Is it worth the effort of running Advanced Selling Skills Workshops

Advanced Selling Skills It always proves to be an interesting conversation when people talk about Advanced Selling Skills.

Not only does the content prove to be a point of debate but also who should attend.

By their very nature salespeople believe that they know most of what there is to know about selling. If they have reached the point where they are being considered for an advanced course, well most would believe that they should be teaching the trainer not the other way around.

So should we bother trying to train experienced salespeople,   or is it doomed from the start.

There is no doubt that any participants attending a training courses has to have the right attitude from the outset for the training to be effective; or you will end up spending all the time convincing the people of the benefits of being there as opposed to developing their sales skills.

Therefore the workshop has to be positioned well to gain buy-in from the participants before they arrive.

The content - What are the key difference between an average salesperson and a good one - execution, application and experience.

Average salespeople have a good idea of what they should be doing to be effective but struggle to consistently apply them.

They can also lack the necessary awareness which is required to assess what is going well and not so well.

Selling is a skill and just the same as in the world of sport the only way to get better at a skill is by way of practice.

It always intrigues me that a budding golfer would not take one golfing lesson and expect to be an expert; and yet people believe that going on one selling skills course is enough to propel them to being a highly successful salesperson.

The first benefit of an advanced sales program is to enable salespeople to review how they are coming across in a sales meeting and refine their approach where appropriate to ensure that they are effectively applying the core skills of a successful salesperson.

Taking selling to the next level - All good sales courses will espouse the importance of identifying client’s needs, asking good questions and listening but what really makes selling difficult are people and their personalities; ours and theirs.

We have all heard the adage about people making their minds up about someone within the first 10 seconds of meeting them. This is bad news for a salesperson, before they have had an opportunity to probe for needs the client is already making their mind up about whether to buy from them or not.

This then brings us to the next benefit of advanced sales training, learning more about ourselves and how we interact with people and the impressions we give off; are they positive or negative. Learning more about clients as people; what are their preferences, what are the different types, how can we recognize them, what we can do to best manage them and increase our chances of a sale.

There is a lot to learn about being a successful salesperson and it can not all be done all in one course.

It is best for people to learn the core skills and then go and implement them in the field. Once they have gained experience of what works and does not work and what really makes selling difficult to revisit the training room to gain answers and take their skills and abilities to the next level.

If you are thinking about designing and running advanced sales workshops please call for a non-obligatory discussion on how to get the best results.

For more information please call David Howard on +44 1494 815599.