Natural ability in sales
Those are great characteristics to have if you are in sales, however, standing alone with no understanding of a sales process or sales cycle, there is nothing to suggest that they will be enough to bring sales success. Is it fair to assume that just because someone is outgoing, friendly and a good communicator that those attributes are enough to make them a good salesperson? Well, it’s not that simple; those attributes alone will not make one a professional salesperson any more than someone who likes animals will make them a good veterinary surgeon without the specific training for that profession. A professional athlete will have a natural ability, but in order to compete at the highest level they will work on technique, practice, train and fine-tune to become the best they can be.
Becoming a high performing salesperson
Sure enough, if someone is outgoing, friendly and a good communicator those skills are necessary in sales and will be great assets for the professional salesperson and there is no doubt that there are many salespeople who rely solely on such characteristics in their sales careers and have never benefited from any kind of sales training. However, they weren’t born as salespeople they developed their own techniques in a “learning on the job” kind of way and discovered what worked for them and what didn’t, and simply did more of what worked and left out what didn’t. Without a recognised sales training program “learning on the job” can either lead to success or in many cases will lead to disillusioned and underperforming salespeople.
Training for sales professionals
Selling, like any other profession, requires us to know the process with expert-level understanding, and if we want to be top performers, it requires training, practice, implementation and coaching. Top performers will have a sound grasp of their own communication style and a knowledge of how to recognise different communication styles in others and most importantly, how to work with them. Equally, they will understand the psychological motivators that make customers buy and will be highly competent at discovering them to make sure that not only do they win the sale but also that they win the customer.
Effective sales training
Role plays during training exercises are a fantastic opportunity for sales teams, under the supervision of a trainer, to practice skills together and work on finding the best and most effective sales techniques to win business for their organisations. If we put it in sporting terms, this is the training ground, the place where techniques are embedded and worked on to ensure that the delivery has the best chance of hitting the target every time. It’s hard to imagine that any sportsperson or team has arrived on game day without spending hours on the training ground to know that when the chance arrives for them that they have the skill, technique and confidence to deliver. Selling is no different, an effectively trained and practised sales team will always have the best chance of delivering the best results.
