When thinking about improving or maintaining the effectiveness of your business, it is important to think about training opportunities. Sales training programs not only improve sales in general, but motivate and empower employees while creating happy customers. Use this hub to learn about the benefits of sales training and how to make these programs work for you!

from crmguru.custhelp.com

They say "good salespeople are born, not made." But that's false. In fact, selling is mostly a science, not an art.

Most salespeople know they need to develop a relationship with their clients. But many of them run into trouble when they try to solve clients' problems by educating them with a product pitch--and making that pitch to the wrong employees. Customers are not interested in the technical details. What they need to understand is how your solution will fix their problems and remove their pains. The sales rep needs to speak to the right decision-maker and focus more on asking the right questions, listening carefully to what the client is saying (or implying), developing the right solution using your products or services and presenting those solutions as they directly relate to the client's problems.

Regrettably, many companies don't have a process, leaving the untrained reps omitting many key steps or performing them in the wrong order. They ask the prospect qualification questions when they should be closing, or they try to close when they should be qualifying. Or they perform a myriad of other actions at the wrong stage of the sales cycle.

How do sales reps reach the decision-makers to set up a meeting? How do they develop the best solutions-based proposal? How do they demonstrate the product in a fashion that reveals the best solutions to the prospect's problems? The way to build a relationship with a client is by learning the "how" of selling. That comes through sales training. The best training follows a process. Each step of the process moves the relationship one step closer to a win-win solution and encapsulates the selling skills necessary within each step.

With proper sales training and a solid sales process, nearly anyone can become a successful sales professional. So what does a good process look like and what are the skills needed for each step?

Use PEAK: Prospect, Engage, Acquire and Keep.

Prospect is where the initial contact is made. It involves cold calling to find a prospective client. The sales rep needs to learn how to make cold calls, the proper attitude to have, what types of first impressions he or she can make and the best approach to take in that first phone call or meeting.

Engage is what you do once you've found a candidate. You engage the prospect in the process of the sale. The sales rep needs to learn how to qualify the "suspect" with the "right" questions and by listening carefully to the responses. The goal here is to understand the client's problems and requirements to match the right solution to the company's needs. Through good questioning and listening, the sales rep also will ensure that the suspect is fully qualified. To be qualified, the client must have a budget, the authority to make the decision (or at least the ability to introduce the sales rep to the decision-makers), have requirements matching your company's solutions and be able to make a decision and purchase within a reasonable timeframe.

Acquire is what you do with a qualified "suspect." The suspect now becomes a prospect. In the acquisition stage, the sales rep presents and proposes a solution, negotiates with the client, handles objections and closes the sale. With a firm foundation established in the Prospect and Engage steps, acquisition is easier, because the client's needs are fully understood and the sales rep's trust and credibility have been established. The close is a natural progression of the process, as opposed to the "dreaded event" sales reps typically anticipate with fear and loathing.

Keep is the final stage and the one in which the relationship is most important. The prospect becomes a full-fledged customer. An ongoing relationship is critical to your future business and viability. Unfortunately, many companies lack a customer retention strategy, and they lose the long-term relationship, along with potential future business.

A clearly defined sales process with specific selling skills for each step will ensure that your sales reps will replicate their successes.

from www.articlesbase.com

There is a real argument amongst salespeople that sales cannot be taught and that it is a natural skill that cannot be taught. People that are good at sales have always been good at sales and always will be. There are a number of salespeople that perpetuate this myth and claim that there is a knack of making sales that cannot be grasped by many people. They claim that it is some kind of dark art for which only a select few have the skills to do well at it. This is of course ridiculous.

This myth like many myths does have a link to reality but nevertheless it is very easy to teach skills that can be transferred to any kinds of sales and these skills can be taught to anyone. So what is it that makes a salesperson good at what they do and can it be taught to anyone?

Attitude

It is said that 'sales are contingent on the attitude of the salesman not the attitude of the prospect' (W.Clement Stone). The attitude of the sales person is probably the single most important aspect that leads to success. At best it can be a really positive force in making a sale. If the sales person is genuinely enthusiastic about the product that they are selling then the customer will respond well. If they can see passion in the eyes of the salesperson they are far more likely to buy. Statistics seem to back this theory up with 75 percent of purchases made as a result of a gut feeling as opposed to being logical or rational.

The attitude depends on someone's passion for what they are selling. As a result anyone can be a great sales person as long as they are selling something that they are passionate about.

Knowledge

Once the salesperson has demonstrated a great attitude and reeled the prospect in they need to be well equipped with in depth knowledge about the product or service that they are selling. It is vitally important that the salesperson can answer the questions that the prospects ask and volunteer the most important bits of information with ease. The skill is to impart this knowledge without pressing the prospect too hard and to do so by avoiding jargon.

Integrity

It has to be said that sales people are not renowned for demonstrating integrity but nevertheless it is an important part of the job and those that can deliver on the promises that they make will invariably be more successful than those that let their prospects down.

There are well publicised stories of savage door to door sales people that bully old age pensioners into parting with their well earned pensions for something that they don't need. These types of sales people will not only die a slow and painful death and be condemned to hell they will also get found out and it will inevitably affect their sales. People that buy products usually respond well to honesty from their salesperson and even if the salesperson highlights the flaws in the product they will still make a sale if it is done well.

Training

There is a common misconception that salespeople can't be trained and that it is a skill that is purely natural. Although there is definitely a knack for sales it has to be noted that there are plenty of techniques that can be taught to anyone regardless of their natural aptitude for sales. Anyone can be taught to utilise these techniques and improve the level of sales that they make. When these skills are mixed with the right attitude and knowledge anyone will become a master salesperson.

from prosalesguide.com

In the business world, salespeople need to understand their customers as much as possible to increase their chances of making a sale. Every customer always has some kind of need. Your job as the sales professional is to find out what those needs are.

Sometimes, you will get customers who will tell you what their needs are. Those type of sales just "fall in your lap." You don't have to do much work for those sales.

Unfortunately, that won't happen all the time, and you cannot count on those sales to make your paycheck. As part of your sales training, you have to find out what customers need in order to make a recommendation to them. People do not like when sales reps just try to sell them. It sounds as if they're not genuine; they're just trying to make money; and that they do not have the customer's best interest in mind.

Suppose you're working for a company where you power wash homes and wash windows, and of course you're the sales consultant. By the way, a sales consultant is a synonym for sales rep or sales professional. It just sounds more prestigious, and probably makes all of you salespeople feel very important. No, I'm just joking, you are all important, especially if you're reading this!

All kidding aside and back to the sales training, let's say you're talking to a home owner and you probe, "Have you had your house power washed or your windows cleaned?" They tell you, "I just bought new windows a few months ago, and I have not had my house power washed in close to four or five years." At this point, there a few options as to where this conversation can go. There is the right way, and the wrong way.

The wrong way is trying to just make the sale as we talked about, and not really caring about the customer's needs. Basically, the customer already told you that they just installed new windows. That means that you shouldn't try to sell them on cleaning their windows. Therefore, you should only recommend the power washing.

By doing this and avoiding all window talk, you're also showing that you're listening to them. It should sound something like this coming from the sales person: " I wouldn't recommend having your windows cleaned because you just had new windows installed, and they look beautiful. However I would recommend that you get your home power washed, so your home can look as good as your new windows. When you need the windows cleaned, you can reach me at another time. How does that sound?"

It's right to the point, and you don't come off like you are trying to be too pushy. You simply sound like a friend with knowledge in a field that they need.