Why do sales training?
Approximately 35% of business fail due to insufficient revenue generation. Over the course of three years it's much easier to double revenues than it is to halve costs. Spending effort to increase revenue is much more financially rewarding than trimming costs – this is what successful businesses do. If Cisco, Google, Microsoft and your largest competitor (all of which started as one and two man businesses) focused on cost cutting rather than revenue generation, would we all know these names?
Does sales training actually increase sales revenues?
It's not a silly question to ask. You may be surprised to hear me say - less often than you might think. Let me explain the three possible results below
1. No, sometimes sales training actually decreases sales revenues.
2. Sometimes the gains are only short lived.
3. Yes, there is sustainable gain.
Answer 1, No: If sales people are sent on one size fits all training, or inappropriate training, there can be a real mismatch of the skills and processes taught within the environment the sales person operates in. In the case where sales people are taught skills suitable to a retail environment yet they operate in a B2B environment, it is likely that in the field that the techniques will be counter productive. The inverse scenario would also be true. In reality I think that unless the student is naïve, they recognise the inappropriateness of what they have been taught and never attempt the practices once they are out of sight of their sales managers. The amazing thing is that when there is no measurable improvements in results, no one ever calls the training into question.
Answer 2, Short lived gains: We have all seen this. The student is taught a collection of useful techniques (ingredients) but is given no process and so is left to invent the recipe for the ingredients. While the techniques are in the forefront of the students mind (for about one to three months) they use them (and sometimes even at the right time in the sales process) and get some good short term results.
Answer 3, Yes: The student is given both the ingredients and a recipe. The key here is that the student is also taught a structured reference process. If we repeat the same tasks in a similar order they create a habit. Using an appropriate reference framework makes it easy for both students and management to monitor the selling process. If the skills and processes are appropriate to the environment and the student has initial success with what they have learnt, the training provides a sustainable gain in sales revenues.
What sort of gains should be expected with the SalesFish CSP programme?
While the exact mix of skills and processes taught in the CSP programme are unique, very few of the individual suggestions in the CSP programme are unique. They are all well tried and tested. Good study has been done on the factors that contribute to sales success. However very little academic study has been done on the ability to transfer these factors to a student through sales training. Most training institutes make claims that are simply not supported with sound research using control groups, etc. SalesFish expects that you will see gains anywhere from 10% to 50% with an expected average gain across your sales team of somewhere around 15-20%. Obviously many factors apply, but even a gain of only 15% adds up over the course of 12 months and it is easy to demonstrate a very positive R.O.I for sales training.
If your sales staff currently turn over $50,000 per month and sales increase by 15% to $57,500 per month, this works out as an annual gain in revenue of $90,000. Note, this is revenue not net profit. If your gross profit on sales of goods and services is 25% then this is a net profit gain of $15,000 for an outlay of $600.
Is there any other investment in your business that can give you anywhere near this return?
So I just do the training and begin getting the results?
Yes the 'Consultative Selling Professional' process is very simple to implement. However studies on a number of sales training programmes have shown that the results from sales training are much more substantial and sustained when accompanied by other supporting factors.
- Post training peer support.
- Post training peer role playing.
- Post training management support.
- Post sales mentoring.
It's very valuable to be able to bounce your experiences around with other people in your organisation when you are all talking the same language. It's fantastically valuable to talk through individual sales in progress with someone who can check and both challenge and support your assumptions. This is why we are always keen to include sales management staff and colleagues in the CSP workshops. Don't be shy about doing role play. After 17 years I still ask colleagues to role play tricky sales scenarios with me.
Once started you won't slip back, the results reinforce the training which in turn further reinforces the results. The risk is not initially implementing what you have learnt. The most common reason given is that "I just don't have time to be thorough". Yes, it is possible that you might initially think you are going to do more work for the same sale, but in practice quite the opposite occurs. You will quickly discover that you won't waste a lot of time continuing with and chasing sales that you probably lost early in the process without even knowing it. Your success rate will be much higher. You will quickly discover that the CSP programmes key advantage is that it increases the efficiency of the sale process.
SalesFish also offers a number of post training mentoring services.
Am I better to focus on removing weaknesses or building strengths?
No ambiguity with this one. Building strengths is core to the SalesFish philosophy. Focusing on weaknesses is no fun and it just doesn't work. It's impossible to eliminate weaknesses if you have nothing to fill the void. Work on building strengths, these will naturally displace weaknesses.
After the training course, how do I start to adopt the techniques I have learnt?
This is easy. This is what the workshops are for. They give you a safe place to try out the direct customer interface facets of the training. We also give you some quick and simple post training suggestions and activities.
What type of sales environment is the Consultative Sales Professional Training designed for?
The CSP methodology is specifically designed to meet the needs of the professional sales person selling in B2B environments. It is particularly effective in environments where: -
- Clients have a wide range of possible compelling issues and purchasing motives.
- You are selling into organisations where different people in the organisation will have different purchasing motives.
- There are longer sales cycles where the client has number of decision making steps/requirements.
- The solution does not always directly and personally benefit the decision maker.
- Competing solutions/companies have unique features (i.e. not commodity products).
- There are complex purchasing processes.
- The solutions are complex in nature.
- The seller and purchaser are in collaboration to meet their common goals.
Are the workshops suitable for novice sales staff as well as seasoned professionals?
Seasoned sales staff have the experience to recognise the value of the training very quickly. They have solid skills that make the processes very easy to adopt and implement. The CSP programme allows novice sales staff to break through to the next level much faster than otherwise and avoid years of banging their heads against a false ceiling. While the CSP training is an advanced programme, it is the sales training I wish I could have had when I started.
Is the SalesFish training a success.
Yes, I love doing it!.
...Oh and yes, the training is also successful for the attendees! The client feedback has been very positive. Check out the testimonials. The only negative feed back so far is "I wished the workshop had been longer".
