A lot of money is spent on sales training. But with your
hand on your heart: how many salespeople only participate in these training
sessions reluctantly and how many sales managers think that the expenditure on
training is a waste of money? A survey of 60 companies set out to shed some
light on where the weaknesses in sales training lie.
The first question to be investigated was the abilities a
salesperson needs to be successful in sales from both the salesperson's and the
sales manager's point of view.
The assessment of the requisite abilities was made on a
5-stage scale ranging from "1 = extremely important" to "5 =
completely unneccessary".
On balance, the importance of product knowledge and the
ability of salespeople to see things through is underestimated by sales
managers and the credibility, integrity and correct frequency of visits is, on
the other hand, overestimated by sales managers.
To what extent are sales training sessions taking place in
the companies which took part in the survey? These results are shown in the
following table:
No training, 37% 3-6 months, 23% 6-9 months, 13% 9-12
months, 15% 12-15 months, 7% Longer than 15 months, 5%
These results show that there are still a surprising number
of companies which let their salespeople loose on clients without giving them
any training whatsoever. After all, to the client the salesperson epitomises
the company they work for and are the number one image and confidence-building
factor! Salespeople also have to learn how to convey their knowledge to the
client.
The next table lists the areas sales training sessions
usually concentrate on. A training intensity of 1 = always and a training
intensity of 5 = never:
Product knowledge,1.64 Market and branch knowledge,1.97
Commitment to the company, 2.00 Passive sales techniques (eg, dealing with
objections), 2.07 Active sales techniques, 2.25 Problem-solving skills, 2.32
Knowledge of competitors' products, 2.32 Client care/relationship management,
2.32 Field management, 2.52
If you compare the assessment of salespeople's abilities by
purchasers and the main emphasis of training areas, you will see that there are
several discrepancies.
The results point to five suggestions for improvements of
sales training:
Establish an official training programme. Occasional
instructions from the sales manager and sporadic seminar visits cannot take the
place of a systematic training programme.
Gear your training programmes towards the needs of your
clients. Do not be afraid of asking your clients what it is they really need:
What do you expect from a salesperson in our branch? Do our
salespeople meet your expectations? Which supplier do you think has the best
salespeople? What distinguishes these salespeople from ours?
Concentrate on the areas of time and field management when
training new salespeople. Beginners in particular tend to waste a lot of time
planning, place emphasis in the wrong areas and spend too little time on active
selling to the client.
Train your salespeople in the area of client
care/relationship management. Nowadays, the creation of a long-term, stable
client - supplier relationships must be your number one sales goal. Priorities
include assessing the client correctly, visiting the client regularly, dealing
with objections and complaints efficiently and promptly and constantly proving
the reliability of the salesperson and the company they represent.
Emphasise in your training sessions that salespeople should
be able to combine all their sales skills. Try not to isolate the areas you are
focusing on (eg product knowledge). Instead, transpose the content into
concrete sales situations and discussions. The best product and branch
knowledge will be of no help to your salespeople if they do not know how to
convey this to the client.
Your salespeople have to learn to recognise various different
sales situations and categorize various client types and from this deduce the
appropriate product knowledge and presentation technique. Only regular sales
training will hone the skills necessary for them to do this.
