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Investing in developing the skills and effectiveness of your sales team...
Whilst the overall economic news is gloomy some markets flourish, with high demands for their products and services. Certainly businesses in other markets are facing downturn in demand, increased competition, and pressures to reduce prices.
Regardless of your market situation - be it booming, flat, or downturn is there a case to invest in developing the skills of your sales team?
- In the boom market there is the need to capitalise on the additional opportunities.
- In a flat market the only way to grow is by increasing market share.
- The downturn market demands increasing market share in an increasingly competitive situation as everyone is after a bigger slice of a smaller cake.
To overlay this, regardless of short term conditions the role and demands on salespeople have changed and will continue to change. Technological innovation means that in many markets it is increasingly difficult to achieve product and service differentiation in the mid-long term. Customers have greater awareness and demand added value at no additional cost. Many companies have embarked on vendor reduction programmes, and created partnership alliances with fewer companies.
Often the biggest differentiator is the salesperson - their skills, professionalism, knowledge, and ability to build and develop relationships. The payback on the investment in developing their competence can be immense in terms of the extra revenues and profit that can be achieved. Often, the winning of one contract, that without the investment in development would not have been won, will repay the investment many times over.
We all know that expenditure on training is wasted if it is the wrong sort of training. Also, one-off training is rarely as effective as an on-going learning programme.
What is our approach to a learning and development programme with a sales team?
1. Firstly it needs to be focused to the needs, and address the priority areas for development.
Our "effective sales profile" is a competence model that defines the key competencies for effectiveness in a sales role. There are 6 competencies and 33 competence descriptions. The 6 key competencies are;
- communication and influencing
- planning and analytical
- business perspective and orientation
- product and market awareness
- self management
- team orientation [particularly important for those in a key account role]
It is a practical tool that will enable you to determine where the strengths and development needs are in your team.
2. Whilst the classic sales skills - handling objections, gaining commitment, presenting etc - are important we believe there is something more fundamental.
A positive behavioural style, an understanding of the behavioural style of the customer, and an ability to adapt to it are required if sales skills are to applied effectively. We believe that sales people are more effective if they behave as business people, are able to see the "big picture", and can create equal relationships. This is our start point, from which we build on specific skills.
3. There have to be the right values for effective selling.
Our match selling concept describes a solutions based sales approach whereby understanding the customer's business, needs, market and environment is crucial before products or services can be recommended. All of our development programmes are set in the context of this philosophy, which can be developed for foundation level through to key account management.
4. Practical, real life approach.
Usually an integral part of a learning programme is one or a series of practically based workshops. In these workshops principles are applied to live accounts and prospects, and action planning takes place for implementation back in the field. There is a secondary benefit to this approach. By basing learning on "live case studies" we are able to track progress, results, and therefore calculate a return on your investment.
Over many years we have worked with a number of clients in a range of market sectors in developing and delivering focused learning programmes using the principles outlined above. Included are companies such as;
- BMW
- Cable & Wireless
- DHL
- IBM
- Future Electronics
- General Motors
- Ingersoll Rand
- Parker Hannifin
If you believe that there will be benefit to your people and to the business in investing in a sales development programme [be your market booming, static or tough!] then contact us for an informal chat...
More information on our sales training & development...
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