Sales Laundry

How many hours each year do we keep new sales representatives cooped up in a room somewhere loading their minds with product information?

 Probably too many.

 The better question is how much time is spent teaching new sales representatives how to use that product knowledge?

 Would you like to field “smarter” sales representatives and help the middle 60% of your sales force close more opportunities?

 Then we need to look at how we build actionable product knowledge into our sales representatives in our efforts to get them ready for the field.

 Having sales minds loaded with product knowledge, in and of itself benefits no one, not even the “loaded” sales representatives.  It is in fact, a cost.  It is in the application of product knowledge to customer problems that value is realized for the owner, sales manager, sales representative and customer alike.

 In practical application, we have to load sales minds with product information, but we should spend at least an equal amount of time, if not twice that, training them how to wield the new weapon they have been given.

Moving From Product Knowledge to Actionable Product Knowledge

 Put your new sales representatives and the “middle 60%” of your existing sales representatives in role playing situations that force them to ask questions, a lot of questions, to uncover what issues a client might be facing.  Help them shape their questions and truly understand both the answers and the ramifications of those answers they get back.  Teach them questions that have answers tied to your products features.  Educate them with questions that will uncover problems the majority of your prospects have in common.  Teach them the questions that will help them locate problems your product solves that your competitor’s cannot.  Teach them the questions to ask when you are at a competitive disadvantage.

 Begin by teaching them a product feature, then teach the problems solved by that feature, and finally teach them the questions to ask to uncover those problems, if they exist, in your prospect’s business.

 Once the questions have been asked an equally important step is what to do with the valuable answers provided.  Show the sales representatives how to turn those answers and the problems those answers uncovered, into creative solutions built with your products and services with role play.  In the advanced form of this training, add time, budget, and political constraints they have to work around.

 Write case studies on your past performance, good and bad if you can stomach it, to help your sales representatives see real problems your company has identified and real solutions you have developed in the past.

 To keep your training relevant, have your new sales people travel with your Top 20% on new sales calls with the express objective of writing down questions they hear and the answers provided.  Review the trainee’s notes with the sales veteran’s perspective to make sure the new sales rep understood the conversation and was able to accurately translate what he heard.  Incorporate anything new and fresh into the ongoing training program.

 There is no value in being a talking brochure.  That ship has sailed.  No one cares what your product can do; they only care what your product can do for them.  Talking about features and benefits with a prospect just comes across as noise if the features/benefits are not relevant to his situation.  Smart questions bring clarity.  Clarity allows for accurate custom tailored solutions designed to solve specific client problems and answer the biggest unspoken question your buyer has, “What’s in it for me?”

Image courtesy of http://www.craigharper.com.au