Training the Perfect Sales Rep

Matt Lynch is national sales director of LYNKA Promotional Products. John Lynch is president of LYNKA.

Why do sales reps stay at a company? Compensation and atmosphere are important, but training always ranks near the top: more than anything, people want to keep learning.

Where to begin

The best place to start is at the end. What should be the outcome of your training? What are the goals? What do you want your sales force to do differently? Once you define the results you want, you can go about creating an effective training program. This also allows you to measure its success: If you know what you want to improve, then you can track those results immediately after the training. Want to increase the number of new accounts, increase the turnover of your key accounts or improve salespeople's closing ratio? All these things are measurable, and keeping track of them will allow you to determine what changes in job performance are expected after the training.

Sales boot camp

Initial training of a new sales rep has a completely different set of goals than your usual general training. In this case, the goal is very specific - you want to arm your new people with the tools and knowledge necessary to hit the ground running. We have found that most "introductory sales training" is too complicated for trainees to absorb everything and be able to use their knowledge effectively and immediately. With product training, company procedures and technical information all squeezed into the first day, the trainees' heads are spinning by lunchtime. Don't overwhelm the new sales reps. Give them enough to get started in the beginning, and then bring them back in a month or two for a follow-up training session. We are very much in favor of role-playing; this allows trainees to try different techniques and lets them make mistakes before they meet the client.

Train the trainers

This goes for all departments. When other departments train your sales people, don't just give them free reign to spend their two or three hours talking about the issues and activities that are important to them. Their content should be reviewed regularly to make sure that the features and benefits of your products are clearly identified, so that sales people can use this information in real-world situations. This "training the trainer" is vital to ensure that instructors are teaching in an interesting and useful way.

Your production manager proudly declares to the new trainees, "Our windows are made with the highest quality glass and framing." Who cares! Have him explain how your superior materials help improve efficiency, which results in a 30 percent decrease in heating bills. Now that's relevant training!

Use of an outside trainer or expert

Is hiring a sales trainer worth it? In our experience, the answer is yes, but only if they are working within specified guidelines. We found that working closely with them on the topics and methods being used was much more effective than giving over total control. While a little theory is helpful, sales reps are famously impatient, and want to learn about practical techniques that can help them sell.

Sales training retreats

Those famous weekend "sales retreats" are critical to building teamwork and loyalty within your sales force. In Poland, you can still do these infinitely more cheaply than in the United States or the EU, so don't miss out on this important opportunity to rally the troops. Once you decide to do a sales retreat, there are a couple of points to remember.

- Salespeople can learn as much from each other as they do from professional sales trainers or the company president, so allow plenty of group interaction. Recognize people publicly for good achievement and let them tell their stories.

- Choose a nice location (within your budget) and don't skimp on the food. Our sales staff still rave about the weekend we had a few years back in Sopot - thanks mostly to the great food!

- Have fun! The number one complaint is that training seminars are boring. Incorporate games, contests and activities into your training sessions.

- Don't forget prizes and souvenirs! Maybe a nice t-shirt or coffee mug to remember the occasion.

The buddy system

A good follow-up to sales training is to assign a senior person whom new recruits can follow around in the period following training. They can see an experienced rep in action, calling on clients, making presentations and dealing with difficult situations and complaints.

Evaluate your training

We ask all participants to score the different sections of our training seminars. Did they like it? Did they find it useful? What will they do tomorrow that they don't do today? A formal test or evaluation of your training program will help you determine future training needs.

Top management commitment

Training is expensive. There is the cost of organizing travel, hotels and speakers, and also the cost of your sales team not being in the field all day. To be successful, you should have the total support of top management. They must commit resources and actively participate in order for any sales training program to be successful.

We'd like to ask our readers to share with us their experiences with sales training in Poland. Write to us at saleseye@lynka.com.pl and tell us what sales training courses you've taken part in and what training companies you've enjoyed working with. We'll share the results in a future column.