a lack of sales training
Most companies spend far too much time on training other
than sales training. While product and other technical
training is good and necessary, the most important activity
of a salesperson is to sell, thus the most important training
they get is sales training. They have to be able to do the
most difficult sales tasks well, namely: they have to be able
to hit the streets and cold call and sell to strangers. There
should be an onboarding process for new salespeople and
a large component of that process should be how to sell.
Each organization also needs to have a proven sales process
in place. This is a step-by-step system which includes all
the key aspects of selling from identifying prospects, to
contacting them, to presenting, to closing, to following
up, to account development and relationship building.
The goal is for each salesperson to have all answers to
objections, questions, and everything else that can come up
in a customer or prospect meeting, scripted and committed
to memory. They should be role-playing with each other,
and even with friends and family members, so they are
always prepared. When you can wake a salesperson up at 3
a.m. and they can answer any question or objection, they
are ready to go. That said, don’t let salespeople sit in the
office during prime-calling times practicing scripts because
they don’t have them down yet. That’s just an excuse not to
go out and do the hard work.
W
Sales training also needs to be continuous. Sales managers
need to be testing salespeople by role-playing with them
and asking them questions and giving them objections
throughout the day. They should also be going on calls with
them. Sales meetings need to be focused on sales education
and training. In sales meetings you should be talking about
competition, building value, and other items that improve
sales skills. Sales meetings are not for looking at charts and
eating donuts.
Salespeople also need to be doing their own training. They
should be attending seminars, reading books, listening
to and watching programs and videos, and they should
have their own educational library. While the company
has to have the training systems and processes in place,
salespeople also need to take responsibility for their
personal and professional development.
negative attitudes are allowed
When I mention negative attitudes I’m not only referring to
those of the salespeople. Many times it’s the support people
who cop an attitude or act as if they’re more important or
better than everyone else. You either have to change these
people quickly, not likely, or move them out quickly, more
likely. They say one negative person affects six others but
it’s worse than that. Negative people and attitudes will drag
your company down faster than almost
anything else.
Measure many,
call one.
When you take the measure of a company,
what do you look for? With nearly 70 years of experience
in specialized insurance products and contract surety,
we’re a leader in the Kansas insurance industry.
And we’re proud to be your neighbor.
1437 S. Boulder, Tulsa, OK 74119
800-722-4994 • www.mcg-ins.com
General Liability • Umbrella
Contractors’ Equipment • Surety
®
MID-CONTINENT GROUP
a bad product or
lack of support
A company and its sales team are only as
good as the service, support, and product
that the company turns out. If a company
turns out a bad product, that’s obviously
a problem. That said, in my experience
it’s usually not the product but rather
the support and service that are the
problem. It’s simple, if something does
not get installed or implemented on time
or, if customers are not responded to
and issues are not addressed on a timely
basis, success is usually short lived. It’s
imperative that your support group is
super- ɕ