Sales Training

Anecdotal observations

1. It's a BIG mistake to "fudge" what is required of the sales person yet companies do it time and again by the job titles they allocate to the role - Account Manager/ Business Development Manager/ Field Sales Representative (heaven forbid!), New Business Manager, whatever...
2. So let's have a tip here: If what you actually want is someone who can get out there and cold call for 80% of the time say so!
3. Have an upfront contract with the sales person as to what is expected of him or her by when...
4. Be prepared to provide whatever first class (not adequate, note) product or skills training required
5. People with limited knowledge and sales experience but a desire to learn are usually an absolute joy and relatively easy to work and get excellent results with, almost regardless of age because they're like an artist's blank canvass: No bad habits!
6. Mature and/ or "experienced" sales people on the other hand can be far more challenging as they will bring their own established habits with them. You need to be prepared for that and not expect unrealistic fundamental changes in your new recruit.

A tale of two sales people

The Managing Director of an IT Services and Solutions company employed an experienced, mature Account Manager.

Howard's story

As you would expect, part of the employment process entailed agreement on the part of the Account Manager to demonstrate his ability to do the job by reaching specific revenue targets within a set period.

About one month into the role it became clear to the Managing Director that there was no way the Account Manager would hit his projected targets. So he explained to the new guy that he was purchasing The Sales Professional course on his behalf and that it came with access to his own external coach/ mentor to help him make faster and more effective progress.

Additionally, completing the course successfully would go some way to proving that he had the potential, even if he still didn't quite hit his targets in the originally agreed time span.

The Account Manager tried his darnedest to ignore the course and instead use his coach/ mentor contact to discuss previous problems and shortcomings of the way the company did business and how he thought it should be moving forward in the future. He was directed and redirected to focus on what he needed to do now to get the required results and prove he was up to the job.

After three weeks he eventually and reluctantly turned to the course, started doing the work he should have right from the beginning and submitted his first part-completed worksheet with a request as to whether he was going along the right lines. That request in itself was fairly obviously indicative of (by now) his growing lack of confidence.

The quality of his work was okay but not great for someone of his supposed track record and feedback with suggestions on how he could be more effective (without wounding his ego) was well under preparation. Then the MD contacted us to tell us that the Account Manager had completely "lost it" in the morning team management meeting, had told him that what he wanted couldn't be done, resigned, walked out, got into his car and driven off.

I believe that this guy thought he knew it all. By the time he realised he might not, my guess is he'd built his stress up to unacceptable levels, it wasn't worth it and so he decided to throw in the towel.

Not the ideal result you may well argue... yet better by far for both to reach that conclusion swiftly, than after six months, a year, or more!

A couple of months later…

John's story

The same Managing Director recruits an experienced sales person as a New Business Manager. The amended job title better reflects the nature of the job and the requirements of the individual employed. It was agreed that the first couple of months should be spent setting up sales and marketing processes and updating support material.

That done it was time for the new man to get out there and start selling. And that’s when it became obvious that two problems existed:

1. Whilst he was quite happy to follow up anyone and everyone who clicked on any of the emails he sent out, he was not at all happy with the thought of cold calling - and not enough people were showing an interest in his emails to generate sufficient prospects to follow up
2. There was no way he was going to get in front of enough prospects and customers to generate enough business to hit his targets

Enter, once again, The Sales Professional course. It transpired that his previous sales experience hadn’t adequately equipped the New Business Manager to get through to the Decision Maker and qualify him/ her for a meeting.

So he got stuck for two weeks on this part of his course and was not allowed to move on with until he was able to fully demonstrate that he understood:

• Why he needed to adopt a specific mindset
• Why he needed to use certain techniques and
• Why they worked

He found the rest of his course relatively plain sailing. And he discovered he was negotiating less on price than he’d been used to, having now spent more time establishing value for money earlier in the sale.

He had a shaky start but he's bringing in profitable results for his employer and himself - they're each very happy, and he's once again enjoying the lifestyle that being successful in his job can bring ...

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