Jan 262011

When is the last time a sales training organization offered to let you participate in a full scale version of their training so you could evaluate it before you committed to buy?

I am guessing no one has ever made you that offer, but I’m going to.

So what makes a telephone sales training program great?

  • That the program was designed to change behaviors not present a fixed content
    Most telephone sales training is driven by a fixed set of content developed by the trainer. This content may or may not with the most common errors salespeople are making.
  • That the content of the program focuses on “telephone sales” content and doesn’t simply repackage classic sales theory
    Most telephone sales training programs don’t cover key subjects like communication and the key differences between the telephone and in person sales effort.
  • That the program attacks the actual errors being made by sellers in real time
    A program that operates primarily on a tactical level that focuses on the actual issues in today’s calls gets immediate results and typically better results as these errors will likely naturalize the gains any new techniques produce.
  • That the program documents the corrections in a way that management can continue to coach them
    Most importantly is the fact that without follow up results almost always leave within weeks of the training. It is not practical for companies to keep a training organization on retainer — management must be able to continue what was done. The problem is that most training models don’t empower managers to do this.

Because my program is so unique I have created a Pilot Training Program you can test drive with NO risk.

The program consists of 5 sessions run similarly to the standard training (There are some minor differences due to time restraints.)

There’s no contract, no payment, and no risk to you. If you’re not completely satisfied after the first two sessions we will stop the pilot and you pay nothing. To read the details please click here.

And there’s a huge bonus that is a by product of the structure of the sessions.

Because of the way this telephone sales training program operates you will literally get a “mini skills evaluation” of your team.

The sessions work with live calls and engage salespeople in critical thinking about their selling activities. These two things produce a powerful birds eye view into the real issues in your team’s selling efforts.

I assure you it will be obvious after two sessions that progress is being made.

Example of the Actual Results Obtained From a Recent Pilot

Here are just some of the items found in a pilot run with one of my clients. Remember that each of these items results in corrective documentation and training material that the manager can use going forward to coach or retrain the sales team on these items. Many of the corrections you experience in the pilot may be specific to your sales process and products.

These are the non optimum behaviors discovered in the pilot program.

  • Poor or weak process for selling evaluation units

Resulted in a draft for the  selling process for selling these units

  • Improper or weak closing of the call, poor next step

Resulted in a best practice sales process document* (*The sales process document is a “script on steroids” description of the actual segment of the selling process. It can be used as a guide for sellers during their sales presentations, a tool for management to collect best practices and as a coaching and training tool.)

  • Weak questioning of partners for the purpose of driving business

Resulted in a draft of key questions reps should ask partners

  • Weak voice mail messages

Resulted in a training discussion about leaving messages

  • Inefficient handling of a non registered product

Resulted in a draft best practice for handling this situation

  • Poor use of “voice” in presentation

Resulted in a training piece being presented in one session

  • Beating around the bush on critical questions

Resulted in an in depth training discussion

  • Handling “negative” price situation to make rep look good

Resulted in and in depth training discussion and best
practice for handling this issue

  • Lack of or ineffective qualifying

Resulted in a discussion, and this item being schedule
for future attention.

Each of the above items will eventually result in a sales best process document and training piece.

Here is a testimonial from the CEO of a company where this whole process was executed fully for the purpose of improving sales results.

Testimonial

Here are the words of the CEO of a company where these telephone sales training strategies were used in full.

“When I hired Flyn to help me bring our sales team to the next level he said he will double our sales in 6 months. He achieved this goal in 30 days. He brought new ideas, strategies and methods that were revolutionary, and worked very effectively for us. He is the best telesales expert I have ever worked with.” Gal Almog

What Gal doesn’t say in this recommendation is that in the third month we had moved to about 285% of original revenues.

In this case I was more than an external trainer – I was responsible for “sales performance” as an interim manager responsible only for sales performance and spent 25-30  hours per week with the team.

This result is typical for teams I managed directly, Logitech 300% in 8 months, GoldStar start up computer sales to reseller group 30% better results that the other 4 equivalent teams — but my group worked 6 versus 8 hours each day.

You have nothing to loose except some bad habits.

Here’s one other valuable thing you will receive in this process. Even at the end of the two sessions sales management will have a much clearer understanding of the real quality of the sales calls being made by the team. In the above pilot the VP of Sales realized that even his best person in the group could be doing far better that he was.

Knowing what your potential is, and seeing a clear method for achieving it is invaluable. This program will provide that knowledge, even in the first couple of sessions.

Call now to schedule your NO RISK Pilot Training Session — 408-296-6880

I’ve just made a discovery that will  literally turned the inside sales training industry on its head.

My new inside sales training  program is so revolutionary it makes all the standard methods of training inside salespeople obsolete.

Why?

Because my program is the first to actually fix the root causes of non-optimum behavior using a system that actually changes the behavior of salespeople.

If you think I’m kidding, click here to read more about it.

Compare this program to what you’ve done in the past and see how the old methods simply don’t stack up.

You’ve never seen a training program that will do what this one does! Ever!

And that’s not even including my incredible unbeatable training guarantee.

Regards,
Flyn

PS: I have made an incredible discovery about training inside sales people that you must see – Click here to check it out!

This post is the by product of a discussion on LinkedIn. I give the reference latter in the post for those wishing to read this interesting conversation.

I have to say I totally disagree with all this bashing of “elevator pitches.” Please keep in mind this is my two cents and personal opinion. I respect all that has been stated on this subject though I may not agree.

The basis for bashing is not based in fact, but in a mystic that has been created by hype about how terrible these pitches are.

A true elevator pitch is simply a statement used in prospecting of what someone does. It could be as simple as “I help shoe companies increase their distribution.”

Now I ask you how is that in any way “phony” or “pitching?” Are you telling me that you are not going to reveal what it is you do to the person you’re talking with? Of course you are.

Great elevator pitches are not so simple but use what is known as a “unique selling proposition. (USP)” I feel obligated to define this term as few really know what it means.

A USP is a unique statement of the benefit one can provide. It is a statement with the purpose of engaging the prospect by making them feel they’d be crazy to buy from anyone else regardless of price. It must be free of platitudes and statements of things that the prospect would expect (We fix it right the first time), and it cannot be something your competitor could say. Otherwise it’s not a USP. (For those interested

I highly recommend Richard Hershaw’s book Monopolize Your Marketplace as a reference on this subject and how to create a powerful and compelling description of your business.

Example

I help shoe companies improve their distribution and our benchmarks show that companies that use our program get an average of 15-19 percent increase in distribution over the first two quarters — 8% above any other program tested.

This is a USP and a powerful elevator pitch. What shoe company executive is going to ignore the fact that the average result is 15+% increase and 8% better than the competition? Few! They are going to engage you.

There is nothing pitchy about this statement which is likely to do more for opening a dialog than the so called “meaningful conversations” — which in all discussions such as this are NEVER defined.

I would also disagree that what you say before or after the elevator pitch is more important. If you are giving such a pitch, your are in fact trying to engage the prospect. The best and most powerful way to engage a prospect is to show that you can provide value — NOT say you can provide it — show it. If you are unsuccessful you won’t get to say anymore! What do you think is  more important than engaging the prospect?

The statistics above do exactly that. I think the example you gave (See the LnkedIn Question: “Let’s be honest about elevator speeches! for the example I refer to. It is in the clarification to the question in paragraph 3)  fails to provide evidence of a benefit beyond your say so. Except for the trademarked name of the product every one of your competitors could use the same statement. I don’t think that statement differentiates you from anyone else. The statement above certainly does.

Besides your name and hello this would be the first thing out of your mouth and the basis for any continued conversation or a return call if left as a message.

We don’t need to move from pitching people, we need to move from doing it badly!!

I would obviously agree that having a referral is an advantage. But only if the referral has talked to the prospect about me. Otherwise it won’t carry much weight until you establish value. And even in that  case all that I have suggested is still valid.

I would add as a footnote this is one of the biggest problems in selling. People are not skilled. Most sales people have never pursued the definition and study of USPs, or studied communication skills, or even read the major works on selling.

It is not the selling or sales theory that is bad — its the lack of real skills by the users.

Is your sales process the problem?

I am absolutely amazed to discover how few companies have their sales process worked out in enough detail to guide salespeople through an effective sales call.

Over the past 30 years I have worked with numerous companies many with tens or even hundreds of millions in revenues.

Yet most have almost no documentation of their sales process. And salespeople have no understanding of even the internal best selling practices.

Listening to their sales calls you discover the primary means of getting through the sales process is by the seat of the pants.

You’ll observe salespeople simply wandering through their sales calls most of the time being lead by the prospect. You’ll hear salespeople missing prospect generated clues that should be generating critical questions.

You will also find that salespeople don’t ask for commitments let alone the order.

Why?

Very simply they don’t understand their sales process and how one gets from point “A” to point “B.”

You can listen for this quite simply — listen to a live call. See if the salesperson is “forcibly” directing the call and driving the prospect to an obvious objective. If it’s not obvious, they probably aren’t doing it and it is the sales process that needs your attention first.

Many companies hire outside training organizations to come in and teach selling techniques when the bigger problem is really their sales process.

They would find that cleaning up their own selling process would give them significant improvements in results, even without any telephone sales training.

Teaching sales skills to salespeople that don’t have a good understanding of their own sales process is almost a waste of time.

Without this knowledge they will incur great difficulty applying the new techniques properly. They may even have trouble knowing where to apply the techniques in the first place.

Before you purchase outside telephone sales training make sure you have a well detailed sales process that contains at least the method for getting to the sale, and hopefully the internal best selling practices.

Check out my site for more information on how to address these issues and please leave a comment.

Telephone, Sales, Management, Leadership Quizzes

After all this time I am finally able to put my quizzes back on line.

They’re not all up yet but the Telephone Sales, Sales, and Management quizzes are now available under the Sales Education menu.

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