6 sales training techniques that every manager should know
Want to know which sales techniques every manager should know? If you’re a manager and you want to know how to get the best from your sales team, then read on to discover our hints and tips for doing so.
Active learning
There’s nothing like active learning to cement knowledge. Being talked at or simply run through a power point presentation, won’t provide your colleagues with any training of value. Utilise training techniques that actively engage your sales team, necessitating that they research, evaluate and apply the theory will work best. Role playing can fit the bill for active learning if done well.
Frequently and repeatedly
Make time for training frequently and in short bursts, to have the most effect. It's repeated training that will consolidate your team’s knowledge and help them to apply it in real life situations. Think of a ballet dancer learning the steps for a three-act ballet, they don’t simply learn a sequence once and hope to perform it at the opportune moment, but return to it repeatedly over time. Don’t simply subject your team to a lengthy sales conference once in a blue moon, where they doze off after being subject to a plethora of PowerPoint displays. Keep training, short, engaging and frequent for the most effective business sales training.
Employ e-learning
E-learning is a boon for organisations that have personnel spread over a large geographic area. It allows you to provide your team with key information in a consistent manner. It’s not a method you can rely on entirely, but it’s a useful platform for consolidating your team’s knowledge and assessing their progress. It’s a great way too, for your existing team to refresh and update their training at regular intervals.
Share best practice
Share best practice with your team. Moreover, don’t be general in your explanations of key values or skills, but pepper them with concrete examples. From handling a difficult customer to closing a sale, your team will benefit from being armed with specific examples of how to handle real life situations. Moreover, give them an opportunity to share their experiences of dealing with challenging situations, as repeating and applying the theory will help your team to take new information on board. This is when coming together as a team really pays dividends so that you can learn from each other.
Field training
There’s nothing like training in the field to put theory into practice and learn to deal with real-life situations. It may be that training in the field will form part of your new recruit’s probationary period and give you a chance to assess their ability early on. Assign experienced colleagues as mentors and field trainers to your new recruits, allowing the former to train, assess and provide valuable feedback to your team.
Reward achievements
Many people are motivated by reward and recognition for their achievements, sales teams more than most, as they’re used to working to targets. So reward your colleague’s achievements in order to motivate them. Also, be clear about how their successes are being measured and assessed, so they know what the goal posts are. Remember, the rewards don’t necessarily need to be of the financial kind – you could utilise certificates or badges to mark achievements. When both setting goals and giving rewards, be specific in citing examples of their success from the percentage rise in sales to bringing a disgruntled customer back to the fold.
So there you have a few examples of sales training techniques you can employ when training your team, helping them to consolidate their learning, apply it in real-life situations and motivate them to do even better.
8 exhibition selling techniques that will help your business achieve higher targets
Want to know what sales techniques will help your business achieve higher targets when you’re taking part in an exhibition? Then read on to find out how you can make the most of your next exhibition.
Well-briefed staff
Brief your staff on the goals of the exhibition and ensure they understand the benefits of all new products you are presenting at the show. Also, provide them with a Q & A document that will help them deal with likely questions or issues that your target customers may raise. If you can, refresh your team’s sales training in the lead up to the exhibition, allowing them to refresh their skills and improve their sales, negotiation and presentation skills.
Let people know you’ll be there
Market your attendance at the exhibition from a press release to emails, social media updates, adverts and networking events – let your target customers know you’ll be there.
Stand out from the crowd
Let your stand, stand out from the crowd, If you can, look at photos from previous year’s events to see which stands made their mark. Glance across a trade exhibition, and it’s amazing how many stands simply disappear into a sea of tasteful corporate blues and whites - why not try something different? It doesn’t have to be expensive, just engage a little creativity and perhaps try the unexpected, like Brigade Electronics 1970’s themed stand at the 2016 CV show.
Incentives for visitors
Provide visitors to the exhibition with an incentive to come by your stand and linger for a while. Of course, a competition with a fabulous prize is an obvious choice here, but there are less obvious, less expensive options too. Consider providing comfortable seating that would invite people to sit, stay and engage with your company or put on some complimentary refreshments.
Engage
Exhibiting at a trade show provides a great opportunity for you to reach a market crucial to your product. So, engage with the visitors to your stand. There is nothing more oppressive or off-putting to visitors than a gaggle of employees standing around talking amongst themselves and not helping prospective customers - it’s unprofessional and unhelpful. So, allow your visitors to browse for a little while and then approach them, ensuring they are given a timely response to any enquiries.
Discover their needs
Get to know your visitors and build up an understanding of their needs. By understanding the challenges they face, you can illustrate how your products fit the bill, solving their dilemmas. It’s not about a hard sell, but rather about showing how you can help them.
Provide concrete examples
Talking is what it’s mostly about – but it helps to have samples and concrete examples to show your visitors – it makes it all seem more real somehow. Providing a tangible rather than theoretical illustration of how your products can benefit your visitors, will help drive sales.
Follow-up
Arrange to follow-up with your prospective customers, and ensure you have all of the required information to do so, name, job title and contact details. Just having a few basic details will allow you to prioritise the visitors you had and get back to them in order of their purchasing power and likely custom. Following-up after your exhibition is crucial to making the most of your leads and closing sales.
So there you have eight techniques that would help your sales team achieve higher targets, next time you take a stand at an exhibition.
The Big Benefits Of A Leadership And Management Course
The terms “leadership” and “management”, although often used separately, are both crucial to succeeding in business. Being a leader and being a manager come hand in hand, which is why it’s important to know how to develop both so that they complement one another. A leadership and management course can be taught differently – through group workshops, one-on-one coaching or mentoring. Whichever you choose to suit you, here’s a list of some of the benefits for you, your employees and your business.
Become an effective leader
Of course, one of the main reasons you’ll have opted for a leadership and management course is to become a more effective leader in your workplace. There are several leadership styles, and professional training will teach you how to implement the best one within your business. For example, you’ll want to approach your role as a leader in a way that your employees will respond.
Engage your employees
A good leader should know how to engage their employees, to increase productivity. One of the ways to do this is to give praise, and constructive feedback and leadership and management training will teach you how to do this. It has been found that almost 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week in comparison to 18% of those who have low engagement levels. When it boils down to it, good leadership is all about understanding your team on an emotional level.
Improve your decision making
Training will give you an idea about the worst mistakes you could make as an employer and, by learning from example; you’ll ultimately make better decisions. A course such as this will also teach you how to overcome anything that may go wrong in the workplace that could undermine your position as well as how to approach challenges from a different perspective to better combat any issues.
Learn some transferable skills
Being a leader is more than knowing how to make the right decisions. Professional business training will give you an idea of some of the transferable skills you’ll need to succeed such as effective communication techniques, encouraging teamwork and how to influence others. Such a course should also encourage a certain level of introspection whereby you will be able to identify yourself which skills you believe you need to improve.
Develop your career
In any situation, one of the best ways to progress is to add to your skillset. By undertaking a leadership and management course, you will show your commitment to your career and your initiative on how you much you wish to develop. In due course, this is bound to work in your favour as it will leave you with a clear view of the changes that you need to make in your business in order to achieve the best outcome.
Frosch Learning offers leadership and management courses for any level that will help you achieve better results in your organisation, focusing on the objectives of both the individual and the needs of the company.
How to Motivate Your Sales Team During Difficult Periods
Winston Churchill has often been quoted as saying that "a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Repeating this to your sales team could inspire them during a difficult patch, when so many things miraculously seem to be going against them. However, if you still need some extra help, here are some techniques which you could use to stir them back into enthusiasm, much like Churchill himself kept up wartime Britain's spirits.
Don't vent your own stress on your employees
While it might look like we have just likened your workers to the British troops during the war, it would be counterproductive to bark orders at those employees like you are a drill sergeant. This would make clear that the difficulty of the whole situation is affecting your own ability to stay calm. Showing stress in this way could induce stress in your team; therefore, you should instead offer direction in your usual manner while letting workers handle the situation in their own ways.
Prepare to reassure as you leave your office door open
Members of your sales team might often come to you seeking reassurances about various matters that are negatively affecting them or the company as a whole. You can suitably prepare to receive such approaches from workers.
You should, for example, set aside sufficient time for them to spend chatting to you about their concerns. However, as you converse with them, you should stay honest and non-evasive; this means avoiding promising anything that you are unable to follow up on, as The Wall Street Journal advises.
Teach your team skills in visualisation
Musicians and actors will often picture themselves delivering successful performances before they head out to perform. This technique is known as visualisation, as Eventbrite notes - and it significantly boosts their chances of excelling when performing for real. Your sales personnel, too, could bring themselves closer to success in their work by imagining that success happening. Otherwise, your team could become too prone to negative visualisation.
Negative visualisation is where someone would think about the various obstacles ahead of them. This can be too easily done - but, if the salespeople in your team did it, they would be unnecessarily decreasing the likelihood of their success. Encourage them to visualise not only positively but in as much detail as possible - right down to the conversations that would happen, the salespeople's attire, and even what weather would be discernible through the office window.
Provide special training to your sales team
Visualising success is one of the techniques taught with the stress management training that we at Frosch Learning can provide in-house. This programme is intended for people adversely affected by stress problems hindering - or likely to hinder - their work. Also taught on the course are the subjects of learning rational behaviour and assertiveness, resolving conflict, and devising an action plan for diminishing stress. You can read many more details about the course's content by clicking here.
Why Cold Calling Is Still an Effective Method of Selling
It's tempting to think that, given the significant number of digital portals that can today be used for marketing, cold calling must be an outdated sales strategy. This would be a mistake; it can still prove surprisingly effective if approached in the right way. However, as the "right way" of cold calling might not be immediately obvious to many of us, here are some tips before you get on the phone.
Keep your true goal in sight
One reason for cold calling's bad reputation might be the misconception, commonly held by beginners, that the aim of a cold call is making a sale. Strictly speaking, it isn't; instead, the purpose is to set out your stall, so to speak, by making clear why the person you are contacting should buy what you are offering. Any resulting sale will likely happen later - potentially much later.
This should be a source of comfort for you; it means that, without the pressure of making an immediate sale, you don't have to feel the need to resort to pushy, "salesy" language that could ultimately deter the other person from buying from you.
Thoroughly research the firm or individual you intend to call
One way of diminishing the need for "salesy" talk is, before you even make the call, learning as many details as you can about the company or person you will be calling. That done, once you do start chatting over the phone, you won't need to read from the kind of cookie-cooker script that you would probably repeat to any other potential customer that you know little about.
Instead, you could speak specifically about the other person's business or requirements. This could have the huge advantage of convincing your call's recipient that you genuinely understand their problems. Otherwise, you could come across as arrogantly believing that every single person will want your offering. In an Entrepreneur article, menswear firm Blank Label co-founder Danny Wong says that this can occur "when salespeople repeat the same things to every potential customer".
Develop a thick skin and a persistent streak
Inevitably, your cold calling efforts will bring you into contact with time-strapped executives and impatient secretaries who seemingly want you to just go away. However, Wong advises building "elephant-thick" skin because "the main problem of unsuccessful cold callers is that they give up far too easily and quickly." Another reason why cold calling is often deemed fundamentally ineffective?
It certainly appears telling that, according to The Balance, 80% of new sales are achieved following the fifth contact - and, yet, most salespeople abandon cold calling after only their second call. Therefore, while you might not currently - or ever - find cold calling particularly enjoyable, you can still, by employing persistence, hone your skills at it. Vitally, you can also boost your chances of coming across people who are eager to do business with someone just like you. At Frosch Learning, we offer in-house training which can help you even further improve your cold calling.
5 Things You Didn't Know About Customer Service
You might think you know what customer service is. However, contrary to what you are probably thinking, customer service isn't just about helping people to learn how to use a product or service or overcome an unforeseen problem with it. Customer service can have much broader implications than what this to-the-point definition might suggest. By taking account of these implications, you could fuel greater success for your entire business - and here are several reasons why.
Good customer service can attract more customers
According to what the 2014 Global Service Barometer implies, "excellent customer service" is, after "good value for price", the second most important factor influencing what companies customers choose. Thus, what information they receive about a company's customer service department can affect whether they choose to buy from that company. Helparo says where this information comes from: "other people who interacted with the company" and "forums and the social media profiles of the company".
High-quality customer service can even lead customers to spend more
The same study also revealed 74% of survey respondents to have reported spending more money due to having received excellent customer support. How much more? 14% on average. You might struggle to even begin imagining how much more business you could garner from your customer base if you improved your customer service. This could not only increase the number of people in that base but also encourage each of those people to spend more money than they typically would.
Every employee should occasionally work in customer service
Were you aware of Amazon's policy that, every couple of years, employees must join the customer service department for two days? Even high-ranking workers, like the CEO, are not exempt from this rule. This little rule helps Amazon employees to understand how customer support works and see how vital it is to the company. You could benefit from putting a similar system in place at your own business, regardless of its size and success in comparison to Amazon's.
Even "silly" customers should be treated with respect
In a short but intriguing piece for TNW, journalist Matthew Hughes recalled once writing a letter to then Apple CEO Steve Jobs in an attempt to get a MacBook fixed without asking his parents for financial help. He noted that, while the letter's wording made it "plainly clear ... I was an irritating, idiot teen", he received a polite and formal letter in response from an Apple employee, albeit not Jobs himself. Hughes said that he has since always admired Apple's "customer-centric" approach.
Customer service people can also be salespeople
You might fret that, by giving your customer service staff "sales training", you could blight their reputations by portraying them as "sellers". However, your company could genuinely benefit from customer service personnel who, while delivering great customer service, also know how to encourage more sales of your products or services. You can help them learn this by putting them through sales and customer service training that employees of our own firm can provide in-house.
6 Ways to Improve Your Management Skills Quickly
It's easy to think of many people from history who have been hailed for their leadership skills - like Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Steve Jobs... the list goes on. However, don't be led into thinking that managing your own team to success requires a "secret sauce" that could take you a long time to develop. Here are six ways in which you can enhance your management ability speedily.
Define your company's vision before broadcasting it
Why was your company originally formed? What is its current purpose? In what direction - or directions - would you like to take your company going forward? What particular people do you primarily aim to impact? You should answer these questions to devise the corporate vision before you display it in areas where your employees can regularly see it.
Communicate better and more frequently
This might seem like vague advice, but it is worth emphasising because whatever message you want to send, you might not be sending it sufficiently clearly to your workers. The Training magazine website declares that "the secret to great communication is to communicate well and often." So, encourage your team to unite in their goals. You can also arrange, to be held with your workers, regular meetings; these don't need to be lengthy and tedious.
Inject more fun into your workplace
There are certain successful companies that you could imagine being fun to work for. These companies might include Facebook, Google and Disney. Those also happen to be three of the world's most thriving businesses. There's clearly something to be said for making work enjoyable and not simply a chore. Making your own workplace more fun could encourage great workers to stay; however, strike a good balance to ensure that they can remain connected with your firm's vision.
Admit when you have made a mistake
Doing this will show humility and cultivate a closer relationship with the people you are leading. Those people will also have greater respect for you and so be loyal to you. You strengthen as a leader by admitting your mistakes; this is because it lets you progress by devising solutions or requesting your team to make their own suggestions.
Put together a to-do list and follow it
You could make that list by setting reminders on your computer or phone. After doing this, you will be prompted to fulfil the listed tasks as the time arrives to do so - and acting on your list is a crucial aspect of following this tip. However, PsychCentral advises that you keep your list attainable. Thus, you should prioritise items rather than note many of them that might never be tackled.
Focus on one thing at a time rather than multitask
Don't be lured into thinking that multitasking will boost your productivity or efficiency. Your mind will work better when it is allowed to focus on strictly one thing. Remembering this can be good for time management, in which we offer in-house training. Our website includes comprehensive details of this training's content.
How to Ensure You're Always Negotiating the Best Business Deal
Naturally, you want to secure the best deals possible from your clients and suppliers. However, landing those deals - which will not necessarily be the cheapest deals, but the ones providing the best return on your money - is not always straightforward. Hence, you might need to draw upon skills in clever negotiation - and here are just some tactics that you can use in the process.
Remember to negotiate rather than haggle
Negotiating and haggling aren't identical. With haggling, you would be attempting to strike strictly the least expensive deal possible. Now, while you will understandably be carefully considering your company's bottom line during your exchanges with the contact, taking account of price alone is better suited to Marrakech souks than your business's boardroom.
While costs remain a factor when negotiating, this process always factors in at least one additional variable - such as the payment terms, time frame or guarantees, or what the product or service itself offers. Furthermore, the overall intention is for all parties - two or more - to be satisfied upon leaving the table. On one side or another, there might be compromises - but not significant ones.
Be especially careful during the first five minutes of negotiating
The Journal of Applied Psychology has published a study revealing that those five minutes could predict the outcome. The study explains that, in that time, you should focus on "conversational engagement, prosodic emphasis - which basically means you should copy the emotional state of the speaker - and vocal mirroring" to increase the chances of that outcome falling in your favour.
Decide what requirements you would willingly settle for
You will walk into that boardroom well aware of everything you would love to walk away with in a best-case scenario. Keeping this in mind is worthwhile; however, you also need to leave open the very real possibility that you won't tick every single box on your list.
Therefore, before negotiating, you should make a note of both your perfect deal and the "fallback" alternative - in other words, the least that you would accept. What aspects of a deal would you consider essential to the extent of non-negotiable? What parts, on the other hand, would you give way on if another party in the negotiations was not willing to make these concessions?
Your negotiating space falls between your dream deal and your fallback stance. Ajuve explains: "If this overlaps with the other party and you are able to find areas to concede or compromise on, then you stand the best possible chance of securing a win-win agreement."
Undertake in-house training in negotiating skills
The advice in this article can provide just a starting point for your development into a sophisticated negotiator. At Frosch Learning, we offer a course that can teach you how to further hone your negotiating skills. Once you and members of your team have completed the programme, you will each be more adept at reading body language, maximising opportunities, and getting ahead in meetings.
Why Sales Training Is Essential for Growing Businesses
One of the most important parts of any growing business is finding out ways to make selling more efficient. Relying on business sales training can help you take your business to the next level and gain an advantage within the continually competitive business environment we see today. Providing the right amount of training for your sales team will allow them to better perform in the field, which in turn means higher profit margins for your business.
You could lose money if you fail to invest in your salesforce
Often a customer's decision to buy is based on the calibre of the salesperson that they are in contact with. Therefore, it's important that your business makes the most effective training investments. Companies that fail to invest in their salesforce and instead invest heavily in product development, marketing and recruitment tend to fare worse than those who do. The Harvard Business Review found that companies who have invested in their salesforce come out at 9% higher than their competitors, which is a huge amount for one investment.
It leads to increased staff confidence and better staff retention
It makes sense that staff that are confident in their abilities to sell will perform better. Sales training can not only teach your staff the necessary skills they need for the role, but also how to implement those skills in the best possible way. Sales training leads to an improvement in communication skills, which is vital to gain loyal customers. Plus, confidence will allow staff to deal with any potential problems that may arise and work more productively alongside other members of the sales team. It is known that members of staff who work well with other employees are less likely to seek employment elsewhere, thus leading to better staff retention. Not only that, if your employees are satisfied in their roles, this is will ultimately reflect well on your company.
It generates ideas and improves corporate culture
Effective sales training not only generates an environment in which people are performing better at their role and working better with one another, but it also facilitates the creation of ideas within the workplace. Confident sales staff will be active in considering ways that they can better improve their records and even come up with constructive ideas about how the business can grow. This culture of performance will bring about clear expectations and standards which members of the sales team will be able to measure themselves against and thus consistently focus on their development.
Your sales figures will grow
Those who own a business will know the importance of increasing sales figures and sales training can directly influence this in a positive way. The correct type of training will help to grow your sales figures in both the short and long term, therefore giving you higher profit margins than your competitors. Although sales training may seem like a huge investment, it is guaranteed to be an investment that pays off and is vital to a company’s success.
We've highlighted just some of the benefits of sales training, but there are certainly more to take into account. If you'd like to find out more about how you can use sales training to improve the effectiveness of your company, get in touch with Frosch Learning today.
Improve Your Organisation's Customer Service with These 5 Top Tips
There are a number of strategies that you can consider in order to improve the level of customer service within your organisation. Regardless of how skilled and personable your sales team is, there are always ways to improve to make sure that your clients remember the excellent service they have received from you.
1. Meet the expectations of your customers
To improve the customer service of your business, you must know who your customers are and what it is that they want. To do this, gather information about as many of your clients as you can such as lifestyle, occupation and interests. This will help you gauge how to fulfil customer needs. Some businesses work well taking a ‘no frills' approach to customer care, while others choose to opt to go above and beyond to please their customers. Whichever you deem is the best option for your business, a good level of customer service is vital, as failing to reach customer expectations will cause them to go elsewhere. Statistics show that poor customer service from indifferent staff accounts for 68% of customer's who fail to use the same company again.
2. Listen to customer feedback
As a growing business, it can be tough to engage directly and proactively with every customer that you encounter. If you provide a way for customers to give feedback about your service, you can listen to their opinions, whether good or bad, to create practical solutions about how to improve. This can be done via online surveys, a few quick telephone questions or the option for customers to fill out a form on your website and will not only show you the strengths and weaknesses of your service, but allow those who use it to voice their opinions in a suitable and confidential way.
3. Invest in professional sales training
One of the best ways to improve your organisation’s customer service is by providing your sales team with professional customer service training. Not only will this be a great investment for your company in terms of increasing sales and revenue, but it will make your employees more confident in their ability to deal with customers whether face to face, via email or on the telephone. A confident salesperson comes across as one that is satisfied within their role, and this will show your company in good light, and therefore, encourages customers to return.
4. Promote effective and honest communication between employees
Good teamwork will directly impact the way that your employees engage with your customers. Supporting effective and honest communication between you and your team will allow you to all be on the same page and resolve any issues faster. Engaging with your customers on a deeper level often requires teams to know how to handle stress and complaints, so if those on your sales team can communicate well with one another, they will be able to remain pragmatic in their approach to dealing with issues.
5. Provide incentives for your sales team
A huge part of the role as a salesperson is dealing with issues and complaints that customers may have. If your employees know that they are valued and respected, they will provide a more consistent level of customer care. This can be done via the use of incentives or rewards for your team that will engage, motivate and improve their service.
Our top five tips for improving customer service may seem obvious, but they're the first steps to increasing brand loyalty and increasing your customer base. Get the basics right, treat your customers well, and you'll be on the road to success.