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Agenda Defining training aims Deciding training contents Selecting training methods Organization of sales training Case study on organization of sales training
Building Sales Training Programs There are several types of sales training programs The most comprehensive and longest is the training program for newly recruited sales personnel More intensive and shorter programs on specialized topics, as well as periodic refresher courses (collectively known as continuing sales training), are presented for experienced sales personnel In addition, many companies offer sales training programs for the sales personnel of their distributors and/ or dealers Some programs are designed to develop individuals as sales trainers (full or part time) or as junior- level sales executives (district or branch sales managers). FRAINING THE SALESFORCE MODULE 5
Each type of program serves a different purpose , and its content reflects that purpose. Building a sales training program requires five major decisions.
The specific training aims must be defined, content decided, training methods selected, arrangements made for execution, and procedures set up to evaluate the results. Some sales training specialists refer to those decisions as the A-CM-E-E decisions- aim, content, methods, execution, and evaluation.
FRAINING THE SALESFORCE MODULE 5
Although, for example we may want to increase the sales forces productivity through training, we must identify what must be done to achieve increased productivity. General aims are translated into specific aims phrased in operational terms
Specific aim definition begins with a review of general aims and the means currently employed to attain them.
FRAINING THE SALESFORCE MODULE 5
detailed in the job specifications. Few people possess all these qualifications at the time of hiring. The set of job specifications needs scrutinizing for clues to the points on which new personnel are most likely to need training. Other questions related to job performance need considering: How should salespeople apportion their time? Which duties require the greatest proportion of time? Which are neglected? Why? Which selling approaches are most effective?
Answers to these and similar questions help in identifying specific training needs of newly recruited sales personnel.
FRAINING THE SALESFORCE MODULE 5
2. Identifying Continuing Training Needs: Determining the specific aims for a continuing sales training program requires identification of specific training needs of experienced sales personnel. Basic changes in products and markets give rise to needs for training, as do changes in company sales- related marketing policies, procedures and organization. But even though products and markets change little and company policies, procedures, and organizations remain stable, sales personnel change, in some respects for the worse (as they develop, for example, careless or sloppy working habits).
Product Data
Some product training is basic to any initial sales training program Companies with technical products devote more than half their programs to product training But in many situations, especially with standardized products sold routinely, new sales personnel require only minimal product training In all cases, new salespeople must know enough about the products, their uses, and applications to serve customers information needs Product knowledge is basic to s salespersons self- confidence and enthusiastic job performance. Understanding product uses and applications is important. Trainees receive instruction on customers problems and requirements and learn how company products can solve these problems and meet these requirements FRAINING Training provides them with full appreciation for buyers viewpoints. THE SALESFORCE MODULE 5
Sales Technique
Most new sales personnel need instruction in sales techniques Some sales managers believe, however, that careful selection of sales personnel and product training are sufficient to ensure effective selling. They believe, in other words, that if an individual has an attractive personality, good appearance and voice, and reasonable intelligence and knows the product, he or she will sell it easily. But the predominant view is that new sales personnel need basic instruction in how to sell.
FRAINING THE SALESFORCE MODULE 5
Markets
The new salesperson must know who the customers are, their locations, the particular products in which they are interested, their buying habits and motives, and their financial condition. In other words, the salesperson needs to know not only who buys what but, more important, why and how they buy. When trainees are not given adequate instruction on the market, they take years to acquire the needed understanding. During this trial- and- error learning, through no fault of their own, productivity is low.
FRAINING THE SALESFORCE MODULE 5
Markets
In fact, left to their own devices, some trainees never gain important market information. For instance, a salesperson who is unaware of prospects potentials as buyers may neglect completely to canvass them. Markets are always changing, so training in this area should be continuous, the content changing with market changes.
Company Information
Certain items of company information are essential to the salesperson on the job; others, not absolutely essential, contribute to overall effectiveness. The training program should include coverage of all sales- related marketing policies and the reasoning behind them. The sales person must know company pricing policy, for instance, to answer customers questions. The salesperson needs to be fully informed on other policies, such as those relating to product services, spare parts and repairs, credit extension, and customer relations. The initial training program must equip the salesperson to perform such tasks as recording and submitting customers orders for processing and delivery, preparing expense and other reports, handling inquiries, following up on customers requests, and so forth.
FRAINING THE SALESFORCE MODULE 5
There is a wide variety of methods, but the program content often limits those that are appropriate. If, for example, the content is a new policy on vacations and holidays, the training method almost certainly will be the lecture, supplemented, perhaps, with visual aids. In this instance, such methods as role playing and the demonstration would be ruled out. It is important to select those training methods that most effectively convey the desired content.
FRAINING THE SALESFORCE MODULE 5
The Lecture
This ancient instructional method, in use before the invention of printing, is used extensively in sale straining Trainees mainly watch and listen, although some versions of lecturing permit questions