Everything Sales: Quote of the day (March 30, 2007)

Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.

- Victor Kiam

Terry"s Corner: Sales Training in Southern New Brunswick

Question: Why would any busy sales organization take time and money to put their people thru a training course by someone that doesn’t know their industry? Answer: In a nutshell Sales People + good training = more confident and productive sales people that produce more results and better profit for the company. That’s a pretty vague statement so let me explain. Picture a pie chart split in 3 equal sections. The pie chart represents all of the customers that your enterprise encounters. In the first 1/3 section are the customers that are going to purchase your product or service no matter what. In the next 1/3 are the customers that will not purchase your product no matter what you do. The final 1/3 represents the customers that are up for grabs. These are the customers that we as sales people can influence. These are the customers that we should expect to spend the most amount of our time with. If we are not, chances are we are not using our time effectively. In addition to time management, we need to understand how to interact with the customer to increase the chances of a successful outcome. The steps of Consultative Selling, also known as Needs-Satisfaction-Selling (there are many other names) teaches sales people a structure to their selling techniques. This structure is a great tool because it not only guides the sales process, but it also builds confidence in the sales people. They understand they are using tools developed and utilized by tens of thousands of sales people in this country. The sales call goes better, the results are better, and the outcome feeds the financial and emotional needs of the sales people. Training can help create a positive and progressive workforce. This not only translates to more sales but to sales people that are happier and will stay with the company longer. Any good HR person will tell you that someone that was trained and oriented poorly will not last, unless they are poor performers that have no other places to go. It’s the same old adage that sales managers and business owners hear: What if I spend time and money to train my people and they leave, taking my investment with them? Well, what if you don’t train them and they stay? If your competition is training their people, eventually they are going to take more of your market share, if they haven’t already. I heard something at a seminar recently that made a lot of sense. The speaker said that when it comes to hiring “likes attract”. That means if you have a reputation for a good, productive, professional sales force, top performers, or new sales people that have potential to become top performers; have no reason not to join your organization. If you have a sales force waited down with poor performers that earn below average incomes for their industry, top performers will be hard to attract, and if you do get one chances are they will be hard to keep and will soon leave for greener pastures. Titan Sales and Marketing, in cooperation with our sales training partners, is pleased to offer sales training and coaching. We will be publishing a schedule very soon that will highlight our fall 2007 classes for Southern New Brunswick. For more information, please call 506-849-3535. Good Selling, Terry