Sales Training

Guide to Training your Salespeople

How to educate and train salespeople for optimum results
By LaRita M. Heet

What's the best way to sell your products and services? It's the question millions have asked and thousands of authors, speakers and business owners have tried to answer. In order to sell, you must look closely at not just your customers and products, but at your salespeople.

1. You can train your salespeople in three basic steps:
2. Teach customer-focused sales techniques.
3. Implement a variety of training styles to teach your staff.
4. Continue to evolve your employees' sales training.

Action Steps

The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Teach customer-focused selling Train your employees to take the time to get to know the customers, and anticipate their needs. Remember to focus on filling their needs, as opposed to just selling your products.

I recommend:  Adopt a customer-focused selling culture for your business. Learn more about it at BusinessTown.

Set the stage for selling The most important skill for a salesperson is not experience or talent – it's enthusiasm. Whether or not you choose to hire someone with sales experience, make sure you're working with outgoing, personable people who are truly enthusiastic about what they're selling.

I recommend:  Check out Streetwise Tips on Face-to-Face Selling to learn how to make the right hiring decisions, and encourage enthusiasm. Go to Sales Idea of the Week List for several awesome approaches to sales.

Use a variety of training styles Studies have shown that people have different learning styles, so it's up to you to offer different training resources for your staff. Try the DVDs, videos, and/or interactive tools.

I recommend:  A great site offering a variety of training resources is Business Training Media. This link takes you directly to the tools designed specifically for the small business training needs – and the small business budget!

Get advice from Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Red Book of Selling is a great little selling strategies handbook with useful advice for small businesses.

I recommend:  Visit the Little Red Book of Selling Web site.

Try something new Ask your staff for some new, creative ideas in selling, displaying, or marketing – you never know when you'll happen upon something new.

I recommend:  Go to Total Selling Systems for 6 basic selling strategies, including appointment-setting, managing objections, and identifying (and then pursuing) prospects. The case studies include tools for you to use in evaluating your company's success with each strategy.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• Sharpen your focus: Instead of simply pushing the features of your products, teach your salespeople to focus on the benefits for the customer.
• Keep them coming back: Studies show that customers will drive farther and pay more to patronize a business with friendly, welcoming workers, so train your employees to smile and go out of their way to help your customers.
• Get a commitment: Getting your customers to commit to buying something is more than half the battle.
• Keep hiring: If your business picks up, don't be tempted to cut the quality of service to increase your bottom line. Instead, hire additional salespeople, and watch that bottom line continue to grow.
• Teach them to make an effort: You and your employees should get to know your customers by name to show them that you care, which goes a long way toward building customer loyalty.
• Hire only people-people: You wouldn't hire a cashier who couldn't count, so don't hire someone who is rude to do your sales. People buy from salespeople they like, period.