The Importance of Sales Training - Essay Example

What are the importances of sales training for both new and experienced representatives? Sales training covers a wide range of sections including product knowledge, how to process sales, getting clients, sales techniques and dealing with different sales situations. A sales person will have to master the techniques of sales by realizing that selling is an art and the more creative the seller the better the response and the higher the sales. Sales training teaches the employees on how to be effective salesmen/women. Sales training should be done to both the new and the experienced representatives for various reasons. All members of the sales team should be trained together to rule out the issue of favoritism in the management. The new recruits and the experienced team have to show a sense of compatibility to enhance increased sales. Firstly, sales training enhances familiarization of new products or services that are to be sold and hence it is necessary for both the new and experienced sales persons (Schwartz 2006). When a new product is brought to the market, sales training is the excellent way to reveal it and show its benefits to the sales persons and the other members of staff. It is also here in the sales training that the suggested strategies and plans for selling are unveiled. To add to that, the experienced sales persons have a chance to share with the new staff on the techniques they use to sell and the challenges they expect to face in the course of their selling activities. The experienced sales representatives have had a taste of the selling and marketing industry and thus they are familiar with the challenges and the techniques to use in order to succeed. Training programs should be quite motivating in content and ways of presentation. This kills boredom while improving the understanding and learning of what is being discussed (Peelen 2005). Sales training should be done with both the new and the experienced sales persons as it helps the experienced staff in refreshing their memory on what they had learnt. In sales training it is necessary to refresh our memory on regular basis so as to become professionals. During sales training the staff must take notes, ask questions and have a positive attitude in order to become a productive salesperson. At times the failure of success of an organization depends on the communication skills and the knowledge of the sales people. As a result regular training should be done to all the staff to enhance maximum productivity. For example, when bringing in a new product into the market, any organization ought to have made reliable training to the sales people as it would determine the output and future of the new product. Training experienced sales person together with the new recruits boost the morale of the sales team. This is because they feel as a team and hence there is teamwork which is a major key in the sales and marketing industry. Sales managers should be trained to avoid many problems that result from poor management skills and knowledge. New and experienced sales person should be trained together to enhance togetherness and cooperation. Lack of togetherness and cooperation may jeopardize a company’s sales team and thus leading to low production and low profits (Carter 1997). What are some of the most common problems experienced by Sales Managers? All managers in any organization are faced by various problems in their line of duty. Sales managers are not an exception. Some of these problems are due to lack of the necessary skills in management while others are done out of ignorance. The skills of selling are addressed and the challenges are tackled too to come up with solutions to market and sell their produce. Sales training covers a wide range of section including product knowledge, how to process sales, getting clients, sales techniques and dealing with different sales situations (Peelen 2009). A sales person will have to master the techniques of sales by realizing that selling is an art and the more creative the seller the better the response and the higher the sales. Today’s economy is totally dependent on the sales; without high sales no sales based businesses would exist. Different organizations have come up with their own ways and strategies of selling and marketing their products. Every undertaking in businesses starts with sales and hence no business function can operate without proper sales volumes being realized. Sales training is the role and responsibility of the trainer and other relevant staff. Sales training teaches the employees how to be effective salesmen/women. To start with, they are faced by poor management of time. This is a major problem to most of the working class people. Despite them having wrist watches and wall clocks in their offices, sales managers are faced with the problem of managing their time. They end up being late for meetings and other important functions. Managers who go to the office late in the morning set a very bad example to their employees (Peelen 2005). Another problem sales managers do, is ignoring the selling policies and disciplines. Many sales managers tend to ignore the rules, policies and the regulations set down on sales management. Although the procedures are well laid down in the books, the managers do not follow them either due to lack of accessibility, lack of discipline or both. The managers also fail during proposal presentations. It should be well defined, outlined and neat so as to impress an aspiring customer. Sales managers are mostly focused on the sales and hence they forget to develop the sales person. This poses a problem because without development of the sales person, the selling process would not be fruitful at all. The managers should play a major role in developing the sales person and by doing this the sales will develop too (Schwartz 2006). Sales managers face another problem of not having strategic planning, objective, aims or goals to work towards. An organization without goals, aims or objectives has no future aspirations .This may lead to downfall of the organization if it is not catered for effectively. Another major problem may occur if the manager is not able to incorporate the new employees with the rest of the organizations’ staff. What are Advantages and disadvantages of building customer relationships via the internet? Internet has become the most commonly used mode of communication in all aspects of life in the society today. Businesses are being run and managed through the internet and relationships have been created between customers and managers. There are merits and demerits associated with creating a relationship with your client via the internet. The merits of using the internet to build a relationship with a customer is that; internet is effective in offering quick responses to questions asked by the customers, it is good for allocating meetings and appointments wit the customers incase you are busy at the time, internet can hand out information to various clients at the same time quickly. Through the internet it is possible to get the appropriate type of person to answer your questions. Internet is also easy to use and it’s a good channel for marketing your organization. When dealing with more than one customer face to face, it becomes very complex but through the internet, you can chat with all of your clients at the same time (Hair et al. 2008). Building a relationship with the customer via the internet is a way of cutting costs; for example, travel expenses, storage, meeting expenses, all these forms of expenses are reduced as there is no physical contact between the customer and the client. Internet enhances a manager to keep track of the success he has acquired. This is because they are able to keep statistics and every new customer is registered into the account. Some of the disadvantages include; the computer software my break down with all your records in it making you to loose all your important information. Secondly, in remote areas where they are not technologically advanced, it may be hard to attract customers as not all people access the internet and hence no customers. Thirdly, there is no physical contact between the client and the sales person and thus there is no guaranteed business with the client. Another problem related to building internet relationships with a customer is that there is no room for attracting customers. Not all clients are aware of doing businesses through the internet and hence the manager may have a problem attracting customers. Not all organizations have websites where they could advertise their products and hence have clients (Calvin 2004). All organizations should come up with websites and teach their clients on how to do business with them through the internet. Fourthly, legitimacy on many businesses and transactions done over the internet is very clear. We have heard cases of credit cards fraud and even stealing of information through online transactions. Mostly the small companies are the most vulnerable to fraud transactions. At times the messages send through emails could be understood or become impersonal causing conflicts between the customers and the manager. Lastly, internet could accidentally or deliberately expose important business details to the public to see thus jeopardizing the organization. The advantages of building customer relationships via the internet outweigh the disadvantages and hence with the necessary skills and knowledge relationship via the internet could be of great importance to the organization. Works cited Calvin, Robert. 2004. Calvin sales management, McGraw-Hill Professional. Hair, Joseph., Rolph E. Anderson, Barry Babin and Rajiv Mehta. 2008. Sales management: building customer relationships and partnerships, Cengage Learning. Peelen, Ed. 2009. Customer relationship management, Centraal Boekhuis. Peelen, Ed. 2005.Customer relationship management: Financial times, Prentice Hall. Schwartz, Matthew.2006.Fundamentals of sales management for the newly appointed sales manager, Amacom Div American Mgmt Assn. Carter, Tony. 1997. Contemporary sales force management, Routledge. Read More