Training for Best-Practices in Sales

Businesses are built on rigorous systems, information and processes.  It is a waste of time, energy and money to re-invent the wheel and to operate on assumptions.

When something is working, smart people document, study and repeat the process. The most common way to measure the most successful approaches to training for sales is by using statistical reports generated by professional surveys.

The elite salespeople have discipline and values, and they follow through. Studies conducted by the Harvard Business School in 2010 show that 20% of salespeople are responsible for 62% of all sales outside of the large capital sales.

Correlation studies were released after being conducted by the Gallup Organization and by H.R. Chally. The studies spanned 25 years and looked at well over 3,000,000 salespeople. The results revealed the largest amount of sales for outside salespeople were due to their natural instincts and talent. The surveys usurped the popular notion that anyone can be trained to sell. This simply isn’t true.

Natural aptitude can easily be measured using an assessment tool.

Aptitude Assessments provide information for:

• Personality types, strengths and weaknesses
• How to effectively manage and coach leadership for maximizing sales results
• Compatibility Charts(several roles, examples below)
  • Key Sales Managers
  • Inside sales people
  • Outside sales people
  • Customer service representatives
  • Account Manager

 Focus on Training

• Aptitude: Are each of your members born with a natural talent for sales?
• Selling Skills: Are they clear about how to use the top-ten sales skills?
• Motivation: Are they self-motivated, in the right kind of sales position and are they continually selling?
• Processes: Are they using best-practice branding, marketing, sales and customer relationship processes to support them?

Identification of Clusters: Utilization of Online Communities/Services

• Identify geographic and online “customer clusters”

Target that area for more prospects

• Utilize “local” testimonials
• Follow up with “cluster” customers more frequently than usual

Use social media networks to find your customers

Network Technology Prospecting

Network technology prospecting is the best way to shorten sales-cycle times by up to 25%. It can lead to finding coaches and creating new opportunities. Many sales experts identify themselves as “LinkedIn Freaks”. Identify the popular online sales support sites and use them.

Other Useful sites include:

• Spoke.com
• Jigsaw.com
• Hoover’s
• Build-a-list

 To Avoid Mistakes When Training for Sales Best Practices:

Any time an effort is being made, mistakes can be a natural outcome. Mistakes are teachable moments. They generate a learning curve that is track-able, and provide critical information about what does not work. Every new team will naturally make mistakes. Your job is to turn them into informative opportunities that your team can use to become more effective in their work.

To catapult your sales team to a new level and hear more about our Best-Practices for Sales Training, give us a call at 866-732-0363.