“Your life can only get better when you do. Do something everyday to improve in your key skill area” Brian Tracy
Sales training is a process of providing the sales force with specific skills for performing their task better and helping them to correct deficiencies in their sales performance. Sales training is important and necessary because sales generate the revenue which is the lifeblood of business. A company would never hire any person in any department of the organization if they had not been trained and sales is equally important. Sales training involves a systematic attempt to learn, explained, and transfer “good selling practices” to salespeople. Through sales training programs, salesperson may learn to perform more effectively and quickly. Research suggests that training may increase the salesperson’s knowledge base and skill level, resulting in higher performance.
For example, Skinner conducted experiment, which is popularly known as “Operant conditioning.”. Here, he used a pigeon in a cage. Food was served to the bird outside the cage. The bird, upon feeling hungry, tried to reach the food. There were switches to reach the food. There were switches through which the bird tried to open the cage. After some time it was observed that the bird press the correct switch that let it to food. In this way, the bird was able to associate the switch in the cage with the desired result of reaching near the food.
It was spontaneous effort by the bird to reach near the desired food and switch. Experiment try to establish a connection between desired results with a certain sequence of action of the subject.
Importance and Benefits of Sales Training
A. Importance to the Organization
The organization has many advantages of sales training such as
- Increase the sales & Business growth
- Stability of able salesperson in the organization
- Develop better relationship between the customers and the salesperson
- It develops principles and practice of selling.
B. Importance to Salesperson – In the other words salespeople going through the soft skills training and their personality development
- Increase their efficiency – Sales training is imparted to develop selling skills of the salespersons.
- Building flexibility and versatility in your sales team in the face of adversity.
- Increase leadership skills to think more strategically
- Increase Knowledge of sales team – Sales training can also give your team a richer understanding of your products, service and the industry
C. Importance to customer
- Proper attention towards the customer’s problems, by the salesperson
- Customer gets proper advice from the salesperson in their buying decisions.
- It’s aimed to provide maximum satisfaction to customers through the knowledge gained by salesperson.
Principles of sales training
1 Principle of Objective
2 Awareness of the organization
3 Organization’s policies and objectives
4 Information about the products/Process
5 Sales process
6 Training Methods
7 Principle of motivation
Sales Training Top Methods
On Job Training – OJT is a popular technique, “this is how to do it.” In the selling context, newly hired salesperson gets a chance to observe the approaches of the senior salespeople, when they interact with customers. These new salespeople watch the discussion from where they can get an idea of how to deal with prospective customer.
Role Playing – an artificial environment of the realistic sales situation so the trainee find get a chance to replicate the buying selling session. The objective is to develop skills in trainee in managing and controlling the sales situations and learn to handle problems. Practical soft skills training also, the way presenting and making decision.
Case Study – It is about a real-life selling situation or a sales problem that is discussed in a classroom. The case discussion tries to highlight the problem part, diagnose the input of selling discipline and offer the solution to the problem. Trainees listen and understand the case study and relate to issue with personal selling concept.
Audio-Visual Oriented Training – this method is interesting, it gives the trainee a chance to have a look at chart, graphs, tables, buyer seller interaction, performers interview and a meeting session etc. This integrated with lecture bases trainings to learn both theoretical and practical applications of selling.
Summary – Sales training is a planned activity of the sales department. The sales organization and the salesperson both are benefited from the sales training. Training is given to found out solutions to various problems related with sales.
In modern organizations spend a large part of their revenue on training their salespeople so that they can contribute towards the achievement of organizational goals. If training policy of the organization is not good, then employee feels demotivated and spend more time on closing a sale.
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