Apr 01 2010
Formalised Sales Training – There Are Alternatives
Continuing the debate regarding sales team development, we have to be aware that there are alternatives to formalised classroom training: For example at JFC, we strongly recommend and indeed provide,formal and informal mentoring. We also coach managers to become coaches themselves.
Mentoring:
In mentoring, salespeople choose a mentor (usually a high-performer or more experienced person within the organisation who can serve as a model and/or guide) and consult that person periodically for advice on a range of issues from strategy for handling a particular sales situation to advice on long-term career development.
Since the best way to learn something well is to teach it to others, mentoring programmes offer organisations a win-win proposition: in addition to enhancing the skills and performance of the salespeople, they help mentors develop their sales skills while improving their coaching and management skills as well.
Coaching:
More and more organisations are waking up to the value of building a strong coaching culture. Analogies to athletic coaching are common but especially apt.
Training alone does not guarantee that a great athlete will deliver a gold medal-winning performance. This can only come from continuous daily support and guidance from an expert coach. Equally, top sales professionals need expert coaching support from their managers to stay at the top of their game.
Whether coaching is delivered face-to-face, on the telephone, or via e-mail, those organisations that have a strong coaching culture attract and retain the best salespeople.
The challenge for Sales Directors is to provide the support that sales managers – all of whom are hard-pressed for time – need in order to provide the kind of support their salespeople must have.
Successful Sales Directors have found a range of supporting tools, resources and kits that save managers’ time and enhance the impact of their coaching time.
Whatever coaching framework is chosen by an organisation, it must be easy to use, flexible so that the coaching sessions are tailored to the needs of their team, participative, so that all of the salespeople are engaged and, above all, fun. The fun factor encourages salespeople to become “hooked” on their own continued development.
I also firmly believe that online sales team development is the way forward – harnessing the power of the internet. This why we have partnered with SalesNexus, a leading CRM house ….
The SalesNexus Sales Institute offers maximum convenience, and maximum return on investment: No expensive hotel charges; no travelling; minimum time away from the frontline – just ninety minutes every week; no information overload – too many ideas crammed into a two day program; ample opportunity for revision.
You can see what we have created HERE
Today’s News: We are taking a well earned Easter break, and we’ll be back next Tuesday – have a great w/e!
One of the most overlooked areas however is executive management. I know you are talking about larger companies with established sales teams and Sales Management. The problem I’m talking about occurs in smaller companies where the CEO also is the sales manager.
Most CEOs are not prepared for this. They don’t know what the sales guy needs to succeed. They don’t know how to measure the sales guy’s performance. etc etc etc.
Sales training needs to encompass executive management as well.
Most CEOs are not prepared for this. They don’t know what the sales guy needs to succeed. They don’t know how to measure the sales guy’s performance. etc etc etc.