Does cost-cutting mean that sales training needs to be eliminated?

A down economy is precisely the time to invest in skill development of your people. If there ever was a time when your entire organization needs to work together to retain and win business, this is it.  Sales managers looking for ways to implement cost-effective sales training should consider the following:

1. Agree in advance with the training provider on the desired results of the sales training. This will allow you to measure the ROI, and can help you to justify to upper management why the sales training is a good investment of time and money at this point in time.  For example: Would you like referrals to increase by 50%? Would you like to increase your new customers by 20%? What if the “close rate” of your sales force could be improved by 15% or more? How would that impact your bottom line?

2. Make sure that your training provider customizes the content so that the duration is as short as possible AND that the skills/topics are the most crucial. Be skeptical if a training company insists that the content and duration can’t be changed. A shorter, yet more focused sales training event, will be less costly, take less time, and is a way to teach skills and motivate without too much time away from the territory.

3. Use internal personnel to teach the workshop. You can use internal trainers or managers, or a combination of both. A manager may not have teaching experience, but a manager-as-instructor has a lot of credibility because of his or her business experience. A good train-the-trainer workshop can teach managers and other non-trainers how to teach. 

4. Print the training materials yourself. Many training providers will license their materials. This allows you to produce the materials at a fraction of the cost, and also makes it easy and cost-effective for you to do post-training reinforcement sessions.
 
5. Consider a combination of online and live training. Some skills and concepts can be taught effectively online. Preview STAR’s previously recorded online training sessions. 

We’d like to hear from you. What other cost-effective ways have you used to implement sales training?

Sales Training Can’t Replace Sales Management

 In addition to teaching our sales training workshops, I always enjoy the opportunity to do 1-on-1 coaching because it helps to remind me that sales training is not always the only solution.

 Three recent sales coaching examples illustrate what I mean:

1. Sales manager #1 was frustrated that one of his sellers kept spending his time on the wrong accounts. “He calls too often on smaller accounts and hardly at all on new prospective accounts.”  
2. Sales manager #2 complained about a technically-savvy seller who could impress new and current customers with his expertise, but he dropped the ball on follow up. “Sometimes he takes 1 to 2 weeks to get back to a customer with an answer, and the sales opportunity is gone”.
3. Sales manager #3 had a senior key account manager who often did a poor job on his sales call reports. “He learns great information about the market and our competitors but doesn’t share it with anyone”.  

Sales training could certainly help on each of the above three cases, but good management and coaching is even more necessary, with or without any training.  Sometimes the solutions can be found in non-training issues such as:

• Have you hired the right person?
• Does your sales compensation system encourage the desired behavior?
• Has the sales manager set clear expectations?  

Based on your sales or management experience, what would you recommend for Sales Managers #1, 2 or 3? Let us know what you think!

- Bill McCormick, President of Sales Training And Results, Inc. (STAR)

I’ve made some recent business trips to Canada and Ireland, and found it fascinating to hear sales managers and sales professionals from those countries describe their best sales performers. Interestingly, the comments did not differ significantly from what we’ve heard in the U.S.  Granted, Canada and Ireland are culturally similar to America, but I have also heard similar comments in prior trips to Asia, Europe, and South America.

Two of the most common recurring descriptions for Top Performing Salespeople:

• Less talking, more listening - The skills of questioning and listening are universally valued by customers, and cited by sales managers as a characteristic of their top performers.

• Results-oriented - The best salespeople want to win, and focus their time and attention on winning the right accounts.

In many of my sales training workshops, after facilitating a discussion about the characteristics of top salespeople, I cite research from a book I recommend, Discover Your Sales Strengths. Authors Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano studied the characteristics of thousands of salespeople.  Two significant findings indicate that the best salespeople consistently “discover and solve customer needs” (by asking more and better questions) and “impact others to say yes” (to get results).  

Based on your sales or management experience, what do you think?  What selling skills and attributes characterize the best sales professionals? Additionally, if you have sold internationally, what is similar and different about selling overseas vs. in the U.S.?

- Bill McCormick, President of Sales Training And Results, Inc. (STAR)

What makes a Sales Team a team?

In my 20+ years in the sales training business, there has definitely been a trend to move toward team selling. When done well, a successful team can sell and negotiate more effectively than a single seller. 

Yet, a recent conversation with experienced sales professionals in our Sales Negotiation Workshop highlighted the major challenge in team selling. You cannot simply throw together a group of people and call them a sales team. It takes time, effort, and skill to form a successful team.

Here are some questions that can determine whether a sales team will succeed or not:

• Who should be on the team?
• What are each person’s specific roles and responsibilities? 
• Who should lead the team? 

Some of the answers to these questions may be obvious, but many sales teams fail to address these questions at all. For example, the salesperson shouldn’t necessarily be the leader of the team.

Based on your experience, what do you think?  What does it take to create a high-performing sales team? When should you use a team in the sales process?

Let us know what you think!

- Bill McCormick, President of Sales Training And Results, Inc. (STAR)