TRAINING - WHY YOU SHOULD INVEST IN YOUR EMPLOYEES

Hi everyone, and welcome to my weekly blog on SALES LEADERSHIP – HOW TO BUILD A WORLD CLASS SALES TEAM. This week I will be discussing why training is such an important aspect in leadership. We will discuss why even the most experienced people on your team can fail without ongoing training.

Typically, most organizations will forgo budgeting for training in tough times. Or they will focus on the new hires, and not invest into the loyal employees who have been in the organization the longest. Training is necessary and a critical part of the continued success of an organization. Why should you invest into employee training? For employees to be adaptable, efficient, and productive, new skills are required. Business environments change, technology is continuously changing, client needs change, and your competitors go to market strategies change. Training in the areas of change management, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, innovation, collaboration, and communication are vital regardless of tenure in the company, or current experience. Employees are your biggest asset. Why wouldn’t you want to invest into their continuous improvement?

Let’s discuss some critical reasons why your organization should invest into ongoing employee training:

·?????? Operational efficiency – enhancing efficiencies makes your employees more productive. They can do the same amount of work in less time. In other words, they can get more work done in the same amount of time. This will also help improve your organizations consistency in processes.

·?????? Succession planning – an organization must invest in increasing the availability of experienced capable employees to fill senior positions as they become available. Succession planning also helps fill the pipeline more rapidly with qualified and committed employees.

·?????? Exceed industry standards – training employees in continuous improvements and industry standard best practices will boost your organizations reputation. Many industries are saturated with competition so often it’s the little things that will give you a competitive advantage.

·?????? Reduce attrition – investing into your employees prepares them for their current position and for advancement. Also, preparing your employees for career advancement can keep them from looking for better opportunities elsewhere. Also, investing into your employees will lower recruitment costs.

·?????? Increase employee value – the more experienced an employee is in a specific skill will enable your organization to have subject matter experts. Training your employees with additional skills will increase their usability within the organization. Employees with diverse skillsets can transition more easily into other roles within the organization.

Now let’s discuss sales training specifically. Although they say a good salesperson can sell anything or to anyone, that’s not necessarily true. You must train your sales team based on their individual roles and responsibilities. A global key account manager will need different skill sets than a regional territory salesperson. There are many questions you should ask yourself prior to deciding what the most appropriate type of sales training is.

Here are some questions to ask?

·?????? Who is your customer? Business to business (B2B) or Business to consumer (B2C)?

·?????? Is the customer a small family business or global multi location operation?

·?????? What industry is your portfolio related to?

·?????? Are there technologies in your product portfolio that separate you from the competition? And if so, are there salespeople on your team that need technical training to better understand what those advantages are?

·?????? How does your organization go to market? Bricks and mortar store? Online sales? Telemarketing sales? Distribution Sales? Manufacturing? Domestic vs. International? Other?

As you can see, there is no one size fits all for what’s the best training for your sales organization. There is also a ton of courses out there with various selling techniques.

·?????? Opening doors to opportunities

·?????? Improve your cold calling skills

·?????? Closing the deal

·?????? LAMP or Large Account Management Process

·?????? Buy / sell hierarchy

·?????? Telemarketing 101

·?????? How to keep a customer for life

·?????? And on and on and on!!!!!

This chapter of my blog is so comprehensive that I can go on for hours without ever scratching the surface. What I can offer your organization is a free consultation to discuss what types of training would be most useful based on individual, departmental, and organizational needs. Reach out to Baker Support to make an appointment for us to discuss various types of training programs that can benefit your employees and organization.

Best Regards,

David Fliss

Chief Executive Officer

Baker Support / Food EcoSystems

+1(561) 707-0378

[email protected]