All sales training is put on hold until our sales increase

Have you been hearing that from your boss? As a sales & sales leadership consultant I’ve been hearing that statement a lot lately from my long-term customers.

A number of distribution and equipment sales companies seem to be saying this today. Not sure if these profit-challenged times are due to inflation and increased costs, concerns about the outcome of our upcoming Presidential election or the early signs of an impending recession. But what is evident is that business profitability is being squeezed and companies are having to make cut-backs and sacrifices.

What’s your company’s philosophy about sales training right now??

One of the challenges I see is that too many businesses see sales training as an event, instead of making it an ongoing process. Sales training doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does need to be ongoing. Consider adding a sales training component to each of your sales meetings…even if you only have 15 or 20 minutes to actually train.??

The goal of sales training is to help improve the skills, processes and messaging of a sales team. This can be accomplished by your ongoing one-on-one coaching when riding with your reps making calls, by using any lost sales as an opportunity to help your entire team see how that opportunity could have been won with stronger selling efforts, and by interjecting a little bit of time every sales meeting to focus on improving a specific selling skill.?

This is a major benefit of you taking advantage of my free, ongoing three-a-week videos (all under two-minutes) I’ve been posting online for about 8 years now. Take one of my videos (or others who are also publishing & posting), show it at a sales meeting?

Then just by asking a few questions, you can still offer some skill-improving training…and at no cost to your budget. Sorry for the redundancy (since I covered these questions in my last newsletter), but questions to ask after showing my video…

1. What did you think of the video?
2. How relevant are those ideas to what we’re doing here?
3. What do you plan to try different this week based on what we just discussed?
4. (asked later in the week) What success have you had based on what you promised to try??

Even when your boss is telling you “no budget for any sales training until sales improve,” you can still help your people improve and accomplish more than if you just left them alone…and isn’t that a great definition of the job of a sales manager?

Call me (Cell 952-913-8998)…I’d love to offer an opinion or answer your sales & sales leadership questions or concerns…to help your team sell even more!

In case you missed it…my most recent posts:

There were no postings or newsletter the week of July 1st?due to the July 4th holiday

Tuesday 7/9

“Are your reps trying to use leave-behind brochures as sales aids?”

There are two types of brochures a salesperson can use to increase their persuasiveness.?

The first type is called a SALES AID. A sales aid is used during a call to assist the salesperson in explaining and promoting their message. Effective sales aides have a lot of photos, but few words allowing the rep to provide their message during a call.?

The second type is a LEAVE-BEHIND brochure. Leave-behind brochures are meant to be standalone documents with lots of writing to deliver your complete story without any human input.?

The challenge is most marketing departments don't see the difference between these two brochure types. Most sales literature produced today are leave-behind brochures. Look at the persuasive challenge keeping a buyer’s full attention if the rep is using a leave-behind brochure with lots of writing to distract the buyer while your rep is presenting.

Does your team have both types of brochures currently available? Sales aids to use when in front of a buyer, and leave-behind documents to add to your messaging as they leave their call??

Today’s video talks about the two types of sales literature needed and how, with the proper sales tools, your team can sell even more!

Thursday 7/11

“Are your customers getting harder to reach?”

It used to be sales reps were considered the chief new information source for a buyer. If a buyer wanted something, the first thing they did was call a sales rep.?

Because of the Internet and all the other options of communication today, we're finding sales reps are being brought in later in the buying process. Most buyers today are doing their own independent Internet research and talking to friends before ever talking to a sales rep. Because of this “research before you talk with a rep so you don’t get taken advantage of” philosophy, buyers tend to be dodging our phone calls.

I’m finding texting more effective than calling today. Most follow the approach of calling a buyer’s cell phone. If the buyer doesn’t answer, instead of leaving a message, they hang up and send a text to their cell. Many are finding that texting a buyer is the most likely way to generate a response.?

Think your team could benefit from expanding the way they communicate with prospects and trying something different?

Today’s video talks about this challenge of reaching buyers today…and how changing the ways you’re reaching potential buyers could help you sell even more!

Saturday 7/13?

“Are your reps able to win business without being the lowest price?”

This is a great video to show at your next sales meeting!??

The reality is too many sales reps are only effective winning business when they’re the lowest price. But this level of selling (and lower profit margins) are just not sustainable in today’s markets of aggressive competitors and tighter profit margins.

It’s a real simple job description…The job of a salesperson is to communicate such a differential in value that the customer will buy from you even when you have a higher price. The more of a differential in value you can prove, the more of a differential in price you can charge and still win the business.?

You and your company still need to be within a reasonable pricing range compared to your competitors. If you're 25% or 30% more expensive, you’re likely not going to win any business. But 5% higher can usually work if and when you can communicate the value and payback your customer will receive because of the quality and uniqueness you can offer.

Today’s video discusses this problem of only winning business when you’re the lowest price, and the importance of shifting to winning business based on a higher-priced, but lower total cost solution. It’s a great way to sell more…and at a higher profit margin.

Interested in video-based learning to help improve the selling skills of your team??– Check out my two video training programs at?www.advancedsalesuniversity.com .?

Ready to have a conversation about how I could be of help to you and your sales team? We can conduct on-site training, interactive video account planning, sales or sales leadership coaching and training to help your team increase their competitive edge…especially with the changes in selling today! Ready to talk about how I might help with your team’s challenges?

- Jim Pancero

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“Helping you and your team become even more effective in sales”

[email protected] ?- (952) 913-8998

www.pancero.com ?/ Dallas, TX

Free videos on how to sell, and lead in today’s hyper-competitive times?https://youtube.com/jimpancero

Connect with me on LinkedIn - www.dhirubhai.net/in/jimpancero