Sales Training Classes:

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 classes well as the development of customized sales systems and sales classes 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:

Sales Course - How Come Our Sales Performance is Down?

Today we would like to discuss sales processes. What makes Sally better then Joe? Sally has natural sales talent, has good people skills and, is a closer and Joe isn't. Oftentimes we have talked to CEO's and Sales Managers and asked "so what do think is the problem is with Joe?" I can't tell you how many times we've got the response of "He just isn't made out for sales." Studies have not proven up to this point that people are genetically born naturally good at sales. That's not to say that some people don't have better communication skills than others, but generally talented sales representatives are developed.

I was brought into a company to discover and explore the reason why this advertising company selling internet solutions was being out preformed by competitors. I felt that it was essential in spending sometime interviewing upper management first to get a better understanding of what their thoughts were on what they felt the problem was. I think this picture explains the type of look Executive Explains the Problems we got perfectly. In interviewing the upper management our company Sales Result got answers such as:

1. We just aren't getting the leads we need to generate more sales. We need to boost our marketing budget.
2. We need to spend more time training our sales representatives on probing (qualifying). We are wasting too much time on the our sales calls talking to prospects that are not going to translate into business.
3. Our sales representatives are not managing their time effectively and we need to figure out a way to get them to make more presentations.
4. We don't have any closers. We need to spend more time training our sales representatives how to close the deal.
5. We need to get rid of the dead weight and replace them with people who can sell.

The list goes on and on but these are the most common responses that we got. They might even sound familiar in your company’s situation. The CEO assured us that "Our products are outstanding and our prices are competitive." So the big question was "So What's the Problem?

I monitored over 500 phone calls to better understand successful patterns versus the unsuccessful at this company. I discovered the problem was pointed in the direction of upper management belief of what the problem was. The success of a company begins with the foundation and core. Developing a sales process that works is a major challenge for many companies today. After our initial discovery, our reaction that we got from what wasn't the problem was something a little along the lines of this picture. Why aren't we selling? We also said that some of the decisions needed to improve the performance might be difficult. Here is what we discovered.

In this particular discovery we analyzed the hiring process and turnover rate. Sales can generally have a high turnover rate. We discovered that the company had more than enough people that were coming in the doors and had enough potential to execute our goals that the CEO and upper management were looking to accomplish. Actually we found that the company had average of going through 13 sales representatives to find one that would be employed over a time period of 6 months.

The amount of leads and advertising levels were sufficient enough to allow 3 to 5 presentations each day for every sales representative in the company. And that top performers were generally doing 1-2 presentations everyday versus middle and lower level performers who were doing an average of 4 - 7 presentations per day.

We also discovered that top performers did not spend a unusual amount of time qualifying budgets or asking financial questions. The companies top performers generally went into every sales call with the intention to advance or close the deal every single time and typically didn't have the "this call is a waste of time" mentality. Furthermore it was the way that they engaged and explored with the prospect that had a lot to do with their success.

We also discovered that representatives asking for the prospects business 3-5 times were losing more business than they thought. Successful patterns showed that sales were won from the stages of the sales process that uncovered and revealed the needs of the customer as opposed to the techniques used to get the paper work started.

Business and customer interaction has changed so much from the time that some of these older sales strategies were effective. We have a different customer trend then even 20 years ago. Especially with today's economy, consumers and businesses are protecting their finances more than ever before. We dealing with a much more sophisticated buyer today. Especially in large account sales, we find that customers do not statistically respond well to old fashion closing techniques. It actually statistically has cost more business then it brings in. Put simply, the amount of focus in training on "how to close a deal" accounted for 43 % of the sales training focus at this company.

Gaps need effective solutions: Paint-the-Picture Solutions

In overlooking the sales staff, the objectives of the sales representatives were not clearly defined prior to making the sales call. We found that successful sales representatives had developed, and could clearly explain what their objectives were throughout the stages of the sales process. Each layer of the sales process had an objective that engaged the customer to reveal a new layer.

We determined that successful sales trends showed that accounts closed with a sales representative delivering a buying question or statement 1-2 times in a sales call did substantially better then representatives who asked the prospect for business 3-5 times. Successful results came from sales representatives revealing the customer’s needs, and painting a picture in the customers mind on how their product could solve the problem for the prospect. Customers that had a picture in their mind on how their situation could truly benefit from the solution being presented showed a successful pattern. Developing sales models in which sales representatives could position prospects to focus and think more during the sales stages is vital to the outcome of a sales call. Drawing out the "This is how this could be beneficial for...” and "What is the measurable costs of not going with this solution?"

We needed to establish within our clients sales force a clear understanding of the relationships roles, and their influence on the buying decision. A successful solution called for developing a model that outlines goals for each relationship. Each sales call should Paint-the-Picture on moving either closing the deal or advancing the sale through that prospects role.

We also needed to make sure that the sales call was using the appropriate approach. Different sales require different approaches to improve the sales percentage of closing the deal, in this case using Webinars to demonstrate solutions not only reduced sales call times but also engaged the customer substantially.

And finally, we needed to create a map for asking the prospect to advance his position in the sale. A good example of this is "How can we set up a meeting with your advertising manager?"

Paint-the-Picture is about grabbing your customer’s attention in 30 seconds or less and to quickly convey the value of your solution to prompt your prospect to act. Paint-the-Picture at Sales Result is proficient in securing appointments with "check signing" decision makers while learning to act as business partners to solve business problems for the prospect.

Source: Sal Hakim link

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