I recently looked at some blog posts and found two common examples of what is taught:
Example 1
Step 1: Help your salespeople to understand and motivate themselves better
Step 2: Train on key sales attitudes, skills and techniques
Step 3: Teach personal responsibility
Step 4: Reinforce key behavior
Step 5: Celebrate success
Example 2
Step 1: Have the right people on the bus
Step 2: Define the sales activities that lead to results
Step 3: Manage the activities, not the results
Step 4: Recognize immediately, sales is a contact sport
Step 5: Learn what drives the sales team’s behavior
I think everyone would agree motivation and a common sales process are critical to the growth of any sales organization. That being said high dollar, high volume sales are personal. People buy from people they like and trust. No process or level of motivation changes that.
Most methods suggest skill training is critical. Which training drives the best results? Who’s helping individual salespeople learn how to build customer confidence and trust?
The key to success is focusing on foundational components that drive customer confidence. Put the salesperson in a formal process for consistency of results. Let the salesperson apply their unique personality and methods within the process to make it personal!
There are three foundational components that act as “legs to the tool.” Without all three the stool won’t stand, and the customer will not have confidence to buy.
Leg 1: Sales Skills
This is where everyone focuses their time. How many times have you heard “a good salesperson can sell anything to anyone.” My experience is this is not so. A car salesman doesn’t fare well selling high dollar software deals. A “harvesting” oriented salesperson often fails in new logo sales. Each can be successful in more than one category, but the skill is not universal.
There is so much literature on this topic it seems silly to repeat everything here. My point - this is not enough to drive high performance.
Leg 2: Industry Skills
Remember we are talking about large ticket, high volume sales. You must have some knowledge of the industry you are selling to. Why? Without this you cannot clearly articulate the value of what you are selling in terms the customer understands.
Confidence is built through your ability to show the customer you know their position, how they feel, what they need. Showing them you know exactly how to solve problems in their world is crucial. You are giving them the talk track they can take to procurement, the CFO or whoever they need to make the sale happen. Otherwise you are just a pushy salesperson.
In addition, don’t you like to hang out with people that have common interests? Sales are personal. If they feel a common connection with you the odds of success go way up.
Leg 3: Product / Competency Skills
I’ve known salespeople over the years that say they are “relationship” people and don’t have to know the product well to make the sale. They are just selling the salesman. They leverage the skills of other salespeople to do their work. Sorry, but it’s the truth.
The best salespeople I’ve known are always curious. They are always asking questions and studying up on wares they sell. They don’t have to be dead experts, but do want to bridge the gap between the product/service and how it will be applied to drive customer value.
The more credible the salesperson, the fewer follow up meeting are required to educate the customer on the value of what is being sold. Fewer meetings mean a shorter the sales cycle. A shorter sales cycle means lower a cost of sales. I love where this is going!
Focus on the individual. Give the salespeople a foundation from which to grow their ability. Don’t just give them a “training quota” and expect them to know what to do. When in doubt, they will go to another “art of the close” seminar.
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