Steve Jordan applauds the industry’s recent initiative to provide more sales training, but asks, why it is only now that the ability to sell is being taken seriously?
Over the last few months, The Mover has shone a spotlight on sales. It is my firm belief that our industry has been starved of professional sales training for decades, perhaps forever.
It seems that sales people in the industry were appointed because they were enthusiastic, personable, gregarious and success-driven. Then again, if your income is largely determined by commission payments, motivation is rarely a problem for anyone. But a person having these attributes does not make them good at selling. It might help, but it’s not enough by itself. Good sales people are trained to focus on what customers want (not what they have to sell), to build confidence, recognise buying signs, close sales and make themselves easy to buy from. What’s more, they are specifically taught what to say when the customers say no. What to do when a customer says that you are too expensive. How to make customers feel good about paying more.
If our sales people are not trained properly, how can we ever expect to achieve the right level of sales, at the right price, to allow our businesses to prosper? What’s more, the industry is always talking about the difficulty of attracting new talent: well, if you can’t pay them properly, because your sales processes are lacking, you are on a loser from the start.
I have made some effort recently to unearth what might be available and to bring those services to our readers’ attention. I have reported on some of them. But it has revealed a worrying trend. As examples, let’s look at the major providers ...
Photo: Steve Jordan, Editor, The Mover.