DEAN PERKINS

Sales Training Courses Serve Their Purposes In Good And Bad Times

At all times it pays to listen carefully in sales training courses. In good times complacency should be avoided. Even id sales are healthy targets can always be beaten and reserves laid aside for the down cycle that will come, inevitably. In bad times survival becomes an issue and training can add an edge to performance.

In a famous television series the issue of sales training is depicted in an interesting and amusing light. Two characters are portrayed in a number of well crafted episodes. David, the boss, is a very bad at his job and Tim is as good as David is bad.

David is unable to listen to anyone else because he is so self-centred. Tim is not only able to listen to others but also has the knack of speaking at just the right moment and in the most appropriate way. So the two characters sum up the essence of good and bad technique.

Viewers might be led to believe after watching the series that people are either born to sell, or not, as the case may be. This is to miss the point of education. In every profession there are people with more or less natural ability. The aim of education is to stimulate growth in particular directions, encouraging useful tendencies and discouraging others.

Even a person who can instinctively sell ice to Eskimos can improve his performance with training. In selling the sky is the limit and targets can always be exceeded. That is because selling is a dynamic process that is never static. One of the important things is adaptability, and this requires the skill of adjusting constantly to ever changing circumstances. When a person feels that he has learnt everything that there is to know, that is surely time for him to take a course.

In healthy organizations people are constantly on the move. Promotion opportunities provide for upward mobility and there should also be shifting of roles to allow for people to gain experience in various roles where they might find more satisfaction. It is such dynamism that generates the need for ongoing education within an organization to equip people for new roles or refresh them in the roles that they continue to play.

Morale is very important in armies, countries and organizations. This is often illustrated in sporting teams where it can result in victory for the underdog. In-service courses can really help to boost morale in organizations especially if senior workers are sufficiently humble to participate, thus demonstrating their faith in what they are paying for others to learn.

Some sales training courses focus on particular skills that need to be developed further. The skill of listening may be important, but within that one skill there may be sets of sub-skills such as identifying needs and bringing a prospect to the point of closing. There may be no one agreed list of all the skills needed but a good trainer will identify in the group the people who need to develop in one direction or another. In some cases a training company will even follow up on progress by allowing trainees to have email contact with instructors after the course has been completed.