Most sales training initiatives are well intentioned, are grand in scope, and are targeted at improving results. However, rarely are they planned with a quantified, measurable, and specific objective in mind and, even more rarely, are they planned with the sales management team’s role in mind.
As a result, many (if not most) sales training initiatives are feel-good, passing events that yield minimal lasting impact. They are hugely expensive (consultant fees, materials, travel expenses, and lost field productivity) and they lead to cynicism and frustration. Most regrettably, they rarely deliver sustainable revenue improvement.
SalesFulcrum's approach is to first focus on the Sales Manager. In fact, we would go so far as to say you could often SPARE the expense of training the entire sales force if you sufficiently train the Sales Management team on both your sales process and sales methodology, as well as invest in the development of their day-to-day coaching skills. This approach effectively weaves sales training into your very sales culture, yielding a profound impact on results AND reducing the total cost of training (TCT) by 50%…easily.
How? The Sales Manager is responsible for leading and coordinating the day-to-day action in the field, much like an army lieutenant in the trenches. Sales Managers often find themselves in their role based upon “battlefield promotion,” meaning they demonstrated a certain degree of sales excellence somewhere in their career and were then placed in this key area of responsibility without any formal training or preparation. Figuratively, they were a top performer on a Friday and were promoted to Sales Manager on Monday…and we ask you: what happened over the weekend to prepare them for their new role?
The Sales Manager’s job is to make their revenue plan through the collective results of their sales team. It’s that simple. Their on-going success is contigent upon their ability to translate the basic sales process (and it is basic: defining the territory focus; prospecting; needs discovery; presentation/demo/proposal; working the deal; negotiating; and closing), as well as the defined milestones or internal activities that are indeed unique to your company. The sales process is what your reps do to get the deal.
The effective Sales Manager then focuses on showing the sales reps how to run the process faster, better, and more efficiently. An effective sales methodology is how to accomplish such improvement in a repeatable, scalable way. Sales methodology is how you forecast in a common and consistent way; how you approach the customer to discover their priorities, issues, and needs; and how you handle objections and negotiate to a successful close.
To hire a consultant to train on a particular sales methodology is a huge waste of time and money if you and your Sales Managers do not first understand your own internal activities and how they map to the basic sales process. Its like installing a GPS system on a high performance sports car without first learning how to drive with a clutch.
Once the Sales Managers command their own sales process, they can actually unleash incredible gains in productivity. Further, they are better prepared to recruit candidates that possess the appropriate fit and fitness required for your particular sales process. By translating the process in a common language and methodology, the Sales Manager accelerates the new hires’ learning curves and shortens their ramp times. Inspecting the reps’ pipelines in a disciplined way enables the Sales Manager to diagnose issues and coach the reps to develop their individual selling skills. The benefits of focusing and defining on sales process with the Sales Managers as the first step in sales training are numerous.
When done with the buy-in and ownership of the Sales Manager, “sales training” actually becomes a daily ritual versus a short-lived, ineffective, and expensive event. Effective sales training is actually effective sales manager training.
Sales Manager = Sales Training Success - To learn more about this author, visit Jay Crookston's Website.
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