There are many training discussions you should have with your Sales Team but let’s start with these six (6) topics here:
1. What are your 10 second, 30 second, 60 second and 3 minute elevator speeches around each of your products/services as well as your company?
Do you know exactly what your Sales Team is saying to your prospects? Everyone from your front desk receptionist to the people on your shipping dock (and of course your Sales Team) should be saying the same thing to all of your prospects in order to brand your company properly in the marketplace. Script it out and learn/memorize it.
2. What are the top6-8 questions you should ask of your prospects?
Find out from your top Sales Team members what they are asking prospects… there is a reason why they are so successful. They know how to engage a prospect. They know how to build rapport with a prospect. And, they know how to influence prospects by asking the right questions. That may sound counter intuitive… to influence someone with a question but I encourage you to explore that concept with your Team members.
3. Who in your prospect’s organization is the decision maker(s) and why would you talk to anyone else?
The answer to this question may seem obvious at first… but how obvious can it be when so many Salespeople spend so much time talking to the wrong people in a prospect organization. Should your Salespeople always talk to the same person in the organization? When it is time to demo your product… who from your prospect organization should be in the room? When it comes time to close… who should you be talking to in the prospect organization? Different companies may have different answers to these questions… what are the “right” answers in your company?
4. What does it mean when your prospect says, “I’m just looking” or “Can you send me some information”?
How many times does your Sales Team hear these comments from prospects? These types of questions are very clear indicators that your Salespeople are not doing their jobs very well. These types of questions are a blow off and huge training opportunities for your Sales Team.
5. What should your Sales Team say to prospects who say, “I want to look at other providers…”?
Again, this is a blow off. If you had a powerful, compelling, data filled, ROI driven, value filled, competition differentiating, desire building conversation with (not at…) your prospect… there wouldn’t be a reason for comparison shopping. This is the scripting (memorized so it rolls off your tongue naturally – not read from a script page) that you and your Team should be discussing. Your Sales Team knows your products/services, prospects and industry better than anyone on the planet (or they should…) so have this internal discussion to build that script and watch your revenues grow.
6. How does your Sales Team handle price objections?
First of all, if it is your prospect that is asking about price rather than you telling them about price then you are doing something correctly. Secondly, you will not hear a price objection if you have sufficiently built enough Value in the mind of the prospect. Remember that you don’t want to tell the prospect what the value is… they must tell you how valuable your product or service is going to be when they are using it. Remember, questions are the answer. Building value around and creating desire for your product/service is all about asking the right questions.
The discussion around and the answers to these questions are very important to the growth of your Sales Revenues. Not only should every person on your Sales Team know what to say in each of these circumstances above but it is just as important and perhaps more important that they know “how” to say it. Practice in a mirror… out loud!