Seven Deadly Sins of Sales Training
One of the best marketing weapon a company can use against it's
competition is sales training. In bottom line profits, it can mean the
difference between breaking even and leading the pack. At Max Sacks
International, we've seen salespeople increase their productivity 50 to
100 percent and more as a direct result of sales training - the right
sales training. Is your current program showing these results? Max
Sacks International has identified in its 40+ years of experience: The
Seven Deadly Sins of Sales Training.
Dr. Anneli Driessen, AnneliCoach.com Inc.;
Roy E. Chitwood, President SMEI;
*President Bill Clinton, (*impersonated by Damian Mason)
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 Sin #1: NO SALES TRAINING
What's wrong with sales training today? In most instances, there isn't
any. Most companies do offer "sales training," but typically this
merely consists of product knowledge and how to do the necessary
paperwork. It seems ridiculous for a company to require its salespeople
to have 4 or 5 years of formal education, and then send them into the
field armed with only their product knowledge and very little if any
sales training. Sales knowledge makes product knowledge pay off.
Product knowledge alone is not enough.
Sin #2: A ONE SHOT COURSE ON HOW TO SELL
CEOs and other top level managers often lack sales backgrounds and
therefore don't fully understand what professional selling requires.
Reluctantly, they may agree to implement training to pacify the
company's sales managers and training department. A one shot approach
to sales training however will not work. For sales training to be
effective, it must meet three requirements:
1. It must be ongoing.
2. It must be repetitious.
3. It must have real-world application.
Sin #3: UNQUALIFIED TRAINERS
It's hard to believe, yet companies often center the effectiveness of
their sales training program around an instructor who has no sales
experience whatsoever. Any company using training personnel without
established, proven sales track records, is only kidding itself. You
can't expect individuals who have never sold before to adequately train
other people on how to do it. It's probably truer in sales training than
nearly anything else today: "Those who can, do...and those who can't,
teach."
Sin #4: OUTDATED METHODS
It's amazing to realize how much of Corporate America still teaches
outdated selling techniques. These include the trick questions and
manipulative, high pressure selling tactics that were so commonly
implemented in the '60s and '70s. Techniques such as the assumptive
close, assuming that the prospect wants to buy and filling out an
order. Or the alternate choice techniques, "Do you want it in red or
blue?" And don't forget the impending event, "You better get your order
in now, because the price is going to go up on the first of the month."
The old-fashioned hard sell is no longer applicable because today's
buyer is much more sophisticated, knowledgeable, aware - and reacts
adversely to the old ways of selling. In most instances, the buyer can
tell when these tactics are being used. And as a result, these methods
usually backfire.
Sin #5: HOOEY WOOI
The way companies think that they can take salespeople and teach them
how to be psychologists is beyond me. If you want your salespeople to
become psychologists, send them to college for 5 or 6 years where they
can learn how. Otherwise, don't have them trying to analyze their
customers and meddling in the science. We know that in most instances
the salespeople do not make any attempt whatsoever to close the sale.
Wouldn't it be more effective to teach them how to ask for an order,
rather than trying to turn them into psychologists?
Sin #6: NON-TRANSFERABLE SELLING TECHNIQUES
Typically, when new salespeople are brought on board, the company puts
them through an orientation program, which usually provides the product
knowledge necessary for any salesperson to be successful. The actual
sales training is left for the sales manager or other "qualified"
personnel. The typical scenario is as follows: The manager will take
the recruit out on a sales call to show him or her how to do it. With
the benefit of 15 years of experience, confidence and knowledge, the
manager then makes the most difficult sale appear to be as easy as
falling off a log. He or she then turns to the recruit, "See, that's
all there is to it. Just do what I did." But the manager doesn't realize
that he can't transfer his 15 years of experience, his 15 years of
confidence and his 15 years of knowledge to the new salesperson.
However, more important than that, is that a new salesperson cannot
learn how to sell effectively by trying to sell like someone else.
Why? Because each person should sell with his or her own personality
and style. He or she won't get anywhere trying to emulate someone else.
Sin #7: LACK OF MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT
Unfortunately, Corporate America often regards their sales organization
as a liability, instead of an asset. Companies need to understand that
the sales force is an asset; the only asset on the corporate books that
can appreciate with meaningful sales training programs and can have a
major impact on bottom line profits. We hear companies say things like,
"We are a company of our people, our greatest asset is our people."
That's nonsense. Any company's greatest asset is not its people. A
company's greatest asset is the undeveloped potential of its people. If
a company understands this and makes a commitment to the development of
this asset, providing its people with continuous, effective sales
training, they can expect to move ahead of their competitors in the
marketplace. An effective, on-going sales education program can provide
any company with a sales differential that will leave their competitors
in the dust.
Roy E. Chitwood, CSP, CSE
President, Max Sacks International
(c) Max Sacks International, rev. 2/17/98
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