subject: Sales Courses For Your Non-sales People [print this page] As a member of a sales management team, securing training for your team is probably a big part of your job. You may have your favourite workshops, contents and providers. But did you know that your colleagues in other departments could also benefit from sales courses? After all, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. It doesnt matter how hard your sales team works. One off-putting communication with a well-meaning but uninformed IT professional or a call centre employee can undo weeks of good work and lose you a hard-won contract. It may be time to bring your colleagues in other departments into the sales fold.
Who else can benefit from sales training?
Anyone within your organization who interacts with customers can benefit from sales training.
- the IT team who is in frequent telephone contact with your customer
- your legal team
- your call centre team, etc.
Why offer this training outside of your department?
As an experienced member of an sales management team, you know that any time anyone within your organization interacts with a client, whether on the phone, at a meeting or at a conference, that they impact the relationship your sales team has with that customer.
What can your non sales colleagues learn from sales courses?
Sales training can teach colleagues outside of your sales management team the importance of
- listening to customers
- asking questions
- understanding where the customers are in the buying cycle
- learning to communicate value
- learning to think from the customers perspective
- understanding customer psychology
Sales training can teach your colleagues in other departments that they are responsible for building credibility for the organization and its products and services. Sales courses can teach them what your sales management team already knows, that their interactions with customers will influence future buying decisions.
Sales training can also help your non sales colleagues:
- learn to handle more demanding customers
- give better presentations
- prepare for meetings
- negotiate
How to go about it
Approach the heads of the other departments in your organization. Offer to organize sales training for non sales people, designed to help them makes their jobs easier. If it is a success, offer to organize once-a-year sales courses for your colleagues in others departments.
Increasingly, organizations cannot depend solely on the members of their sales management teams to nurture the selling relationship with customers. Members from all departments must chip in, but to do so effectively, they can benefit from some basic training.
