Dear Monika Ahirwar,
If you have conducted employee training for the last seven years, then there should not be a problem for you to conduct the sales training. To succeed in sales training, deliberate on the following questions:
a) Have you understood the product very well? Have you understood the technical features of the product? Will the salespeople sell the manufactured product or services? Or will it be a concept selling? Will it be a B2B sale or a B2C sale?
b) What is the customer profile? What are their education levels and economic segments? What are their likes? What is their language preference?
c) Overall, what is the profile of the salespeople? What are their education levels?
d) How frequently do the salespeople go to the field? Do they go daily, weekly, or monthly? Do they know the field area well?
To design the sales training module, you need to make field visits. For the first fifteen days, accompany the salesperson every day. The field visits should not be with the same salesperson, you need to make visits on a rotational basis. During your field visits, take extensive notes. Convert the instances that happened in the field to the stories, and you should be able to supplant those stories at the appropriate training module.
Once you understand well what happens in the field, you can design the sales training module on the following topics:
i) Product knowledge
ii) Understanding the customer's needs
iii) Matching the product of the customer's needs
iv) Avoiding the objections to drive the sale and
v) Effective closure
vi) How to keep records of the visits, follow-ups etc.
vii) How to maintain a positive attitude in the face of rejection
Just making field visits before developing the sales module is not sufficient. The visits should be ongoing. You will find every visit is a learning experience and because of this very learning experience, the salespeople will perceive you as head and shoulders above them. The more visits you make, the richer your training will be, and this richness will help you develop the right perceptions of the salespeople. The success of the training professionals depends on how the participants perceive them.
More than two decades ago, I worked in a courier and logistics company as a training manager. To know what happens in the field, I accompanied the field staff hundreds of times. To know the ground realities, I often worked in the night. The insights gained during the visits and night duties were channelled into the training modules. Now, many participants hold far more senior positions, but they still remember me, and their reverence for me is undiminished!
I wish you all the best!
Dinesh Divekar