Read more on WAOW Wausau

In the beginning

Me and Victor my dearest friend of all time made a trolley out of old pram axles and began navigating the rail tracks, farm sheds and deserted houses, old pump stations and garbage tips in search of for aluminium, brass, copper and lead. We were scrap metal dealers and dealt a good hand of important lessons in supply and demand. It was cash driven business, no taxes, no overheads, tax was a word that did not exist in our vocabulary, and even lessons at school did not include this subject.

Supplying a demand

In those days a lot of household rubbish was discarded over the fence into vacant lots. Amongst the debris were aluminium pots and pans, bits of brass, copper and lead. The 60’s brought new demand from Japans industrialisation revolution.  Base metals were melted down and cast into alloy componenents.

Sincerity

Forget scripted sales pitches, your customers will see through any smoke screen very quickly and once they do, trust will fail and the next honest salesman that comes along will be higher on their agenda.

Diversification An Early Important Lesson, the right place, the right time

On one of our scrap metal collecting excursions, while removing a copper system ball from a disused sheep trough an enquiring farmer suggested we could pluck wool from a few dead sheep scattered across his paddocks out back. For this he would pay us $1.00 per sack. He pulled a few dirty Hessians from his Ute and pointed in the direction of the paddocks where the dead sheep lay in waiting and instructed us in ways of gathering wool. Finally he drew our attention to a line of trees on the horizon; this was the homestead location and the delivery point. I learned an important early lesson about being in the right place at the right time and having the blatant nuance to grasp the opportunity as it arose. Confidence played a major role in obliging me and my friend many successes in our naïve business ventures. And we would venture many challenges over the ensuing years, as we quickly diversified. Scrap metal, textiles, furs and rare bird eggs became part of an impressive port folio. We were always flush, the school lunches that mum made were fed to the ducks on the way to school and replaced at recess with pies, chips, chocolates and coke.

We took advantage of our position and did the rounds, knocking on neighbouring farmers doors and offering to pluck wool from dead sheep for $1.00 per sack. Soon we had half a dozen regular clients. Our services became in such high demand that on occasions we just had to wag school, but in order to avoid the truant officer we had to close down the fur trade, besides the task of capturing live fur was painfully unpleasant for me, Victor and the poor little rabbits.

I could not have imagined in my wildest dreams that one day I would be producing silk ties and cufflinks and selling them all over the world.

This is just one small episode in my inclination to sales, through out my industrious career I always sought to maintain a principle based philosophy and it worked.

1. To dramatise feedback. Praise has a much more lasting effect on a sales person if it is experienced in a group situation. Express appreciation therefore in the presence of other members of the team if you want to particularly emphasise the performance of an employee. Be careful, however, when criticising a salesperson in the presence of the group. Criticism in front of a gathered team can destroy the self-esteem of the employee. Public warnings also have an extremely negative effect on those not involved. They worry that the same thing could happen to them.

2. To encourage consultations. Many members of the external sales force are reluctant to accept something their superiors say. They are much more willing to learn from colleagues, on the other hand. A new route planning technique discussed during a conference by a successful member of the external sales force, quickly leads to positive experience and is quickly accepted. Use colleague advice given in the group specifically for your own training purposes.

3. To awake ambition. Comparison of performance carried out in a group situation is one of the strongest methods of spurring sales people on to greater efforts. Members of the external sales force are motivated if they see themselves in front of colleagues who are given a poorer assessment. Discuss performance results in great detail in the group therefore and make use of the “acceleration effect” given by success. If there is a “sporting spirit” in your team then the negative aspects of colleague comparisons (envy, jealousy, resentment) rarely arise.

4. To discipline. Groups have their own unwritten laws. The norms of a motivated sales team are: a positive attitude to the company and to the product/service, constructive collaboration, a will to succeed, commitment.  These norms affect educational processes within the group. Misbehaviour by sales people (destructive attitude, notorious fault finding, lack of punctuality, unfriendliness, dereliction of duty) are eliminated simply by means of the regulating mechanism of the group norms, without the need for disciplinary measures. During a discussion with sales people, ask the group for their views on a problem which you are experiencing with one employee. Keep out of the discussion yourself and just act as mediator. A team of sales people with positive norms will soon bring a “black sheep” back onto the right path.

5. To create a sense of identification. The members of the field sales force need more today than just an emotional filling station. The group situation is ideal for providing sales people with “fellow feeling” and moral support. Sales people should meet together every four to six weeks for a conference in which they can exchange experiences with colleagues, work out new objectives with the sales management and experience team spirit. Sales people who only meet as a group two or three times a year lack identification and enthusiasm.

Application of these techniques will have a positive impact sales force behaviour and results. You can learn these techniques and more on a good sales management training course.

It’s time to clone your best sales reps and we’re not talking about Dolly the Sheep. The best solutions will leverage technology prudently, scale fast to your global force, communicate naturally and authentically and will get the job done because on the receiving end your sales people “trust” the wisdom of their peers far more than the marketing literature you give them. With these solutions you can capture the powerful differentiators leveraged in Omaha and the solution picture painted in Venezuela to share with everyone. New processes and technologies let you capture and deliver true and trusted knowledge better than ever before. It’s called “peer-based mobile learning “ and it is the future. It also offers relevant, trusted content pushed out to a global audience so they can access and use it when and where they want.

How do you get there? Believe, harvest, produce and deliver.

Believe it is possible.

Cynicism is a killer and part of the problem getting a solution rolled out to the people in the field is that we normally hedge our bets when the risk/reward ratio looks bad. Risks include wasting time with bad content, wasting money with poor adoption, generally initiating a public failure inside the company or not being able to measure an ROI. For most of our clients, they started cynical, threw crumby content out to the troops and big surprise; it didn’t go down like Kool-Aid. But the problem isn’t the problem we think it is. The problem is usually how we think about the problem.

Change your expectations for capturing and sharing the wisdom, passion and experience of your best people and make that vision your goal. Remember that the upside to this endeavor is increased revenue, higher margins, and shorter sales cycles. Respect the problem and the inherent complexities of it and show up ready to attack them. And most importantly: sell it internally so your program doesn’t die on the vine.

Harvest the knowledge

Press record and capture what you hear from the people that have been in the trenches. When you interview them for sales stories you might like to ask leading questions like a reporter does instead of ones that can be answered yes and no. And most importantly, dig deep into what went wrong with the sale before things went well and what was done about it. Rosy stories where sales people are perfect do nothing for credibility or listener’s attention. It’s the conflict that keeps us entertained; Good versus Evil when Evil is looking like a real contender. If you can find the dramatic tension of a good bedtime story you’ll have content that is compelling enough to be heard, respected and utilized.

produce

Lots of content does not mean you have lots of knowledge. If you have several stories that address the same need it doesn’t mean they are all created equal. Be clear about what is and isn’t content that you’d personally listen to and sift with an ear for trustable voices, big aha’s and dramatic turnarounds. Remember, this is “edutainment” at its most critical, if it doesn’t have any sizzle no one will get to the steak. While you are transcribing, listen for voices more than content, if the story is there you can find it later, but if the voice is fake it won’t matter what they say.

Deliver

Deliver to a global audience using multiple mediums and formats. Today there are more ways than ever to share and deliver content. That can be both the good news and bad. The problem: no two people want it exactly the same way. Some have and use all the new toys – Blackberry’s, iPods, iPhones, instant messaging and more. Some like it but don’t have the hardware or know how to use it. Some want it in paper, some want it online, others are mobile.

Podcasts can be an attractive solution for this agenda but be warned, it is only part of the solution. How many of you target audiences have and use iPods? How many have iTunes? How many have the hardware to connect up in their car? How many know how to subscribe to a podcast there is many a slip betwixt a cup and a lip and if you don’t start smart it’ll be a rough landing.

Remember, your top sales people can and do relate their victories and defeats but often to a limited audience. Capture that wisdom and you’ve cloned a winner. Share that wisdom well and you’ve got a huge leg-up on the competition not to mention on the ramp-up time for the next generation of superstars.

elearning

A quick Google search will show over 15 million entries for elearning. Its a big, and growing, topic with many potential application areas and a great many supporters. However, we believe it has limitations in sales training.

Most elearning being commercially developed and delivered today is not interactive (called asynchronous). Elearning can also be synchronous, where there is interaction between the facilitator and participants, and we have participated in trials of video technology (webinairs and webcasts) for synchronous sales training.

These trials were complex to set up and run, for both the training team and the company’s IT department. But we are sure these issues can be remedied in the future, especially if the training is being run on a campus basis.

Currently, we would recommend elearning modules as a way of bringing participants up to a common level of understanding. Somewhat like DVD/CDs, but probably with an interactive web-based assessment at the end of each module that can be captured by L&D.

Both standard modules and tailored elearning training is available, with the normal cost versus effectiveness equation to be considered.

Face to Face Training

Many consider this to be the “old way” of sales training. Getting a small group of 10 to 15 sales people in a room and getting them to learn by role playing, working in teams on case studies or working on their own live accounts.

We believe if done properly, face to face training still is very engaging and can actually translate into changes in behaviour back in the field. However, it is often a mismatch of thinking, part product knowledge dump, part case studies that aren’t appropriate to the participants and part humiliation of the people chosen to stand at the front and role play in front of their peers.

Our view is simple, we want to create an environment where real learning can take place, and sales people are encouraged to try new things. So small teams of three for the role plays, with each team member taking it in turns to play the sales person, the customer and an observer, who leads the feedback sessions positively.

We also now make a virtue of not using PowerPoint. Each participant has their own workbook containing the exercises (individual, pairs, threes and teams) and space to note down the information from the various exercises and flip chart sessions. Why do we recommend this approach. Its fresh, its fully interactive and very engaging for both the facilitator and participants. Too many facilitators hide behind a snow storm of PowerPoint charts and technology.

Add some DVD sessions into the mix plus some team competitions and we are starting to get a lively session. We would also recommend finishing off with action planning – what are they going to change, what will they do differently following the training. Even better if this is shared with their managers and sales coaches.

Launch Events/Seminars

Some people label this form of training the “sheep dip”. It is often carried out at the yearly sales team meeting or the launch of a new product. Most of these events are seen as team bonding sessions that tend to involve lots of liquid being consumed late into the night!

At best, we feel that the effectiveness of such events is limited. But you answer, we have the sales force all in one place at the same time, what better opportunity to train them (and it won’t cost much!)?

We see the logic, but we are still concerned about how engaged the audience will be especially as “death by PowerPoint” is often the chosen method of delivery.

If you do want to do this, please make the sessions short, focused, interactive and based on small teams, maybe competing for prizes. We find teams of about 6 works well, and we have developed some interesting ideas for how to get the teams functioning and interacting, even after the night before!

Power Hours

The “Power Hour” concept isn’t new, but maybe the way it can be used can improve the effectiveness of your sales training.

We have seen the idea used in the past by companies that want to reduce sales time away from the desk or off the road. The idea is to fire the training at the sales team for just an hour, often at 8.00 am, and hope something sticks.

We would recommend that power hours are used more for re-enforcement than the first line training. In fact, if your own sales managers are trained to do this, it becomes very cost effective and an excellent way of both sales and management working on the same ideas.

DVD/CD Training

What can we say? Probably the least engaging of all the various training options. However, it still has its place and can be used effectively to distribute technical information to a large, disparate sales team.

It also has one advantage over elearning, it that the demands placed on I.T. are not as great. Everyone just needs access to a DVD/CD player on a PC. With elearning there can be minimum configuration issues on desktops/notebooks as well as network access issues for remote members of the sales team.

On The Job Training

We all do on the job training as part of our normal roles within our companies. What we are talking about here, is a more formal approach to on the job training.

Learning by watching experienced people and then doing it yourself in the real world under supervision, with feedback, is the very best way to learn. Unfortunately, much of the so-called on the job training is really no training at all. New sales people are left to struggle along by themselves, without role models, with no real supervision and with no effective feedback.

We recommend that on the job training is built into any training program, but with thought given to how it is achieved and how best practice can be effectively shared throughout the team.

For more information about sales training please visit http://www.sales-training-consultants.co.uk