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[C761]Coaching Management Sales Training

by John Fowler, Joh

We believe there are probably four main stakeholders involved in sales training:

For the company executves - listed below are some of the common issues we hear from executives regarding the issues they see with managing the sales team

* Business predictability - how can we improve the accuracy of forecasts for orders, revenue and margin.

* Higher level customer engagement - why can't we get higher to the customer's executives, and focus on value not price.

* Consistent performance - how do we reduce the variance at both team and individual level.

* Product and services mix - how can we get the sales team to sell the optimum product and services mix.

* Raising the amount of customer selling time by reducing the time taken on administration and emails.

* Consistent customer experience - how do we get this across the team.

* Winning of new customers and getting existing customers to take a wider range of products and services.

For the customer - have you ever put yourself in your customers' shoes? What attributes would you like to see in people you do business with? Again, the ideas below is based on our experience, and they happen to form a memorable acronym IKEA

* Integrity - does this sales person display the level of honesty and reliability that gives me confidence to buy from them.

* Knowledge - do they possess the knowledge expected of them in the following areas:

o Their company - history, philosophy, culture, strategy, processes, people.

o The market - general market and business drivers, my company's specific vertical market issues.

o Their products/services - high level benefits linked to my own company's business drivers and issues.

o The competitive landscape.

o My company - see empathy.

o Technology - not at a detailed technical level, but a broad understanding of technologies from a business perspective.

* Empathy - "before I care how much you know, I want to know how much you care." Does this sales person see me as unique, and have they taken the time to do the research

* Authority - when things go wrong with the project, since they normally do, will this person have the authority within their company to get the problems sorted out quickly.

For the sales people - having looked at the company's and customer's perspective on sales training, what about the sales people themselves? Try answering these questions

* Who decides what training the sales person needs?
* Is the training part of a long term, structured individual development plan?
* Has the need for the training been explained together with the expected outcomes?
* Are similar courses repeated year after year that everyone attends?
* What are the expected outcomes and changes in behaviour? * Who measures the success of the program?

Key reasons for training from a sales person's perspective should be:

* Professional improvement, looking as sales as a worthwhile career.
* The training will help meet my objectives/targets and hence earn me money.
* All training looks good on a CV.
* Its interesting to have time to reflect and gain a different perspective.

Too often sales training seems to be undertaken with little communication with the sales force to explain why they are there, what the benefit of being there will be and what is expected to change after the training.

For the sales managers - most sales managers have between 6 and 12 sales people working for them. How do they know what they are saying to customers, and how they are positioning the company? They cannot be at every face to face call or on the phone at each customer contact. We recommend the introduction of a structured sales process that is repeatable, and can be analysed and individual performance measured at each step.

By being able to use the same structure for each sales person, the sales manager will be able to identify areas that individuals need help in, and coach them accordingly. Conversely, if everyone is using there own system, it is very difficult to analyse where a person is in the sale, and what measures they need to take to get back on course.

You can find out more about sales training at http://www.sales-training-consultants.co.uk

Here are several ideas on how you can improve your sales effectiveness at gaining customer commitments.

Always Have a Commitment Objective!

Our recent research shows that nearly 80% of salespeople do not understand what their primary purpose is. Your principle mission in sales is to Gain Commitment. The confusion stems from the variety of tasks we as salespeople are asked to perform. The end result is that 62% of salespeople make sales calls where there is no attempt at Gaining Commitment. One of the most important reasons why this occurs is most salespeople do not establish what we call a Commitment Objective for every sales call. This is the number one mistake that all salespeople make. Well, it's time to change that!

Commitment Objective: A sales strategy and goal we set for ourselves to gain agreement from the customer that moves the sales process forward.

No sales call should ever be made without a Commitment Objective. If you do not have a Commitment Objective firmly planted in your mind, you will wind up being one of those 62% that don't ask for Commitment.

In The Field:

Newly hired salespeople at Melody Inc., a Muzak Franchise, are required to make sales calls with veteran salespeople. Toward the end of one recent call, the prospect asked the veteran if he could keep the company brochure and share it with his partner. The veteran was happy to comply and began to pack up his briefcase.

The newly hired salesperson had recently gone through Action Selling Sales Training and learned about reaching a Commitment Objective. She decided that it would make sense to capitalize on the prospect's interest and schedule the next logical step - a proposal meeting. So she said, "As a next step I would recommend that we plan another meeting with yourself and your partner. We will prepare a proposal that documents what we have discussed and the solution we recommend. How does that sound?"

You guessed it. They scheduled a proposal meeting for a week later. During the next meeting they Gained Commitment for the business.

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About Author

Both John Fowler & Duane Sparks are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

John Fowler has sinced written about articles on various topics from Sales Training, Site promotion and Sales Training. John Fowler is a sales and management trainer designing and delivering workshops across the world specifically for the IT industry. John can be contacted on his website at. John Fowler's top article generates over 9900 views. to your Favourites.

Duane Sparks has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home loans, Sales Training and SEO Search Engine Optimization. Duane Sparks is founder of The Sales Board, a company that has trained 200,000+. Visit. Duane Sparks's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.