How often do you train salespeople? What training do they need most urgently?

Rob Lara is a sales manager with Ikon Office Solutions.
“You can go on our Website; our training programs are all right there. We have modules, so when you get hired, you can go through the basic binders and work through company and product training and lots more. Then we have a final-exam week, but all the preparation has been done before this time period.

We do our training through Ikon University, which has won awards. We are a large company, and our training is consolidated and regimented. It is all blended – from desk learning to binders and books you have to read. It’s a mix of all that. Our continuing training is on strategic selling and is in the same format but perhaps with not as much up front. I think we are light-years ahead of a lot of companies.

There is plenty of structure. For example, I have a guy starting next week, and I have already ordered the binder, and he will pull out the CDs.

Our training can be challenging sometimes. We lose people who do not have the personal discipline to complete it. It is tough. Some salespeople think they know everything. We hire qualified people, usually with two to five years’ experience in business-to-business selling. Some of them will say, ‘Just send me out to the field,’ or ‘Why do I need to do this?’ Others do not have the self-discipline and organization to get through the training program. You have to get a certain percentage of test answers correct, or you must retake it.

So we might lose some talent due to the training requirements, but it is talent we can afford to lose. The training is not only for our division but also for all our divisions in the company, and it’s based on whatever skills you bring to market. That is what you need to get several-digit growth.”

Lisa Davenport is a sales manager in the health-care industry.
“From my most recent experience, the biggest training requirements are about products, especially technical product knowledge and how to apply it in sales situations. Organizations are facing a particular challenge with consultative selling to customers, especially selling capital equipment.

These sales tend to have long cycles and are very budget driven. So you must peel back the onion to uncover different levels and layers of needs that the customer has. You are not suggesting or selling a particular product. You may be suggesting other things and services that could help the customer, so you have to have the expertise to know how to present something that will take care of their short-term needs while supporting their long-term growth.

Some training programs are adequate for this problem, but some are not. Lots of people complain that training programs are too long and do not present enough real-world situations. There needs to be more role-playing. You have to work the product knowledge and sales skills in, but still make it as real world as possible.

Of course, you have to have the right people in the right positions in the first place – then the training has to be continuous, ongoing, timely and acceptable to them. Sometimes sitting in a room for six to eight hours is not the way folks like to work. Sometimes online training is appropriate, but not by itself. I think training has to take a blended approach and offer people a number of options, so they get what they need and can quickly apply it on the job.”

Don Nablo is a sales manager with Shaw Systems Associates.
“Training for our industry is unique. We sell software. It is a long-term sale that’s complicated with many, many players and many meetings, conferences and presentations. It is consultative selling, and you have to keep the project moving by identifying the decision makers out of a roomful of people at times. You have to anticipate the competition and respond to complicated RFPs, so we look for training tailored to that type of sale.

We contract out training. Typically and usually that means travel to a seminar type of training in a different city. This training is adequate, if you are willing to pay the price and sacrifice the time. It is difficult to find a training program that doesn’t disrupt your time, and we don’t like to commit a lot of money to training. It is difficult to find a good program nearby.

Another risk is identifying the right program. From a recent experience, a program sounded as if it was right, but it was not tailored for this type of sale. We don’t have a lot of turnover here, and we have good, professional people, so we are not looking for the basics.

I don’t aggressively look for training programs, but I keep my eyes open. From what I have seen of online training programs, none has excited me enough to pursue.”

Ron Songrath is a sales manager with First American Homebuilder.
“Prospecting is probably the biggest training need in our business. Closing skills could be another.

We sell title insurance to home builders. It is essential in our business, like any business, to learn how many different ways you can go about finding a new customer. Our salespeople are hunters.

This can be difficult for new people in a new industry, which is not as secure as other industries. It is not like selling Coca-Cola, where you can go to all the food stands or restaurants or liquor stores. With home builders, there is more than one way to skin a cat. It is not just looking for the people who are building a home and selling it. There are other principals and parties involved.

We don’t use purchased lists for leads. We go to trade association meetings, and we use trade publications. We are able to look at deed filings with the county recorder. Anyone who is building and selling a house has to go through the recorder’s office.

In prospecting, you have to find the people who are doing business – find out who they are, where they are located and what projects they are currently working on. Then you have to make the calls.

We have tried training in a variety of ways. It has probably been one of our weak points. We have attempted to do quite a bit of it in-house. This year, we are going to go outside for it. We are set up with Impact Selling with Ken Miller. He is doing a company-wide program, which he has given in our other regions. Pretty soon, he will start here. It is a one-week program, and it is across the board, not just on prospecting.”

Bill Hartman is a sales manager with Adelphia Media Services.
“We sell advertising on 24 cable networks. I have six, soon to be seven, people on my sales team.

The most important training requirement is to train them to listen. First, we train them on product knowledge. We have to teach them about our 24 networks. Once they have all that information, they want to talk – to give it back to the clients. We have to train them to listen and understand where the client wants to go. We want them to learn about the client before we sell them. We have to teach them needs-based selling, so we can come back with a proposal to the clients. This can be very confusing at first.

Training falls on me. I am a former Yellow Pages rep, where I trained from the day I started to the day I left. We don’t have a trainer here, so I do it myself. I usually spend a week at first with new reps. We then have them go out with senior account execs to see their style.

I tell them that everyone has his or her own style. Some have a relationship-based style and some have a number-based style. It’s the same with clients; some are relationship-based clients and some are number-based clients.

Then I kind of stay with them. I am reading The Feiner Points of Leadership by Michael Feiner (Warner Business Books, 2004) in which Feiner says training is sometimes overrated. Managers have to work with reps to fine-tune them and help them with making call appointments, asking the right questions and making proposals. My job as a manager is to make both my lowest rep and my top performer strive to be better.

We have quarterly and annual meetings where we sit together and come up with game plans, and I see what I can do to help. It is very much hands on. I am a road warrior out on the road with them about four out of five days. A lot of managers spend too much time in the office. When I was a rep, I would do a call, and then my manager would do a call. Then at the end of the day, we would review what went right and what went wrong.

This has to go on constantly, even for the top performers with the big accounts. Even if clients like our company, we want them to like us more, so they will buy more or buy another channel or network.”

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