Sales Progress Blog

“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction”
-John Kotter

In business, it is important to have a strategy that will take your business to the top, and managers need to be the ones stepping and taking charge. Training reinforcement needs to be part of that sales strategy. In order for any inside sales team to be successful, they have to possess knowledge of the product, the skill set to sell it, and the right behavior and confidence. All of these things can be tailored and cultivated by any sales manager.

There are seven steps that managers can take with sales training if they want to see their sales progress.

1.    Include the three main tiers into any sales training.
Those three tiers include: knowledge, skill and behavior. If any sales person is going to go from average to great, then they need to have the confidence that they can successfully perform in each area. Managers may have to tailor sales training around one specific area or around all three, but before they start coaching, they need to define which area a specific employee is having trouble in.

2.    Make sure sessions are short and engaging
Most people have short attention spans, and you do not want to spend money on something that an employee is not going to be able to sit through. So, make sure that seminars are short, two to three hours at maximum. Encourage reps to participate during events. If they are engaged and attentive, they are going to learn more and apply more.

3.    Set up dedicated practice times
Dedicated practice sessions refer to time put aside at the workplace for employees and managers to review what they have learned after training seminars. They engage employees in activities that will help reinforce key points of a seminar, and they simulate and practice for real world application. The sessions should last about 30-40 minutes, and throughout the dedicated practice sessions, sales reps should be assessing themselves and their performance.

To read the rest of the seven steps to sales training, download our FREE whitepaper , and pick up some tips and techniques for successful sales training.

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When it comes to sales training, it’s convenient to take the easy way out, but that typically does not solve the problem. Instead, it wastes the company’s time and money. Training seminars, workshops and e-learning sessions are a great way to kick off sales learning. However, it takes more than just a one-day event to get employees on track and motivated. We have said it many times before (just to reinforce your learning), people forget half of what they learned in a training seminar in just a month, and that’s a fact.

So, what can businesses do to make sure that their money does not go to waste and their employee’s performance enhances? To create a sustainable learning environment, managers need to step up and help reinforce training. Hold group meetings so that everyone can share what they learned that week or what they did to improve their sales. Another technique that works is one-on-one coaching. By sitting down with an employee, a manager can see exactly what they issues are, coach them through their problems and keep track of any problems or setbacks the employee has. Not only this, but a one-on-one meeting also allows for instant feedback so that the sales rep is not continuing their bad habit over weeks or months.

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Download our FREE whitepaper to learn more tips and techniques.

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22% vs 88%

That’s the difference coaching and training reinforcement can make on a companies ROI when it comes to sales training.

It goes without saying that practice and reinforcement are the keys to any success. You can’t just practice your baseball swing for one day and think you’re going to win the home run derby. The same theory applies to sales. You can’t expect to be a great salesperson if you don’t keeping practicing and improving your skills. Practicing once will not make you salesperson of the year.

Training reinforcement is the key to success. Seminars help employees learn new selling techniques and new ways to stay in front of customers, but a study conducted by Sales Performance International found that participants in sales training forget half of what is taught within 5 weeks. Managers need to take it upon themselves to implement regular training sessions so that employees can keep up what they learned.

Here are some things managers can do to make sure that their inside sales reps have sustainable sales training:

Read on…

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When managers send employees to training seminars, how do they know what their employees are really getting out of it? And how do they know if they are learning the right material? Most workshops should be designed to help your employees develop in four different areas: skill sets, behavior, knowledge and creativity.

The Four Tiers of Learning :

Skill Sets - to be able to perform or do something specifically.
Sales training sessions should be able to help employees improve in certain activities, such as cold calling or prospecting. If you notice that your sales representatives are struggling in specific work aspects then send them to a tailored sales training event.

Behavior - to execute without fear or anxiety and consistently without thinking.
While employees may have the skill set to cold call, they may lack the confidence, and that can seriously deteriorate sales. So, it is important that sales training seminars help workers overcome some fear of sales that they may have.

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As managers, it is important to provide your employees with sales training, and a lot of what you teach them is because of successful practices that have been crafted by sales gurus. We can learn from the people who have come before us, the people who have made it to the top because of hard work, determination and good business sense. In 2003, Accenture published a list of the 50 top business gurus, and it is important to understand why their ideas made them successful:

“Strategy 101 is about choices: You can’t be all things to all people.”
Michael Porter
-If you try to satisfy every customer’s need, you will stretch yourself thin. Furthermore, you cannot excel in one area if you are trying to cover everything.

“The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.”
Tom Peters
-Oftentimes, we are so focused on profits and getting customers that we forget about our employees, but they are the ones that deal with clients on a day-to-day basis. So if you want to see progress in your organization, treat your employees with respect.

“Your most precious possession is not your financial assets. Your most precious possession is the people you have working there, and what they carry around in their heads and their ability to work together.”
Robert B. Reich
-Your employees are your biggest asset. They know the products, they know the customers and they have ideas to make the company better. Encourage your employees, and you will see results.”

Read on…

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With millions of companies out there, how do you make yours stand out? You need to have a competitive edge. Sure, you can have flashy promotions and expensive advertisements to draw customers, but it is going to be your employees that make or break a sale.

Sales without Customer
Service is like stuffing money
into a pocket full of holes.
-DAVID TOOMAN

Managers need to make sure that sales reps have extensive knowledge of product, but not only that, they need to be personable, friendly and there for their customer’s needs. Higher-level management should provide sales teams with constant coaching so that they can land more clients. When it comes to sales training, there are four steps that managers need to take in order to be successful:

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We often speak about utilizing group discussions and best practices as a part of your employee coaching program, to help improve your sales team.  Now we propose you to take it one step further, and actually document these best practices, to create the greatest sales handbook your team could ask for.

You can read hundreds of books and articles about selling, but who better to learn sales tips from than your own team of people who are selling your same products or services, experiencing the same type of marketplace, and getting the same objections.

Get your team to write down their best work both for their own good and the good of their fellow employees.  Examples of useful information:

-    Their best elevator pitch
-    Their best “break the ice” opener
-    Their best response to specific objections
-    Their best sales close
-    Etc.

Keep Reading…

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Management, Sales Training employee coaching program, sales techniques, sales tips, Sales Training, sustainable sales training, tailored sales training

1. Have your team warm up: athletes do why shouldn’t they?  Do one quick role-play with a fellow team member or have them call their own voicemail and do a practice run of their sales pitch.
2. 30 second rule: when coaching your employees you should never be talking for more than 30 seconds at a time.  Longer than that and you are not listening enough.
3. Employees should NEVER just read a book or article.  Have employees summarize important facts they learned and have them email you how they will incorporate what they learned into their day to day routine.  Check back a month later and see if they stuck to it, if they did congratulate them, if they didn’t, get them back on track.
4. Turn off distractions.  Our minds are over loaded everyday.  Turn off your computer screen and cell phone for the duration of the coaching session, this will ensure you really hear everything that you need to.
5. Have a daily coaching check.  Each day at noon you should have done at least one thing to improve your staff, from a simple good job Sue to a full blown coaching session.  If by noon you haven’t completed this task make sure you build it in to your day.  Text messages, emails, and voicemails can count, so no more excuses.
6. Get more out of them: ask “How so”  “Can you tell me a little bit more about that,” or “can you give me an example?”
7. LISTEN! A great quote by Stephen Covey: Most people do not listen with an intent to understand.  Most people listen with an intent to reply.”  Make sure this isn’t you.
8. Have your employees help each other.  In a group coaching session have them throw difficult objections or dismissal comments at each other.  Reward the team member that comes up with the best rebuttals.
9. Have fun, coaching should create fun for your employees, not be a dismal task.

For free sales coaching advice or ideas, become a fan of Sales Progress on Facebook , simply post your question on the wall and get a personal responses from Tim.

http ://www .facebook .com/salesprogress

Tim Hagen Sales Training business coach, management skills, Sales Coaching Methodology, sales coaching program, sales coaching techniques, Sales Training

Below are three top sales objections along with strategies to overcome them and improve your sales skills.

Your competitor’s pricing is better than yours.
Make sure you are asking enough questions to get a good look at their buying criteria.  You don’t have to lower your price if you can prove your product will better fit their needs.  Also look to other selling points such as better customer service that can make your product more appealing.

By asking more questions to better align your product with their needs you can make the sale without discounting, which is your opportunity over your competition.

Your competitors have a strong existing relationship.
Establish with this new prospect that you are not looking to replace but rather complement what they are already doing with your competitor.  This will put them at ease with you, and help you get your foot in the door with a smaller sale.  Then use that opportunity to really wow them, in the future they may decide to switch entirely.

Whether you initially get in the door or not, begin building a relationship by helping them and asking for nothing in return.  Forward them a free lead or an articles relevant to their industry.  These self-less acts take just a few minutes of your time and by asking for nothing in return you begin to develop a relationship.

Your competitor’s product is better than yours.
Again ask a lot of open ended questions, and find out more information about their needs. Are they paying for features or services from your competitor that they don’t need?  Your competitors product may be better, but show your prospect that your product is all they need and you could convince them to switch over.

admin Sales Training sales closing techniques, sales skills, sales techniques, sales tips, Sales Training

What has the down economy taught us about training our employees? Quite frankly, A LOT!  It’s more important than ever to have effective training with a positive ROI. training reinforcement, tailored sales training, learning styles

Below are the top 5 things the down economy has taught us about training our employees.

1. We have less time to attend traditional training events, so we must look outside  the box to find effective solutions.
2. We need better performance right away, there is no time for ineffective processes, course, or programs.  We need to take another look at the types of training provided and align them with adult learning styles.  Once we get better performance, training reinforcement programs must be put in place to keep the skills sustained.
3. We have less people who need to do more, skills like time management are more important than ever.
4. We need to validate with metrics, we can no longer train our employees and hope they learned something we must have a way to measure success.
5. We need to re-assess and re-evaluate our current team.  With less people to do more work, we have to make sure the people on our team are as capable and motivated as possible.

For a look at how Sales Progress solves these issues, check out this free presentation .

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