Let’s get the elephant out of the room first: No one likes being sold to. In fact, going to a car dealership rates slightly less than getting multiple root canals in terms of customer satisfaction in most cases.
Common complaints are sales representatives not listening, using pressure tactics, pestering, and displaying a lack of product knowledge – all of which reduces trust. Salespeople know this.
At the same time, they’re in the business of providing a service or product that they want people to buy and turning that initial reluctance into a purchase. Ideally, sales professionals want to do this leaving the best impression of the company and themselves.How do we achieve this? Through building trust.
Your customer experience depends on effective sales training
Trust is the bedrock of any organizational strategy for sales and improving customer experience. A brand is trusted when it demonstrates the following:
Authenticity: Customers believe a brand is authentic; they walk the walk, and talk the talk.
Transparency: Businesses that are open and transparent with their purpose, core values, and procedures will elicit consumer trust.
Accountability: When something goes wrong, the most successful companies will own it and explain why and how it won’t happen again, improving trust.
The above doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You can’t rely on hiring individual unicorns to provide an outstanding sales experience. Leaders of sales teams need to provide effective sales training that maximizes the performance of all the crew. Otherwise, to continue metaphorically, the boat is sunk.
Give ’em something to talk about: Better communication
What’s one result of targeted sales training that works? Improved communication.
You can’t just rely on your extroverts to carry the weight of communication, though often introverts can be better communicators in larger groups.
Finding out how your team communicates, and what methods work best for them is a way to improve, strategize, and refine the way they approach the customer journey. Improving communication means fewer misunderstandings, clearer positioning, and a stronger potential customer connection which contributes to overall experience across channels.
The skills that matter most when it comes to effective sales training
Leaders who successfully train individuals usually find that along with communication skills, their administrative and organizational skills also improve.
This has efficiency and project management implications (saving time and money that would otherwise be wasted or silo-working, which can block work and lead to inflexible ways of working in the sales pipeline). Learning how to manage your time and resources will increase qualified leads and conversion rates, as well as customer satisfaction.
Show me the money: Enhanced confidence
Teams that learn how to communicate and organize themselves effectively will be able to impact their sales targets that much more. Once that happens, confidence is boosted within the team, their targets, the values underpinning their sales process, and their individual ability to close deals.
Maybe they won’t go quite as far as Jerry Maguire and yell, “Show me the money!” but you can expect an increased energy and optimism as the culture of the team veers towards a success mindset.
In the end with a happy and engaged team, it’s a virtuous cycle of sales strategy refinement, with everyone rowing towards an optimal customer experience.
