20 Mar 2023

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3 Reasons why sales training is needed

Making Sales is one of the toughest jobs in the world. Although it seems easy because you just have to describe the product features, it’s not so. Every customer has unique needs, and it’s the salesperson’s job to understand them. This job has the highest attrition rate because the employees quit due to not being able to meet the targets. Hence, sales training is needed.

If employees don’t like cold calling, like talking to strangers, it’s better to take after-sales customer service. But for that, they have to take the manager into confidence. For example, an employee can talk to your manager about this; he may shift him to something else rather than cold calling, like email marketing.

When companies are going through a recession, the hiring prospects for a sale professional are not so bad. The companies believe they can easily sell products with a good employee in this domain. When organizations find it tough to get clients, salespeople are a ray of hope for them.

For sales training, the managers can also analyze those with the best performance and check their key performance indicators. If they have these skills, then it’s better that the low-performing employees also have them.

Personalised sales training for different employees!

Sales training also needs to be personalized for different kinds of employees depending on their skill gaps. You can ask the employees to assess themselves, which is useful. They could be asked for evaluation for skills pertaining to their roles. The employees could give themselves ratings of 0-4 on all individual skills. The managers could also be taken into consideration and give ratings to employees between 0-4.

Once all data has been collected, it’s better to analyze the skill gaps of employees with those who have low ratings against the highest rating in a category. Then training can be delegated to each employee based on his skills gaps. These are the following rules through which salespeople can be made strong enough to handle any situation:

Lack of positivity:

The sales employees need to be strong. They can’t lose their optimism. Even when things are not going in their favor, they must continue. But you mustn’t cold call anyone. It’s better to call someone who has at least seen the marketing material.

Therefore the most important aspect of sales training is prospecting. Sometimes, you are targeting the wrong person; possibly due to the immense pressure you face to complete the targets.Those who have not opened your marketing email are definitely not interested in the product.

Lack of preparation:

Also, their research on a product must be sufficient so that even if customers ask them some technical questions, they are willing to answer them. When the lead is convinced that you are knowledgeable enough to sell the right product, he will buy from you.

The salesperson might not have sufficient knowledge about the product, which prevents them from making sales. The salesperson must go to the job after making a thorough preparation. The salesperson should have answers to all the questions that a lead might ask.

He can also practice mock calls before someone before going to attend a customer. This way, he won’t be confused about answering customers when the latter are too well informed and ask technical questions.

Overexcited sales people:

The plan of a salesperson should not be to make sales all the time. If he should become a source of credibility for the lead so that in the future, he buys from him. A highly excited salesperson can also be a cause of the problem. It’s because he is too eager to sell a product and does not listen to what the lead desires. If they listen instead of talking more, they would actually be able to get sales.

Conclusion :

Sales jobs are not bad jobs, but you must conduct ample research about the product you are willing to sell. You must know its pros and cons.

The salesperson may also be facing issues at work. It could be that the boss is unwilling to listen to any problems; he just wants targets to be attained. In that case, the management should understand the issues the sales employees face. But the salesperson must make the management believe they are suggesting changes for the betterment. There could also be problems with the management’s strategy, like they are adopting the wrong reason to convince the customers.

21 Dec 2022

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3 mistakes to avoid while designing a sales training program

Sales training is a game changer for so many companies these days. But this needs to be done properly. Otherwise, the company cannot get the desired numbers.

The three mistakes a company should avoid while designing a sales training program are not teaching about sales targeting, having the same program for different employees, and not including senior sales employees in such programs.

Then, what should the sales training include?

Sales targeting:

Sales targeting included in sales training is teaching the sales personnel how to find the correct prospects and then convincing them to buy.

Therefore, Sales training is different from product training because every buyer has different needs. You can’t just make him buy the product by telling him about its extraordinary features or how it’s better than the competitors. A person might not need them or have the budget for them.

The employees not only need to be elucidated about product features but also have to know how to recognize the right leads(sales targeting).

They should not be wasting their time on someone with no requirements. Hence they should be given a detailed description of the buyer demographics in the sales training program. A proper process should also be included in such programs so that the trainees learn how to select the right prospects and how to solicit them. If the wrong prospect is selected, a salesperson can squander time.

Such prospects also have to be canvassed in the right ways; e.g. someone might need the product, but he has not been contacted at the right time, and a competitor scores with him. There’s also the problem of who makes the buying decision in a household or a company, whether the salesperson has approached that person.

Experience based training:

Similarly, all the employees can’t be given the same training because some have different needs as per their jobs and previous experience. The needs of the salespeople should be evaluated before training programs are prepared for them. This will help the company determine what skills are essential rather than serve them with a general sales training course.

The sales training modules also have to be designed in short modules. The sales guys just can’t digest the information in one long session. Just like Rome was not built in a day, nobody can make someone learn a new skill in a day.

Indeed, salespeople don’t have much time on their hands, but they can be asked to attend micro-learning sessions twice a week.

It’s also crucial that the salespeople are given knowledge checks to continuously make them remember what they learned in their last sessions. For this, they can be sent quizzes, and once they fail those tests, they can be given videos to supplement their knowledge. This way, the company can ensure that the salespeople perform just at the time when they are required to.

Knowledge of the senior sales persons:

The sales managers should also be made to participate in these sessions to provide effective mentoring to the trainees.

The new team members must know how the company’s sales veterans have attained their targets year after year. They must have some tricks up their sleeves.

A company has to include the sales managers in such training programs because they can solve the sales trainees’ problems when they cannot understand the process. They also act as relevant subject matter experts for the program. The course content of the sales training programs must meet their approval before it is scheduled for elearning so that the program has the desired effect.

Finally, designing a program as per the current market scenario

The company also has to evaluate their expectations from a program. If the company has not based its ambition on reality, then the sales training program is definitely going to backfire, which no company wants.

The company won’t invest its money in a sales training program knowing that its employees can’t meet unrealistic targets; hence, research about the market conditions is necessary before launching the sales training program.

Last, but not the least, selecting the right candidates for such programs

It’s also important that the company chooses the right candidates for the sales training program. During the hiring process only, if it does not find any candidate suitable for a sales process, it must refrain from selecting him. Also, if some of the employees can only count in average numbers, it’s better not to include them in any training program. A sales manager knows which employees can be groomed to get better numbers and who can’t. That’s why it’s important to judiciously select the trainees of such programs.

13 Jul 2022

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What should be the sales training process during the recession?

Sales have become a tough job for companies now, given the inflation. The customers need to see the need for the product before buying it. The companies need to create sales training programs for their executives so that they can meet the threshold sales levels to stay in the market. Today, consultative selling can only get the results for a business because of recession. Sales training can get the business the necessary cash flow when customers are not willing to spend due to inflation.

So, these should be the key factors of such sales training programs:

What is Consultative selling?

Now what’s it all about. It’s about selling the right product to the customers based on their requirements. So, for making such sales, an executive has to be super-attentive and listen to what are the problems of a customer. The sales executive aims to make the customer happy and not sell any product to him. There are 6 stages of such a process and the executive as receive sufficient training to become adept in all of them:

Stage 1:Choose the prospects carefully:

The salesperson has to talk to the customer to identify his problem. Then he should suggest a product which can solve this problem as per his knowledge. Now, sales are not about telling customers which products have discounts, but about empathizing with them.

Stage 2: Provide the customer with resources:

Then the salesperson should give a chance to customers to evaluate their problem. The customers should know how big the problem will grow in the future.

Hence the sales executive can offer a solution to them and be helpful by sending them relevant content links. The customers must know how the advised product can help them in rectifying the problem. You can provide them with testimonials of customers who have faced such problems e.g., hair fall and used your product.

Stage 3:Let the customers know why your product is the best

Customers will only buy when they know how your product is the best. This is important because there are a plethora of products waiting for customers to shell their money on. Hence, the customers must know how your product will solve their problems. For example, you can provide customers with case studies of how your product helped solve the hair fall problem given the age, stress, diet, and other factors of the same demographics.

You must also enlighten the customer on why the products of competitors won’t be useful in their situation.

This is why sales training programs are crucial to justify to the prospect why they should choose you over others.

The sales executives must have sufficient information about why customers would benefit from their product.

Stage 4: Check with your operations team :

The customers who have ample knowledge of the market know the costs. Apart from that, they also know the delivery times, and all this knowledge is also required for B2B sales. Also, sales executives must know how the buying process happens especially in B2B sales which happens after the approval is taken from the senior like the finance team. After knowing about this process, you must ask your operations team to be prepared for supply. Hence before completing the deal, sales training must involve the production team i.e. ask the operations to be prepared with the supply till a certain time given by the prospective customer.

Stage 5: Sales training programs teach being with the lead in the final stages:

You should never abandon a lead when the sales are about to close. This is because the customer might still have some questions. In B2B sales, the customers can get objections from any department, and hence it’s the job of the executive to directly deal with the decision-maker. The senior management can raise some red flags and hence it’s the job of the sales team to pacify them. They can’t start focusing on another lead, till the sales are made for one. For example, someone from the senior management can have doubts about the costs, and hence it’s better that the sales team directly talks with them.

Stage 6: Provide adequate post-sales support:

The customers need support when sales have been made. That’s why you must be in touch with them after the sales have happened. If the customer has any problem in using the product, the sales executive must get it remedied on time.

The future of your relationship with the customer depends on post-sales support too. If no post-sales support is there, no referrals will happen in the future. The sales executive must get sales training but the job of the marketing department is equally important too.

This department should provide the salespeople with the leads who are interested in a purchase. Once the sales department has good leads and ample insight into them i.e. their budget, they can use that information to make the buying process happen.

10 Nov 2021

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Make a difference to your company’s turnover with sales training

Sales training carries importance all over the world because companies need to earn handsome profits. The companies are investing in this training, but the trainer must have some outstanding qualities for him to cast an impression on the audience.

Facilitators’ experience matters

The facilitator is a crucial component of sales training, given the amount of investment that goes into it.

Also, the participants devote a lot of time to such training, especially when they have to travel to the training venue or even when virtual training is imparted. As per research, an exorbitant amount is spent on such training, amounting to $2,326 for a sales employee.

A sales trainer must appear trustworthy to the listeners and for that, he can share anecdotes with them about his experience. That’s when; the audience pays more attention to the lessons imparted in the training.

The training experience is a crucial factor when deciding who should be a trainer. A sales manager who does not have such experience is not an apt person for the job. A facilitator with experience in the training domain knows how to do this job and engage the audience because of good conversation skills and delivery of speech like, including intonation in voice. However, the trainer can still consult the sales manager about any appropriate skills to be included in such training.

Large-scale training requires experts, not amateurs

Also, when training has to be done on a large scale involving sales executives from all across the country, an experienced facilitator is most suited to handle a large audience. The essence of sales training is adult learning, which implies that theoretical knowledge is simply not enough for adults to imbibe some new concepts. They require practical exercises like role-play, which is crucial for retention of knowledge. A trainer needs to devise such exercises, and therefore experience matters.

The sales trainer must be perfectly matched to the industry in terms of his experience. For example, someone who has no experience in selling tech products can’t guide on how to do so. With the pandemic, the online selling experience also matters. So, an efficient sales trainer must have dealt with selling products through virtual means also.

Technically advanced trainer

Sales training is delivered through online mode now due to the social distancing norms being followed. The learners are only called to the class when their doubts have to be answered. So, a trainer must have complete knowledge of the video conferencing tool. He must know how to include live polls in the session apart from allowing the participants to annotate. Therefore, having a trainer with a technical bent of mind is quite significant.

So, before hiring your sales trainer, ensure that you study his resume to find the relevant experience as per the above factors. When you have to expend so much money, neglecting any aspect of the trainer’s experience can result in unfulfilled sales goals.

How can companies impart sales training through informal methods?

Interviews with new clients

The company can also make sure that the successful sales executives share the tricks of the trade with others. There can be a video session with an important client who has just been won over by a sales executive. In this interview, a webcast, the customer can share how his doubts were cleared by the salesperson. And how he was explained the USP’s of the company’s products so that the audience can also use them in the future sales pitch. Such an interview aims to make the sales executives acquainted with the challenges posed by the competition against the company’s offerings.

Through this approach, the salespeople in the company can learn about the customized approach followed, crucial in case he is a big client. Such interviews can also be JIT tools for sales employees who find it tough to resolve specific doubts of the customer as to why the product is overpriced as compared to the competition.

How can sales training help in understanding a buyer’s needs?

The training programs must consider the buyers because he makes the purchasing decision. Once the sellers can’t comprehend what the buyers require, the entire sales process is a waste. Hence, the sellers must have a complete clue about the different kinds of buyers and what can be challenges created by them i.e. their pain points. So, after knowing such points, how can buyers be influenced to get the product? For example, when you understand the emotions of the prospective buyer i.e. why he needs to buy a product, you can use it to your advantage. All the pain points are highlighted through his personality. Drawing on all pain points is a better strategy of selling a product rather than being verbose about its advantages which might not concern a prospect.

26 Aug 2021

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Make customers happy with sales training!

Companies are focusing so much on sales training because the customer is the king. An unsatisfied customer can cost a lot to your business when he/she decides to move his account to another company. The sales reps, however, need to have some skills that can make them close every deal with a positive outcome. This is how sales training is useful for a company. When sales reps have such skills, they also feel confident about themselves and know how to deal with tougher customers.

Communication gaps: Communication gaps can cause customers a lot of problems when the sales rep can’t understand what they are saying. Sometimes, sales executives also face problems when they are in a hurry to sell the product and don’t want to fulfill customer’s needs. That way, product mismatches happen and customers feel irritated when useless products are shown to them. They understand that the sales rep does not have any knowledge about the products and has no interest in listening to them. On the other hand, employees must quickly be able to respond to customers’ reactions by reading his/her body language.

All this is taught properly in a sales training session.

Clear perceptions and make them buy: The customers don’t always enter stores for buying something they just want to check the merchandise. Window shopping is a common phenomenon, but sometimes customers discover the ideal product during the process. They, however, can’t buy it because it’s too costly. At that time, a talented sales rep, knows how to offer another product to them at a lower price but with almost similar features. This is how a customer can be made to purchase. The sales reps with sales training also know whether the customers have heard any negative reviews in the past about the product. A sales rep who has adequate sales training knows how to dispel such negative thoughts. They can also provide proper reasoning to prospective customers about why such a negative customer experience was faced in the past. The reps can also make them think with their helpful behavior, how wrong their perceptions were about a certain product.

How to divide time between customers: The sales reps have a lot of work on their hands. They need to understand which customers are deserving of their time and who are not. It’s because some customers don’t want to buy anything but have come to while their time in a store. The sales rep should know how to pay attention to them without wasting too much time. Such customers can’t be complexly ignored because if they are happy with their experience, they can return in the future to make a purchase. Those who are not there to buy won’t like to be given a 10-minute demonstration of a single product. It’s because they can scurry around the product line themselves. Instead, customers who are keen to buy should be given such demos because they need product knowledge to make a buying decision.

Online etiquettes

The sales reps should also be made aware of technological changes like how to get customer information once he has sent any query on the website. They should be aware of how to get in touch with such customers through their WhatsApp numbers and how to talk to them. In sales training, the sales reps are taught when to stop chasing a customer because he might have changed his mind. Anyways, you can send him product newsletters until he unsubscribes from them. Too much aggressive marketing can also damage the image of the brand. Lead nurturing is also an important part of sales training where sales reps are taught how to woo the customer. They should first ask the customer why do they need the product and what is their budget. This is how you can inform the customers, whether you have something for them or not. It builds the customer’s trust in you and leads to a long-lasting relationship. For example, you can tell the customer frankly, if the product of their size is not available and then correspond with them when it’s there.

So, this is how your sales reps can be trained through sales training on how to win customers.

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