Training IS Marketing - What Are You Doing?

22. May 2010 by Frank Goad.

Despite all the talk about social media, “the long tail,” web advertising and other new frontiers in marketing, most local businesses still deal with customers one-on-one. All of those things are the acts that get customers in the door. What about once they’re in your store or on the phone? Training ensures that your company takes advantage of every opportunity that comes to you.

Training staff is still critical and it seems to not be getting enough attention anymore. I think that’s largely because of thinner budgets. Want a budget problem? Start losing sales because of untrained personnel. Maybe you already are.

Yes, it costs money, but it’s an investment. How many sales are lost because a customer didn’t get the answers they wanted, or because they saw your team member as unqualified or uncaring? I’m betting it’s way more than you realize. What if you have multiple locations? If there is a lack of consistency between your stores, customers don’t react well to that.

Think of the times that you’ve gone into a store and the person at the counter couldn’t answer your questions. Even worse, let’s say they only said, “I dunno,” and didn’t offer to find out. Are they lazy or stupid? Well, that’s a possibility, but it’s more likely they were not told what to do. Despite being something so simple, the basics are often overlooked when a company is overworked and understaffed. Because some other team members know what to do it’s easy to assume everyone does.

Training doesn’t have to be expensive or mind boggling. Start by taking notice of all the processes in your store or company. How do people answer the phone? How do they answer questions? What do they do when they don’t have an answer? Do they use suggestion to build sales? What steps are there for follow-up? What reference materials do they have? How do they record calls?

Take that information and start at the beginning. Create a flow chart or series of steps so that the major things they do can be guided and repeated. This might seem like digging into minutiae, but it doesn’t have to be. Just hit those things that are done most frequently and address those. Polishing the little things builds customer trust, loyalty and lowers (or eliminates) the barriers to repeat sales, price objections and add-on sales.

Outside sales reps are even more important, so make sure they, too, are adequately trained on your product, your company and approach customers in a style you are comfortable with.  When did you last go with a rep on a call? If you do, shut up! Make sure that the customer/prospect focuses on the rep, not you. Deflect any questions they have to the salesman as soon as possible. Your deference to them builds their credibility in the customer’s eyes as the real authority so that, when they return and you’re not with them, they already have a firm foundation.

You can say something like, “Brad here is one of our top people, not only in sales, but also in customer satisfaction. I’m here to see how he does it with so much success.” Okay, Brad’s a schmuck and you want to fire him, but this could be a golden opportunity for all. Lemons into lemonade and maybe ol’ Brad gets a boost and turns into your top producer after all. It’s happened and I’ve seen it.

If need be, get outside help with training. Steve Ickes runs the Lexington branch of Sandler Institute, and they have a sales training program that works for many people. Chief Learning Officer magazine has a great site with hundreds of ideas about training and leadership development. Bersin and Associates’ website has a wealth of info, too.

To prove my point, a recent report was generated by McKinsey Quarterly based on a survey of 1,200 purchasing decisions in the U.S. and Western Europe. It stated that customers said sales reps need to be well versed in their products and know how theirs is different from the competition. More importantly, they want to know how that product or service will make a difference in their business, their life, etc. As you would expect, price was almost always second to a great experience with the vendor.

Sales training can be considered a value-add but, in reality, it should be a foundational piece of the product or services you offer. Everyone in the company needs to start from a common base of information. If you need help assessing these things, organizing a plan for your company or help creating training, please drop me a line at frank@frankcomlex.com, or by using the comment form on bottom of the page at the Frank Communications website.

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