Donna
Siegel

How to Deliver Valuable Sales Skills Training For Senior Reps

Most sales skills training programs are geared to novices, but pros need training, too. Just as seasoned major-league athletes constantly return to training camp, your senior sales reps need sales skills training programs tailored to their advanced needs. Here are six ideas on how to Deliver Valuable Sales Training For Senior Reps.

Yet you know that even the most senior sales rep still needs periodic skill training. Without a chance to practice individual selling skills, senior sales reps may, in fact, lose their edge. You know for these reps to stay on their toes, you need to make sure they get continual opportunities to review selling principles and apply them. How, then, do you get them these experiences without making them sit through the "same old stuff?"

Here are six suggestions:

1. Look for special-purpose training sessions by experts in specialized areas
Pick areas in which your senior people have expressed interest. Many courses exist in such specialized areas as objection handling, getting referrals and negotiating price, to suggest just three topics. With the focus on a single aspect of selling, these training programs are more likely to deliver new information.

2. Use a case-study approach for your own sales training
Have one of your senior people lead a discussion session around one of his or her current hot prospects. Have the rep describe what has already happened in the selling process. Then, let the group have an open discussion on the most valuable next steps for this prospect.

3. Give your senior salespeople a sales-related topic
This might include using networking to find sales leads, responding to competitive pressures or gaining access to the decision maker. Ask each senior person to come up with a top-five list for accomplishing this part of the sales process. Let group members present their ideas to one another and compare notes.

4. Set up informal periodic sales team meetings where the reps can exchange materials and ideas
Ask them to put forth their most creative sales ideas. It’s amazing how much learning can take place through these sessions because totally new ideas will be introduced.

5. Assign the seniors as mentors for more junior salespeople
Teach them how to coach the newer people through the sales process. You may even want your senior people to make joint sales calls with juniors, in which the juniors take the lead. The best way to learn is to teach someone else. So one of the best ways to sharpen your senior people is to have them serve as mentors.

6. Turn sales meetings into sales training
Most sales groups have regularly scheduled sales meetings to review current sales activity, go over changes in the product line or market and cover other major points that will impact their ability to sell. You can also use these meetings as training experiences. Assign one of your senior people a block of time in the meeting, perhaps 15 minutes. Ask that rep to deliver training on a specific area of demonstrated expertise. The preparation helps seniors think through the details of their own process; then, having to explain it to others forces them to relive the experiences.

SeaBird Associates Inc
3011 NE 7th Drive
Boca Raton, FL 33431
Phone: 561-750-9233
E-mail: Donna Siegel

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About Donna Siegel