We have always been told that in order for us to be successful in business, we need to work hard. And in 95% of businesses, sales strategies and methodologies need to be applied if we want our businesses to grow. It is no longer enough that a sales person or a business earns the same amount of money each month as the expectation is that the business must improve its sales over the previous month or year. This is why sales training and coaching should be conducted regularly for sales people so that they are updated with the latest strategies and techniques to make sure the business can grow. We have all heard the old cliché “Insanity is doing the same things, in the same way and expecting a different result” However when KONA start to work with many sales people (and managers) we find that most are still selling with the skills and techniques they learnt (or picked up on the way) years ago. Or worse, they are ‘learning’ from and working for managers who also haven’t upgraded their skills. Basically they are still 1980 – 1990s ‘product flogging, brochure dropping, price quoting, problem solving reps’. This is compounded at a time when customers are looking for a sales person and sales manager to really add value to their business, not just spout product stats and features. (If you think this is BS a Global Brand recently flew all of their sales people into a conference recently and didn’t train them in ‘strategic account management’ or ‘complex negotiation in multi channel solutions’. They did sales 101 as they realised their sales team didn’t know how to ask questions, discuss the customers overall business, or even find out ‘what keeps the customer awake at night”’) Many companies used to think that the only way a person can be really good at sales is if they have a bachelor’s degree, has years and years of sales experience, or has the ‘gift of the gab’. This way of thinking not only hinder them from being truly successful, but it also blinds us to what is real as having all those does not guarantee a sale. So, what does? You may have noticed that much of the training you have attended has been carried out by so-called sales experts who deliver ‘by the manual’. However, if you listen carefully and compare each training session that you have gone to, you will notice how generic that approach can be. They would always go through similar topics but not actually train you what you should actually do, what you should say or how you should say it, relevant to YOUR industry and YOUR challenges. In addition, many training sessions are too focussed on telling you how you should present your product more effectively however the reality is that your customers rarely lie awake at night worrying about you and your product. They are worried about their market, their future, their customers, their competition, their pipeline of new business; their people; their cash flow, and many more issues. Product training is all well and good but nothing beats learning about how to ‘DNA’ the challenges customer faces in their business, then how to link your solutions, services and/or products to those challenges. Take a look at your sales people and sales managers, what era are they selling from? For more information on how to ‘DNA’ a customer contact Glenn today at 1300 611 288 or glenn@kona.com.au