Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

The JF Guest Author Spot

Your salespeople are the center of your business. Nothing can happen without them. Too often, especially lately, business owners fail to see the value of their sales force. Maybe their sales force is ineffective. Maybe the leadership hasn’t set up and enforced realistic goals and expectations. Or maybe the company leadership doesn’t realize how the sales force impacts their business.

As I work with salespeople and business owners around the country, I hear the same messages. The owners are saying ‘I’m paying my salespeople too much.’ And the salespeople are saying ‘I don’t get any support, assistance, or resources to help me succeed.’

What in the world is going on? For starters, business owners have decided that they aren’t getting value for their dollar from their salespeople. Well, unless they are paying them a really high base without any sales goals or quotas, I doubt that’s true. Think about it – without salespeople, you don’t have customers. If you have a reasonable compensation plan in place, for every dollar you pay your salesperson, you should be getting at least two dollars. So, in reality, the more money your salespeople are making, the more money you are making.

Most business owners have never tried to sell, or have failed miserably at it. Sales is hard work. You have to constantly pursue new business, have a very tough skin, enjoy the hunt as well as the conquest, excel at matching the prospect to the product, and be able to start up a conversation with complete strangers. Wow! How many people do you think can do all of that confidently and successfully? Not many. That’s why it should pay well.

It’s basic economics. The demand is high and the supply is low. When this occurs, the compensation must be high to attract the appropriate people. Now, I don’t believe that high compensation includes a high base salary. When you have a high base, you run the risk of employing people to do sales who merely pull their paycheck – without results to show for their efforts. The reason is this – when the base salary is high, there is no real incentive to produce. Conversely, when the base is low and the commission structure is fair and attainable, your salespeople will be eager to sell. They are earning a base to take the worry away. At the same time, the real money is in the sale. So, they have a vested interest in selling. The more they sell, the more they’ll make. That’s the ideal program.

There are three steps every business owner should implement with their sales force to ensure results are being realized.

1. Establish a reasonable, fair, attainable pay structure with a small base salary, quotas, benchmarks, and commissions based on margins not sales dollars. The commissions should be significant enough that your salespeople can earn a good income from their efforts. **If you are in an industry that is highly competitive and commoditize to the point where margins are extremely low, you may want to offer a higher base and year-end bonus plan.

2. Create a system for gauging quotas and benchmarks. This system should be clear and easy to follow. The consequences for poor and good performance should be spelled out. The end result should be a program that your salespeople can easily follow so they can monitor their own performance and are aware of the consequences of their actions. Measurability is key to the success of any sales program.

3. Work the system constantly. More often than not, the place where there is a breakdown between the ownership and the sales force is at the monitoring stage. For some reason, the ownership fails to effectively monitor the performance of their sales staff and communicate consistently with that staff regarding their results. To achieve success, the ownership has to consistently monitor their sales staff’s performance and implement the consequences. Open, consistent communication helps keep the program working and no one feeling resentment.

Business owners owe it to themselves, their staff, and their clients to make sure they are working their sales program effectively. And they should have no doubt that it is up to them to make sure the program is followed. When there is a reasonable, effective program in place that everyone has opted onto, the business will grow at a great pace and everyone will feel that they are winning.

Copyright© 2008 Seize This Day Coaching

Diane Helbig is a Professional Coach, and the president of Seize This Day Coaching. She works one-on-one and in groups with small business owners, entrepreneurs, and salespeople to help them create successful business development strategies. As a team, they embrace the possibilities. Diane’s website is http://www.seizethisdaycoaching.com and her blog is http://www.seizethisdaycoaching.blogspot.com

Diane is also one of the most recent recruits to the Top Sales Experts team and you can read more about her here

Today’s News: This week I received an invitation to join a fantastic new site, dedicated to networking sales professionals, AccountMaven.com. Membership is by invitation only, but because you are reading my blog, I am going to invite you myself - you can register by following this link I will take the time to complete a tour in the next few days and report again in the next two weeks - enjoy!

And here is a very special message from a very special friend:

Good Morning,

Today you can make a difference in your personal and professional development.

As an Unleash Your Potential subscriber, I hope you have heard of, or maybe have a copy of, my book Remarkable Leadership.

Whether you have a copy or not, action you take today can make a difference in your success and results in the future.

Let me explain.

If you don’t have a copy, and buy one now, you will have the opportunity to take advantage of some gifts from me and some colleagues. Each of these gifts can accelerate your progress as a leader – both on their own and in tandem with the book.

One of those gifts is one full month in our Remarkable Leadership Learning System. Learn more, or make your purchase, now.

If you already have a copy of the book, you will benefit too. As you will receive the same gifts available to all who buy their book today. I’m very excited to be sharing these gifts with you, especially the full month membership in the Remarkable Leadership Learning System.

I’m not going to say anymore – as this page says everything you need to know.

I hope you take me up on this offer – and when you do I look forward to working with you during the entire month of March to help you accelerate your progress towards Remarkable.

You are Remarkable!

Kevin Eikenberry
Chief Potential Officer, The Kevin Eikenberry Group
Bestselling Author, Remarkable Leadership: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill at a Time

p.s. Make sure to check out the added bonuses for those who buy multiple copies – this is a perfect chance to get all of your leaders a full month of training plus some additional gifts!

Tomorrow: I am on to negotiation skills again and give you my tips for preparing for a successful outcome.

Not enough companies have learned how to employ sales training as a strategic tool. Those that have are leaders in their industries, offering their shareholders maximum return on investment, are able to quickly adapt to changing market conditions, are respected by their customers and provide consistent sales performance. The sales people that work for those companies are motivated and stay in their jobs longer.

Quite often sales managers and executives don’t have the time and experience to do this correctly. Companies with internal training departments often provide guidance, but sales training is quite different from designing and delivering training to other constituencies within an organisation, such as customer care, engineering, or human resources.

The first step for any company deciding to make a change in their sales approach is always an assessment of the situation. What processes and methods are currently being employed by the company? What has their sales performance been? What percentage of sales people are delivering against plan? What are the biggest obstacles to success? How dynamic or stable is the company’s environment? What are the practices and expectations of the buyers? These are only a few considerations.

Designing or adopting a sales methodology is critical. Without that methodology in place, training is a tactical attempt to fix a larger problem. The selling methodology must be developed based upon the company’s unique situation—their market, their customers, how those customers buy, the complexity and price levels of the products and services the company offers, competitive pressures, reporting requirements, the participation of partners, the skill level of their current sales people, etc.

The primary objective of creating an individually tailored Organisational Development Programme has to be: “To achieve consistently superior results through the performance of every key individual“, after all, our people are our most important and indeed expensive resource, it therefore makes sense for us to want to see a full and proper return on that investment.

Specifically, we should seek to achieve optimum performance levels via a process and an all encompassing framework for defining performance standards. This involves assessing, appraising, developing, implementing, reviewing and providing continual feedback on performance.

Emphasis is placed on creating an environment in which the ‘can do – will do’ mentality thrives and becomes the norm – success and achievement are expected and as a consequence are much more likely to happen.

This total approach enables forward thinking organisations who are committed to looking ‘outside the square’ and who are not afraid to mentally cross bridges that that their competitors have not even identified, to enter the land of “me – first” rather than the land of “me – too”. It also offers the opportunity to develop excellence in the performance of the company’s teams and build the capabilities necessary to consistently over–achieve short, medium and long term objectives.

Today’s News:

I know I have many female readers and I have no doubt that most of you will be interested in a site that was recommended to me last week – why aren’t there sites for men like this? Ostensibly, it is aimed at today’s modern business woman

It’s called Coutts Woman and I can tell you it is what my mother would have called “very upmarket” but then again, that is to be expected as Coutts has been the bank of choice for the “very well heeled” for many years. However, that doesn’t really do it justice.

My first impressions were very favourable: The site is modern with clean lines and it is so easy to navigate around – I should tell you that my own technical team were also impressed and that doesn’t happen very often!

All of the sections which include: Features, Travel, Money Matters, News, How to…are extremely well written, informative and relevant.

So, if you are a woman in business or a woman entrepreneur, heed my advice and take a look at Coutts Woman

As we wrap up the week and indeed the month, I am delighted to introduce yet another Top Sales Expert Cheryl Clausen. Cheryl is another recent recruit to the team and you will no doubt have enjoyed her work here on The JF Guest Author Spot. You can read more about her here

Tomorrow: I have a very arduous schedule between now and Christmas, beginning with a trip to the UK for two weeks but I will be posting here as usual, so have a great w/e and do make it back here on Monday. - JF

The JF Guest Author Spot

“Why Training Fails” by Kevin Dwyer

If the objective of training is for people to apply that learning in the workplace and make an observable difference to an organisation’s results, then almost all corporate training fails to achieve its objective. In a 2000 study, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) reported that only 3% of training reached Kirkpatrick’s “level 4” of training evaluation “results” where there is an impact on the organisation. In contrast, 95% of training reached “level 1” where the participants liked the training. A further breakdown of the study revealed that 37% of training reached “level 2” where participants learnt the material and only 13% of training reached “level 3” where participants applied the learning in the workplace. There are several failures, which lead to this significant waste of training dollars.

When training is not related to the organisation’s objectives, strategies and management’s day-to-day behaviour, training is ineffective in delivering the desired results. Generic “off the shelf” training which has not been designed for a specific purpose with people from a known organisation in mind may increase an individual’s knowledge, but it does not increase their ability to apply the knowledge. Even if training is devised specifically for an organisation, it will still be ineffective when the training does not relate to the day-to-day life at the “coal face” of managers, supervisors and shop floor personnel. Understanding the “coal face” before commencing training is the most important preparation a trainer can do.

An organisation spending considerable money on training should insist on the trainer having that understanding. The first utterance by the trainer which results in a response from their audience, “That does not happen here” is the moment that the trainer begins to lose the trust of the audience. When trust is lost, so is value and significant parts of the audience stop listening and participating. The worst part of it is that, most times, the response is silent and the trainer may well continue unawares. A further cause of wasted training dollars is the use of methods, which are not designed to achieve the change in behaviour, skills or knowledge that is desired. For example, lecture style methods used to change behaviour are inappropriate as they are best used to transfer only knowledge.

To change behaviour, the training is best to be of an experiential type and must be supported after the training is completed by coaching and a structure of formal and informal rewards. If the method used to train is useful for achieving the required change theoretically, it is still at times inappropriate for the audience. For example, role-plays are effective for improving skills as it allows participants to practise what they have learnt. However, if the participants are unlikely to be comfortable with role-plays, then the method is still unlikely to be effective. The most significant waste of training dollars however, rests with the lack of thought in determining what training is needed. Training is seen as a classroom exercise rather than a combination of learning interventions, which in combination results in developing the change in behaviour, skills and knowledge required. The failure of mangers and supervisors to determine what needs to change and developing an intervention framework to achieve the change is common. The failure of trainers to insist on finding out before completing their instructional design is more common.

Behavioural change needs personal coaching of the individual and support by a strong framework of goal setting and two-way feedback, if not 360 degree feedback. Skills development needs coaching of a different kind, one where the emphasis is on demonstration and practise. The practise needs to be in an environment where mistakes can be made and learnt from.

Knowledge can be learnt from books, lectures and interactive CDs to name a few. However, knowledge needs to be used in context to breed confidence. Therefore, training in knowledge must be quickly followed by the individual being placed in an environment where it is used. The fact that training fails so often because of a lack of clearly understanding the changes we want to develop and developing a broader training intervention beyond the classroom is bad. Combine it with the habit of many individuals in Fiji to treat training as a CV builder, absorbing little but the most basic understanding of what was being taught and a recipe for systemic low productivity is created as the blind lead the blind. “Trained” individuals using the most basic of understanding learnt in a classroom to make decisions, implement projects and manage their people have a false sense of competence, which impacts, far beyond the classroom. It is the responsibility of managers, supervisors and most importantly, the trainers, to make sure that training does not fail.

Failure costs too much.

Kevin Dwyer is a pragmatic change management advisor and founder of Change Factory. He comes from an old school that experienced and led change first and learnt the theory later. Kevin’s interest in sales is in developing the reinforcing loops of corporate goal, strategy, marketing and sales tactics, KPIs, recruitment, career and competence development, coaching and counselling that influences more customers to move through their buying process with the selling organisation. Change Factory’s mission is to help organisations that do not like their business outcomes get better business outcomes through changing people’s behaviour. The Change Factory view of what is generally missing in sales development can be summed up by the phrase “Training is not enough”.

Personal Note: Kevin is one of the founder members of the Top Sales Experts team and has played a significant and enthusiastic part in it’s success. He also produces one of my favourite newsletters, “Winds Of Change” which I know you will enjoy too - you can subscribe here - JF

Today’s News: We are just hours away now from the launch of the Top Sales Experts site and you can gain access from midight GMT (7pm EST) www.topsalesexperts.com - let me know what you think?

Tomorrow: With the proliiferation of commercial networking sites, I am prompted almost daily to join someone’s network - so just how important are strong networking skills?

The JF Guest Author Spot

“Career Sales Training - You Receive What You Believe” By Cheryl Clausen

What beliefs are you holding, that are holding you back in your career sales training? Mr. and Mrs. Claus are found dead on the floor. They are found in a locked room. On the floor is broken glass and water. There is an open window and a table in the room. How did Mr. and Mrs. Claus die? What do Mr. and Mrs. Claus look like? Are you thinking Mr. and Mrs. Claus are rather round older folks with white hair wearing red velvet garments? That may be your belief based on your past knowledge and experience, but Mr. and Mrs. Claus are gold fish. The wind blowing through the open window knocked their fish bowl off the table onto the floor, breaking the bowl leaving glass water and Mr. and Mrs. Claus on the floor. What beliefs do you hold about sales that are keeping you from the sales success that is possible for you?

The whole point of career sales training is to help you to obtain improved results. Improved results require positive behavioral changes. There is something either you are doing now, or something you aren’t doing now that is preventing you from getting the sales success that you know is possible. You may be wondering if it’s possible for you. What are the things successful sales people do that you don’t, and what things don’t successful sales people do that you do? Make a list of these do’s and don’ts. How could you start doing the things that would increase your success and how could you stop doing the things that are decreasing your success?

What were the positive behavioral changes you identified as either dos or don’ts? Positive behavioral changes occur because of your attitudes, skills, and knowledge; and as a result of your ability to accomplish your goals. Do you have specific sales goals that you hold yourself accountable for on a weekly basis? You know successful sales people set weekly goals, and take the actions they need to make those goals a reality. Knowledge comes from knowing what to do, and skills come from knowing how to do what you need to do. Are you lacking knowledge or skills? If you are, reach out to those around you and get what you need. That information is readily available and accessible to you. Is it your attitudes that form as a result of your beliefs that are holding you back?

Your sales attitudes and beliefs developed over time, and you will need to make a concentrated effort to make changes to those long held attitudes and beliefs. Your attitudes and beliefs started when you were a little kid and the adults around you told you not to talk to strangers, and not to speak unless you are spoken to, and not to go where you aren’t wanted. Your beliefs are the engine that pulls your sales train down the track. Your sales will continue to suffer until you identify the beliefs you hold about sales that are holding you back, and make a determined effort to change those beliefs based on current facts.

Do you believe you can accomplish the sales you need to have a sustainable and viable business? A positive attitude is important in sales, but when you try to tell yourself things you don’t believe to be true, your inner voice calls you a liar and it’s actually more harmful than good. For example, let’s say that you are telling yourself every day that you are going to sell $X in revenue this week when it’s twice or three times more than you’ve ever sold in your life. When you don’t believe it to be true your inner voice says, “no you’re not, you’re a big liar”. You are out of integrity with yourself and your mind tends not to believe anything you say, and consequently you don’t hit your targets. Work on your beliefs first and then your attitudes.

Would you like to learn more about your sales skills? Try this Sales Skills Analysis and find out where your opportunities for improvement are.

Start your journey for success: Your journey starts here.

From my experience working with clients at certain points in your business you just get really stuck and you don’t know what to do to get you where you want to go. My purpose is helping insurance agents, financial advisors, and other service professionals to get unstuck and get going again.

If you’re hungry for insurance and investment sales success, if you want to master success to get you where you want to be, and if you want to develop the time strategies that allow you to live the life you want to live I can help you get there faster and more easily. Visit my blog to read a daily article to get yourself or your team unstuck and going again. 

Cheryl A Clausen - http://CoachingMegaAgents.com

Today’s News: It’s true, the Top Sales Experts team are appearing at four venues next June: London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh to deliver a series of two day master classes. I will be announcing the final line up a little nearer the time, as well as the names of a few very special guests. You can be assured, it will be the selling event of 2008.

Tomorrow: “The Complete List Of Success Factors In Key Account Management Revealed”

In my opinion, hundreds of millions of pounds world-wide are wasted every year on irrelevant, unnecessary or inappropriate sales skills development and there are four obvious reasons.

To begin with, the one off programme may supply a short term motivational buzz and provide the delegate with a number of thought provoking ideas. However, in reality, once they are back at the “front-line” the day to day pressures of hitting quota etc take over again and the reactive mindset returns. It is rather like the Chinese meal effect; when you leave the restaurant you feel full but by the time you arrive home you want to eat again.

Secondly, most, not all, but a very high percentage of courses on offer today, deliver what I term “generalised” skills development.

For example, a guy operating within the aerospace sector, negotiating multi-million pound contracts can find himself sitting next to a young saleswoman who markets insurance policies and is based in a call centre. On her right is another guy who is developing a successful career in manufacturing, selling hydraulic components and next to him…..I think you will appreciate my point. To achieve sustained success in all of these disparate industries requires specific skills sets and the “generalised” workshops simply cannot deliver them.

Thirdly, most and again I would estimate it is at least 80% of training organisations today, make the assumption that all delegates are at the same level in terms of experience, expertise and have the same “commercial bandwidth”. This is of course, totally unrealistic.

They are not……… wake up guys!!

As ever, wherever you are in the world, have a great w/e and thank you for joining me. Just eleven more days to the launch of Sales Leadership Zone - I think you will love it!

The dichotomy facing Sales Directors is how they reconcile the fact that most corporations today provide less upfront training for their sales staff than in years past, yet attach increasing importance to staff development?

This should not come as a surprise, because current stock market thinking provides a powerful disincentive for firms to invest in their people on an ongoing basis. An organisation’s investment in their human capital, in the form of training and other forms of education, is not separable from general expenditure. It therefore appears as a cost on the corporate balance sheet.

Tough Choices:

Unfortunately, as a consequence, many Sales Directors have concluded that their only realistic option is to cut back on training and instead look to recruit sales professionals who, in theory anyway, already possess the necessary skills needed to do the job. They then send them out to win business armed with what they know. However, most of those same Sales Directors are discovering just how difficult it is to find skilled salespeople who have all of the essential skills and personal traits. And anyway it is not possible to equate experience or seniority with success.

In skills development, there are many similarities to sport i.e. does an athletic champion stop training as soon as they win their first medal? In music, does a concert pianist stop rehearsing as soon as they have given their first recital? In art, does the artist stop improving after they have enjoyed the first exhibition of their work? The answer in all cases is obvious and we should apply the same common sense principals to the ongoing development of our sales teams.

The reality is that selling in today’s climate is both an art and a science. Selling is a profession that demands a far wider range of skills than ever before, skills that require continual fine-tuning and constant practice.

In Summary - Ongoing Reinforcement and Development Is Essential:

The operative word here is “ongoing”. Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there’s no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies, and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change.

This fact requires that sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

Tomorrow:

On The JF Guest Author Spot, Kelley Robertson - “The Power Of Questions” last weeks winning article at Top 10 Sales Articles

Not enough companies have learned how to employ sales training as a strategic tool. Those that have are leaders in their industries, offering their shareholders maximum return on investment, are able to quickly adapt to changing market conditions, are respected by their customers, and provide consistent sales performance. The sales people that work for those companies are motivated and stay in their jobs longer.

Quite often sales managers and executives don’t have the time and experience to do this correctly. Companies with internal training departments often provide guidance, but sales training is quite different from designing and delivering training to other constituencies within an organisation, such as customer care, engineering, or human resources.

The first step for any company deciding to make a change in their sales approach is always an assessment of the situation.

• What processes and methods are currently being employed by the company?
• What has their sales performance been?
• What percentage of sales people are delivering against plan?
• What are the biggest obstacles to success?
• How dynamic or stable is the company’s environment?
• What are the practices and expectations of the buyers?

These are only a few considerations.

Designing or adopting a sales methodology is critical. Without that methodology in place, training is a tactical attempt to fix a larger problem. The selling methodology must be developed based upon the company’s unique situation—their market, their customers, how those customers buy, the complexity and price levels of the products and services the company offers, competitive pressures, reporting requirements, the participation of partners, the skill level of their current sales people, etc.

The primary objective of creating an individually tailored Organisational Development Programme has to be:

To achieve consistently superior results through the performance of every key individual, - after all, our people are our most important and indeed expensive resource, it therefore makes sense for us to want to see a full and proper return on that investment.

Specifically, we should seek to achieve optimum performance levels via a process and an all encompassing framework for defining performance standards. This involves assessing, appraising, developing, implementing, reviewing and providing continual feedback on performance.

Emphasis is placed on creating an environment in which the ‘can do – will do’ mentality thrives and becomes the norm – success and achievement are expected and as a consequence are much more likely to happen.

This total approach enables forward thinking organisations who are committed to looking ‘outside the square’ and who are not afraid to mentally cross bridges that that their competitors have not even identified, to enter the land of “me – first” rather than the land of “me – too”.

It also offers the opportunity to develop excellence in the performance of the company’s teams and build the capabilities necessary to consistently over–achieve short, medium and long term objectives.

In my view, we should never lose sight of the following premise.

Premise 1: Whatever got you where you are to-day will not be sufficient to keep you there.

Premise 2: You can only succeed in business to-day if you understand what you are doing, how you are doing it and why you are doing it.

Premise 3: It is difficult to control external events if you do not have control internally.

Premise 4: Being competitive is an ongoing process not a single event.

Tomorrow: The JF Guest Author Spot welcomes Sandy O’Dell, last week’s Top 10 Sales Articles winner with “Top Five Things Not To Do when Cold Call Selling” - it’s an excellent piece!

This week only - your chance to win a signed copy of Andrea Nierenberg’s new book: Just leave me a comment sharing a networking tip, to be entered into the draw on Saturday - it’s as simple as that!

This is a question that I am asked frequently and this is what I think:

Most sales training companies have a unique philosophy and therefore a specialised approach. Perhaps they are strong in the area of selling business value to board level members at the expense of competitive positioning. Perhaps attention on strategies for winning very complex sales situations dilutes their efforts toward working with students on the details and tactics that they need to execute in order to win—down to the actual words they need to be saying and to whom.

A training company that specialises in one or more areas of sales expertise will not necessarily perceive or look for your requirements in other areas. If the training/consulting provider is left to define your approach, there will more than likely be a gap in the methodology, and of course a resultant gap in the subsequent training.

One way to handle this is to employ two independent providers. One would assist in assessing your situation, defining your requirements, and perhaps in building your methodology. The second would provide the training and would be evaluated and selected based upon their ability to meet your specific (and complete) requirement set. That would insure that the first provider would not be defining your requirements to meet their expertise.

The best alternative is to employ a firm that is completely independent of any training or sales consulting provider and can offer the proper guidance throughout these steps to achieve the best possible result. Important to any company that makes an investment in sales team development is measurement.

Benchmarking current levels of performance, setting reasonable goals and objectives based upon a careful assessment of the situation and measuring progress against those goals is a necessary, but for the large part overlooked component of most training initiatives.

When progress is at or above plan, everyone is encouraged, motivated and continue to perform and excel. If expectations are not being met, the opportunity exists for immediate problem diagnosis and adjustment, assuring that the initiative will get back on track and provide the return on investment expected.

The JF Guest Author Spot

“What’s Your Goal - Exposure Or Behavioral Change?” by Alan Rigg.

When your company invests in sales training, what is the expected outcome? Is it a change in how your salespeople perform their daily activities - in other words, a change in behavior?

Unfortunately, most companies drastically underestimate the amount of time and effort that must be invested to accomplish behavioral change. Sitting in a class for a couple of hours or days is a good way to expose salespeople to new skills and techniques. However, new skills and techniques often feel strange and uncomfortable. Many salespeople worry that attempting to use the new skills and techniques with real, live prospects or customers will cost them sales and hard-won credibility. So, they abandon the new skills and techniques and continue to rely on “old” behaviors that are comfortable for them.

Here is a real-life example of a sales training program failure

Executive management at a company I worked for invested more than $600,000 to teach the entire sales team (100+ salespeople) a new sales approach. However, at every turn they looked for ways to reduce training costs and time out of the field. As a result, the sales manager training session was cut from a full day to half a day, and the sales team training was cut from three days to a day and a half. Plus, post-training conference calls (intended to reinforce key concepts) were rescheduled multiple times and eventually cancelled.

What was the return on the company’s $600,000 investment? Only 10% to 20% of the salespeople ever applied the new sales approach in the field. The training project was considered a failure.

If you want your sales training investments to produce changes in your salespeople’s behavior, your company’s entire management team, from top executives to individual sales managers, needs to make a different level of commitment to sales training. The skills and techniques that are taught during training sessions must be repeated and reinforced on a regular and consistent basis. Plus, you should provide your salespeople with a non-threatening environment where they can practice new skills and techniques until they become second nature.

To further demonstrate the level of management commitment that is required to accomplish behavioral change, consider the following two scenarios.

Scenario #1
A top executive mentions the importance of a new sales approach in a company meeting or conference call. They mention it again occasionally (once a month or once a quarter). The sales manager also mentions the new approach in a few sales meetings before or after the training session(s). However, the focus soon returns to “business as usual”.

Scenario #2
A top executive explains the importance of a new sales approach in a company meeting or conference call. From that point on, they repeat the message in any conversation they have with any member of the sales or sales management team. The new sales approach becomes part of the executive’s daily dialogue, and they mention it multiple times a day.

Sales managers invest the time required to become proficient in using the new sales approach. They also explain to their salespeople that each salesperson will be held accountable for using the new approach effectively in the field. They help their salespeople become comfortable using the new approach by conducting repeated role plays in individual and group meetings. They also inspect for use of the new approach in a consistent and predictable fashion.

This level of management commitment causes the salespeople to recognize that the new approach is not “the flavor of the month”, and it will NOT go away if they ignore it. As a result, the new approach eventually becomes part of the company’s sales culture.

Do you see the difference in the level of commitment described by the two scenarios? Do you see why the second scenario is much more likely to produce lasting behavioral change?

In summary, if you want to change your salespeople’s behavior, your company’s entire management team needs to demonstrate a different level of commitment to sales training. Here are the recommended steps for this process:
1. Any significant new sales approach becomes part of top executives’ daily dialogue.

2. Sales managers learn how to execute the new approach.

3. Salespeople are trained in the new approach.

4. Sales managers hold salespeople accountable for using the new approach.

5. Sales managers increase their salespeople’s comfort with the new approach by conducting repeated role plays in a non-threatening environment.

6. Sales managers consistently and repeatedly inspect salesperson activity to confirm they are using the new approach.

When new skills and techniques become second nature to your salespeople, they are more likely to apply them effectively in the field. Designing training curriculums to produce behavioral change is the best way to ensure that your company receives its desired return on sales training investments!

©2005 - Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of “How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don’t Perform and What to Do About It.” His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by implementing The Right Formula™ for building top-performing sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.

Keep the voting going - please….

Tomorrow: To finish the week with a flourish, the very meaty: “Identifying Needs, Developing Needs And Satisfying Needs”

In many companies, very little systematic thought is given to the design of a sales training programme. Very often one of the following fallacious schools of thought is encountered.

* “Salespeople Are Born Not Made”- therefore the selection process is the only step to getting the right man. Having been chosen, the new recruit is then either successful or not, without any help from the company. Research does not bear out this theory.

* “Must Know The Product From The Ground Up” - all training is therefore devoted to lengthy product training, working on the shop floor, progressing paperwork, etc. Whilst product knowledge is very necessary, it is questionable whether this is the right way to learn it or whether this is sufficient on its own.

* “Watch Me Son” - the new Salesperson is sent out with an old hand to watch (and  learn) the experienced person’s techniques. Thus the new salesperson may not only pick up bad habits from the experienced person (who usually is not as trained as a trainer), but also mere observation will not teach.

If a successful training programme is to be developed, it must be planned with careful thought given to the following questions:

* What are the key objectives?
* What should be taught?
* Where should it be taught?
* By whom? And most critical
* How?

For Example: Typical Objectives Of A Training Programme:

* Increased sales
* Reduced individual selling costs
* Increased individual earnings
* Reduced personnel turnover
* Reduced need for supervision
* Improved employee morale
* Stronger customer relationships

Therefore, the objectives have to be formulated in these terms, i.e. turning the company’s investment in personnel into an asset producing an increased return on that investment.
Summary:

Training is an essential part of the profession of selling, as it is in any other profession.
Training, particularly sales training is a lengthy and complex process if true learning is to take place (i.e. if behaviour is to be modified) Too often, insufficient thought is given to what is to be achieved, by whom and how. The whole situation firstly needs careful analysis with regard paid to the limitations of training, as well as to its value. Then the programme can be formulated and, very important, evaluated against specific objectives. Only in this way can we be sure that the training is in fact achieving positive results.
Finally, formal training can also have a huge influence on skills development, especially if it is implemented with two additional ingredients:

* The training must be based on what the salespeople need and should be tailored to address diagnosed performance gaps. Using a diagnostic approach – a formal sales team skills audit, saves an organisation money and time because there is nothing to be gained from teaching people something that they are already doing well or, conversely, that they don’t need to do in the first place. A well-targeted programme is far more likely to engage participants’ full interest because they’ll see its immediate relevance to their daily results.

* Any training programme will be more effective when the skills that participants learn are reinforced on a regular and continual basis. For maximum impact, every level of management must reinforce training. Such reinforcement can come in many forms, but the best way is for the sales manager to serve as a “model of excellence” who provides an ongoing demonstration of required skills so salespeople begin to live and breathe them.

Tomorrow, a treat! Jill Konrath occupies the “JF Guest Author Spot” with an excellent piece called “Promiscuous Prospecting”

Meanwhile, over at Salesopedia, Clayton Shold is in conversation with the highly energetic Colleen Francis and you can catch the interview here

Finally, it’s launched!! The first volume of “Top Sales Experts Share Their Top Articles” and you can download your free copy by clicking on the widget in the left handside panel - enjoy!