There are several types of sales training programs. The most comprehensive and longest is the training program for newly recruited sales personnel. More intensive and shorter programs on specialized topics, as well as peri- odic refresher courses (collectively known as continuing sales training), are presented for experienced sales personnel. In addition, many compa- nies offer sales training programs for the sales personnel of their distribu- tors and/or dealers. Each type of program serves a different purpose, and its content reflects that purpose.
Building a sales training program requires five major decisions. The pecific training aims must be defined, content decided, training methods selected, arrangements made for execution, and procedures set up to evaluate the results.
B. DEFINING TRAINING AIMS GENTALS.
Regardless of the type of sales training program, defining its specific aims is the first step in its planning. Defining the general aim is not sufficient. Although, for example we may want to increase the sale force's produc - tivity through training, we must identify what must be done to achieve, increased productivity. General aims are translated into specific aims phrased in operational terms.
Specific aim definition begins with a review of general aims and the gali means currently employed to attain them. The process cannot be completed gruntil sales management perceives the training needs from which specific training aims derive directly.
Training needs, then, must be identified. The following discussion focuses on factors that management considers as it seeks to identify training needs for initial sales training programs and continuing sales training programs.
C. IDENTIFYING NITIAL RAINING EEDS I T N
Determining the need for, and specific aims of, an initial sales training pro- gram requires analysis of three main factors: job specifications, individual trainee's background and experience, and sales-related marketing policies.
D. JOB SPECIFICATIONS
The qualifications needed to perform the job are detailed in the job specifications.
Few people possess all these qualifications at the time of hiring. The set of job specifications needs scrutinizing for clues to the points on which new personnel are most likely to need training. Other questions related to job performance need to be considered:
How should salespeople apportion their time? Which duties require the greatest proportion of time? Which are neglected? Why? Which selling approaches are most effective?
Answers to these and similar questions help in identifying specific training needs of newly recruited sales personnel.
E. TRAINEE'S BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE.
Everyone enters an initial sales training program with a unique educational background and experience record. The gap between the qualifications in the job specifications and those a trainee already has represents the nature and amount of needed training. But it is not practical to adjust training precisely to individual differences. Time Flu and money are saved by putting all recruits through identical programs. In gode some organizations, where training mechanisms are highly flexible, information amb about trainees' qualifications makes possible some tailoring of programs to indi- viduals, thus increasing both trainee satisfaction and program efficiency. In all the organizations, determining recruits' real training needs is essential to developing initial training programs of optimum benefit to company and trainee alike.
F. SALES-RELATED MARKETING POLICIES.
To determine the total need for initial sales training, it is necessary to analyze sales- related marketing policies. Differences in products and markets imply differences in sales practices and policies, which in turn dictate necessary differences in training programs. For example, selling a range of machine tools requires an emphasis on product information and customer applications, while selling simple, non-technical products requires emphasis.
Sales skills need to be emphasized. Differences in advertising, pricing, marketing channels,
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and physical distribution all affect initial sales training. In the case of promotions, for example, when no or little advertising is used, sales training should prepare salespeople to deal with a wide range of advertising measures. However, when advertising is widely used to supplement the efforts of salespeople, new salespeople must learn how to coordinate their activities with advertising.
G. PRODUCT NOWLEDGE K
Product-knowledge training is basic to any initial sales training program.
Companies with technical products devote most of their training programs to product training. But in many situations, especially with standardized products sold routinely, new sales personnel require only minimal product training. In all cases, new salespeople must know enough about the products, their uses, and applications to serve customers' information needs. Product knowledge is basic to a salesperson's self confidence and enthusiastic job performance. Understanding product uses and applications is important.
Trainees receive instruction on customers' problems and requirements and learn how company products can solve these problems and meet these requirements. Training provides them with full appreciation for buyer's viewpoints. New salespersons learn how to relate company products to the fulfillment of customers' needs, thus equipping themselves for effective selling.
H. SELLING SKILLS
Most new sales personnel need training in selling skills. Some sales managers believe, however, that careful selection of sales personnel and product training are sufficient to ensure effective selling. They believe, in other words, that if an individual has an attractive personality, good appearance and voice, and reasonable intelligence and knows the product, he or she will sell it easily. But the predominant view is that new sales personnel need basic training in selling. Training on selling skills is very important in the current hypercompetitive context as highly skilled salespeople can make the difference between an average sales call and an outstanding sales call that garners better profits and good customer relationships.
I. MARKETS
The new salesperson must know who the customers are, their locations, the products in which they are interested, their buying habits and motives, and their financial condition.
In other words, the salesperson now needs to know not only who buys what but, more importantly, why and how they buy. When trainees are not given adequate instruction on the market, they take years to acquire the needed understanding. During this trial-and-error learning, through no fault of their own, productivity is low. In fact, left to their own devices, some trainees never gain important market information. For instance, a salesperson who is unaware of prospects potentials as buyers may neglect completely to canvass them.
Markets are always changing, so training in this area should be continuous and the content changing with market changes.
J. COMPANY INFORMATION
Certain items of company information are essential to the salesperson on the job;
others, not essential, contribute to overall effectiveness. The training program should include. coverage of all sales-related marketing policies and the reasoning behind them.
The salesperson must know company pricing policy, for instance, to answer customers' questions. The salesperson needs to be fully informed on other policies, such as those relating to product services, spare parts and repairs, credit extension, and customer relations.
K. SELECTING TRAINING METHODS
The planners next select training methods. There is a wide variety of methods, but the program content often limits those that are appropriate. It is important to select those training methods that most effectively convey the desired content.
1. The Lecture
This ancient instructional method is used extensively in sales training. Effective training managers use examples, demonstrations, and visual aids. Compared with other training methods, the lecture is economical in terms of time required to cover a given topic.
Some lectures in sales training is necessary. If initial sales training is brief, for instance, lecturing may be the only way to cover the desired content. It may be the only practical way to handle instruction when the training group is too large to permit con- structive audience participation. Given longer training periods and smaller training groups, however, lecturing is most appropriate for introductory and orientation sessions and for providing summaries of major topics taught through methods such as case discussion and role playing. It is used, in continuing sales training programs for providing new information about the company, its policies, products, markets, and selling programs.
2. Demonstrations
The demonstration is appropriate for conveying information on such top- ics as new products and selling techniques. Demonstrating how a new product works and its uses is effective, much more so than lecturing on the same material. In initial sales training, demonstrating techniques to use in "closing sales" is more effective than is lecturing.
Effective sales trainers use demonstrations to the maximum extent-since the begin-ning of time, showing has been more effective than telling! Demonstrations are generally used with other methods-they enliven an otherwise dull lecture, and they reinforce the interchange in a curbstone confer- solcence on.
3. Role Playing
This method has trainees acting out parts in contrived problem situations. The role- playing session begins with the trainer describing the situa- tion and the different personalities involved. The trainer provides needed props, then designates trainees to play the salesperson, prospect, and other characters. Each plays his or her assigned role, and
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afterward, they, together with other group members and the trainer, appraise each player's effectiveness and suggest how the performance of each might have been improved.
Role playing presents a few problems, but there are some. Those play- ing roles must become actively and emotionally identified with the charac- ters they portray;
audience interest must be maintained throughout, even though spontaneous reactions are suppressed. Achieving these conditions is not easy. It is even more difficult when role players "ham it up" or when there is laughter or other involuntary audience reaction.
Other benefits include the following:
1. Trainees learn to accept criticism from others, and the group soon recognizes that sound suggestions benefit everyone.
2. When a trainee criticizes another's performance, that individual has an incentive not to perform similarly later.
3. Role players practice introspection through participating in the appraisal of their own performances. Videotaping makes self- criticism even more beneficial and objective.
4. The free-wheeling nature of role playing is conducive to generating new ideas and approaches. Defects inherent in stereotyped solu- tions become apparent.
5. In role-playing sessions for mixed groups, junior people have a chance to learn valuable tricks, and experienced personnel are kept alert as a matter of personal pride.
6. Role players gain acting experience, which may help later in han- dling difficult selling situations.
4. Case Discussion
This method, originated by business educators as a partial substitute for learning by experience, is widely used in sales training. Write-ups of selling and other problems encountered on the job provide the basis for group discussion. Sometimes, the cases, particularly when they are long and com- plex, are assigned in advance-if this is the situation, then it is imperative that participants come prepared to the session-otherwise, valuable time is wasted in rehashing the situation. In most sales training situations, however, the cases used are short (one or two pages at most) and trainees are given ten or fifteen minutes to read them before the group discussion starts. Each case either describes a real selling problem or is developed around a situation sufficiently real to stimulate emotional involvement by the trainees. Trainees discussing a case should identify the issue(s), organize the relevant facts, devise specific alternatives, and choose the one most appropriate. Most trainers believe that securing a thorough grasp of the problem situation is more essential to learning than the rapid production of solutions. To derive maximum benefit from case discussion, each session should conclude with the drawing of generalizations on lessons learned.
5. Impromptu Discussion
This method, sometimes called a sales seminar or buzz session, begins with the trainer, group leader, or some member of the sales force making a brief oral presentation on an everyday problem. A general give-and-take discussion follows. Group members gain
an understanding of many prob- lems that otherwise are acquired only through long personal experience. Many complexities and implications that might go undetected by individ- uals are revealed to all, and trainees learn a valuable lesson: fixed selling rules and principles are often less important than are analysis and handling of specific situations.
Impromptu group discussion improves the salesperson's ability to handle problems.
6. Gaming
This method, also known as simulation, somewhat resembles role playring, uses highly. structured contrived situations, based on reality, in which players assume decision- making roles through successive rounds of play. A onunique feature is that players receive information feedback. In one game, for example, trainees play the roles of decision makers in customer’s organizations, using data ordinarily available to make decisions on the timing and size of orders, managing sales force and size of orders, managing sales forces and advertising efforts, and so on. The results of these decisions are then calculated by referees (using computers) and are fed back for the players to use in the next round of decisions.
Preparation of a game requires research to dig out the needed facts, the incorporation of these into a game model, development of detailed instructions for players and referees, and the writing of a computer pro- gram. Expertness and substantial investments in time and money, then, are required, but partially offsetting this is that, once prepared, a game may be used in many training programs.
7. On-the-Job Training
This method, also called the coach-and-pupil method, combines telling, showing, practicing, and evaluating. The coach, sometimes a professional sales trainer but more often a seasoned salesperson, begins by describing partic- ular selling situations, explaining various techniques and approaches that might be used effectively. Next, accompanied by the pupil, the coach makes actual sales calls, discussing each with the trainee afterward.
Then, under the coach's supervision, the trainee makes sales calls, each one being followed by discussion and appraisal. Gradually, the trainee works more and more on his or her own, but with continuing, although less frequent, coaching.
Many seasoned salespeople, otherwise qualified for coaching, are unwilling to spend the necessary time and effort. This is especially true when personnel are paid commissions on sales. The problem of recruiting coaches, nevertheless, is resolved through paying bonuses for each coach, or "overriding" commissions on pupils' sales.
On-the-job training is an important part of most initial sales training programs. No more effective way exists for learning a job. This method is appropriate for developing trainees' skills in making sales presentations, answering objections, and closing sales.
Training in these selling aspects requires practice, and this method provides expertly supervised practice.
46 8. Online Courses
This method is used in both initial and continuing sales training. In the insurance field it is used to acquaint new salespeople with industry fundamentals and to instruct in basic sales techniques. Companies with na highly technical products and small but widely deployed sales forces use online courses to acquaint experienced salespeople with new product developments and applications. This method is also used to train non-company sales personnel, such as distributor salespersons, to improve their knowledge of the manufacturer's product line and selling techniques. Few companies use this training method exclusively.
Online training is most appropriate as an interim training method when trainees are scattered geographically but are assembled periodically for lectures, seminars, role playing, and other instruction. Initial sales training, for example, might be by online courses begun at different times and places; continuing, or follow-up, training might come later through group methods at a central location. Preparing a standardized online course covering technical product data, general company information, selling techgrill niques and markets presents few difficulties other than those of choosing, organizing, and writing up the material.
L. EXECUTING THE TRAINING PROGRAM
Effective program execution depends upon instructional skills as well as coordination of planning and housekeeping details. Program administration involves doing what can be done to produce a training atmosphere conducive to learning. The execution step requires four key organizational decisions: (1) Who will be the trainees? (2) Who will do the training? (3) When will the training take place? (4) Where will the training site be?
1. Who Will Be the Trainees?
Identifying trainees is more complex for continuing than for initial sales pin training programs. A company identifies the trainees for its initial sales training program when it firms up sales job descriptions and hires sales job applicants. While continuing sales training programs are prescribed for all personnel in some companies, the general practice is to select trainees according to some criterion. Four criteria are in common use: (1) reward for good performance, (2) punishment for poor performance, (3) convenience (of trainee and trainer), and (4) seniority (the greater the seniority, the greater the opportunity for added training). Those selected for continuing training should be aware of the criterion used.
2. Who Will Conduct the Training?
Initial sales training in most of the companies is managed by the training department of an organization with support from the marketing and sales teams. Responsibility for continuing sales training resides with the senior executives and the training department.
Introduction of new prod- ucts, adoption of revised sales policies, perfection of improved selling tech- niques, and similar developments call for training. The senior executive is vin
in the best position to recognize the need and design and execute appro- priate sales training programs. Sales training is a never-ending process, and, regardless of who is responsible for training, the senior executive has continuing responsibility. pen, under the
a) Sales training staff.
Top executives usually delegate sales training performance to subordinates. Large sales organizations often have a sales training department. The training department conducts the training by involving marketing and sales managers for different aspects of the training. Companies also take the help of experts to train their employees for specialized skills.
b) Training the sales trainers.
No training program, however, carefully designed, is more effective than the people conducting it. Consequently, many companies have a training program for sales trainers.
The starting point is to identify the subjects that trainers should know thoroughly: the company and its policies, the products, the customers, and their problems, the salesperson's job, and sales techniques. Not only should sales trainers have expert and specialized knowledge, but they must also be effective teachers. Throughout their period of preparation, the theory and mechanics of teaching (and learning) are stressed. Trainers are required to master these, learn how to apply them effectively, preferably through doing practice training themselves. They also learn to plan and organize teaching materials for clear and effective presentation.
3. When will the Training take place?
a) Timing group versus individual training.
Opinion is divided as to the proper timing of group and individual training. Most sales executives con tend that newly recruited trainees should receive formal group training before starting to sell. When there are large numbers of new personnel, group training is the way to train at the lowest cost per person. In planning the curriculum and the sales school, however, management determines the 9 ior content that should be taught in the field-group training is more effective when supplemented by individualized field training.
To minimize overlap, and to maximize training results, there must be an integration of what is taught by group methods in sales schools: product knowledge, company and information, market information, and the theoretical and practical funda- mentals of selling. Practical training in sales techniques is best handled individually, in the field. Individualized training is conducted in the field office. On-the-job training features personal conferences (of the trainer and trainee) and demonstrations (as the trainer explains "this is how to do it".
b) Timing initial-sales training programs.
The timing of initial-sales training depends upon the number of new personnel trained each year, and this, in turn, depends upon the size of the sales force, sales personnel turnover, and management's plans for changing sales force size. With many new personnel,