Your sales force is the life-line of the revenue generating side of your business. Their effectiveness is critical to sales, and those sales are critical to the overall well being of the organization. With that in mind, having a sales force that is properly trained is vital in any economy, let alone a difficult one.
Your Sales Team is the face and voice of your organization. Their ability to tell your story, and represent the company in the manner you desire does not happen by chance. Product training is prevalent in most organizations, but product training is not sales training. Your product or service may sell itself in a strong economy, but that alone won’t work in a difficult economy. In a difficult economy, you need more.

Much more…

True sales training allows your Team to get back to the fundamentals of selling. Product training, which is what most sales training inside most organizations really is, puts the focus on the features of your product. Sales training will put that focus on the benefits of that product. Your customer doesn’t care what your product or your service will do. They care what it will do for them. Sales training puts the focus back where it belongs. That focus needs to be on your customer, their problems, and how your product or service can and will fix those problems.

We are all looking for more ways to generate new revenues, and fewer things will directly impact revenues more quickly than effectively training your sales force. New sales people need the fundamentals to properly do their job. Experienced sales people need to be reminded of these fundamentals as those seem to slip away over time. It happens to everyone, and when it does, it will cost you sales dollars. Dollars you can’t afford to lose.

Sales training is done yearly in most organizations, quarterly in some, and monthly or weekly in the best. Once it’s ingrained in a true sales organization it simply becomes part of the culture. True sales people are always striving to improve and welcome training. Average sales people tolerate it, and it shows in their performance. The sales people who think they know it all and don’t need it and can’t benefit from it cause everyone problems, including your customers.

When you see Sales Training as an investment rather than an expense, your Sales Team will follow, and so will the benefits to you, your organization, and your revenue stream.