Open Enrollment Sales Training Seminars:

Location  Date
Charlotte, North Carolina Oct. 6th
Denver, Colorado Oct. 11th
Boston, Massachusetts Oct. 24th-25th
Dallas, Texas Oct. 25th

 


Sales Training:

 

Sales Training Courses

Welcome to the Sales Training Center's comprehensive resource site for effective, performance-based sales training and sales development programs. Over the past thirty years, sales professionals and sales managers across the world have benefited from our highly interactive sales training courses. We provide pubic open enrollment and private courses at the location of your choice. We conduct in excess of 200 monthly sales training courses throughout the world.

For free, no obligation information on how we can help you please contact us today.

Students of a Sales Training Center class course will learn to:

  • Communicate more effectively with customers
  • Develop the ability to build positive chemistry and rapport

  • Deal with multi-levels sales structures—users, authorizers, and purchasing agents

  • Use post-sales call measurement to assess their own performance and identify key customer issues by thinking and responding like a business consultant

  • Recognize basic styles of buyer behavior and determine how to adapt to each style to create positive "chemistry"

  • Analyze what sales people say, reducing the potential for misunderstanding

  • Effectively manage and control anger, conflict and difficult situations

  • Develop active listening skills to focus on what customers are saying

  • Be able to facilitate, guide, and close discussions in one-on-one and group settings

  • Build and give appropriate credit for other peoples ideas and avoid putting others on the defensive

  • Make a positive impact on the quality of teamwork and productivity within the work unit by effectively giving and receiving feedback

  • Sell long-term relationships rather than price

  • Incorporate interviewing skills into the sales process in lieu of pitching products

  • Apply the appropriate sales techniques based on the buyer and behavior type

For free, no obligation information on how we can help you please contact us today.

 

Sales Training: Sales Management Training Courses - Do Incentives Really Motivate Salespeople?


Here is a question I recently received from a sales manager:

"I get a decent budget for sales contests and our team is spoiled by 'big money prizes.' What successful ideas do you have to get salespeople motivated without always having to win something ?"


This question points out a common problem with sales incentive programs, which is that the newness and excitement can wear off quickly. Salespeople may come to see incentives as just another component of their overall sales compensation.


Does this mean that money and prizes can never motivate salespeople?


Of course not! Let me share two examples from my own experience.

In one of my past sales jobs the compensation plan offered a $500 bonus for achieving each quarterly budget and another $500 bonus for achieving the annual budget.
Salespeople could earn a total of $2,500 in bonuses (on top of commissions) if they achieved each of the four quarterly budgets and the annual budget.


I can vouch for the motivational value of this type of bonus program, even though it was not large when compared to the total target annual sales compensation. One year I earned the first three quarterly bonuses and sold enough during those three quarters to also earn the annual bonus. Yet, there was still one quarter to go in the fiscal year. My pipeline was pretty empty, yet I REALLY wanted to go five-for-five and earn the final bonus. So, I ramped up my prospecting activities and ended up selling more in the fourth quarter than I had in the previous three quarters combined! Needless to say I earned the final bonus...AND some very fat commission checks.


The other sales incentive that consistently caught my attention was an annual all-expenses-paid trip to an exotic location. A very small percentage of the company's salespeople and sales managers could win the trip each year, and the winners were joined at the exotic location by the company's top executives.


This promotion generated motivation in several ways that included:


Salespeople wanting to earn recognition as one of the company's top salespeople


Salespeople wanting to "rub shoulders" with the company's top executives (which could lead to future promotions)


Salespeople's spouses/significant others wanting to enjoy trips to exotic locations (NEVER discount the power of this type of "indirect" motivation!)


Clearly it is possible to motivate salespeople by offering contests and prizes. With that said, sales incentives can also fail.


Why do sales incentives fail?

 

When sales incentives fail, the most common reason for the failures is that many of the company's salespeople lack key talents required for sales success. When salespeople lack these talents, no amount of incentives will cause them to suddenly sell more effectively. A more likely outcome is they will start to press harder to close sales and suffer a decline in sales performance!


In other cases sales incentives fail because the contest is perceived to be "stacked" in favor of certain salespeople. Look closely at your sales team and your company's sales incentives and contests while considering the following questions:


Do the same salespeople consistently win all of the contests and incentives?


If some salespeople service larger or more productive accounts, are your contests and incentives structured to enable all of your company's salespeople to have a fair chance of winning?


Are the incentives generating incremental sales, or are they simply rewarding salespeople twice for results they would have produced without a special contest or incentive program?


Don't over-use sales incentives and contests

Rather than constantly running new sales incentives and contests, save them for special situations such as jump-starting sales of NEW products or services or reinforcing desired changes in how your salespeople sell. Structure your company's sales compensation plan to motivate desired daily behaviors such as new business generation, maximum account penetration, team selling, and cross-selling.


Top sales performers are usually very internally motivated, success oriented and outcome focused. If you hire the right kind of salespeople and provide them with a properly designed compensation plan that rewards the correct activities and results, you won't need to offer a lot of sales incentives and contests to motivate your sales team!


Source: Alan Rigg link

 

For free, no obligation information on how we can help you please contact us today.