporate proactive strategies, equipping employees to generate new business through structured prospecting, community engagement and relationship expansion. The Sales Training Specialist partners closely with Retail Sales leadership, product partners, and other business lines to ensure training content aligns with strategic priorities. This role facilitates onboarding and ongoing development through instructor-led sessions, individual coaching, and field observation, measuring outcomes and reinforcing behaviors that improve client experience, deposit and revenue growth, and consistent execution. This role also leverages adult learning principles and instructional design methodologies to create engaging, outcome-driven learning experiences.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, education, organizational development or related field or equivalent experience required.
Minimum of 3 years of experience in retail banking and/or sales enablement and training required.
Demonstrated success in sales and client experience roles.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications.
Proven ability to facilitate engaging training sessions and coach adults; able to assess skill gaps and improve needs-based conversations, cross-sell and referral behaviors, and service recovery.
Demonstrated facilitation, coaching, and change management capabilities, with strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Ability to create engaging training materials and job aids while maintaining a level of knowledge to keep the documentation current.
Excellent communication and presentation skills (written and verbal) with the ability to tailor messaging to diverse audiences and levels.
The successful candidate will be required to prove on the first day of work that they are legally authorized to work in the U.S. The Bank will not sponsor a candidate for a visa or for work authorization.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience with an LMS strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Design and deliver outbound sales and prospecting training programs for Retail Sales.
Design and deliver client service and relationship growth training for branch staff.
Align training programs with sales scorecards to support deposit growth, Treasury Management adoption and relationship expansion.
Create and maintain training materials to reinforce product knowledge, process accuracy and consultative client conversations.
Develop structured training on prospecting, including community outreach, centers of influence (“COI”) development, referral generation and pipeline management.
Design programs that transition teams from transactional service models to proactive, consultative, relationship-based banking.
Partner with other internal client-facing teams to ensure training content reflects client-centric recommendations, and appropriate referrals to partner business lines.
Facilitate new-hire onboarding and ongoing skill development, including needs-based discovery, retention and relationship-deepening conversations and objection handling.
Develop and reinforce practical business development strategies and routines such as prospecting, community and networking activities, appointment setting, and follow-ups that align to Retail Sales and Retail Branch priorities and market opportunities.
Establish and reinforce referral process discipline to increase referral quality and conversion while maintaining compliance standards.
Conduct field observations, call monitoring, and/or ride-alongs to assess skill application.
Provide individual and group coaching, feedback, and reinforcement plans to improve performance.
Analyze sales and client service performance data, quality results, retention indicators, referral activity and outcomes, and learner feedback to evaluate training effectiveness; recommend and implement improvements, refreshers, and targeted interventions.
Support Sales Market Leads with training plans and reinforcement tools to sustain consistent execution and a strong sales culture across locations.
Stay current on bank products, competitive landscape, and industry trends to ensure training remains relevant and practical for front-line sales and service roles.
Administer training logistics and learning records using the Learning Management System (“LMS”), currently BVS.
Communicate expectations, resources, and updates to participants and managers.
Utilize LMS reporting and analytics to track learner progress, completion rates and training effectiveness.
Continuously evaluate and update training programs based on performance data, business needs and participant feedback.