Management
the perils of
BY CHRIS MURRAY
When I was a young and extremely naïve sales director, I spent long hours trying to bring my first sales team up to scratch.
I was passionate about making a difference and helping that team turn the situation around with regards to their performance and sales figures.
However, when I tried to find an external trainer to give my sales team the brilliant foundation sales training I received at the start of my own career, I really struggled.
On top of that I was caught between the restraints of a training budget that wasn’t fit for purpose and the fear of giving over the hearts and minds of the frontline troops – which I’d only just about pointed in the right direction - to a complete stranger.
Back then the internet was still in its infancy, while the trade magazines were mostly focused on the actual industry you worked in, rather than delivering any real value for sales managers - you’d think it might be easier today, but unfortunately sales training remains a bit of a minefield, even for those of us who have been around the block a few times.
Technology brought us a universe of choice; stretching all the way from the big, international training companies, right down to the guy who recently picked up his redundancy cheque and thought sales training might be an easier way to make a living. But the problem remains, that from one end of the spectrum to the other, it’s still too easy to bump into someone who you wouldn’t dream of having on your own sales team.
I’ve detailed a short checklist below based on experience, that should help you recognise who’s actually trying to help you achieve your personal targets and who’s just turning up because it might help to pay the mortgage.
Start from a Strong Foundation and Build Up
There are foundation skills that run through the very fabric of great sales teams; the trick is to make sure everyone involved understands your prospective customer’s motives for buying rather than how to sell AT them.
Someone who comes in claiming to have the sales version of a Jedi Mind Trick probably isn’t the answer.
Any plan for increasing your sales team’s productivity should include something that resembles at least one of the following:
• Selling is about helping people make great buying decisions – can the team help your prospects to do that?
• A doctor wouldn’t prescribe medicine without understanding the problem; a sales person shouldn’t present a product or service without recognising the need.
• People buy drills because they want to create holes – bad salespeople present drills, great salespeople discuss the hole required.
Agree a criterion for success
Everything you want is just outside your comfort zone, if it wasn’t, you’d already have it.
Your sales team require training to achieve something that is currently outside of their comfort zone, so;
• What is it?
• What difference will it make?
• What will you be counting to show it has worked?
• No one likes to be told they’ve got an ugly baby – how do we get the message across to them without rocking their confidence?
36 | TRAINING MAGAZINE EUROPE FEB 2015
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