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ͻ Sales training rarely works as a 1-day event.
ͻ All day workshops and annual sales meetings are a thing of the
past.
ͻ The internet gives sales professionals access to free sales training
content
ͻ Taking reps out of the field to sit in an all day workshop that
won͛t promote change simply does not make sense
ͻ Sales professionals need training
ͻ Delivery methods need to catch up with the needs of businesses
ͻ The key is to get the most out of the training you can afford
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ͻ Base training usually comes in the form of a workshop, webinar,
and/or e-learning course.
ʹ Sessions MUST be short.
ʹ All day events are easy to schedule, but rarely do people stay engaged and
attentive.
ͻ Base training must be electric, captivating, and most of all a base
foundation for more to come.
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ͻ Traditional training should only be used for the purpose of
foundational training.
ͻ Adults learn and retain more information in short sessions versus
all day events.
ͻ Adults learn faster when material directly pertains to them.
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ͻ If sales people do NOT practice they will not improve.
ʹ The best form of practice is the dreaded role-play.

ʹ Reps tell me all the time ͞I hate to role-play͟. That͛s like an actor who
says I hate to rehearse.

ͻ Facilitating practice or role-play sessions is critical for people

to develop positive and consistent selling habits.
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ͻ Here are some brief examples of how you can make your practice
sessions interesting and fun:
ʹ Break into groups of three and have two members at a time roll- play a
specific sales activity. The third person serves as a monitor who provides
verbal feedback as to how each participant did.

ʹ Create a score sheet depicting very simple selling techniques such as the
number of open-ended questions, number of closed ended questions, or
the number of benefits driven. Have reps break into groups of three and
have each person document the results of role-play sessions for the other
two people. The score sheet is then given back to each rep to make them
aware of the habits they need to improve.
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ͻ The greatest opportunity for any sales organizations is to have
managers coach.
ʹ Most managers do NOT know how to coach. They meet with their
reps and call it coaching, Telling a rep how to do something is NOT
coaching.
ͻ Coaching is about the rep coming to grips with what they need
to do to have better performance and encouraging them to
develop a willingness to take action.
ʹ We can yell, inspire, and even beg reps to get better, but in the
end it͛s always a decision they need to make.
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ͻ One major coaching technique any organization can use is group
coaching. Group coaching facilitates coaching in a large group
format with all your sales team members. Here͛s a brief list of
examples of how to use group coaching:
ʹ Present a specific case study that one of your reps is encountering and
break
reps into groups of two or three to suggest specific solutions
ʹ Disseminate an article for everyone to read and have each person be
prepared to be called upon at the next staff meeting to review the article.
ʹ The key to any coaching activity is to facilitate and ultimately prompt
salespeople to take some form of action that facilitates learning and/or
practice. It is essential management facilitates a lot and talks very little.
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ͻ The key to feeding the salesperson͛s mind is to facilitate
learning using simple things like books and articles.
ͻ A critical component of doing this is to build in accountability.
ʹ For example, distribute an article and have each salesperson e-mail you
two things they learned and how they will apply it to their everyday
habits.
ͻ There are many resources for finding suitable content for
your sales team.
ʹ Salesresources.com is an excellent website with many leading authors
that provide sales articles on a variety of topics.
ʹ Industry-leading magazines like |

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   also provide multiple types of content for you to use to feed
the mind of your sales team.
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ͻ DO NOT simply deliver all-day workshops as your sole source of
training.
ͻ If executed properly training is designed to do two things. build
performance, skill sets, and behavioral attributes needed to be a
successful staff member, and build bottom-line results.
ͻ Most training options only offer the first step in the successful training
process. It is important that you do research before committing to a
program.
ͻ When you begin your next sales training initiative remember the four-
step process to training success: base training, practice, coaching, and
feeding the mind.
ͻ To Read the full whitepaper from Sales Progress visit:
http://www.salesprogress.com/four-steps-to-sales-training-sucess/
 For More Free Sales Training Tips and Research visit our blog at:
http://www.salesprogress.com/coaching-leadership/

Sales Progress views training as a process not an event. Our programs

extend far beyond the one-day workshop or webinar, to create
sustainable change in a sales professional͛s habits.
Our innovative programs put into place everything you need to get
the most out of your training investment.

For more information on what Sales Progress has to offer please visit
our website,
http://www.salesprogress.com,
Or give us a call at 866-933-1077.