I have seen all types and styles of sales training and techniques.
But, the truth is, there are only two types of trainings that can
ever be given to a sales team to improve closing ratios (the number
of presentations made vs. the number of sales made). The first is
product (or service) training and the second is personal development
training.
The first type of training is relatively straight forward and easy
to implement. You can have an intricate product that has thousands of
moving parts or you could provide a complex service involving
finance, real estate, taxation, or legal matters but no matter the
product or service, it is simple to mold a training program.
To do this, you simply need to understand what the product or
service is, what is important to the customer when making their
decisions, and what information the sales person will want to have in
order to fulfill the customers’ needs. This is very clear in terms
of ‘need to know’ information. You can create a book, manual, or
straight forward training system to get all parties up to speed in
short order.
Now we move on to the “personal development training” of a
sales force which is the most overlooked, under-utilized, and most
valuable training of all. There are sales-specific subjects in this
category such as how to sell, how to get prospects to buy from you,
how to get customers to like you, how to increase your sales, how to
attract your customer, how to move prospects to action… basically,
how to do EVERYTHING having to do with sales. There are also
non-sales-specific subjects in this category like building rapport,
communicating effectively, being a good listener, and how to ask
action-empowering questions.
It is in this category that many companies’ training starts to
fail. Even if a company provides good training in sales-specific
subjects, rarely do they offer non-sales-specific training. The top
sales people in most companies, recognize this, and on their own,
have sought out this type of training. They took initiative, knew
what it would take, and went after it. However, if you own a company,
you’d be a leader if you included this type of training for your
own sales teams. However, this article is directed to the individual
sales person.
If you are a sales person, you may recognize the need for
additional training. If not, ask yourself, “Am I an expert in all
of the topics mentioned above?” If you aren’t, then take
advantage of additional training. If you already recognize why it’s
beneficial then the next question is, “Where do I start?”
There are countless sales training systems and sales techniques
out there. Most are useful and informative to some degree. With some
research, you can identify the good programs. There is one concept in
particular though, that we have found to be invaluable in our
careers.
Early in our careers, we were taught that there was a difference
between being a “powerful” sales person and one that relies on a
“forceful” approach to make his/her sales. Power vs. Force. At
first glance it may seem as though they are the same, but in reality,
they aren’t. They are very different. Mastering the difference,
will jumpstart your sales career in a HUGE way.
If a sales person were to use the same “pitch” on every
customer, how effective might that technique be? Everyone is
different, their motivation for buying, their personalities, their
priorities. And yet, this sales person says the exact same thing to
everyone they meet. Typically, the presentation was designed to
attract people like the sales person themselves. This is a perfect
example of “Force” in action. The goal is to make the sale. It’s
like forcing the presentation on the prospects. Have you felt that?
Have you wondered if the sales person you were talking to was even
listening? Did you buy from that person? This sales person is inward
focused. It’s all about him/her.
The other approach is the utilization of power. By choosing this
technique, the salesperson listens, asks clarifying questions, and
fulfills the needs of the customer, not themselves. The “powerful”
salesperson is more inclined to pay attention to what the customer
wants, and the goal is to focus on the customer. Insure that they are
satisfied, that your product is well-suited to them, and to satisfy
their requirements. This sales person can identify the personality
type of the customer, and adjust their approach to suit the person in
front of them. They are outward focused.
There is no way for us to cover all of the details on how you do
this here in one article. Instead, our goal in this post is to make
you aware of the difference between using POWER in your sales
approach rather than FORCE. It is crucial to your success.
By
Michael Bloxton,
President & CEO,
oneMYnd, LLC.