Myths Of Small Business Sales Training
The cartoon caption read: "Last year I coodint spel selsman, and now I are one."
It was a long time ago, but I still remember the first time I saw this joke. It was posted on a bulletin board in the business school during my college days. I'm sure you've seen this caption, perhaps with other professional variations, under the image of a Gomer Pyle looking fellow.
In those days, I WAS a salesman - on commission - working my way through college; first for a small business, and later for a big business. I learned many valuable lessons at both companies, but perhaps the most dramatic was the difference with which each one sent me into the marketplace.
Small Business
I was an 18-year old college freshman when I started with the small business, a furniture store, as a deliveryman. Eventually, I was promoted to salesman, but only on the nights we were open. On those days I would bring a change of clothes, and when the other delivery guys went home at 5:30, I would clean up, put on a tie, and sell until 9pm.
Of course, you can't be a salesman without a business card, and I had one. It was my very first, and I was so proud of it (I think I still have one). And right there under my name was that word: "Salesman."
The first man to hire me to be a salesman taught me a lot. With the veritable encyclopedia of industry, product, and pricing knowledge he deposited in my head, I was proud of the way I represented his small business. And armed with all the furniture answers, a genetic "Hail fellow, well met" personality, and a LOT of hard work, I made him proud with my sales volume.
But when it came to selling, I still didn't know how much I didn't know.
Big Business
My next assignment, still working my way through college, was selling "big ticket items" for Sears, Roebuck and Company. Like my previous employer, Sears stuffed my head with a wealth of product nuts and bolts. And of course, I received the appropriate company training. But there was one more thing Sears did: Before they turned me loose on their unsuspecting customers, they provided me with my first real professional sales training. It was at Sears that I began to realize that merely putting "Salesman" on my business card didn't make me one.
Years later, as a rookie with Xerox, I was introduced to a level of professional sales training that was just short of brainwashing. And I don't mean brainwashing in the pejorative sense. We Xeroids were very well trained and intensely prepared. We weren't just good; we really believed we were the best. Because more than products and pricing, we were taught how to prospect, how to close for an appointment, how to begin a call, how to conduct a call including all the proper probing and objection handling techniques, how to prepare and deliver a proposal, and of course, how and when to close.
We found out that if we used the communication skills and employed the selling techniques we had been taught, we could significantly increase our close ratio. The close ratio is the number of people you ask to do business with you, divided into the number of sales you make. If you ask 50 people for their business and close 20 of them, you have a 40% close ratio.
When my first business card identified me as a salesman, technically, I was one. But what I didn't know then was that I wasn't yet a professional. My small business employer gave me a title, and a start. My big business employers trained me to be a professional.
The Professional Salesperson
I've thought a lot about that term, professional salesperson, and have coined a very simple definition: A professional salesperson is someone who has acquired, and employs, a level of selling skills that allows him or her to be consistently successful by working smarter, not harder.
Over the years I've met hundreds of people who carried a business card identifying them as a salesperson. Some of them were professionals and some were not. The most successful salespeople I know can be put in two categories: 1) Those who fit my definition; 2) Those who work harder than they have to in order to overcome their training deficiency.
After many years in the marketplace, I feel qualified to observe that the latter category is comprised mostly of those who work their entire careers for small businesses. It's unfortunate but true that too many small businesses, like my early employer, just don't provide adequate sales training for their salespeople.
The Myths Of Salesmanship There are at least three myths that small business owners perpetuate as reasons not to train their salespeople. Here they are with my gentle comments.
Myth One: Selling Is More Art Than Science Some small business owners believe the myth that all it takes to sell is a good personality and the gift of gab. It's true that these are helpful traits for a salesperson. But this myth is as far from reality as the flat earth theory of the dark ages.
Woody Allen once said that 80% of life is just showing up. In selling, the reverse is true: 20% of success is showing up, and 80% is knowing what to do when you get there. And the only way to know what to do is by being trained to be a professional.
Professional selling is much more science than art, more technique than talking. Doctors, lawyers and architects need training to be successful. Salespeople do, too.
Myth 2: Sales Training Is Too Expensive You know that I am the first to say that small businesses have to watch every penny. But with regard to sales training being too expensive I have two things to say: Baloney and hogwash.
Baloney. There are many sales training programs available today that are designed specifically for small businesses, and there is one for every budget. Typically the difference in an expensive program and one a small business owner can afford is not in the quality of the program content, but in the amount of time spent with a trainer. Find the program you want and adjust the face-time to fit your budget.
Hogwash. Whether you realize it or not, you've handed the responsibility for the top line of your operating statement to your sales force. Write this question down and glue it to the frame of your computer monitor: Is sales training more expensive than the failure of my business?
Myth 3: My Sales Force Is Too Small Horse feathers. Local organizations, like the continuing education department of the local college or university, and the chamber of commerce, often make sales training programs available where small companies can afford to send their salespeople to group training sessions. A good question to ask is if the trainer will focus some examples on each industry represented.
There are also many fine books designed to help salespeople who work for small businesses. I'll provide links below to a few I recommend. Find one that you like and buy a copy for each of your sales staff. If you need more than 5, contact the author directly and ask for a bulk discount. After everyone has read the book, conduct training sessions on each chapter. Don't worry that you aren't a professional trainer. You will be amazed at how much everyone will learn from just the discussion. When you finish that book, find another one and repeat the process.
And don't overlook the Internet. There are MANY sales training programs now available in cyberspace.
Write this on a rock... Small business doesn't have to be where sales training goes to die. In the marketplace today, there are no excuses for not training your sales force to be professionals. Get started today. You can thank me later.
