10 biggest sales training mistakes and how to avoid 6 of 10

6. Companies Buy “Sugar Pills” vs Real Solutions to their Sales Problems 

Many sales seminars are nothing but “sugar pills” – great for a quick burst of energy, but the effects wear off quickly.

We’ve all seen studies that show how much information is actually retained in a typical seminar – only about 20% that day…and only 10% by the next day! Then over time, almost everything drifts away, except maybe one or two basic thoughts.

(And admittedly, sometimes all we need are one or two good ideas.  But that’s not sales training!)

So basically, one-day seminars aren’t good for much beyond waking people up temporarily and maybe implanting a few new ideas.

In order to change behaviour on a long-term basis, management must be dedicated to a training program that is consistent, on-going, progressive and engaging.

If/when you are ready for some sales training that is more than just a temporary buzz, call me on 0412 921 292.

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10 biggest sales training mistakes and how to avoid 5 of 10

5. Companies Mistake Product Training for Sales Training

Technically speaking, product training is a part of sales training…it just shouldn’t be the core of sales training.

The core of sales training should focus on the fundamentals of what makes salespeople successful – namely prospecting and closing, or as we put it –Filling and Flushing the pipeline.

While there’s certainly nothing wrong with product training, too much of it, without a balance of fundamentals training, can create salespeople who are talking way too much and not listening.

Sellers get so full of product training all they do is run around and spew their new-found knowledge. While they’re doing that, they forget all about questioning, listening and uncovering needs.

The answer is not to forget about product training altogether, but to make it part of an overall training mix – with the fundamentals at the core.

If/when you are ready for some sales training that complements your product training, call me on 0412 921 292.

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10 biggest sales training mistakes and how to avoid 4 of 10

4. Companies Give Salespeople the Training They WANT vs the Training They NEED ie they don’t treat them like a REAL professional

If we truly treated salespeople like professionals, we’d never allow them to pick the training they want vs giving them the training they NEED.

You might be asking yourself, “Wait a minute, what do you mean? If my people are professionals, why can’t they figure out what they need?”

The easiest analogy to understand in this case is that of a professional athlete.

Take the US Super Bowl Champions for example. Every year, since the NFL was created, the Super Bowl Champs (along with every other team) gather all their belongings and they trudge out to some empty college campus where they put on a training camp.

And what do they do in this annual summer ritual? They return to the fundamentals of the game – blocking, tackling, throwing, catching, kicking, etc. Things they’ve been doing every single year since they were eight years old.

These are athletes who make millions. Who are the best of the very best. And there they are every year…sweating in the summer sun, returning to the core elements of what makes them successful football players and a successful football team.

Ask these athletes about what it is they WANT to do, and their answer may be – “anything BUT training camp!”

We talk with managers who tell us, “I polled the sales staff about what they felt they needed to learn, and none of them felt they needed to work on call reluctance.”

Of course not. Who wants to go to training camp? But who NEEDS to go to training camp? EVERYONE!!!

Every person, in every profession, should return to the fundamentals of success every year, and reinforce this every week.  Especially sales professionals.

We’re not saying that a management team shouldn’t listen to their sales team about skill-sets they feel they need. However, management must keep in mind that sales fundamentals, particularly new business generation, involve things many salespeople aren’t comfortable doing (like picking up the phone and making cold calls) – thus they may never say, “We want to work on making more cold calls.”

If/when you are ready for some sales training that gets back to the fundamentals, call me on 0412 921 292.

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10 biggest sales training mistakes and how to avoid 3 of 10

3. Companies Don’t Focus On The Fundamentals of Sales Success

We define the fundamentals of sales success as basically the process of FILLING AND FLUSHING.

• Filling the pipeline through PROSPECTING
• Flushing the pipeline through CLOSING

These are the “blocking and tackling” of sales. If a salesperson focuses on these two areas consistently…they will be successful.

Unfortunately, many organisations like to feel that their people are “beyond” these fundamentals. We will hear them say, “Look, we hire experienced, professional people…they should know this stuff by now. We’re interested in more advanced ideas and concepts.”

Thus, they will avoid focusing regularly on these fundamentals of sales success…until there’s a problem.

It’s funny how when there is a serious problem with the results a sales staff is creating, we rarely hear a manager say, “I think our problem is that our people aren’t using enough advanced ideas and concepts!”

Instead, what do we hear? It’s almost always, “I think we need to return to the fundamentals.” Or, “We just aren’t making enough calls.” Or, “These guys just aren’t asking for the order.”

Inadequate filling and flushing of the sales pipeline is at the core of 99% of all sales problems.

The answer here is simple – don’t be seduced into thinking that your people need to hear a more sophisticated message than the fundamentals of success.

If/when you are ready for some sales training that delivers those fundamentals, call me on 0412 921 292.

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10 biggest sales training mistakes and how to avoid 2 of 10

2. Companies Teach Too Much Strategy and Not Enough Execution

Look on the shelves in a typical sales office and you’ll find scores of sales books, sales tapes, sales videos, program workbooks, manuals, guides, etc. – all filled with the latest sales techniques or the trendiest strategy-of-the-day. No doubt these techniques and strategies all had value when they were taught. They probably delivered one or two good ideas that one or two people implemented to some degree. But now they’re just old ideas, stored on the shelf and in the deep recesses of a salesperson’s mind.

Let’s face it, there is no shortage of new sales strategies in the world. There are tons of programmes and ideas and sales concepts that trainers will gladly come in and teach to your sales team. And this, unfortunately, passes as a “sales training program” for many people. They simply bring in one or two new trainers each year to teach their strategy.

While learning all this strategy is fine…there is a glaring problem – no one is focusing on execution!

By execution we mean the simple act of performing the fundamentals of what makes salespeople successful (which we’ll cover in later points).

It’s like a farmer who brings in consultant after consultant, trainer after trainer – all arriving with their strategies and ideas on how to run a successful farm — meanwhile he never plants a seed…tends to the weeds…or harvests a single plant. But he does know HOW he SHOULD do it!

The answer is to shift the focus away from JUST learning new strategy and on to the execution of the fundamentals.

We’re not suggesting that the farmer shouldn’t learn new ideas, we’re simply saying that the new ideas will go much further if he’s paying attention to the fundamentals of good farming!

If/when you are ready for some sales training that focuses on execution, call me on 0412 921 292.

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10 biggest sales training mistakes and how to avoid 1 of 10

1. Comapanies Treat Sales Training as Simply an Item to be “Checked Off” Their List.

When it comes to sales training, there are basically two types of companies – companies who are simply “getting some sales training” for their people (almost any training will do), and those companies who are making a concerted effort to understand what their shortcomings are and finding the training that will truly change the outcomes their sellers are producing.

For companies looking to simply “check-off” training from their to-do list, it’s easy to do – there are literally thousands of sales training programs available, covering every possible sales strategy, concept, technique and style. And they come in all shapes, sizes and price ranges.

However, this “check-off” mentality can be deadly to salespeople, sales management and eventually the entire sales organization. It’s like visiting a doctor and simply buying the cheapest, easiest, least disruptive solution she’s got around the office – “I guess I’ll take that blue pill…it looks easy to take, and cheap too!” Is that what the patient NEEDS? Who knows?

The potential problem of course is the patient may have a dangerous disease raging beneath the surface…and because there was no exam, no evaluation of their condition, and no solid recommendation…the solution the patient is buying may eventually kill him!

We find that many organisations simply don’t understand enough about their own needs, their own fatal shortcomings, their own weaknesses within their salespeople and sales systems, to even know WHAT training to seek out. Thus they end up buying based on the cost of the programme vs the solving of their needs (they’re not sure what their needs are!).

The answer is to look carefully and honestly at what your sales organization NEEDS, vs what you (or salespeople) may WANT. The solution may be harder to swallow and not as tasty as a sugar pill…but it just might save your organisation in the long-run.

If/when you are ready for some sales training that is designed to succeed, call me on 0412 921 292.

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