Training Salespeople

A general lines dealer describes his program for training new sales personnel.

By Robert Wall

CSi Material Handling, Container Systems, Inc. employs nine salespeople who average 14 years experience in the material handling industry. Their average length of employment with CSi is 10 years. All are on straight commission and all make good money. To get them to this point of earning money for themselves and profit for the company, a step-by-step process of sales training was initiated. As a small company, CSi's sales training program involves the combined efforts of management and experienced sales personnel.

Hiring
Training begins with good hiring. CSi sales applicants must have at least two years experience selling. The reason for this is two-fold: New college graduates seldom stay with their first job, and previous selling experience is an indicator of commitment to the profession. Some individuals may be good at selling, but may not like being out in the field by themselves all day long. You want to hire someone who says, "Yes, I like sales; now how can I make some money?"

Making the Choice
Choosing the right person to represent your company and products is important. Most small companies reflect the personality of the owner/president. You know best who will work well with you, so hire that kind of person. Testing programs are valuable, and a variety of them exist. Use these testing programs to determine if the candidate possesses the personality type that you want for your product or style of selling. If you hire the right sales personality—and there is one—it doesn't matter what they were selling before. They can be taught to sell your products.

Once the new salesperson is on board, the real work begins. A new salesperson requires a great deal of attention, and it's often necessary to give up some of your own selling and administrative time to work with the individual. This is time well spent, however, and will surely pay off.

Begin with the Basics
Start with the nuts and bolts of your products. Teach basic product knowledge for the first two weeks, using books, brochures, tapes, videos, specs and other appropriate tools. It may be that the new salesperson will retain only a small portion of what is first taught. However, when he or she actually makes presentations and does hands-on selling, the salesperson will recall and utilize that basic knowledge.

The new hire should spend time with two other salespeople for a few days. The experienced salespeople can give the new salesperson all the lowdown on the company and outline the do's and don'ts. This information is often better coming from other employees.

Hands-On Experience
Accompany the salesperson on the road to demonstrate good selling techniques. Then send him or her out to the field without you one day; the next day, he or she stays in the office. On the "in" day, review every call: who was seen, what was presented, questions asked, and customer problems encountered. During the review, situations will emerge that might indicate difficulty with a certain product. Stop right there and go over that product thoroughly. Reinforce the nuts and bolts information taught during those first two weeks. After six or eight "in and out" days, the new salesperson should understand the basics.

When the new salesperson makes prospecting calls, make a big deal of it, regardless of the outcome. Review it, teach it, quote it, and then send him or her back out armed to the teeth. The results of each call will improve each week until the salesperson is completely on his or her own.

Situate the new salesperson's desk directly outside your office. Listen to every phone conversation and correct mistakes politely, but immediately. By doing this, you can reinforce good practices, and you'll stop the bad ones right away.

Writing Quotes
For the first few weeks, help the new salesperson write each quote, so they are sure to have the correct format and customer benefit information. At CSi, the Feature, Function, Benefit system is utilized on every quote. In case the new salesperson is a little unsteady with features or benefits, he or she has a "cue card" that contains all the needed information on a laminated card that fits into a pocket. It can be pulled out and used right in front of the customer because it's small and not intimidating to the customer or the salesperson.

For at least a year, get copies of every quote the new salesperson writes. Whenever a quote isn't up to par, have him or her do it over. Review quotes with the salesperson every three months, separating them into three categories: Sold, Pending and Lost. After one year, the sold pile should increase dramatically. Also review every drawing, specification sheet, acknowledgement and purchase order.

During the training, keep reminding the salesperson, "This is how you make money. Learn it, do it this way and you'll be making good money in 18 to 20 months." All of this takes much of your time, but the results are well worth the effort.

CSi sales staff listen intently to Jim Becker, president of Speedrack.

Ongoing Commitment
I once sat next to a dealer at a meeting who said he was tired of training and losing salespeople. He stopped training them. He provided them with catalogs and sent them out to make calls. This was unfair to the new salesperson, and very short-sighted thinking for the company. The dealer went out of business three years later.

Teaching is ongoing, and sales training never ends. CSi sales meetings alternate between outside vendor presentations and CSi salespeople presenting product information and conducting staff programs.

It really is a two-year commitment on your part to help make the new salesperson successful. As soon as the two years are up and you push the fledgling out of the nest, go hire another one and repeat the process. You should always have a fresh supply of young, new, hungry salespeople to take over for the old pros who become comfortably established in their territories.

My wife is a teacher who often says, "If the student didn't learn, the teacher didn't teach." Sales training is teaching, so be a good teacher.

   Current Issue   |   Past Issues   |   Search   |   Contact Us   |   Advertising   |   MHEDA Home Page

The MHEDA Journal • Second Quarter 2000 • Volume 29, No. 2 • Contents are Copyright © Data Key Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved. • Nothing may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission of the publisher.