Perspectives: Sales Training

There is always a direct relationship between the investment in seller training and development and the performance and results that you can expect. Organizations must make an investment in sales training and seller development in the following key areas.

Sales Training
Although there are as many types of sales training as there are sales experts, there are really only two effective ways to train consistently successful sales people.
     1. Skills (Deductive) based - Single dimension
     2. Process (Inductive) based – Multiple dimensions (My personal preference)
Through years of sales training experience, I have developed a highly effective, process based curriculum that is delivered within an interactive, multimedia software application. This teaching instrument is used in conjunction with a multimedia point-of-sale tool that integrates selling process, strategies, sales messages, sales tools and buying resources into a single application. Through interaction between the training application and the point-of-sale application delivers several advantages over traditional sales training programs.
     1. Sellers (students) remain engaged with the digital (CD) curriculum, team activities, worksheets,
          student teaching, and other contemporary teaching techniques
     2. The curriculum is on the computer to respond to different student learning styles and pace
     3. The curriculum can be divided into modules and delivered through diverse teaching techniques to
          increase effectiveness while lowering training resource investment
     4. The information, messages, skills and messages are standardized for more consistent results
     5. The curriculum can be updated easily via the web or internal LAN or WAN
     6. Students learn quicker with the integration of the teaching program (CD) and the point-of-sale (CD)
          program along with practical application techniques
     7. Testing and/or certification can be done through diverse strategies such as role playing, classroom
          testing, web based testing, reporting and coaching
     8. The programs serve as valuable resources for the sellers on a daily basis
     9. The media provides sturcture for the selling process but the menus provide flexibility to customize
          sales interaction to each buyer
     10. Links to computer resident multimedia resoruces and links to external (web) resources provides
          access to just the right materials and tools at the click of the mouse 
     11. Learning the material and having the resources available empowers students with self-confidence

Certifiable Knowledge Base
Much of the knowledge that a seller requires to be consistently productive can be delivered through self-learning teaching strategies and media supplemented with online testing.
     1. Universal buying and selling process knowledge
     2. Tested and certified company (corporate story) knowledge
     3. Tested and certified offering knowledge
          A. Deductive messaging
          B. Inductive messaging
     4. Offering portfolios, individual offerings, applications and solutions
     5. Industry knowledge and information base
     6. Marketplace (territory) and community perspectives
     7. General business acumen
          A. Targeted vertical market segment orientation
          B. Targeted market demographic segment orientation
          C. Buying teams and individual buyer profiles
          D. Buying behavior and decision criteria

Demonstrable Skill Set - Hard Skills
Most of the hard skills and strategies that sellers need to learn should be taught through more supervised training techniques such as webinars, conferences and classroom programs.
     1. Certified sales training (Specific selling type)
     2. Skills (strategy) based
          A. System (Features) sales best practices
          B. Solution (Benefit) sales best practices
     3. Process based (Buying and selling process)
     4. Individual selling process phase skills and strategies
     5. Sales automation and technology usage skills
     6. Competitive Sales Strategies
     7. Competitive intelligence policies and procedures
     8. Competitive information and resource system
          A. Strategic (positioning) competitive elimination strategies integrated into the selling cycle
          B. Tactical (blocking/flanking) competitive termination strategies

Demonstrable Skill Set - Soft Skills
Most of the soft skills and strategies that sellers need should also be integrated into classroom, webinar and other supervised teaching techniques along with hard skills
     1. Interpersonal relationship skills (Compatibility – personality trait versatility)
     2. Communication, persuasion (lead) and negotiation (motivate) skills
     3. Interactive (teamwork), presentation and demonstration skills
     4. Selling tools and buyer influence resources usage skills
     5. Sales organization, prioritizing and time management (Pipeline management)