How to Make Sales Training Work.

What is your mindset? What is the mindset of everyone in your organization? What is their perspective on their contribution to the business? Creating a competitive advantage is what we all strive for. Old-school traditional sales training taught salespeople to focus on features and benefits and being better, cheaper, and faster. Once you go there, you lose the upper hand. We only need to look to the organizations around us to learn why companies go from good to bad.

Conventional sales training for the sales team can have a limited impact. Why? Because sales is a mindset and that includes everyone. Not just the sales team.

Sales is a cultural movement across an organization. Sales says, “With everything I’m doing—every comment, every smile, every frown, whatever—my behavior is creating an image. That image is either drawing people close or it’s repelling them.”

There are a million sales training methodologies out there. Frankly, one or two of them are really good. (And, yes, some of them are really bad.) But the point is this: Sales training can fail because it teaches tactics to people who aren’t comfortable with the idea of being in sales.

Sales have a negative connotation for a lot of people. For now, know this: Whether we like it or not, whether we know it or not, and whether we want to admit it or not, everything we do is selling. It’s the common thread of every human interaction—in and out of the workplace. When we’re having a conversation or when we are passionately defending our position, we are attempting to influence somebody. We want somebody to see why we’re the best vendor or the right choice. We want the other person to agree with our position or do what we ask. We want the customer to say yes. That’s sales.

Sales is a behavior, but even more important, sales is a mindset. Think about it. We’re all selling every day. Everything we do leaves an impression, creates a relationship, or destroys a relationship. Every email, text message, interaction, and conversation—everything we do creates an image and an impression on the people we’re dealing with. And that image—that impression—sends a message that says, “I’m in the right place (or I’m not).”

We want to build a sales culture, not create a sales silo.

Todd Cohen, CSP, has been inspiring and motivating audiences for over 15 years, teaching them to sell themselves to achieve goals and incredible success. His sales culture keynotes and workshops are in demand from audiences from every background, including salespeople! Delivering approximately 90 appearances every year worldwide, Todd leaves people with a story to tell and feel great about themselves!

Todd has just released his third book,?"Mastering the Sales Mindset."