Sales Training

Sales Training Why Is It Good ?

Sales training is it worth the effort to train salespeople and can you train a good salesperson to be a great salesperson. The answer is “Yes” and the reason is salespeople are not born, but rather trained in the field that is mostly misunderstood in the business community. Salespeople are the front line of any business and how they perform is how well you company performs.

How do you know when you have a great salesperson that you are either buying from or wanting to hire? I have hired and trained many salespeople and what I am about to tell you is undeniable. After years of hiring salespeople and developing sales systems it became very clear to me who was going to be successful and who would be average.

Sales training is an art in itself and when you know how to do it and what to look for in people, you are 80% complete in the task. Can you ask the right questions to know how they will perform in a sales situation and is it a true indicator of how they will be in the field of selling?

I’m sure you have heard of the 80/20 rule and in sales training it is the rule for sure. If you are not familiar with the 80/20 rule then what this means is 80% of the income is derived from 20% of the sales force and 20% of the income is derived from 80% of the sales force. It has not changed for many years and if you know this going in then you can adjust you hiring practices accordingly.

How can you know that if the salesperson you are talking to is going to perform for your company? Can you know if sales training is worth the investment and are you hiring one of the 80% salespeople or a superstar? What has been the performance in their past job and have they received proper sales training. Why are they looking to change, has there been a change in their life such as getting married or has there been an addition to their family. If there is a reason for the change, then you can be almost certain that they are motivated and want to learn and maybe are willing to give what it takes to get in that 20% club.

If a salesperson has had recent changes in their lives, then you can be confident that their motivation for wanting to improve themselves is sincere. Your investment for sales training would be almost a sure thing that they will work harder and be motivated to do their best for your company. The likelihood of them becoming one of the 20% salespeople is greatly increased.

Another one of my questions for potential salespeople is to ask them to sale me my product and this can tell you if you have a great salesperson or maybe one that needs some training. If they start off by trying to convince me how great the product is, then I know that they are in the 80% and thus need some training. If that start by trying to qualify me for the purchase then you and I both know we have one of the 20% salespeople and that is a good indicator that they have the potential to be a superstar.

Sales training for either of the types of salespeople needs to be focused on knowledge of product and assisting potential customers make good decisions so you and the customer are in a wining situation. Focus on the right knowledge of customers and product will bring consistent results for your company and the right type of system can insure the salespeople as well as the company success.

Sales training and sales systems are how success stories are written and you have the ability to start your company’s success story. Potential salespeople need to be hired on capabilities and either you are going to train them to be good salespeople or you have that superstar that needs to be put in that success situation, you make the call, but look at their value and potential and see where they belong.