Spa Training Mistakes – One-Sided Sales Training
It is really amazing how often training is conducted at spas without first seeking input from therapists on what they actually need. For many spas, training is delivered yearly (if that) without variation or assessment of the areas where the therapists fail to deliver.
Also training is often thought of as a disruption so the attitude of “lets just get through it” prevails. To get the best ROI, perform a needs analysis before investing time and money on training.
This article from enterpriseref.com speaks to this issue.
Sales Training Mistakes – One-Sided Sales Training
Who decides what topics you are going to train your salespeople? If you are like most organizations, the decision is probably a combination of input from senior management, some impressions about what’s current or trendy in your industry, or which programs your sales trainer happens to be offering at the moment.
A lot of the time, there’s nothing wrong with that approach, and it can be a great starting point. The only problem is that every once in a while, companies end up with programs that aren’t doing them or their sales team any good, because they’re a poor fit for what’s actually going on in the field.
The simple solution: Ask your frontline producers what they need help with once in a while.
When you take that step, a funny thing can happen – you might just find out that what your team needs isn’t what you had planned on giving them. Even though a good sales manager usually has an ear to the ground and can tell what kind of issues are coming up with prospects and clients, there are always going to be day-to-day problems that are best known to the men and women who are making the calls, going on client visits, and getting feedback on proposals.
Granted, you might get too many variations in your answers to be meaningful. While one newer salesperson is struggling with prospecting, perhaps another could stand to have a refresher on product knowledge, and a third wants to work on closing the negotiation techniques. You might not be able to accommodate all of them, at least at the same time, but you will gain a better perspective on where each of your salespeople is at the moment, so you can go back later to get more training or just address the issues individually.
Just as likely, though, is that you’ll discover your sales team is facing a common challenge that they’d like some help with, or that one person’s suggestion will trigger agreement from the others. This is exactly what you should want from your training – a chance to work on whatever it is that’s holding your business or division back from bringing in even more customers. It’s more important to get the sales training your group needs than it is the program you had in mind, or the one that’s hot the moment.
As a business owner or supervisor, you should have a good feel for the pulse of your sales team. You probably have a strong idea of what sort of training they need already, and it could be that current market forces or industry changes mean that you don’t have much of a choice anyway. But try to ask your sales staff what sort of programs they want from time to time. The answers might surprise you, and they could be the key to increasing business in a hurry.
Linda Harding-Bond
