How to train new Sales People

Sales people need to know several things, and whether they are new to sales, or just new to your company depends what training you should provide for them.

1. They need to understand theoretical sales and the sale process.

2. They need to know their product, and understand its benefits. They should be able to show prospects how your product can benefit their business, what life will be like after they have purchased your product. Show them exactly how your product will solve their problems. Outline their specific course of action for them. We have dealt with this aspect in detail already, and this course allows your team to develop a presentation for your product.
Sales Performance Lessons

3. They need to learn about your sector and clients

Understanding theoretical sales and the sale process.

People who are new to Sales will benefit from a theoretical training course. It is probably more effective to outsource this course unless you are an expert in sales training yourself, and have the time available. If you are undertaking a major expansion and have a number of new starters who will benefit from the course, you could arrange one in-house.

In you are using an external training company, you will ideally enroll delegates on a course running fairly locally. They may have to travel to a large city, but you will find courses that run periodically and will accept individual delegates.

The course should be fairly short, 2/3 days is probably enough.

All trainers know that students will forget most of the information they learn in theoretical courses in a matter of days, unless they get the chance to apply that knowledge and reinforce it into their memory, so that they learn to apply new information and skills on the job.

It’s exactly the same in a Sales situation. So ideally choose a course that will be interactive and allow the delegates to practice what they have just learnt. Perhaps it will be described as including workshops.

The course will cover topics such as; –

The Sales process
Finding New Customers
Keeping Customers
Making Appointments
Non-Verbal Communication
Selling Yourself
Why People Buy
Questioning Skills
Listening skills
Presentation skills
Identify Need
Propose solution
Gaining Buy in and Commitment
Turning quotes into Orders
Handling objections
Price Flexibility
Negotiation skills
Closing the Sale

Then once you get your delegates back from the course, let them shadow an experienced Sales Team member in the field, so that they can reinforce what they have learnt for a few days, and have a vision of what they are aiming to achieve.

Know your product, market and client

If you have new recruits who are experienced salespeople, they can skip the first part, and move straight to point 2 and 3.

A senior member of the Sales Team should spend some time with them, familiarizing them with the product, market and client.

The Team should know absolutely everything there is to know about the product; what it can do, how it feels to use, exactly how it works, what the competition is. And how your product differs from those products. Its features and benefits, how it can change their client’s life.