Sales Training Reinforcement Best Practices

One of the things we talk about here all the time is sales reinforcement. We know that so many clients are interested in us helping them deliver a great sales event and to bring a sales process in, but we also know that reinforcement of these skills is going to be the key to having them actually put the process of the skills in play. So I'm interested in hearing from each of you, what are some of the best routes your clients are taking to reinforce sales skills?

Susan Hall: 00:01  I think one of the things our clients can do is take the tools that they find most valuable from our programs and make them their own. So tailoring them, customizing them, to make sure that they fit within their culture and that they are also practical, so they can use them on a day-to-day basis. One of my clients who use Counselor Salesperson has created an Excel version of the planner that comes with Counselor and it's brilliant, I was so proud of them. They've created drop-down menus where they've got discovery questions built in,  a Ben Duffy, and a sample of a purpose, process, payoff to remind them how it works and what's going to be most effective. They use it consistently and they're getting great results.

Bob Parks: 01:35  The thing that I see with our clients is having sales managers coach is really critical. I actually tell our clients, if you're going to train sales managers or leaders and you're not going to reinforce it with coaching, then don't bother, because it's really important to have sales managers or direct managers coaching the skills. One of my large chemical clients, they actually hold their sales managers accountable. They have a metric for coaching for their sales managers, so they measure it and they hold them accountable.

Joane Ramsey: 02:16  That is great. In the same lines to what Bob is talking about, I have one of my clients, who has actually taken our planners and our tools and is implementing it into their CRM. So they have strategically placed some of the components of the Counselor Salesperson where they need to be according to where they are in the sales process. So, they can download planners, they can look at discovery questions, the same idea as the spreadsheet, but it also helps the managers, to your point Bob, be able to go into the system and manage. There have been very interesting and effective results.

Tim Deuitch: 02:53  That's interesting. I'll take my example in another direction. I have a client that is focused on delivering very timely coaching right after the training experience. They'll use the actual trainer for the next four to six weeks after the training event to work directly with the participants, working on things that they want to work on, and so they check in every single week.

Susan Hall: 02:53  Is it one-on-one?

Tim Deuitch: 03:28  It is one-on-one. They move from a classroom setting to one-on-one with each person on the things they need to work on for their situation.

Susan Hall: 03:32  That's a commitment, but the statistics tell us that the average person needs to use a skill seven to 14 times until they get results, so better than average is closer to seven, but that's still using that skill on a repetitive basis.

Tim Deuitch: 03:53  This is what we have. We have customization of the tools that we help bring to their midst. We have coaching, identified coaches over time. We have attaching it to the system that your organization uses on a day-to-day basis, and then we have the timely coaching, we strike when the iron is hot, so they can put the skills into play. All good stuff. Thanks very much.

Joane Ramsey: 04:15  Thank you.

Best of luck and let me know how I can help you achieve more effective training!