Everyone knows that, in today's marketplace, it's not enough to have a great product or service. You need a stellar sales team that knows both your company and the needs of your potential customers. All too often, though, companies lack a sales management training process that their salespeople and new hires can learn and follow. Instead, many companies have sales training programs that essentially teach salespeople about the product or service and then how to reiterate that presentation to the customer. What's missing? A sustainable process based on understanding the real needs of the customer that becomes a roadmap for salespeople to use over and over again to gain commitment.

Sales training seminars and programs often approach sales executives and business owners, and then promise the moon and don't deliver. Those in sales management want to find the one program that will help ratchet up sales and produce the highest ROI possible ? and who can blame them? But when it comes to sales training programs, how do you tell the best from the rest?

First, the best programs identify four or five critical sales skills, such as the buyer-seller relationship, sales call planning, questioning skills, sales presentation skills, and gaining commitment. The program should then combine these skills into a replicable procedure that is completely natural and that builds on every buyer's decision-making process.

Research has demonstrated that a buyer's first decision is whether or not he likes and can trust the salesperson. Next, he decides if the company is a good match to his needs. If both of those criteria are met, he then reviews the product, the price, and whether or not this is the right time to buy. Any sales training program that does not recognize and build upon this decision making process simply won't deliver.

Sales techniques that build upon the sales skill of your staff are just one part of the sales training equation. The other involves how that training is delivered. Optimally, you should choose a program that starts by assessing the current skill level of each salesperson and uses that as a benchmark by which to measure progress. Then, the program should offer a two-day seminar that teaches critical sales skills and an implementation approach designed to deliver. But, it shouldn't stop there. You should select a program that follows up with reinforcement training ? either in person or online ? in the form of skill drills. This is really the only way that you can ensure that your sales staff's newly learned skills will transfer to the field.

Ultimately, though, you shouldn't simply take a sales training company's word about their program's effectiveness. Instead, you should ask to see the metrics, and the company should be able to deliver research that demonstrates its program's efficacy. For example, the program should be able to show that those trained using their process sell four, five, or even six times more than those who have not been trained using that method.

A well-trained sales staff that focuses on the buyer-seller relationship will not only sell your products and services, but will ensure that your customers keep coming back. This paves the way for repeat business, for upselling, and for referrals. Finding the right sales training program is a surefire way to maximize ROI through implementing a replicable, sustainable process.