| Pitch your training at the right level |
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Pitch your sales training at the right level!
If your training is to achieve the highest possible level of success, make sure the content of the programme matches your employees’ requirements - pitch it too high and the candidates will be lost, pitch it too low and they will feel patronised. Pitch it outside their regular daily work and they'll immediately lose interest.
Stage 1 - Involve your Sales Managers in all training from the start
As with everything in sales, preparation is vital and your sales managers views must be the start point for any preparation. They are closest to the sales team. They know what's done well, what needs improvement, what needs extra work and - most importantly - the right time to build on the current skill-set and take ability to the next level.
They are also - often - the best salespeople and understand not only your business, but also what it takes to increase the success your business achieves.
While trainers have a multitude of courses, techniques and exercises at their disposal - if they're not told exactly what needs to be addressed, the training course provided could be wide of the mark - an irrelevant, ineffective and expensive mistake.
Your sales managers can also split their people in to groups based upon ability. Splitting training into streams increases the return you'll see from any training programme by allowing people to concentrate fully on the skills they need to learn without feeling inhibited in front of 'stars' or held back by the less experienced.
Stage 2 - ask the sales people!
Simple but almost always forgotten!
Your sales managers are also the most effective route to planning stage #2 - asking your team in which areas they think they need help to improve.
Ask them to spend a little time talking to their teams. Ask them to list the main skills each candidate should be able to execute. Then ask them to go through the list with each of their team members, if necessary asking each to mark themselves on each (don't worry - this will not take long! Mark off 5 minutes for each one-to-one chat and stick to it).
Now you have a relevant and focussed training programme!
By taking these two simple steps you have involved everyone in a process that should be important to them, a process that will increase their abilities and - to be blunt - their earning potential.
You will have motivated the management team and motivated the sales team in equal measure.
You also have the basis for an effective sales programme - tackling the right areas and teaching the required techniques. Together this will hugely increase the success the training generates and make sure you enjoy what many fail to - a tangible return on the time and expense you've invested to train your staff.
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