Sales Training:

Sales Training America is a world class sales training and custom development training company specializing in sales training and sales skill development of our client's sales force. At Sales Training America we help our clients improve their sales profitability through the development of their sales management and sales efforts through SalesForce.com implementation. Sales Training America offers both public (open enrollment) sales training seminars well as the development of customized sales systems and sales seminars for Fortune 1000 companies across United States and Canada.

Are you one of the many corporations now focusing on core sales activities while implementing SalesForce.com while outsourcing non-core functions in response to intense competition?

If you are, Sales Training America can help there too. If you simply want to outsource some of your sales or sales management training or if you want to redefine yourself completely to survive mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, downsizing, or corporate restructuring we can help you.

For free, no obligation information on how we can help you with your sales training needs please contact us today.

Sales Training Tips:

Selling Skills Training: 3 Reasons Why the Ketch-Up Sales Approach is Bad For Business and Sales Management

Do you know of sales professionals who are always complaining about not having enough time to follow-up, make phone calls, process orders, etc. and the bottom line is sales are not happening? Yet, you know of other successful salespersons that have even less resources and never complain. What is the problem?

In sales management, dealing with what I call "Ketch-Up" sales people is always on the table. Why? Because 40 to 70% of all sales targets are not achieved so there is a lot of red ink.

These folks remind me of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland that was running around saying "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date." One of my colleagues, Doug Brown, has said: "People confuse motion with progress and activity with results." "Ketch-Up" folks spread themselves very thin because they are engaged in spraying and praying. They spray (plop) their energies all over the place and then pray something will stick. Maybe this is why 90% of all sales pros make less than three contacts even though 80% of all sales are made between the fifth and twelfth contacts.

The first reason why this sales approach is bad for business and sales management is it reveals a lack of written goals, a written unified action plan and no written values statement. For without the written goals and respective sales action plan, the end result is playing "Captain Wing It" and flying by the seat of his or her pants. Would you fly on a plane without a written flight plan? Of course not!

Since selling success is very much about behaviors, values statements define acceptable behaviors. When there are no agreed behaviors, Captain Wing It becomes the accepted behavior sales approach.

An effective sales approach starts before approaching any potential customer (a.k.a. prospect). The sales professional knows what he or she needs to do and then continually monitors progress using the written sales plan.

Reason number two is a confusion between marketing skills (attracting attention) and selling skills (earning the sale) within the overall sales process. This confusion is partially responsible for the inability to secure the desired results of an earned (a.k.a. closed) commitment (a.k.a. deal). Now the organization has even more people in "Ketch-Up" mode and is working harder not smarter.

The final reason is more big picture in it affects the organization's culture. This type of behavior is not efficient or effective and does not build a culture of high performance. By allowing these actions to continue is an endorsement (think approval).

So if you are in sales management and wish to stop the bleeding of all that red ink, then evaluate these reasons. If you observe any of them, possibly you may wish to bring your sales team together to work to turn around these "Ketch-Up" sales approaches.

Source: Leanne Hoagland Smith link

Related: Selling Skills Training

Back to Sales Training Seminars and Tips