Below is a selection of posts from Dr John Gora’s Blog, enjoy!
Investing in Sales Training Pays!
Firms which continue to put money into sales training courses for their employees are the ones leading the way during the recession, new research has found.
Conducted by US market analysts the Aberdeen Group, the study discovered that those performing strongly in the current climate are 2.6 times more likely to be implementing staff development initiatives.
The researchers believe that such companies are looking at the hours their employees spend not selling and are using it to boost their knowledge of marketing techniques.
Peter Ostrow, research director of sales effectiveness for the Aberdeen Group, said: “Leading companies are maintaining and increasing their spend on sales training, as well as on collaborative efforts to gather, maintain and distribute the most effective content and strategic selling successful practices.”
Jerry Carter, chief executive officer for US firm Carter & Consultants, recently wrote for BusinessWeek that small businesses will not achieve growth without the introduction of sales training.
For the full press release click here.
Need more top sales performers?
Ever wondered what really makes a good sales person and how you can identify that in potential candidates?
There really is no other position in an organisation that has the impact of a sales person. They can make or break the growth of your business. A great sales person will take your company to a new level, take market share from your competitors and build long term business. A poor sales person can miss opportunities through lack of skills, waste time with prospects that will not buy, and cost your company huge amounts of money in lost revenue. I am sure we have all seen both types in our organisations.
There is no question that sales people in particular experience a range of emotions throughout their working week. From major highs when that sale comes through to low lows when we just can’t get an appointment or meeting our budget seems impossible. Sales people are held up daily to a set of targets, scrutinized against KPI’s, and other sales people in the company.
In sales, people seem to do the same things over and over and yet get different results every time. Why is that? Perhaps if we look a little deeper we will see that it’s the state of mind they are in that really has the impact and not the amount of activity being generated.
Also, if you really have a look, you might see that how people operate in their own lives shows up in their sales process. It is no coincidence! What is going on around us is a mirror of what is going on inside us – it stands to reason.
Ever thought about how a person’s relationship to money impacts their ability to sell? What about the way they like to shop? Do they go for the bargain, shop around until they get the best price, or buy the first one they see? Will they expect their prospects to do the same? Do they need to be liked by all their prospects and clients? And does this have an impact on their ability to close a sale effectively? Do they have the emotional resilience needed to be an outstanding sales person?
These are some of the key elements that generally are not considered when recruiting a sales person and it certainly takes more than being well groomed, well spoken and outgoing to generate business.
Yes, I know you are thinking about industry experience and yes this will certainly help to reduce the ramp up time of a new sales person.
What else?
What is really going to ensure they will achieve “success” as defined by you, not them?
What about the complexities of the sales cycle, the market, the product … where does your product or service fit? Do you want a hunter, closer or account manager? What do these terms actually mean?
How can you possibly get a true picture of a sales person in one or two interviews – probably less than 3 hours? Where first impressions are tuned to impress, where a sales person will have all of the finesse to make you believe what they say is in fact true. How will you choose the most suitable candidate?
Maybe you will focus on the culture. But is your current culture one of high performing sales?
Maybe if you like the applicant and feel that you are on a similar wave length? Remember they should be experts at developing rapport.
Will you put a lot of evidence on the reference checks? These are always a good indication IF you know the right questions to ask.
It would have to be said that recruitment agencies, as a rule, follow a fairly traditional process. Add some intuition or gut feeling, a little bit of sales and influence skills, and as long as the candidate ticks all of the boxes and you like them, you will choose to put them on.
Getting into the mindset of a sales person, understanding their strengths as a sales person and most importantly their weaknesses will give you a true insight into what you can expect from them for your sales role. This takes the guess work out of filling a vital role in your organisation.
