CHAPTER THREE
CONTINUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE
SALESFORCE: SALES TRAINING
Objectives:
At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
• Define recruitment and selection,
• Discuss the importance of sales force
socialization,
• Discuss the sales force training process,
• Synthesize the domain knowledge of sale force
hiring and the real practice in our business
community.
Introduction
• Most companies often believe that sales training
is necessary to successfully implement their
strategy.
• Training can be used to achieve a number of
objectives and fulfill various needs.
• Training must be evaluated to ensure its
effectiveness.
Cont’d…
• Today’s salespeople must be prepared to meet
the demands of value-conscious customers.
• Salespeople must do their part by providing
solutions to problems & meeting service
requirements expected to satisfy customer needs.
• Therefore, proper training can prepare
salespeople to meet these challenges.
Role of Sales Training in Salesforce
Socialization
• Sales force socialization refers to the process by
which salespeople acquire the knowledge, skills,
and values essential to perform their jobs.
• Training plays a key role in this process.
• Newly hired salespeople usually receive a
company orientation designed to familiarize them
with company history, policies, facilities,
procedures, and key people with whom
salespeople interact.
Cont’d…
• During initial sales training, each salesforce
member will experience a positive initiation to
and satisfactory role definition.
• Trainees who have been properly recruited &
trained tend characterize:
more confident on the job & have fewer
problems with job conflicts,
leading to higher job satisfaction,
involvement,
commitment, and
performance.
Cont’d…
• Newly hired salespeople should be extremely
interested in learning about their jobs, peers, &
supervisors.
• A basic orientation may be insufficient to provide
all the information they desire, so more extensive
socialization may be indicated.
Cont’d…
• One aspect of the investment in sales training is
the amount of time required of the sales manager.
• Usually, sales managers are involved in the “big
picture” of planning & in the time-consuming
details of implementing training, like:
Arranging for salespeople to work with key
personnel in various departments to familiarize
them with the functions of those departments.
Cont’d…
Selecting literature, sales aids, software, and
materials for study
Enrolling salespeople in professional workshops
or training programs
Accompanying salespeople in the field to critique
their sales behavior and reinforce other training
Conducting periodic training meetings and
professional training conferences
Managing the Sales Training Process
• The sales training process has six steps:
1. Assess training needs,
2. Set training objectives,
3. Evaluate training alternatives,
4. Design the sales training program,
5. Perform sales training, and
6. Conduct follow-up and evaluation.
1. Assess training needs,
Purpose:
• to compare the specific performance related skills,
attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors required for
salesforce success with the state of readiness of the
salesforce.
Methods of Needs Assessment
• salesforce audit,
• Performance testing,
• observation,
• a salesforce survey,
• a customer survey, and
• a job analysis.
Typical Areas Sales Training Needs
• Sales Techniques
• Product Knowledge
• Customer Knowledge
• Competitive Knowledge
• Time and Territory Management
2. Set Training Objectives
The most common objectives are:
• Increase sales or profits.
• Create positive attitudes and improve salesforce
morale.
• Assist in salesforce socialization.
• Reduce role conflict and ambiguity.
• Introduce new products, markets, and
promotional programs.
• Develop salespeople for future management
positions.
Cont’d…
• Ensure awareness of ethical and legal
responsibilities.
• Teach administrative procedures (e.g., expense
accounts, call reports).
• Ensure competence in the use of sales and sales
support tools, such as CRM technology.
• Minimize salesforce turnover rate.
• Prepare new salespeople for assignment to a sales
territory.
• Improve teamwork and cooperative efforts.
3. Identify & Evaluate Training
Alternatives
• The evaluation of alternatives for training
inevitably leads to three key questions.
1) Who will conduct the training?
• Consideration of internal (within the company)
and external (outside the company) trainers.
• Sales manager
• Senior salespeople
• A full-time sales trainer is often available (in case
of larger companies).
Cont’d…
2) Where is the location for the training?
• Sales training may be conducted in the field,
in the office, at a central training location, at
hotels and conference centers, or at other
locations.
• At home, regional, or field offices of the sales
organization.
• Video broadcasting and teleconferencing
Cont’d…
3) Which method (or methods) and media are best suited
for conducting the training?
• Four categories of training methods:
Classroom/conference,
On-the-job,
Behavioral simulations, and
Absorption.
• Medias to be employed:
E-Learning medias
Desktop personal computer videoconferencing
Audio-graphics connects
Online chat room
4. Design the Sales Training Program
• At this stage, sales managers may have to seek
budget approval from upper management.
• The necessary responses to what, when, where,
& how questions are finalized.
• Training is scheduled, travel arrangements made,
media selected, speakers hired, & countless other
details arranged.
• It is the most tedious part of the sales training
process, but attention to detail is necessary to
ensure successful implementation of the process.
5. Perform Sales Training
• It may take only a fraction of the time required by
the previous steps.
• As the training is being conducted, the sales
manager’s primary responsibility is to monitor the
progress of the trainees & to ensure adequate
presentation of the training topics.
• In particular, sales managers should assess the
clarity of training materials.
• Feedback from the trainees might be solicited on
everything from the effectiveness of external
trainers to the adequacy of the physical training site.
6. Conduct Follow-Up and Evaluation
• It is always difficult to measure the effectiveness
of sales training.
• This is a long-standing problem, due in some
cases to a lack of clearly stated sales training
objectives.
• Even with clearly stated objectives, however, it is
hard to determine which future performance
variations are a result of sales training.
Cont’d…
• Other factors, such as motivation, role
perceptions, & environmental factors, may affect
performance more or less than training in
different situations.
• Evaluations can be made before, during, & after
the training occurs
Thank You !!!
