Investing in your sales force
Industrial Supply columnist Robert Nadeau presents three skills your sales force should master
by Robert Nadeau
Training is one of the best investments you can make in your sales force. With thousands of sales training programs from which to choose, it’s difficult to determine what type of training will give you the biggest return on your investment. Below is a list of the basic knowledge and skills a person must have in order to succeed in the selling profession.
- Prospecting skills
- Product knowledge
- Customer need identification and development skills
- Presentation skills
- Ability to manage a complex sell
- Ability to close the sale without discounting the price
Take a few minutes to rank this list — from most to least — in terms of how much training your salespeople have received in each area. If you’re like many sales managers, product training is at the top of your list.
Product training is important. But if you want to improve the overall performance of your sales force, they must master additional skills.
Peak Sales Performers
In 2006, the Industrial Performance Group conducted a national study of 1,500 salespeople from 17 different industries throughout North America. Within this group, we identified a smaller group (5%) of salespeople who consistently produce higher sales volumes at higher profit margins. We refer to these salespeople as Peak Sales Performers.
Are Peak Sales Performers smarter, better looking or harder working? No. Three skills separate Peak Sales Performers from the majority of salespeople. Those skills are prospecting, customer need identification and development, and closing the sale without discounting the price.
Skill No. 1
Peak Sales Performers spend twice as much time prospecting for new customers compared to most other salespeople. Prospecting is a major contributor to sales success. No matter how financially comfortable a salesperson becomes, he or she can never stop prospecting. Despite this fact, prospecting is the most dreaded part of the sales process because it often results in rejection.
Why do Peak Sales Performers do twice as much prospecting? They have been trained to give prospective customers a compelling reason to meet with them. This greatly reduces the amount of rejection they experience. As a result, their prospecting efforts are less stressful and more successful.
Ask yourself, “Do our salespeople spend enough time prospecting for new customers?” If you said no, perhaps your sales force would benefit from some prospecting skills training.
Skill No. 2
Selling is not about talking, telling or teaching. It’s about asking questions and then listening.
Peak Sales Performers let their customers do most of the talking. They have been trained to ask questions and then listen. This simple, yet effective, interaction
between customer and salesperson is how salespeople identify needs, form relationships and make sales. However, many salespeople never learned this basic selling skill.
They have been taught to get in front of the customer, present the features and benefits of their product, overcome any objections the customer may have and then go for the close. Salespeople who use this approach spend way too much time talking, and not enough time asking questions and listening.
Identifying and developing customer needs is a major contributor to sales success. It requires asking questions during the customer interview and then listening to what the customer says.
Ask yourself, “Who does most of the talking when our salespeople are in front of customers?” If it’s not the customer, your salespeople would benefit from need identification and development training.
Skill No. 3
The majority of sales managers see closing as the primary weakness of their sales force. Closing skills training runs a close second to product training in terms of
yearly spending.
There are literally thousands of closing techniques designed to get the customer to say yes to your offer. One of the easiest is to discount your price and throw in a few extras.
Price discounting can have a severe negative impact on your bottom line. In addition, it creates a false perception in the customer’s mind about the true worth of your products and services.
Our study revealed that Peak Sales Performers discount less frequently than most salespeople.
They have been trained to overcome downward price pressure by making customers aware of the dollars-and-cents benefit their products and services will deliver.
The majority of salespeople cannot provide customers with a compelling reason to pay more for their products and services. It’s not because they lack the desire, but rather, because they simply don’t know how to do it.
If price discounting is making your profit margins thinner, your sales force needs to learn how to calculate and communicate the dollars-and-cents benefit their products and services deliver to customers.
Next issue, I’ll explain how to determine if your investment in sales training produces results.
The Industrial Performance Group specializes in helping manufacturers and distributors increase sales volume and improve profitability. Go to www.indusperfgrp.com or call 800-867-2778.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2009 edition of Industrial Supply magazine. Copyright 2009, Direct Business Media, LLC.
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY MAGAZINE
The November/December issue of Industrial Supply magazine features an in-depth cover story about Kimball Midwest. Plus, we're featuring articles by contributing writers Dirk Beveridge, Frank Hurtte, and Mike Marks, as well as interviews with numerous product and distribution industry experts.
