Easy Negotiation Techniques

Sales Training: Why Sales Training Does Not Work Any More

Sales training is a popular search term on Google and not surprising with a global recession still impacting the profitability of many companies.

A classic thought is that many businesses can sell themselves out of a recession which is partly true. However to be successful in the new economy, sales training needs to change.

The truth is, sales training is more than just a process to deliver results that sales managers and sales directors need, it has to form part of a selling system for the new millennium.

The reality is that customers are much more aware of the products and services that they buy. The fact is that research is so much easy to carry out. All your potential clients need to do is head over to their laptop and search around to see what people are saying about the company you plan to do business with. Let me ask you a question; are your sales team flexible enough to deal with this?

If they only know how to stick to an outdated process with no flexibility, their results will suffer. Gone are the days of ‘telling and selling’ and sticking to your sales objective no matter what.

The way forward is the flexibility to adapt to both the customer and the environment you are selling in. Have you ever noticed that there are certain people in your sales team that always seem to do well and yet they don’t really follow the process. This gives a huge clue that it is time to make changes.

Many traditional sales training programmes have a list of things to “do” to the customer. These are meant to be carried out in a specific sequence that is then supposed to deliver the desired result.

Today’s savvy customer is so wise to this, and predictably know that the sales rep will introduce themselves, ask a few questions and then most likely ignore what was said and launch straight into pitching the product or service they are promoting.

How about something different that actually works for everyone. That is the customer on the receiving end of the sales person, and the sales representative that is rewarded with the sales and increased revenue for the company that employs them. One of the vital keys to this is to switch around the way we think. The task at hand is to focus on outcomes rather than objectives. A subtle distinction and yet vital all the same.

Outcomes revolve around the end result where objectives traditionally focus on a set goal. So when you think of outcomes think results. Generally this is music to most sales manager’s ears.

With that in mind, sales training starts to change as the focus moves into getting a tangible result. Now the sales person has more engagement with the process and accountability for the end result.