Sales Training Courses

"Sales training? Bah... we' don't need it! We're okay as we are, thank you!"

Many companies are and have become quite established without ever needing to train their sales staff using sales training companies. They may over time have developed a certain method of selling their products or services that works for them, and works very well for them. Their sales staff are all taught the same method, and it seems to work well enough even for new staff to be able to quickly get to grips. True, some people don't make the grade, and therefore most companies who don't employ "experienced" sales staff, may have a higher turnover of staff. However, those companies will usually employ people on a probationary period to see if they can sell or not. If they can prove their sales ability within that probationary period, that's fine... if they don't... they don't, but that's just part of business. Some people are good at selling one thing and not necessarily good at selling something else.

However a lot of companies who employ sales staff are usually looking for people who have already got a proven track record of a year or more minimum selling in their industry and that counts for a lot. Nothing beats real world experience and that's something that classroom training cannot provide.

Additionally, most companies who don't use external sales training providers, provide sales training to their staff in-house. This is usually conducted by experienced staff and management who are fully grounded in the way the company sells and know what works within the industry they serve. They are also very experienced with the products and services, as well as the company history which means that they are in a much better position to provide the sales training than someone else coming in trying to teach their proverbial grandmother "how to suck eggs".

It's true. Many companies have never had the need to look towards external sales training providers and still many companies don't see the need to do so. However times are changing. The economy is the at worse it has ever been, business is tough and competition is fierce. Buyers are holding onto their precious budgets and demanding more for their money. Not just more value... more reasons as to why they should spend it and with whom.

Buyers have far more information, far more choices, and far more resources to research and decide who the spend money with than they have ever had. The phone directories of old sit gathering dust, whilst fingers furiously type into their browsers:

"G O O G L E . C O M".

So shopping around is easier, quicker and information gathering is almost instant.

We agree that it's important to train sales people with company history and product knowledge, all of which is important to a potential customer. We also agree that no-one is better equipped to do that than someone who has worked within an organisation for a long time and knows all there is to know about the companies history and product knowledge.

However, the argument doesn't hold true that, the most knowlegeable person about a company's history or products is best qualified to provide the sales training too, particularly if that person has never had or received professional sales training themselves

Selling isn't as most people believe, about having the "Gift of the gab!". It's about professional communication skills that engage a buyer's attention, and hold it long enough to help that buyer make a good buying decision, without ever feeling "sold" to. That holds true whether that is a sale conducted in a several minute phone calll, over several meetings, or the culmination of months worth of work and effort in the case of larger valued contracts.

That requires far more skills than just company history or product knowledge, which a customer can easily get from a sales brochure, or already have good understanding of. How many times have you been in an electrical store, known what exactly which product you want and realised, that you know more about the product... than the person trying to sell it to you?

Now, whilst that won't necessarily put you off purchasing the product from that salesperson or store, depending on how that salesperson communicates or connects with you, can and often times will. Many of us have turned away from a purchase, not because we haven't known what we wanted, but because of the way it's been sold (or mis-sold) to us.

So the real question isn't just about how many sales non-professionally trained sales people might make.... it's also and even more so about how many sales they lose because of their lack of training.

In today's competitve marketplace, the sales professional who understands the sales process, undertands the buying process, understands the buyer, understands effective communication skills (sorry, we're not talking GCSE, "A" level, or even a degree in English when we say that - some of the best communicators flunked English at school) and understands what makes sales as well as what loses sales is the person who comes out on top.

And the companies who employ those people, people who have enjoyed professional sales training, are the ones winning more and more of the market share in their respective industries.

Whilst it helps in short listing potential reputable suppliers, people aren't really concerned about about a particular company's history or even how knowlegeable about the products a salesperson might be... they're interested in what that product or service is going to do for them and whether it makes a good investment decision on their part. And that's precisely where professional sales training has no substitute.

Hiring and firing inexperienced sales staff is surely more costly than sending them on a sales training course?

The cost and time of recruiting, paying wages to those individuals and spending resources training them about company history and products, and then letting them go because they still don't know how to sell... and then looking to replace them is a far costlier excercise than any sales training in the world. In fact the cost of one individual in that case would have paid for 10 or more people to be professionally trained.

Also hiring people who have industry experience and a proven track record in sales of a year or more. does not necessarily make them good sales people or mean that they will carry that track record over with any success. In sales, unfortunately the old adage is true - "you're only as good as your last sale". Unless they have a thorough grasp of the sales and selling process, and are proficient in sales enough to know how to transfer their skills into any new company and rise to the top. Yep, that would be those who've had professional sales training.

The other factor to consider is what is professional sales training really worth?

The last thing that question depends on is the cost of the training. What it's really worth, at an individual level, is the increase in sales and conversions multiplied by the average order value for that individual.

If it costs £900 for a 2 day sales training course for 1 delegate, what is that worth?

Let's say a magazine sells full page advertisments and the price of the full page ad is £1500 per page. Let's also say an average sales person selling those ads, sells 3 ads a week.

If learning professional sales techniques helps that person sell 4 ads a week, that's 52 extra sales a year! That equates to £78,000 worth of extra business that sales person brings in per annum.

Now multiply that by 10 sales people all bringing in just one extra sale a week and that's £780,000 in extra sales and revenue per year for the organisation.

Not a bad return on investment ?

The whole purpose of professional sales training isn't and should never be to for a company's sales to remain static! What's the point in that?

The objective of professional sales training is purely to increase the sales and conversions at individual levels that have a huge impact on the bottom line at a company level.

That's why professional sales training companies will go out of their way to ensure their customers receive an ROI that they are not only happy with, but ecstatic with.

If anything allows you to do that either at a personal level or as a company, then the real question isn't one of teaching ones grandma how to suck eggs - Surely then it becomes a matter of helping ones grandma suck more eggs, faster, better and more efficiently!

We hope you found both sides of the sales training argument convincing and enjoyable - Please let us know your verdict below and DO leave a comment by scrolling down to the comments section. What's your verdict based on the above two arguments on Sales training?

No Need? Or Must Have? Thanks!