Focused sales skills training is like gold at the end of a rainbow.
The Inside Sales Team consisted of mostly individuals without prior sales experience or training. After a few months with the new incentive plan, it became evident that the team needed sales training and tools to support their efforts. During this time, I took the opportunity to convince Call Center Leadership to allocate time for additional training by pulling the representatives off the phone.
The training covered various aspects including product knowledge, technology, interactive activities, and selling skills. Product training focused on understanding how the product supports new sod, while technology training reinforced the importance of using a CRM system. To make the training more engaging, we incorporated actual phone call recordings of successful sales from their peers and encouraged participation through role play. However, the most crucial aspect was developing effective selling skills.
After the first training session, we observed moderate improvement. We decided to run everyone through the training again, this time focusing on identifying and addressing the obstacles preventing their success. While several reasons were given, it became clear through call analysis and role-playing that the main issue was the team's resistance to adopting and fully embracing the new program. However, we were able to convince the team to give it a try, and they realized it was time to fully embrace the new incentive plan. As a result, those who followed the process exceeded the goal by an impressive 230%.
Many people mistakenly believe that sales is an easy job that anyone can do. However, I firmly believe that successful sales representatives possess certain innate qualities such as good listening skills, the ability to quickly build relationships, and determination. Nevertheless, these qualities need to be nurtured through sales training.
While the majority of our Outside Sales Team had the natural qualities required for sales, their skill development was lacking. To address this, we introduced the concept of referral selling, which we found to be the most effective process and tool in Joanne Black's book, "No More Cold Calling." For those Outside Sales
Reps who were willing to put in the effort, we witnessed significant improvements in new prospecting and pipeline development. For instance, we hired a new Rep for an area that required him to solely focus on new business development without any existing accounts to manage. After working with me on "No More Cold Calling," this Rep quickly rose to become the top performer, giving credit to the time spent embracing and implementing the process. I always remind him of his natural talent and determination. On the other hand, we had other new Reps who received the same training but failed to achieve similar results. This highlights the fact that great salespeople need a combination of natural ability, determination, and someone to nurture their skills through proper processes and sales training.