Training Salespeople

Prepared by: Santosh Pullewar

 Sales Management

Overview
Sales
Environment

Supervising
Planning
Personal
Sales Sales Reps
Managers
Motivating
Recruiting

2) Developing Training 1) New sales force

current sales training
force
Managing a sales force involves recruiting, hiring, training, supervising,
compensating salespeople, motivating them to become problem solvers, and
providing the proper planning and backup support so they can perform their jobs
properly.
 Introduction

• Training should follow the recruiting and

selection program
• Company must decide how to train and recruit
efficiently and economically

(Source: Hite and Johnston)

 Training
Training is a Process of LEARNING that is
specifically directed to the acquiring of specific
ATTITUDES and SKILLS for the successful
carrying out of specific Objectives & Tasks.
 Define training

• Sales training- the effort an employer puts forth to

provide salespeople job-related culture, skills,
knowledge, and attitudes that should result in
improved performance in the selling environments

(Source: Futrell)

What is a learning curve?

 Why train?
• Decreased turnover
• Increase sales
• Enhanced customer relationships
• Decreased costs (Source: Hite and Johnston)

• Better Morale
• Improved time and territory efficiency
(Source: Dalrymple et al)
 Why train?
• Orienting new salespeople to the job

• Improve knowledge

• Lowering absenteeism and turnover

• Informing salespeople

• Obtain feedback from salespeople

(Source: Futrell)
 Learning principles
• Training programs should include the best possible techniques
for imparting knowledge, skills, and correct attitudes to
salespeople

– Motivation

– Purpose

– Reinforcement

– Participation

(Source: Hite and Johnston)

 Learning principles
– Practice

– Repetition

– Organizing for learning

– Applicability
(Source: Hite and Johnston)
 Areas/Contents
• Product Specific knowledge

• Company Specific knowledge

• Customer Specific Knowledge

• Market & Competition

• Sales Methods & Techniques

 Content
• Product knowledge
– Is the salesperson familiar with the features of the products
– Can he/she express the benefits to the customers
– Does the salesperson have a complete knowledge of competing products

• Company knowledge
– What does the company do?
– What is the companies organization structure?
• Who is responsible for what
– What is the companies procedures?
– What does the company stand for?
(Source: Hite and Johnston)
 Content
• Market knowledge
– What are the general business conditions?
– Who and where are the industries involved?
– Who is the competition and how do they operate?
– Who are the customers and what are their needs?
– The customer’s buying process

• Selling techniques
– Prospect
– Gather relevant information
– Approach the prospect
– Qualify the prospect
– Develop a sales presentation
– Anticipate and answer objections
– Close the sale
– Maintain continuing good relations
(Source: Hite and Johnston)
 Content
• Customer motivation
– A salesperson needs to know how to develop enthusiasm within their prospects
– Enthusiasm will help built confidence in the product

• Non-selling activities
– Customer service- “those activities that enhance or facilitate the sale and use of
one’s product and service”
• Stocking shelves, planning promotions, training salespeople, processing orders,
delivering, maintaining and repairing products, answering complaints
– Generating sales inquiries
– Time and territory management
– Paperwork
(Source: Hite and Johnston)
 Planning the training program
• Planning is the single most important ingredient for developing a
successful training program

• The most effective learning takes place when the new salesperson:
– Perceives a need to learn a particular skill, or perceives some form of personal
reward for doing so
– Can practice and apply the new knowledge in a setting similar to the actual
sales environment
– Can receive supervision, support, and reinforcement from someone respected
for having sufficient expertise in that skill to assist in the learning process
(Source: Hite and Johnston)
 Planning the training program
• Who trains and where?

– Staff Specialists

• Often centralized

• Sales specialists prepares the materials and conducts the classes

• Cons
– Often times lack experience in realistic field-selling situations
– May cost small firms to much money

(Source: Dalrymple et al)

 Planning the training program
• Who trains and where?

– Outside Specialists

• Outside consultants may be entirely responsible for the training programs or brought
to conduct specific sessions

• Often times tailor their training to specific needs of the firm or the industry

• Cons
– May be unfamiliar with a company’s selling situation

(Source: Dalrymple et al)

 Planning the training program
• Who trains and where?

– Line Executive (usually sales managers)

• Lends credibility to the program because of their sales backgrounds

• May have better knowledge of how to sell, and they may better know what skills
trainees need in order to perform will in the field

• More practical

• Cons
– May not be trained to communicate the information to a group of people in a classroom
setting
– May be preoccupied with current sales problems and do not have the time

(Source: Dalrymple et al)

 Planning the training program
• When and how much?

• Many companies place new sales personal into the field after only a brief
orientation. In this case, the salesperson is expected to struggles and learn
for themselves
– Pros of this approach
• Only those who stay with the company will receive the more expensive training
programs
• The salesperson will have a frame of reference for the material taught in the training
sessions

(Source: Hite and Johnston)

 Planning the training program
• When and how much?

• Waiting to train a salesperson has several disadvantages

– Risking relationship with customers

• Due to the risks, most companies will provide enough initial training so the
salesperson can function at some minimum level in the field. Advance
training will be added at a latter time.

(Source: Hite and Johnston)

 Planning the training program
• Training methods

– Lectures Demonstrations
• Primarily to disseminate information to groups

– Group discussions/ Panels/ Role playing/ Simulations of games

• Involve groups in participative interaction

– Manuals/ Bulletins/ Correspondence courses

• Individual instructional methods used to disseminate information

– On-the-job training/ Personal conferences/ Programmed instruction/ Job

rotation
• Individual instructional courses that involve individual participation
(Source: Hite and Johnston)
 Planning the training program
• Training methods

– Lectures Demonstrations
• Primarily to disseminate information to groups
• One-way formal discourse delivered to a group of trainees, typically passive
listeners

• Pros- large amounts of information can be conveyed in a short period of time

• Cons- lack of verbal feedback

– May not be good for teaching selling techniques, time and territory management, and
qualifying prospects
(Source: Hite and Johnston)
 Planning the training program
• Training methods

– Group discussions/ Panels/ Role playing/ Simulations or games

• Involve groups in participative interaction

• Group discussions- best when the group is less then twenty

– Discuss common problems under the guidance of a discussion leader
– Many points of view
– May be a problem with inexperienced people

• Panels- three to six experts

– Give a short presentation and answer questions with regards to the topic

• Role playing

• Simulations or games (Source: Hite and Johnston)

 Planning the training program
• Training methods

– Manuals/ Bulletins/ Correspondence courses

• Individual instructional methods used to disseminate information

• Manuals

• Bulletins

• Correspondence courses

(Source: Hite and Johnston)

 Planning the training program
• Training methods

– On-the-job training/ Personal conferences/ Programmed instruction/ Job

rotation
• Individual instructional courses that involve individual participation

– On-the-job training

• The quickest way to expose a new salesperson to the actual selling environment is
through one-to-one, on-the-job training
• Exposing the trainee to a real-world sales environment where the techniques learned
in a formal training sessions can be observed and tried
• Cons- objective of the sales call and the costs
(Source: Hite and Johnston)
 Planning the training program
• Training methods

– On-the-job training/ Personal conferences/ Programmed instruction/ Job rotation

• Individual instructional courses that involve individual participation

– Personal conferences
• Provides two way communication
• Salespeople should have the chance to bring up problems and seek advice and counseling
• Chance for positive reinforcement

– Programmed instruction- the subject matter is broken down into highly organized,
logical sequences that demand continuous responding on the part of the new
salesperson. If the answer is correct, the trainee proceeds to the next frame

– Job rotation
• Pros- give the sales trainee many perspectives
• Cons- time it takes to implement the program
(Source: Hite and Johnston)
 Summary
• The job description is the basic instrument for determining the training
needs

• Well-designed training programs should follow basic learning principles

• Planning the training program is essential to success

(Source: Hite and Johnston)