Sales Training Courses:

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 courses well as the development of customized sales systems and sales courses 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 Training Course Tips For Your Sales Associates

Running a retail store involves overseeing the selling activities of your sales staff. While important at any time, it's especially crucial in tougher economic times to devote focused attention to the selling discipline. When you have properly trained and motivated sales associates, you ensure your customers are receiving the best product and service information from your enterprise.

In addition, highly trained sales associates make your job as an owner/operator or manager easier. You can have full confidence that your employees are representing your business well when you're not there. While there, you can concentrate on other essential tasks knowing your sales team is performing optimally due to knowing proper sales techniques.

The following are a few selling tips for your sales associates. By no means a comprehensive list, they're suggestions you can offer to help them achieve success in the selling function:

Start from the Customer's Point-of-View

Teach your sales associates to have the customer's wants and needs as the starting point of any sales conversation. Your associate may have worked up the greatest sales spiel since the late-night infomercial veggie-slicer. This spiel will all be for naught if satisfying a customer's needs is not at the heart of it.

Teach your sales staff to "walk-a-mile" in a customers' shoes. Have them ponder what the customer is thinking as they look for certain products. When they know exactly what the customer wants, and why, they can fine-tune their sales message to satisfy the customer's needs.

Promote Thorough Product Knowledge

It's vitally important that your sales staff know and understand thoroughly how the products they are responsible for selling work. They need to convey this knowledge in a concise manner to your clientele. There's nothing worse for a customer than to ask questions about a product and not get answers...or to get inaccurate answers.

Promote product knowledge by explaining what you know about the product to your sales associates. Let them study manufacturer brochures, manuals, and promotional materials. Let them try a sample. Knowledge truly is power within the selling function.

Focus on Significant Benefits First

Teach your sales associates to get to the heart of the matter quickly with your customers. This doesn't mean "pounce" on a customer with hyped up sales language. It does mean making sure they don't waste their customer's time. Customers enter an establishment with specific product purchase ideas. If they don't have an idea right away, and are just browsing, they eventually focus their attention on a select item to buy.

They then want answers, advice, tips, and additional information from your sales associates when they ask questions. Therefore, focus on the primary benefits first. You can give them less vital information once they know the main product benefits upfront. Customers are often busy and in a time-crunch. It's your job as a retail store manager to ensure you and your staff give them essential product information promptly to expedite their buying decisions.

Teach Your Sales Associates to be Prepared for Objections

Selling products means educating customers on various brands. You must convince a customer of the value of the quality products you sell. They may not always agree right away with your view of the products. In some cases you may never convince them of the value of a certain product. Everyone is different and they approach product purchases from different circumstances, and with different opinions.

However, you and your sales associates can increase the chance you'll turn customers to your view. This is when you understand beforehand what their objections may be. If you know ahead of time that price may be a sticking point, teach your sales associates to explain that benefits gained are well worth the price paid. In addition, have your sales associates promote the after-sales service, loyalty programs, and such that come with the customer's purchase.

The thing is there will always be objections when it comes to selling. Recognizing what they may be allows your sales associates to plan their responses ahead of time. In this way, they can gather necessary information, data, statistics, customer testimonials, and the like to intelligently answer objections. They will find that often objections go away, replaced with customer agreement on the value of a product. This is the result of sound advice given from a knowledgeable sales associate.

Common Ground Begins Quality Conversations

It's important to teach your sales associates to find some common ground as they begin a conversation with a customer. They find this through asking questions and through listening attentively to customers' answers. They also can find common ground through listening attentively to the questions customers ask.

A customer may comment that they love, for example, a certain food product because of an exotic spice used; your sales associate may love it for the same reason. This is common ground between seller and potential buyer. They are in agreement about something right off the bat. They can now build on this common ground and enjoy a fruitful discussion about this product.

The above five tips are just a sampling of many sales tips you can teach your sales associates for selling your quality lines. Make time to properly educate and train your associates in the selling function. It’s worth the time and effort to present well-informed, inspired, and attentive sales staff to your clientele.

You benefit by having well-trained staff working for you when you're not there. Your sales associates gain job satisfaction along with selling incentives and rewards. Above all your customers gain knowledge of quality products and services that make their buying decisions easier.

Source: Michael Ugulini link

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