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  

I faced a difficult situation in Q1 2003. As VP of Sales of a Canadian pharmaceutical organization we faced the SARS crisis. Access to our customers became limited. Hospitals and physicians were also limiting sales rep visits.

Marketing started calling the sales numbers down for the year, blaming the SARS crisis. As head of sales I had few options. What I did know was that I had to utilize my resources where they were going to generate the greatest revenue.

What would you do?

In sales your biggest resource is your sales force. The best place to deploy your sales force is in the field. The field is where they generate revenue. So we went back to basics. Activities such as administration, training and meetings are all important, but are non revenue generating. We initiated a simple 3 point plan:

1. All training was cancelled. Trainers were redeployed into the field to help coach sales reps.

2. Sales managers focused on field visits and were in the field four to five days a week.

3. Sales reps found creative ways to see their clients or focus-in on hospitals and physicians they could access. Their goal was to focus on making more sales calls.

These 3 basic steps allowed us to over achieve our sales targets by year end. In the end, the SARS crisis resolved itself. In 2009, the economy may take much longer to see an upturn, but the basic principles of redeploying your resources on revenue generating activities will still apply.

Sales leadership is about focusing your resources on what will have the biggest impact.

Source: Steven Rosen link