It cannot be stressed enough that it costs more not to train your employees than it does to train them. You can count on poorly trained employees to make mistakes that will cost your company money. Their mistakes often irritate and even drive away customers. Sales are not made, and opportunities to expand your business are missed.
The employees also suffer. No one likes to mess up. If you fail to train your employees, they’re more likely to feel frustrated on the job and quit.
Sales staff training and motivation is the most important place to start when working on increasing sales. These employees are on the front line and have the most influence on the profitability of your company. Companies that decide to concentrate on training and motivating their sales staff usually experience a rapid growth in sales and profits. This should be one of management’s main areas of focus. Unfortunately, very few companies invest the funds and time required in this area to ensure the success of their company. The lost opportunity cost is incalculable!
Training will contribute to the success of your sales force in four main areas, regardless of what product or service you provide: 1) knowledge, 2) work habits, 3) selling skills, and 4) attitude.
Knowledge. A salesperson must have knowledge of the product, company, sales climate, and the entire operating environment. Only with the proper knowledge can an individual successfully sell a product or the service to a customer.
Work habits. A salesperson’s work habits can be responsible for great success stories or great failures. These habits can also spell the difference between sales success and failure for your company. With sales calls being as expensive as they are, a salesperson who makes very few calls a day can ruin you in short order. Making sales calls is a matter of mental attitude and strong work habits.
Selling skills. There are so-called “natural” salespeople. But while some individuals may naturally be better suited for selling, sales skills can be learned and mastered by virtually anyone. These skills include establishing rapport and empathy, making effective presentations, handling objections, closing sales, and so forth.
Attitude. A critical factor in sales performance is attitude. In fact, it is so important that many books by successful salespeople emphasize this one factor. A salesperson’s attitude is the number one difference between success and failure.