Is sales training an expense or an investment?

In most cases, it’s an expense that does your company almost no good at all. Tom Bird and Jeremy Cassell, authors of the Financial Times Guide to Business Training bluntly say:

Business training doesn’t work.

And that umbrella term includes sales training!

For the most part, they note, it ends up being a fun trip to a hotel. At best, employees learn how to do some tasks better. At worst, it’s more of a vacation than anything else.

So yeah, in most cases, sales training ends up costing your business money without giving you any good return on value.

What Do You Do Instead to Boost Sales Performance?

Just follow these tips:

1. Train Your Employees, and Use a System for Making Sure they Use Their New Skills

The problem with most sales training is that it’s a one-time event. Your employees do learn new skills. But after 2 weeks, they forget them all and go right back to their old behaviors.

To learn a new behavior and keep it in place permanently, people need to keep practicing it. If you have a successful sales team member or manager, have them teach their techniques…and even coach other team members on a weekly (ideally daily) basis.

The key is that whatever you do, it has to be regular and ongoing. Otherwise, the change slowly falls to the wayside.

2. Don’t Play the Blame Game!

Blaming is the easiest (and worst) way to deal with any problem. If you simply blame someone or a group of people that don’t perform, then you avoid the real problem in most cases.

The real issue could be they’re a good sales person, but maybe they freeze up a little when closing. There’s many other problems out there. See where your sales team struggles and implement a systematic process to correct the problem.

3. Have Case Studies with Precision Facts Ready

“Facts tell and stories sell,” say successful marketers. When you tell your prospects a believable story of how you solved a problem similar to theirs for another customer, that boosts your credibility a ton.

As you tell the story in excruciatingly explicit detail, they’ll realize similar hurdles they face now and recognize you have the expertise to help them.

The results at the end of the story are just a nice bonus that add a touch more of credibility.

Better yet…have 2-3 stories ready.

4.  Celebrate Successes

In any business and profession, the majority of the communication that goes on is constructive criticism. Doesn’t that get stressful and draining after a while?

You do have to address the big issues with constructive criticism. But after you address the big ones, keep the majority of your communication positive and upbeat.

That energizes your sales team, and you’ll get better performance.

Change Doesn’t Come Easy…

But if you commit to doing it day in and day out, your sales team’s performance will improve. It’s only a matter of time.

You do have a “unique selling proposition,” don’t you?

In one line, it’s what makes you so awesome to work with – why you’re so different than anyone else – that it’s stupid NOT to buy from you.

Now unfortunately, many businesses think they have a USP when they really don’t. For example, some companies think being “full-service” is a USP.

It’s not enough!

Yes, it differentiates and adds convenience. That’s nice…but you don’t do anything truly unique in your industry with that. Think about it – there’s probably 100 other companies that do the same!

So you need something more than that.

1. Check out a Case Example

I love to use Voodoo Doughnuts as a great example of a company with a USP. They sell a product, though, so theirs isn’t written.

Think of your favorite type of doughnut. It could be a long john doughnut, cream-filled, or one with sprinkles. Every gas station and grocery store in the nation has those, so you have no good reason to buy doughnuts from one versus the others.

But with Voodoo Doughnuts, you get the same old thing in a new way – crazy ghosts and ghouls, doughnuts with “bacon” on top, ones with eyeballs, and others loaded with Fruit Loops.

This company has people standing outside its doors until 2 a.m.

How can you position your business as being unique in your industry?

2. Target a Pain-Point in Your Industry

A great USP focuses on something that’s really aggravating to your customers in your industry. For example, if you’re a contractor of any kind, people usually get angry when contractors don’t show up on time.

So you create a USP guaranteeing on-time service, or you refund your customers $1 for each minute your late.

Another idea would be if you ran an insurance company. Often they are known for their dense language and bureaucracy, and you could sell yours based on transparency, ease, and straightforward pricing.

3. Think of What Everyone Else Does, and Up the Standard Dramatically

For example, every business claims to offer “excellent customer service.” You could aim for “legendary customer service.” If a customer needs your product or service faster than you can provide it, go to great lengths to give it to them anyway.

Then, you also have an awesome story to tell in your marketing. The online retailer Zappos, for example, goes to absurd lengths to make its customers happy.

1. One man without wedding shoes got a pair overnighted to him for free!
2. Zappos was out of stock with a particular shoe a customer urgently needed, so they physically went to a rival shoe store, bought the shoes, and delivered them in-person – all at no charge

Wow! When you call customer service these days, you usually talk to someone in India or the Philippines…

The bottom line:

When you find your “USP,” business becomes 10 times easier. People happily give you the opportunity to serve them. And as you prove true on your promise, you get droves of lifelong customers.

Have you ever been asked if you need Baseball equipment… before being asked if you even play the game?

I was at a restaurant recently when the waiter asked if I would be interested in a chocolate fudge brownie with ice cream. Now we’re talking, right? Well…although this sounds delectable, my intolerance to lactose would far outweigh any short-term happiness from this dessert. If this waiter were a friend of mine, I might even be a little offended or assume it’s a joke.

I say this because I have been on the waiter’s side before, eager to share something of value with a prospect or customer. But if I skip asking important questions, I run the risk of wasting everybody’s time and offending others. So, how does this apply to marketing, and specifically email marketing?

 1.  We need to determine our primary target market and focus our resources there. It doesn’t take a fancy statistic to know email is growing rapidly and email marketing is a viable option, but I will        include one anyway.  Did you know that email ad revenue reached $156 million in 2012 (Interactive Advertising Bureau via Salesforce.com)?

2. Now that we know our target audience, how will we effectively deliver the message so that it is received? We know that people are very busy, and we only have a few seconds to grab a prospects attention. An effective strategy is to keep subject lines short and sweet. Subject lines of fewer than 10 characters long had an open rate of 58% (Adestra July 2012 Report).

3. Part of knowing your Target Market is knowing how they think and how they access their email. 64% of decision makers read their email via mobile devices (TopRankBlog). With this in mind, email marketing strategies must include appropriate text versions as well as HTML versions.

4. When marketing your company/services, one must remember that listening, asking questions, and getting to know our target market is far more important
   than simply offering a chocolate fudge brownie with ice-cream. Your prospect may prefer these:

Check out the recipe at :YUM

The scene is set. The newlyweds are celebrating their first Valentines day and he is out to impress.  A romantic dinner complete with roses, wine and candlelight. Some may argue that a surf n’ turf dinner like the one above could be presented in a sloppy, unprofessional way and still satisfy. Well fellas, presentation matters. Trust me, I’ve learned. Imagine serving this meal on paper plates with plastic silverware. Even though it still would probably taste great, she would most likely be ticked.

Presentation shows thought, care, and attention to detail. This will go a long way with one’s significant other, and also will catch attention when planning a marketing campaign.

For example, if your company has launched an email marketing campaign one must understand the presentation from the recipient’s perspective. Is it easily understood? Is it sloppy or too lengthy?

More and more executives are utilizing mobile devices to check email. This fact must be addressed to maximize positive responses. The professionals at Prospectr Marketing have the experience, strategic knowledge, and attention to detail to launch a meaningful, engaging, and thoughtfully presented email campaign to drive qualified prospects to your doorstep.

An engaging, relevant message is essential. But presentation ultimately is the icing on the cake that will catch and hold the attention of potential, qualified leads. We at Prospectr Marketing would appreciate the opportunity to earn your trust in these areas and help deliver qualified leads to your sales funnel. Give us a call or check out our website HERE: MORE BUSINESS

Do you like to be seen as dumb?

You work so hard and come so far to finally talk with your prospect…

And then you do one of these stupid things (fortunately we’ll tell you what to do instead):

1. You Talk More Than You Listen

What you do: Aren’t you supposed to look like the expert? What better way to do that than by talking about everything you know, and spouting all these insane statistics and jargon terms?

How your prospect reacts: They think you’re full of yourself and don’t care about them. They don’t give you their business.

What to do instead: Ask questions and listen. As you gain sales experience, you learn more of the right questions to ask so you can properly identify what your prospect needs from you.

2. Letting the Meeting Go Off-Topic…Too Far Off-Topic

What you do: The client starts talking on and on about various things. One thing reminds them of something else, and that reminds them of another story… You just sit there and listen.

How your prospect reacts: They’re confused as to why you’re even there. They think you’re unassertive because you say nothing.

What to do instead: Start the meeting with a brief agenda of what you’ll discuss – that prevents a lot of going off on tangents. If your client keeps going too far off the road, gently redirect them to the right track.

3. Talking Your Client into Buying Something

What you do: Your client doesn’t seem convinced they need to buy anything from you at first. So you keep pushing inside, trying to convince them why they must buy from you.

How your prospect reacts: They get annoyed, angry, or even defensive. They can feel you trying to “get” them to do something they’re not ready to do. You lose the relationship and the sale.

What to do instead: Again, ask questions and listen. Let the client do the talking. They’ll reveal their needs to you. When they do, then it’s easy to sell.

4. Not Enough Urgency

What you do: You don’t want to “be pushy,” so you politely ask for the sale once.

How your prospect reacts: When your prospect hesitates, you just let them do it. You lose the sale.

What to do instead: The goal here isn’t to be pushy. But if it’s genuinely in your client’s best interest to act now, then it’s okay to give them reason to do so. If they hesitate, remind them of the potential negative consequences of not acting now. And, show them the benefits of acting sooner rather than later.

You could also throw in a freebie or two for a limited time to increase the urgency. Don’t do it just to close the sale though. Do it when you know it’s in your prospect’s best interest.

Please, avoid those sales mistakes at all costs! Your bottom line will thank you for it.