subject: TRAINING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR SALES TEAM [print this page] TRAINING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR SALES TEAM
By Arshad Husain
INTRODUCTION
Since salespeople have varied educational backgrounds, experience levels, learning abilities, and so forth, they also have their own training needs.
The four stage of this cycle, preparation, development, maturity, and decline, can be described as follows:
1. Preparation is the first stage in a sales person's career.
2. Development, the second stage, occurs when a new salesperson's productivity begins to risk.
3. Maturity occurs when a salesperson's productivity begins to level off.
4.Decline, the final stage also represents a difficult sales management problem.
REASONS FOR TRAINING SALES PERSONNEL
Salespeople need training during all stages of their careers.
There are two basic justifications for this extensive training effort:
To develop the right work habits. Salespeople's patterns of work habits depend upon what andhow they are taught.
To offset the effects of detraining. Salespeople are constantly exposed to detraining that islearning the wrong things though their field experiences.
Effective training pays for itself in a number of important ways:
Itimproves sales representatives' relationships with their customers by showing them the rightway to do business.
It motivates salespeople to develop themselves and raises their morale because they see their company as concerned with their personal development.
It reduces the costs and the lost sales that result from high turnover of salespeople.
It makes salespeople more flexible and innovative in meeting changing competitive conditions.
It reduces the costs incurred by inefficient territory coverage, by poor use of company-supplied sales tools, or by the wrong application of company policy (credit terms, for instance) or of operating procedures (delivery schedules).
It increases sales volume.
It reduces the costs of supervision: Well-trained salespeople are more economical to supervise because they require less attention from their managers.
It increases the efficiency of controlling sales activities. A well-trained salesperson needs less direct control by a supervisor.
Educational Principles And Sales Training
Like all forms of management training, sales training must be based on educational principles.
Clearly Recognized Purpose
It is a poor trainer indeed who does not clearly recognize the purpose and mission of the training program.
Clarity of Presentation
Trainers too often know the company, industry, products, sales problems, and technical jargon of the business so well they forget that trainees to not.
Planned Repetition
Few people fully grasp a new idea or idea or concept the first time they are exposed to it, not matter how clearly it is presented.
Systematic Review
Reviewing, and highlighting material already covered, has several advantages.
Orderly Development of Material
The major difference between learning by experience and learning by training is that training is orderly and can be repeated, while experience is random and uncontrolled.
Sensible Pace
People learn at different rates of speed, and it is important to remember that the pace at which an individual learns has little relationship to how well he or she retains and uses what has been learned.
Trainee Participation
Research in learning has established that people retain a very small portion of what they passively see or hear, but a much greater portion of what they see and here in relation to doing.
ORIENTATION OF SALES RECRUITS
Before turning to the development of a formal sales training program, brief mention must be made of the importance of an orientation program for sales recruits.
The following key activities should be part of every company's orientation program for new salespeople:
The sales manager or human resources specialist should make sure that all employment records and forms and completed processed.
Each new salesperson should be provided with all the necessary employment information, especially that concerning expense accounts, vacation policies, payroll procedures, and other important policies and procedures.
Each new sales representative should be informed of formal and informal office practices and special company events or activities such as office parties or gift funds.
The sales manager should make sure that the new salesperson's office space is ready, and that samples and office supplies are available.
Someone should introduce the new representative to the other salespeople immediate supervisors, clerical and secretarial works and anyone else either whom he or she will have contact.
The sales manager should make a special effort to keep in touch with the recruit.
Designing a formal sales program
Clearly, the benefits of sales training cannot be attained unless the program is well designed to fit a particular company's needs.
As a result, the design of a formal sales training program involves answering four critical questions for each sales group:
What should the training program cover?
How should the training be done?
Who should train salespeople, and where does training fit into the organization?
Which salespeople should be trained, and at what points in their career?
Successful salespeople and their managers recognize the need for continuous training. All salespeople need training at alltimes.
Training Salespeople
After the basic orientation of sales recruits, the question of when to begin their formal training must be addressed.
Retraining Experienced Salespeople
It is often necessary to retrain experienced salespeople.
Some of the specific situations that call for retraining are the following:
When a salesperson is to be assigned to a new territory
When new reporting or other new sales operating procedures are to be introduced
When a salesperson is to be promoted to a supervisory position
When there is evidence that the salesperson has adopted improper selling habits
When competition economic conditions, governmental regulations.
When new products are to be introduced
When new kinds of customers are to be solicited
WHAT SHOULD THE TRAINING PROGRAM COVER?
The successful sales representative for any company, regardless on the company's size or industry, must know the company's products and its policies and procedures. Salespeople must possess the necessary sales and territory management skills, and must have a positive, constructive attitude toward the products they sell, their customers, their jobs, their companies, and themselves.
Determining the Optimum Content
Designing the content of a formal training for a particular company is a matter of analyzing what knowledge, skills, and attitudes are required for sales success in that particular company, a process known as needs assessment.
HOW SHOULD THE TRAINING BE DONE?
The next consideration in designing a formal sales training program is the learning policies and methods to be used?
Learning Basics And Training Policy
Formal sales training is based on one offew basic educational philosophies or policies.
Conditioned Response. Under the conditioned response approach, salespeople are trained in advance to make the proper response to any and all problems conditions, and objections that they may encounter.
Cognitive Scripts. Training concept that describe the sequence of activities to be followed in a specific situation.
Insight Response.The insight response approach entails an opposing stance: Salespeople are expected to respond to selling problem on the basic of their personal insights into the nature of each individual selling situation.
Deciding Which Approach to Use. It is useful to consider two completely different selling situations in deciding which training policy is bests-situated for a given:
Sales Group.Training Techniques
Lectures
Discussions
Panels
Role Playing
Dramas and Skits
Visual Aids
Audio Tapes
High-Tech Training Methods
Computer-Assisted Instruction
Interactive Video
Videoconferences
WHO SHOULD TRAIN SALESPEOPLE, AND WHERE DOES TRAINING FIT INTO THE ORGANIZATION?
Professional Teachings Skills Are Critical
The Sales Trainer and The Training Location
A Combination Plan
Selecting Outside Trainers
Evaluation And Follow up
Evaluating the Immediate Impact Of Training
Evaluation Issues
-To what degree is learning transferred to the job?
-To what degree is the knowledge or skill level maintained over time?
-Does the value of participants improved performance meet or exceed the cost of training?
-To what degree does the training produce appropriate learning?
Training Evaluation Methods
-Observe Salespeople At Work
-Ask Customers
-Review Sales Performance Against Standards
-Interview Trainees
-Seek Managers' Opinions
Limitations Of Formal Sales Training
Not All Skills And Attitudes Canbe Acquired Through Training
Success Requirements Vary Among Sales Groups
Individual Salesperson Training Needs Vary
Informal Training Cannot Accomplish Much
Field Coaching
Observed Sales Call Field coaching technique in which a sales manager makes a joint all with a salesperson
Conclusion
The best way for any salesperson to learn about customers, their needs, and how to sell to them is through contacts in the field with customers.
