MAXIMIZING YOUR SALESFORCE

Maximizing Sales Force Power

Each week we receive a few emails and ads touting sales force training.?With forms to fill and "must use" questions to fend off objections, they are all remarkably the same --- and all woefully inadequate.?They have defined sales as the rote process of identifying the prospect, getting the appointment, presenting the pitch, and closing the sale.??All good. All vital. But not all there?is!??

In the old days of juggernaut marketing, "sales and marketing" were practically a single word, with MBA courses in "Sales and Marketing Management" and even a trade journal?of that very name.?Ad agencies, faced with dwindling revenues and diminishing creative power, looked for ways to muscle in on the major marketing players and get a bigger share of the marketing dollar.?In doing so, they managed to use new tools of research to separate the once-intertwined sales/marketing mindset and create new profit centers, such as branding and software to become the source of all knowledge, and a whole new dictionary of acronyms. Once again --- Good! Vital! But additive --- not all there is.

And there's the rub.?Instead of?adding?new tools, if the sales force training we've seen is to be believed, we have cast aside some of the best of the old tools, tools that can actually add intelligence to those acronyms and make the data available through advanced technologies more useful.??

Here is what a sales?force's role was once considered and here are their once embedded additional skills?that need to be retaught.?Recognizing the "prospecting, presenting, procuring" core of sales, the sales force IS:

???> The face of the company, its real live brand delivering the interface that humanizes and makes credible the promises that have been made about the product.?The sales rep builds loyalty and represents what advertising can only confirm.?Ads are corroborative more than determinative, so sales people need to be trained in how to create relationships that ads can only suggest/hint at.?The sales force records will show what new business is generated, what repeat business tells of the loyalty story, and how effectively a long term?relationship is being built.?Satisfied customers are good, but loyal customers are better.

???> The frontline in market research.?In building the relationship, sales forces must be trained?to listen carefully and openly for ways to improve existing products, expand product offerings, add meaningful services, and anticipate potential stumbling blocks from competitive efforts.?They must see themselves as an integral part of the ongoing market research loop and have a protocol for having their inputs heard and respected.?They must know that their insights are a valuable addition to the necessary innovation pipeline that grows the company.?And all of that takes training, a different kind of training from just getting past the toe-stubs on the way to closing a sale.??

This kind of integrated sales and marketing thinking, of training a sales force not just to move product but also to build loyalty and retrieve useful information, is what made companies like Procter & Gamble the iconic marketers that they were and are.?Thinking strategically means deploying assets advantageously, and if you are not training your sales force to do more than sell, you are "selling them short". Pun intended!

To learn more or further the discussion please give me a call - David Simpson III 843-327-0444

#Businessgrowth #Growth #Businessexpansion #SimpsonAndPartners #MMDconsulting #BusinessCoachCharleston #executivecoach