Students of the Sales Training Institute will learn to:

• Generate increased top line sales training revenue through sales skills development
• Learn to close more sales in a sales consultative approach by becoming business consultants
• Create better margins for sales training efforts while learning effective probing, supporting and closing skills
• Lower sales operating costs by increasing effective sales interviewing skills by quickly following up on sales leads
• Develop stronger telephone and face to face selling skills through high impact sales training seminars based on extensive in class practice
• Strengthen company’s identification of their strategic sales opportunities
• Design and optimize sales strategies for selling and winning business
• Become more productive at their sales jobs through pre-call planning and better handling
• Implement more effective sales communication skills through effective and efficient time usage in our sales training seminars
• Generate and practice more powerful customer sales presentations training
• Increase sales force training skills and become immediately more productive on their sales jobs
• Be more effective in their sales communications with their internal and external customers
• Apply the skills learned in our sales training seminars while energizing their fellow sales force members  

Setting expectations for your new sales person prior to them ever accepting the job is probably the most critical item you need to address. If you have finally come to the decision to hire a sales person, a sales manager or a sales director, then take the time, effort and energy to define your expectations and put them in writing. If you are the one being hired, then make sure your prospective employer does this.

As a sales consultant, I keep running into the same story: "I hired a new sales person, full time and they have now been with me 6 weeks and I do not see those great results I was expecting? Well, what did you expect, what did you tell your new sales person you expected them to achieve? You have to define what you expect and when, in detail?

Step 1: What is your sales cycle? Do you know how long it takes to sell your product? Do you know the process involved in successfully selling your product? Do not take it for granted, and do not assume everyone knows what you do.

Let's look at some expectations of a new sales person: First, it is critical to put together a list of all the tasks you expect this person to do. Detailed out stuff such as:

Attend all local chamber events, and other networking events

Make 20 cold calls a day

Turn in a written sales report weekly in this format, with this data.

Be in the office, days, and hours

You can work at home when and under what conditions

Put all sales data into your sales management system within 24 hours

Attend the following tradeshows each year

Go on 10 appointments a week

Visit existing customers every quarter

Call existing customers every month

Define suspect, prospect and hot prospect

The next step is, to define and communicate the sales process for your industry. Even if you are hiring an industry-experienced person all companies have their own way of operating, define what yours is. Look at these items:

Where and how to meet contacts, at tradeshows or networking events or cold calling.

Once met, what is the next step, send some information to the person.

When do I do follow up calls?

How soon after meeting a person would I be expected to get an appointment?

What do I do at the appointment, show our process, what tools do I use, what is the expect results, do I go for a close or do I go for a second appointment to learn more.

Close the deal when and how.

What are the close rates for your industry and what do you expect this person to do?
For every appointment you go on, you should get a second appointment what percentage of the time.

For every second appointment you go on, you should close how many?
How many appointments does it take to get one new customer?

Layout what you expect. First year or even better, a 2 year expectation process, layout by quarter.

Targets need to be defined. What are they supposed to go after? Example, all companies with 50 employees, a certain industry, or companies in a certain industry? Should they target a certain geographic area? The more you define and write down, the more effective the new sales person's effort can be and the more you can expect to be done.

Status reporting is very critical. Sales people hate to do reports. So please take the time and define what you want, when and how. Then get commitment to it. But make sure what you ask for is what you really need and what will really help in evaluation of effort.

This is just a small list of the things we look at when we help you develop a sales process. Once developed, the new sales person has to read it, agree/modify it, commit to it. All this has to be done prior to your hiring the person. Doing this will stop the biggest problems I see with small/medium companies and their sales people.

Owner: "I expected you to do this and produce this".
Sales Person: "I thought you expect something else".
Owner: "I don't need someone doing that".
Sales Person: "I am not doing that".

This is why so many sales people last less than 6 months in a new job. Take the time in your organization to define exactly what you want and what you expect; it will pay off greatly. You can also apply this to your existing sales force if not in place. Remember, this is just a start of the list and by all means only a small part.

A man if not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens. - Montaigne

Source: Manny Nowak link