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Don’t Let your Smile Run Away from Your Face --- The Piano Man

Guest post by: Dr. Rick Johnson

Article Overview: There is a song called The Piano Man that uses the phrase - "The smile ran away from her face." That phrase reminds me of the look on many Sales Managers faces as they discuss sales training at their respective company. The least effective and the most expensive method of training sales people unfortunately is also the most common! Although a new sales person may have experience, simply providing product training for your line card is just not enough. The marketplace demands that sales people provide more than product knowledge, a product catalog and a price list. If that is the type of training you provide, chances are it is the root cause of management frustration, low productivity and high turnover not to mention lack of profitability. Training sales personnel appropriately can be expensive.

Don’t Let your Smile Run Away from Your Face --- The Piano Man



There is a song called The Piano Man that uses the phrase - "The smile ran away from her face." That phrase reminds me of the look on many Sales Managers faces as they discuss sales training at their respective company.

The least effective and the most expensive method of training sales people unfortunately is also the most common! Although a new sales person may have experience, simply providing product training for your line card is just not enough. The marketplace demands that sales people provide more than product knowledge, a product catalog and a price list. If that is the type of training you provide, chances are it is the root cause of management frustration, low productivity and high turnover not to mention lack of profitability. Training sales personnel appropriately can be expensive but not training them right is ten times as costly in the long run. It is impossible to maximize profitability if your sales force does not receive appropriate training. This doesn't make you smile.

Under-trained sales people cost companies many times more in low productivity, low-margin sales, lost customers and turnover than most managers realize. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Does your sales team have a pipeline full of great prospects that aren't converting into new business?

• Do they understand pipeline management

• Does your sales team target accounts based on potential

• Do they understand the value of customer profiles

• Are they skilled at closing techniques

• Do they understand solution selling and providing choices

• Do they understand and can they explain the difference between price and cost

• Does your sales team understand the company's value propositions, the product value propositions and their personal value proposition

• Is your sales force proactive and does the inside sales and outside sales function as a team

If you answered NO to any of these questions, your sales team may be under trained. Training or retraining your sales force properly should become a priority. Statistics show that on average, we remember only 10% of what we hear. This is certainly not an overwhelming percentage, so it is important to avoid the temptation to carry on lengthy monologues even when using the lecture approach to a training presentation.

Preparing a Program

It's logical to assume that the starting point for successful sales training is the preparation of the contents of the program. But strangely enough, this is the one area most often neglected. It is not unusual to find a two-hour training program for which the "preparation" was a 15 to 20 minute session immediately before the program started.

The result of such planning - or lack of it - is, of course, a disorganized, uninteresting session which falls far short of accomplishing the desired objectives. Thus, it can be safely stated that adequate program planning is vital to a successful training session.



Teaching the Value of Value Propositions

"Oh, but we're different. We sell our World Class Service."

Right ............................

How many companies do you know that don't say they have world class service. Many say that servicing the customer is their core competency. If they truly do have world class service, service is not their core competency it's what they are doing to create and maintain that level of service that is their true core competency.

That being said, finding your value propositions in the midst of identifying your core competence can become quite difficult. A widget is a widget no matter where you buy it. Isn't it? Why should the customer pay more to buy it from you? That's the critical question. What value do you provide that makes your widget different, your company different, you personally different? If the answer to those questions solve a problem for your customer, create opportunity for profit for your customer or provides improved efficiencies then you may have found your value proposition. Is your sales force trained in this area?

Put some real thought into what you are actually doing for your customers. A fellow NSA colleague (National Speakers Association) likes to say "Kodak doesn't sell film - they sell magic moments and BMW doesn't sell cars - you buy a "Driving Experience". You need to think about your business and what you really do for your customers in those terms.

Price is Always a Factor

As much as 80% of objections that salespeople encounter are related to price but many times these objections are self-created. Most price objections have the exact same cause:

• The customer's perceived value of your product is low

• The customer's perceived value of your company is low

• The customer's perceived value of what you bring to the party is low

In other words, you're just not worth it!

Perceived value drives customer expectations ---- The higher you raise a customer's perceived value of you, of your product, of your company, the closer you come to creating competitive advantage!

A major reality is the simple fact that customers ask for lower prices. Sales people often encourage this mindset themselves simply by listening to the doom and gloom that the media frenzy promotes on a daily basis. Sales people that don't understand their value propositions resort to old school, inadequate training and begin focusing on features and benefits which has a tendency to commoditize their product line.

Effective sales managers understand this phenomenon and help the sales force recognize that it is especially critical to help customers visualize the difference between price and cost. They train the sales force to focus on value. Price must not become the major issue and it should be the last issue on the table and not the first. If sales people understand their value propositions and can communicate that value while providing real solutions then price does not become the deciding factor.

Remember:

• Price isn't part of your value proposition

• The art of selling has nothing to do with price

• Value trumps price

• Value is determined by the customer --- not you

Value is defined as the dominant benefit you provide that helps your customer produce more, benefits from, and/or profit from or satisfy a need. This is a selling approach that focuses on helping the customer solve their problems without regard to making a sale. Does your sales force understand this?

Professional Sales People are NOT Born

All companies are in constant need of aggressive, creative and resourceful salespeople to have their products specified, accepted and used by customers. Without informed, trained and capable field salespeople, no company could hope to compete in the marketplace today.

But how often have any of us stopped to consider the fact that good salespeople, the kind who can help a company really grow, don't just happen to come along by chance or fate. There is no such thing as a "born salesperson," because selling ability is much more than an intangible given that a person either has or doesn't have.

In other words, personal characteristics and attributes aside, a salesperson must be trained on the specifics of his or her job. In addition to possessing and capitalizing on certain natural talents and traits, salespeople also require training in three areas:

1. Knowledge of products, customers and customer organizations.

2. Skills in the application of this knowledge.

3. Development of a favorable attitude as pertains to that knowledge and those applied skills.

The knowledge factor continues to increase in importance on virtually a daily basis due to the narrowing differences between competitive products, the accelerating rate of new product introduction, and the growing technological complexity of many products.

More and more, the salesperson is becoming all things to the customer. Pressed for time, customers tend to require quicker and more complete answers to their inquiries, and they look to the salesperson to provide solutions, not just products.

Selling skills tend to center on the ability of a salesperson to translate product features into customer benefits and value propositions as they apply directly to the prospect's problems.

Attitude is Critical

Lastly, a generally positive attitude is necessary to promote the maximum and optimum use of knowledge and skills in the selling situation. If it is agreed that the attitude of the salesperson to be trained is a key factor in the execution of a training program, then the critical question is how to ensure that the best possible attitude exists during the program.

First, let's assume that the majority of your salespeople have an initial attitude toward the anticipated sales training program that is favorable. This is to say, most of the individuals are at least receptive to training, though the degree of receptivity may vary. It should be noted that if the majority of your selling force is not receptive toward training at the start, very little can be done to create an atmosphere conducive to learning. This attitudinal problem must be corrected before another step is taken.

Now................ Go and retrain your sales force. You'll be glad you did and your profits will show it. And remember The Piano Man ....... Don't let that smile run away from your face due to inappropriate training of your sales force.

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Article Tags: frustration, productivity, sales managers, sales person, sales training, turnover



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