One of the things I often get asked by sales leaders is
“How can I improve the selling skills of my people?”
To paraphrase the reply to “How do I get to the Albert Hall?” the answer is
“You have to practice”
Sales Directors talk about needing to have a sales team with Advanced Selling Skills what I would say is “no, you need sales people who regularly, every day, every sales call, practice ADVANCED SELLING BEHAVIOUR”
I recently attended an “Advanced Selling Skills” workshop. The content was good and so were the two guys delivering it. So what is wrong with that I hear you ask. Well nothing other than the skills trained in were not “advanced”; they were good, standard skills around asking good Questions to understand what is going on, Listening intently to evaluate, diagnose, comprehend etc, handling Objections and Negotiating.
All good stuff but......
I have a issue with this and it is nothing to do with the content or trainers - both were good. The problem is more for the Sales Director of the client buying the training. That problem is that none of this content is new, it is what his people should already be doing. The challenge is “what will change as a result of your people attending the training workshop”?
Their problem is the challenge of achieving target in a difficult market (but it exists in a buoyant market too) will only go away if as salespeople they not only understand “Advanced Selling Skills” but practice them every time they speak to a customer.
The other issue I have is with many people’s ATTITUDE. Fortunately for me mine is positive. Fool that I am, I really believe that working hard, developing new skills and applying them everyday in my work will move me forward psychologically and move my business forward fiscally.
What I witnessed in this training workshop was a poor attitude of everything being negative - “why do we need more training, our prices are not competitive, even if I could sell in these difficult times we can’t deliver” etc etc etc. Boring, boring, boring.
How about this as another way of looking at the world - “My sales director cares. He cares about his job, his company and his sales teams. He cares enough to spend money on my education even in these difficult times when it is really, really hard for my company to justify spending their money on my education. So I am going to take this opportunity by the scruff of the neck. I am going to go away from this workshop and practice these skills over and over until I get really good at selling such that my clients benefit from the great solutions my company offers, my company earns much needed revenue and I earn a great big, fat bonus”.
Attitudinally that sounds and feels a lot better
I feel better too having written this blog today. So everyone’s a winner
PS I just read the Rambler’s Association blog - it went on and on and on and on........
What this all points to is the need for the Sales Director to LEAD the team. You cannot get a team to play at the top of their game and improve their skills if they think that all actions and activities are "going through the motions." To get a sales force to practice sales skills, build momentum in the sales activity of the company, and believe they can be successful the sales director must exhibit two of the key requirements of their job - Coach and Mentor.
ReplyDeleteAgree 100% Mike. We keep seeing examples of companies spending huge sums on training but never coaching their teams in the real change agent - selling behaviour in front of clients. Over and over it is "let's train them some more because we are not selling enough". It is simply down to better leadership, coaching and mentoring. A combination of improved sales management and improved salesmanship ( really good questioning and listening for example) will make all the difference. Not training, not measuring Customer Facing Time (unless it is to measure the quality not the quantity). We truly believe that sales directors and sales managers spend money on training to avoid having to manage and direct and coach and mentor. Until that changes.........
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