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Sales Training the Traditional Way Doesn’t Work!

If you’ve been a sales professional for more than 10 years, likely your sales training was rooted in the traditional approach, that is if you had any real sales training at all! Most of the sales professionals I meet in Sugar Land and Katy, TX (Houston area) have either received little or no training, or their sales training was primarily the traditional approach.

In traditional sales training we were taught to lead with a strong pitch, a compelling presentation, and a hard close. My experience and observations tell me that this approach is less and less effective.

In direct sales, marketing activity (typically prospecting) followed a similar path. Be on the hunt for the prey so you can stalk it and kill it. That’s traditional sales training. This mindset and methodology leads to what I call dysfunctional selling.

I want to suggest that there is a better way to approach sales training.

There are many reasons why the traditional methodologies and mindsets are less effective. First, buyers today are typically much more informed. They often research the internet and discuss options with peers before making a buying decision.

Second, because there are usually more options available, they narrow the field of products down before having serious buying conversations. (However, many preliminary conversations are simply their way of getting themselves educated and thus narrowing down the field.)

Finally, buyers today are more sophisticated in that they know the traditional methodologies and not only resist them, but resent them!

Today sales professionals must take a different approach! We must be authentic, transparent, and genuinely caring! We must take a more relational approach and become a true business friend.

Here is a comparative list showing the difference between traditional sales training and a more effective approach for the 21st century.

• Traditional Sales Training   vs.     21st Century Sales Training

• Key skill: Persuasion          vs.     Key skill: Relationship
• It’s about “Getting”               vs.     It’s about “Giving”
• We’re selling products        vs.     We’re solving problems
• Controlling the interaction   vs.     Consulting the client
• Process of Negotiation        vs.     Act of Friendship

If you are in Sugar Land, Katy, TX, or the Houston area, you have some good options for sales training. If you are looking for a sales coach or sales trainer to help you, please contact us! Learn more through our Monday is for Marketing feature each week!

Tags: Monday is for Marketing, Selling