Sales Training SOS – Five Members of Your Company Who Need It

Without sales, most companies are nothing.  Seeking out new client relationships and strengthening existing ones are the lifeblood that flows through an organisation.  Even though there may only be a few employees at the sales chalk face, most people in a company need to have some awareness of sales.

Accenture’s 2013 report into ways of improving sales effectiveness analysed feedback from CSOs (chief sales officers) from more than 1,200 companies worldwide.  One of its principle conclusions was that “increased focus on sales effectiveness across the enterprise – beyond the sales organisation – is needed to achieve targeted revenue”.

An effective way of doing this is to provide sales training for more members of a business’s staff.  In no particular order, here are five people within your company who I think could benefit from sales training:

1. The CEO

Yep that’s right, the head honcho can definitely do with some sales training.  You may think that CEOs are all knowing and all seeing and that the sun shines out of their ‘you-know-wheres’, but it may be years since they were ever in a selling environment.  As they have risen through the ranks, they have become more disconnected to the day-to-day business, the nuts and bolts operations that bring home the bacon.

Yet, they are continually attending conferences and events and meeting important people who could turn into clients.  The CEO should always be selling, although by that I don’t mean they should be pitching every time they see someone.  But they should be plugged into what and how sales people do what they do.

2. The Receptionist

For many firms, the receptionist is the first face that customers may see or the first voice that they hear.  They are representations of how a company thinks and behaves and your clients will often form their first impression of you from their dealings with the receptionist.  This is reason enough for why they should be able to talk knowingly about your products and services.

3. The Marketers

Marketers often try to keep more than an arm’s length away from the salesforce.  They see themselves as backroom staff crafting the company brand, positioning a product and helping to shape public perception.   Ideally you want marketing and sales to be in perfect sync, and sales training for your marketing experts will help to create a unified customer-centric approach.

4. The Product Designers

When it comes to sales training, product designers are often ignored, yet it is so intuitive that they turn up.  Not only because it’s nice to let them see daylight away from hunkering over benches inventing your products and services, but because sales can feed back into what they do.  Learning how the sales team sells can provide insight and inspiration that leads to even better designs that meet and exceed your customers’ needs.

5. The Sales Team

Don’t forget your sales people!  You may consider them the best in the business because the profit arrow is shooting up quite nicely thank you very much, however, don’t let complacency be your enemy.   Even the best of the best need to sharpen their skills and continually improve their sales techniques.

Maximise Earning Potential

The more your non-sales staff know and understand what sales means to your company, the better equipped they are to support your sales teams.

Sales is about relationships and persuading and influencing others, and most employees have opportunities to form customer relationships in their daily dealings.

Every member of staff is more than just what their job title says, be it receptionist, bookkeeper, CEO or product designer.  They are walking, talking adverts for what you do, and with a little sales training can help maximise your earning potential.

To learn more about aligning everyone in your company to a sales mind-set, contact us

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