“Selling cycles are longer!” “Margins are lower!” “We need to cut prices to sell!”
From Vancouver to Montreal, San Diego to Boston, London to Paris, Hong Kong to Tokyo, businesses are doing just about anything to stay one step ahead of new, smarter and more aggressive competitors. But many aren’t doing the right things: training and coaching their salespeople. Most salespeople today are not equipped to create sales in the current market because their sales managers have neglected what should have been their primary responsibilities – training and coaching. Several years ago, corporate staff, salespeople and sales managers themselves began to see the sales manager as a marketer, number cruncher and contractor. As managers assumed tasks associated with these roles, these new responsibilities encroached on their coaching and training time. Today, organizations are paying the price.
With fewer customers and global and formidable competition, it is imperative that you have a knowledgeable, professional and – here’s the key – highly trained sales force. You can’t afford to wait on this. If you haven’t made this investment, you need to make it NOW. Kick it into high gear and get moving on the things you should have been doing in the past. You can’t expect your salespeople to improve their performance if rigorous training and coaching don’t support them. It’s simply unrealistic. Badgering or threatening your salespeople to do new and better things is not training. That type of behavior reduces salespeople’s level of productivity and injures their attitude. Meanwhile, the sales service and support teams observe what’s going on and they become uptight or depressed. The fallout hangs over the office like a dark cloud. What an unhealthy atmosphere that creates for gains in customers’ loyalty and sales growth!
Many of you may be thinking, “We do train. We do coach. We have weekly sales meetings. We have orientation training for new people. Our on-line library is full of materials. The salespeople all use or read the product guides, fact books, etc. We send them to sales conferences.” That’s wonderful, but these activities aren’t training. Education? Yes. Motivation? Maybe. Training? No. Coaching? No.
Education is important. People must have the facts and knowledge to do their job (and companies need to get much better in this area, too). But training–real training–is role-playing one on one and in groups with the sales manager. It is a hands-on application of skills and knowledge over and over and over. Real coaching is working with prospects in actual selling situations, with the sales manager playing an active role. It is a process of teaching salespeople how to develop their skills and results. It demands a dedicated commitment of time from the sales manager to get in the field and see customers with sales reps, and it requires one on one time in the office as well.
» Read more: The Real Role of Sales Managers
