With a great product, must come great education too! Your product won’t be any good if the sales team is not given adequate sales training. It is an important aspect of the sales process and helps in generating new leads, developing and achieving sales targets, and acquiring new business. Did you know retaining a loyal customer base is 7 to 10 times less costly than acquiring new ones?
However, a recessionary period and a plethora of options available to customers have made the sales process demanding one. You need to invest in it through training to reap the profits of increased revenues.
How to go about sales training? Here are 7 steps which will help you in doing so:
1. Develop a strategic plan
You need to establish what you need the training to deliver. For instance, according to research, 92% of communication with clients is telephonic in nature. If your sales are seeing a drop, you might want to conduct a training session highlighting basic telephone etiquettes as well as sales skills such as fact finding.
2. Develop targets
With sales targets in place, you will know what to achieve out of the sales process. You want your sales to increase and know that 80% of your sales team contributes to less than 20% of your sales objectives, you know which non-performers to weed out.
3. Sales training schedule
Instead of investing in one or two day seminars, go for regular sales training. There is a limit to what a human brain can absorb in one day seminar. Learning schedules which are shorter and more regular as well as consistent will deliver you greater results. They will engage the sales force and improve their skill set.
4. Attitude improvement
More than lack of knowledge, it is poor attitude which leads to dropping sales performance. Successful training should not only build on the knowledge of the sales force but also build positive habits in them.
5. Sales training curriculum
Adapt sales training curriculum to your industry, organization and product strategy. Make use of interactive tools such as team building exercises. Successful training will be rounded off by an experienced facilitator.
6. Communication
Communicate your expectations from the training to facilitator as well as the team. Your sales force will be more engaged in training if they know it is an investment on them and is playing a crucial role in the success of the company.
7. Commitment
The sales team will take some time in forming, norming(resolving issues) and then performing. It needs to stay on track for extracting the most out of training. Time and motivation is needed for sales training to deliver great results.