TRAINING
need to change your reps’ behav- ior,” they stress.
To Train or to Coach Is up to You HENRY CANADAY
When sales managers look for increased profit or productivity – in other words, more closed business – they may look at a number of areas that demand improvement:
• Slumping sales • Weak profit margins • Training or coaching that’s inef- fective or absent
• Too few highly skilled reps • An uninspiring compensation plan • Ineffective sales tools • A sluggish sales process That’s quite a list. If managers
can’t tell exactly what’s needed to optimize the team’s performance to increase sales, here is some expert insight that should help pinpoint
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where to apply budget and talent and when to train or coach. Addressing where managers can have an immediate impact, training experts suggest the following for sales managers. “Lots of managers don’t know. Companies keep them too busy, so – when numbers are down – they just yell,” they say. The problem could be pricing, marketing, the state of the industry, or the state of the entire economy. “You need only training when you
Salespeople may not be calling on the right people or asking compel- ling questions – or they might not be closing deals because they simply are not asking for the close. Trainers agree that, in short, these salespeople “are doing something wrong or not doing something right.” The only way managers know this is by spending time coaching salespeople – joining them on sales calls or listening to their telephone calls. “You need to observe them,” say the trainers. “If you can measure competen- cies needed to be successful, you will know if it’s an execution issue,” caution the trainers. For example, managers must measure their reps’ competence in discovering essential information about prospects, regard- less of how they do it. If discovery results are inadequate, training may be the answer. To distinguish a need for better hiring versus training, managers must assess reps’ talent, skills, and knowl- edge. “Skills and knowledge can be taught,” they agree. “Talent is what they bring to the table. Talent, you can’t fix.”
“Look at new customer acquisi- tions,” urge the trainers. “How many are you getting a year? Are [new cus- tomers] brought in by just a few reps, not others?” They routinely interview sales lead- ers, managers, and reps to find out about their customer relationships. For example, they will dig to deter- mine if the firm is a preferred sup- plier. “Many think they are preferred, but they are shared or peripheral,” experts say. Probing questions include finding out if the firm is frequently sur- prised by customers. Are reps spend- ing more time with computers than on understanding customers? Does each manager say his or her own reps are fine but other reps need help? When a manager determines that
a rep lacks a specific skill, that can be a coaching opportunity; but, if a manager lacks the same skills, you
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