|
|
|
How To Design an Effective Sales-Training Program
Listening before talking has become more critical than ever, and sales trainers point out that this is one of the most difficult bad habits for salespeople to break.
|
Business New Haven
11/22/1999
By: Lori Green
|
If it's customers you want, then selling is the only way to get them. That's why the ancient Chinese proverb warns: “A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.” No business can succeed unless its people have the desire - and the power - to sell.
The only thing standing in the way of your ability to double your customer base is the belief that great products or services sell themselves. While that may hold true for some markets, it rarely holds for long. Sales experts know that star salespeople are made, not born. After all, skillful salesmanship doesn't come naturally to every talented business person. It's more like an art form. A performance art, in fact.
Like acting, there are methods and techniques for effective selling. Even if you've been blessed with perseverance, affability, resiliency and drive - the key attributes of a top-notch salesman - developing and refining one's selling skills is critical to long-term success.
Can they be learned? Without a doubt. Is formal sales training worthwhile? Just ask your sales team. They want to learn more about cultivating their art and gaining further mastery over their discipline.
While there is a core set of basic sales strategies, new variations and improvements are always being refined. Salespeople, for instance, are renowned for being fast talkers. But in a commercial world where customers seek “solutions,” a more consultative approach to general selling activities has taken root. Listening before talking has become more critical than ever, and sales trainers point out that this is one of the most difficult bad habits for salespeople to break.
Once learned, refining one's selling techniques is valuable since the most effective sales tactics can vary by industry, and are also conditioned by trends in business practices. For example, only in the last decade or so have banks determined that they are in the “relationship” business, as opposed to simply being in the “money” business.
In preparing the foundation of a sales-training program, one must understand how people acquire learned behaviors. Certain habitual behaviors need to be overcome and productive ones need to be cultivated. Also essential is ongoing reinforcement of the desirable behaviors.
According to Bill Gindra of the Sandler Sales Institute, four major components of a professional sales training program are:
• interpersonal skills
• understanding of sales process
• building strength to overcome adversity
• building sales techniques
Before the training can be fully designed, you'll need to set goals and objectives within your sales plan, and map out the action plans to support them. For example, each salesperson should know how many cold calls per day, prospect visits per week, or networking events per month should be scheduled.
Many smaller businesses mistake product training for sales training. But product information is not sufficient to persuade someone to buy what you are selling. Sales is a challenging job and salespeople need to move out of their “comfort zone” in order to do it well.
Sales training should teach people how not collapse when faced with adverse situations, such as rejection or failure. One of the keys is to cultivate a keen awareness of one's reactions to negative situations.
A vital success factor of a training program is the continual support provided by the company to its sales force. And the faster an organization is growing, the more important teamwork is among members of its sales force.
It's going to be largely up to management to create a culture that reinforces positive salesmanship. This is not only ensuring that the sales team is hitting or exceeding its targets, but that everyone is using the same approach to selling. Successful techniques should generate a common language with which to share achievements and problems that occur during the sales process.
For example, how someone learned about a customer's latest business concern can be a valuable tip for another salesperson. Or, how a salesman mentally prepares himself for daily cold-call prospecting.
Every professional needs to continue to train in order to stay on top of his or her game. And high turnover of your sales force can be significantly reduced by providing sales force with opportunities for professional growth that improve productivity and morale.
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
