Sales Tips and Marketing Strategies

When you ask sales people about questioning techniques most people don’t know how to ask a question that will get their prospect talking.

Many courses, books, and DVD’s on sales training tell you to start the sales questioning stage with an open question, one that will get the customer talking, and one that makes it difficult for them to answer with one word or a short phrase. But then they go on present that an open question is one that begins with: what, who, where, when, or how. This is absolute rubbish!

You can ask a question that begins with any of these words and the customer can still answer with a short, closed phrase, and in some cases just one word. Here are some examples I have heard while coaching sellers who have been on these sales training courses: Continue reading ‘Questioning Techniques For Sales – Do You Really Know What an Open Question Is?’ »

Sales courses and sales training is necessary in today’s informative and competitive environment. With every investment, there is a cost and a return. An investment in sales courses and sales training for your staff is no different. Sales training without a return on your investment may benefit your staff when they need credentials for a new job, but it won’t benefit your company. Sales courses must be chosen with an eye for return.

Investment in sales courses and sales training for your staff demonstrates that you are committed to the betterment of your company and your staff. However, if you choose sales courses and sales training programs that give little credence to your sales staff’s current knowledge and abilities, your sales training motivations will falter into resentment from your staff. Sales course content that is merely a reiteration of the staff’s current knowledge is wasted investment and will be received with deaf ears. Involving the sales team in the efforts places of sense of ownership of the sales training results, which further motivates the sales team to apply the training they have received to effectuate change. Benchmark your sales before training, and track sales for a year or two after the sales training. Training applied is ROI earned. Continue reading ‘Sales Courses and Sales Training Investment and Cost’ »

Sales programs and sales training courses can prepare a sales professional for advancement, and keep a sales manager prepared to manage, train, and motivate their sales staff for continuous improvement and a continuous increase in sales.

Sales courses from sales training courses and sales programs will give the new sales manager the background needed to fluently handle the transition from a staff sales professional to a respected sales manager. For a sales manager to be respected, and thus effective, the sales staff must be able to look up to the sales manager for insight, fresh ideas, consultation, management and motivation. Sales programs for sales managers supply the sales training needed to develop a well-respected sales manager that continuously develops and improves with his staff.

Sales programs with sales training courses for sales managers offer training on advanced sales skills as well as sales managerial skills. If a company will not pay for sales manager training, it is still in the sales manager’s best interest to continuously improve his / her skills so that he may effectively perform their managerial responsibilities. Whatever sales and managerial skills are gained can be carried throughout the sales manager’s career. Continue reading ‘Sales Programs and Sales Training Courses for Sales Managers’ »

Sales training courses for your sales staff and sales management team are a profitable investment for your company if the sales training courses and staff were properly evaluated, received and followed-through on. If there is no follow-up on the skills gained from the sales training courses, the company’s ROI in sales programs will be short lived.

Sales programs and sales training courses have the potential to exponentially raise sales in any company if the sales training process is not held casually or haphazardly. Failure to follow through with the sales training received through sales programs and sales courses diminishes the fullest potential of receiving a life-time return on the company’s investment in sales training. Your company can realize its fullest gain from sales training courses and sales programs if a follow-through to training programs are consistently administered with every sales course. Continue reading ‘Sales Training Courses and Pro-active Follow-up on Sales Course Training’ »

Let us assume that your business has fallen off or stood still in the last few months – after many years of continuous growth. If you are asked the reasons for this slump, do not immediately reply “It is the fault of the recession”. This is the common response from many delegates attending sales training courses.

Without doubt, the stormy situation in the general economy has a considerable effect on your business. Explanations such as “reluctance to buy”, “solvency difficulties” or “political uncertainty” are mostly only half the truth. If your business is regressing it may also be due to your sales force, to methods of acquisition, to the way they work.

Do your salespeople treat regular customers too routinely or too casually, because they think that their business is safe? Do they tell customers that they are happy with the business they have received so far, instead of working to extend it? Examine business from the most important customers over recent years. Where is there less business? Where is the business standing still? Analyse negative developments carefully. Consider the skills of your sales people, when was the last time they received sales training? Continue reading ‘How to Survive the Recession’ »