Sales Training Philosophy

 

I train Senior Salespeople, Senior Executives, New Salespeople and Non Salespeople in client facing roles, to prospect, qualify, sell, and ultimately win more business, and more revenue and profit.

 

Selling Philosophy

Selling is about making your target, with Integrity!

Clients come in all shapes and sizes, and so therefore can Salespeople.

You can be good at convincing buyers, closing customers, but equally you can achieve selling success by knowing where to go for business – being good at qualifying.

There is no one, right way to sell.

Successful selling is about activity rate (Kissing lots of Frogs) Qualifying (Knowing which Frogs to Kiss) and Networking (to get to the Frogs). 

Yes sometimes you have to cold call, but it should be the option of last choice.
 
In summary, I believe selling boils down to,

 

 

Organisations are struggling because they don’t have enough prospects.

Their funnel of opportunities is narrowed to a pipe, and they are focusing too much of their time on closing current business, which is important, but not enough of their time is spent prospecting.

Selling is not just something for “Salespeople” and there is huge opportunity to train client facing non-salespeople to overcome their fear of selling, and change what they think selling is.

 

Training Philosophy

Just as clients and sellers come in all shapes and sizes, so we all learn in different ways.  Experience has taught me to mix training styles as much as possible to accommodate how people best learn.

 

Some want guidance, structure and written content.

Others want facilitation to their own views and thoughts.

Training seems to work best with a mix of chalk and talk, PowerPoint content, structure, and discussion.

 

What most people seem to benefit most from is experiential learning.

Attendees hate the thought of Role-Plays, but invariably on feedback say they loved Role-Plays!

 

Just as important is the follow-up to workshops and training courses.

It doesn’t matter how good a course is, unless it’s put into practise, reinforced by further learning, and most important, supported in a culture that recognises something has been learned.

Therefore it’s important to have the support and help from management of the employee, if training is to be successful and have lasting impact.


 

Sales Training

Sales Training is about imparting what makes Salespeople successful.  Often it’s the basics, which most of us think we know, but are often overlooked, and need refreshing.

Basic Sales Skills

·         Setting Sales Objectives

·         Meeting Planning

·         Questioning

·         Listening

·         Summarising

·         Closing

·         Action Plan

 

Advanced Sales Skill and Processes

·         Negotiation Skills

·         Presentation Skills

·         Prospecting and Funnel Management

·         Networking

·         Account Planning

·         Customer Relationship Management CRM

·         Opportunity Planning (Miller Heiman - Strategic Selling (Blue Sheets))

 

Self Development in Selling

·         Assessment Tools including SPQ Gold Sales Call Reluctance, and Myers Briggs

·         Coaching

·         Sales Values

·         Sales Competencies

·         Goal Setting

 

Benefits

Why sales train?  For most organisations it should be about return on investment (ROI). Sales training can be directly measured.

Does it lead to more and/or bigger sales, at lower risk?

One company I recently trained, raised $800k worth of prospects, just from the pilot workshop, with an estimated generation of $200-300k worth of prospects per workshop, and attendees averaging an additional 3-4 new contacts per week.

Following on from the pilot workshop, one of the attendees, to the pilot workshop, who is not a salesperson, prospected and won a $1m contract.

 

Another recent trainee, after a workshop I’d delivered brought in $6m worth of business within 1 month of attending the workshop.  When asked by his manager what he attributed this success to, he replied “Luck?”

His manager, pointed out that he’d been managing him for 12 years and in all that time he’d never shown that level of performance, and that just maybe, the workshop had helped him to achieve his new and higher goals!

 

Even in the current climate, the cost of losing and then recruiting a top executive or Senior Salesperson can be high.  Training can contribute to staff retention.

 

“Prior to this course, I had begun to think my career here was not likely to last.  I was very frustrated by how different the company selling style was to mine (it felt “unprofessional”).  I learned that no consultant had any sales training.  I’m optimistic about the next year being positive and enjoyable”

Senior Client Manager I.T Consulting Company

 

Markets

The markets I specialise in and have experience (and anecdotes) in, are;

 

A good referral for me would be a Sales Director or Sales Manager, HR Director/Manager, Operations Manager in charge of Professional Services, Training Manger seeking outside assistance.

 

Clients

Clients I’ve trained include;

 

Client Feedback

 

Summary

I deliver Sales Training Workshops, for Senior Executives, Senior Consultants/ Practitioner, Salespeople, and Non Salespeople in client facing roles.