Just taking in sales training doesn’t work without a structured approach. To get the best from learning new sales techniques you need a way to make them stick and become an acquired behaviour.
See how you can quickly add new selling skills to your sales pitch and build a store of techniques ready to use when needed by scrolling down the page to Improve your sales skills...
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Needs-to-Close-Chains is an effective sales training tool.
You can use it to prepare a sales pitch or presentation or train yourself and others on selling a new product.
It's also a really effective self motivation technique for getting into that top selling state between sales appointments.
If you know someone that could benefit from this free sales training please feel free to send them the newsletter, or the Need-to-Close Chains sales training tool.
Improving Your Sales Skills
Part of my job as a sales manager is to present and oversee the training given to my teams. I’ve learned from many years of experience that you can’t just bombard people with training and new ideas and hope it goes in.
Sales training must be learned and become an acquired behaviour. Too many managers and trainers think you can just tell people what to do and they go out into the field and do it.
When learning new sales techniques you have to consider:
- Where to start
- How much to try and take in at a time
- How to acquire the new behaviour
- Putting it into action
Where to start
The best way to improve your sales skills is to focus on one small area at a time. Do this by breaking your sales pitch into sales stages.
For example, a simple selling process using stages might be:
- Sales introduction
- Questioning stage
- Sales presentation
- Closing the sale
- Objection handling
You can see more on sales stages and how to build a sales process atSelling with a sales process.
To start your own personal sales training plan select one of the above sales stages. Choose the one you feel weakest on, or the one that you think will give you the most return on your investment in yourself. Then look for sales training on that particular area of your sales process.
If you want a tip: The most important stage of the selling process is the Sales introduction. You can see why at How to make a stunning sales introduction
How much sales training at a time
Have you ever been on a sales course, listened to a CD, or read a book, on improving your sales skills and felt completely overwhelmed?
You are trying to learn new sales techniques but the course or book you have selected is telling you to change everything that you currently do.
You can’t suddenly acquire all these new ideas and turn them into behaviours that replace your current sales techniques.
The most effective way to take on board new sales training is to learn one new action at a time.
Take one technique and incorporate it into your existing sales pitch.
You can’t learn everything at once and become an expert at putting it into action. B
ut many sales courses, books and DVD’s try to do it that way.
And that’s why people spend huge amounts of money on sales training and then can’t put it into action.
Imagine how many additional sales you could close if you increased just your objection handling skills. Or of you worked on just your sales closing techniques.
How to acquire the new behaviour
You’ve selected the stage of your sales process that you want to improve.
You’ve found the best single action to put into place. The one that will give you the best return on your investment in yourself.
Now you want to acquire this new behaviour and make it work for you.
Example:
You’ve decided that the sales introduction stage of the sales process is where you are going to start.
After finding free sales training on the Internet, buying a book, or listening to a CD, you have decided that you will work on your reason for meeting the buyer. This is an important part of the sales introduction stage. It’s where you give the buyer a reason to listen to you.
You can see more on the reason for meeting the buyer at The most important part of your sales pitch
You write down a couple of new lines that you will use as your reason for meeting the customer using the new sales training book, course, CD etc
To acquire this new behaviour, and become confident using it, you try it out a few times on your own. You might try visualisation techniques where you mentally run through a sales introduction using your new reason for meeting the buyer.
When you’re ready you put your new sales skills into action.
Putting sales training into action
Action – Assess results – Make changes – Action
You’ve practiced your new lines that you are including in your sales introduction stage.
Now you are ready to put them into action in a real sales situation.
Before your first sales meeting spend a few minutes telling yourself what you are going to do, and most importantly why you are going to do it.
Go into that first sales appointment and include your new lines. Then afterwards asses the results. Look at it from two viewpoints:
1. How well did you use your new sales lines. Were you confident. Did you say what you meant to say, and did you use them at the right time.
2. What reaction did you get from the sales prospect. How did it compare to what usually happens.
Then consider how you could improve your new sales techniques even more. What changes could you make to give you better results.
Now put your new improved actions into place and again go through the process of assessing results – Making changes – Putting them into action.
Improving your sales skills
The above process for putting new sales training into action may sound long and time consuming. But at the end of it you will have taken an action and got it working for you.
You will have acquired a new behaviour that you will use with unconscious competence. Your investment in learning this new sales skill will pay you back many times over.
When you have mastered one sales technique you move onto the next. This works far better than trying to change your whole sales pitch every time you go on a sales course or read a new book.
This sales training method is what I use with my sales teams. It works for me and I am sure it will work for you when you invest in your own personal development or when you train your sales people.
You can see the sales training courses I use this method of presentation with at the Sales and training solution shop.
Tell us what you think of the sales training ideas
Give us some feedback on the ideas to improve sales skills. Share your opinions about the techniques above. Your thoughts are invited and your viewpoints wanted.
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Follow the link and add your comments, feedback, and share your ideas on our Blog. Open the Sales Training Sales Tips Blog.
Updates from the Sales-Training-Sales-Tips website
Influencing customers to buy now
Having a motivator to influence a customer to buy from you now can be the key to increasing your sales.
It can be that extra push that a buyer needs to get them to agree to the sale today. Having a reason to buy now stops them giving objections such as: I’ll think about it, leave me some information, or call me back.
There’s a full page of sales training on influencing customers to buy now and how you can add these sales techniques to your sales presentation at Influencing customers to buy now.
Handling Price Objections
As sales professionals it’s one of the most common sales objections that we face. But do you know why these sales objections happen?
Once you understand the reasons behind them you can follow this sales training on handling price objections. You’ll close more sales, make more money, and grow your business.
See a full page on Overcoming objections to price.
Short and to the point - Effective - and Practical
That's my aim with The Sales Buzz Free Newsletter and with all the selling and career techniques on the sales training website. You can learn sales skills without spending huge amounts of money or ploughing through long boring books.
Pick up sales techniques and sales skills from wherever you can. You do not have to spend huge amounts of money to get the learn sales skills that are right for you. I present sales techniques that are:
- Easy to learn sales skills
- Short and to the point
- Simple to put into action
To make sure you don't miss out on all the right updates for you get the sales training Blog and you're in control of when you read the latest additions to the site.
The Sales Buzz
The Sales Buzz is the free newsletter for all sales people in all sales roles. If there is a topic you would like to see covered here use the contact form on the website and I'll get the best information, from working sales professionals, to learn sales skills and pass them on to you on this newsletter.
Wishing you the very best with your sales career.
Stephen Craine
Sales-Training-Sales-Tips
