Choosing Top Sales Training Program for your Market

Business to Business Sales

The hallmark of most B2B sales is complexity, larger prices, and multiple buyers involved. These deals can take months to set up and close, but even just one good deal can keep a company afloat for years.

With stakes this high, competition is fierce in this space. As a result, this is where the elite salespeople tend to operate.

Core competencies:

• Developing coaches. These are the folks close to the buyer that can recommend your firm to them and increase the chances of getting a sale in the end.

• Formal Sales Processes. Needed to properly assess the ROI and probability of success of each deal, and keep the lead moving through the sales funnel. Vital to maintain focus on the top deals to work.

• CRM Tools. Manage contacts within a more complex target organization and become customer-centric rather than product-centric.

Retail sales

Retail sales are much quicker in nature than B2B, so there should be a much greater emphasis on teaching the basic sales skills to prospect, qualify, handle objections and close in a compressed amount of time.

Core competencies:

• Building rapport. People buy from those they like and trust, and this is established through asking intelligent questions and then listening — a skill too many salespeople lack.

• Understanding buyer needs rapidly. Retail sales serve immediate needs, so salespeople have to find the buyer’s emotional and logical drivers quickly.

• Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing. Retail buyers are increasingly researching their options thoroughly on the Internet before ever contacting a company. Sales organizations should ensure they are visible to searchers with appropriate branding messages.

Government sales

Government sales usually have to go through several layers of approval, but once locked-in can provide a stream of revenue for years to come.

Core competencies:

• Preparing bids and proposals. Nothing moves in most government sales without an RFP and bidding process, and there is an art to it which can be learned.

• Dealing with gatekeepers. Getting to the decision maker in a government office can take some doing, so salespeople should know the tools of the trade.

• Working with subcontractors. Projects often require the cooperation or subcontracting out to other firms. Processes must be developed for reporting and task management in order to sell the deal.

Services

Service sales are another market with specialized skills, especially when many other firms offer the same service in your region.

Core competencies:

• Ghosting Discriminators and other marketing messages. Service salespeople need to distinguish their offerings from the competition, and this is done with differentiators such as ghosting discriminators and key arguments.

• Referral marketing. Referrals can comprise 80 percent or more of the business for service providers, and are extremely cost-effective ways to source leads.

• Account management/customer service processes. Keeping tabs on ongoing service accounts can become a full-time endeavor without proper processes in place.