When sales training
isn't Good training
Sales training
is an essential part of the sales industry, but
like much training, it is debatable as to the value
it adds. Individual sales training sessions can
vary from brilliant to numbingly boring.
When sales training
isn't
What is called sales training is often actually
product training, with the focus being on training
the sales people on how to demonstrate products.
Although this is essential, it is not really teaching
people how to sell.
Sales Training traps
Sales training often focuses far too much on what
the sales person is saying and doing rather than
what the other person is understanding and deciding.
Sales training
often fails because it confuses attitude with process.
To learn to sell, you need to understand the process.
Some sales training gets you all pumped up, but
doesn't tell you what to do next. It's like giving
you a gun and not telling you how or where to use
it.
No magic bullet
Sales scripts are often taught as magic bullets.
You blindly use the words, phrases and complete
scenarios and the sale is supposed to drop into
you lap. Some chance. Use anything blindly and you'll
be lucky to get anywhere near the target. The main
casualty is likely to be you.
Sales
training that follows fads, lurching from
one new sales system to another,
either confuses sales people or turns them into
cynics.
Good sales training
To make sales training effective, it first must
teach people how to fish, not how to be fish. It
is surprising how many sales people are suckers--feed
them a great line and they'll believe it.
It's about understanding
Influence International's sales training
manages the paradox of both teaching a coherent
process whilst avoiding the 'one true way' religion.
The people should come out understanding how the
system works, not just understanding how to work
the presumably-magical system.
The approach in any
sales situation should be (a) understand what is
going on, and then (b) apply learning that works
in this situation. Good sales training thus
provides lots of case studies and practical exercises
where the student gets to try out the new learning
in a safe environment.
A bite at a time
There is a good balance to be found between teaching
too little and teaching too much. Each student should
come away from a sales training course with enough
learning to make a difference to their selling.
If you swamp them, as some (especially internal)
sales training courses do, rather than getting them
up to speed in minimal time, they'll end up learning
next to nothing.
A good sales
training course fits itself to its students,
rather than expecting students to rigidly follow
the party line. This makes a lot more work for the
sales trainers, but in doing so, they are modeling
how sales people should fit their approach to their
customers, rather than expecting customers to change
their buying process to fit the sales person's process.
Follow up!
Good sales training has
a sales coaching follow-up as a part of the package.
All Influence International Courses include coaching
as an integral part of our sales training.
This includes:
Setting targets for
sales people.
Action plan for using new processes, skills and
behavior learnt on the sales training course
Post-sales-training evaluation and reflection
Am I using new behaviour
Revision of action plan.
Further tuition as necessary.
