Chapter 8

Training the Sales Force

Main references :
Sales Force Management 2017 by Gregory A. Rich &
Selling & Sales Management 2019 David Jobber, Geoffrey Lancaster and
Kenneth Le Meunier-FitzHugh

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Chapter 8 Outline
1. Value of Sales Training
2. Sales Training and
Strategic Planning
3. Training assessment
• What are the training
program objectives?
• Who should be trained?
• What are the training needs
of the individual reps?
• How much training is
needed?
5. Reinforcement
4. Program Design
• Who should do the training?
• When should training take place?
• Where should training take place?
• Decentralized vs. Centralized
• What should the content of the training be?
• Company orientation
• Product knowledge
• Market/customer knowledge
• Sales process (how to sell)
• Organizational skills
• What teaching methods should be used?
• Lectures, discussion, demonstrations, role-playing, web-
based, audio podcasts, on-the-job training
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The Value of Sales Training
• Generates more sales volume
• Improves customer relations
• Enhances organizational commitment and
retention of salespeople

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Generally : content or topics should be covered

• Company orientation
• Product knowledge
• Market/customer knowledge
• Sales process (how to sell)
• Organizational skills

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Objectives of Increased sales
Sales Training productivity

Improved self-
Lower turnover
management

Training
Objectives
Improved
customer Higher morale
relations

Improved
communication

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Who should be trained?
• New hires in initial training program
• All salespeople in refresher training
• Top-performers
• Middle-performers Focusing on the middle 60% gives the
highest return on training dollars
• Bottom-performers

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Who should do the training?

•Line personnel
• Typically the immediate supervisor (i.e., the sales manager)

•Staff trainers
•Outside training specialists

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When should training take place?
Two basic attitudes:
• Train immediately because…
• no rep should be placed in the field until he or she is fully
trained.
• cannot risk exposing customers to poorly trained reps.
• Delay training because…
• much easier to train people who have had some field
experience.
• weak salespeople are eliminated before company spends
money on training them.

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 Sales Training designing factors
1. 3.
Performance 2.
Feasibility Training needs
needs analysis
analysis analysis

• Why do you think your

sales force and/or channel
partners need training?
• What is the problem?
• Why is it happening?
• What should be happening
instead?
• What factors help or hinder
performance?
• What improvements do you
expect from the trainees?
• What improvements do you
hope for in the
organization?
• Is the training solution
practical?
• What is the budget?
• How long will the training
take?
• How many people will
attend?
• What are the technical
requirements?
• Does the training have
management support?
Who will attend the training?
• What are the training
objectives?
• What topics will be taught?
• How will training be presented?
• Who will present it?
• What do salespeople and
channel partners already
know about the topic?
• What should they be able to do
afterward?
• How will success be determined
and measured?
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Sales Training Development Process

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Training Failure
• Lack of planning
• No perceived reason or benefit
for training in the minds of the
participants
• Boring content and approach
• Lack of involvement by trainees
• No instruction on how to apply
material learned in the field
• No encouragement, recognition,
or approval
• Lack of follow-up or
measurement
• Unenthusiastic trainer
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1. Conduct a training needs assessment

• Background
• Previous working experience
• To identify gaps between salespeople qualifications and the
required job activities

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2. Determine training objectives
• Focus on performance objectives in terms of achieving successful
results from training.

• Focus on teaching sales force how to be more productive

• A contemporary philosophy is that professional salespeople are

advisers or consultants, not mere product pushers.

refer slide 4 for some objectives

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 Salesperson as an Advisor and Consultant

• develops a long-term relationship with clients

• identifies the client’s problems and suggests solutions
• depends on providing helpful information and service to secure
business
• often works as a member of a team of specialists
• follows through to ensure customer satisfaction
• works closely with headquarters marketing support staff
• wants to participate in training to enhance selling and
relationship-building skills

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3. Determine training program content
Training Programs

1. Initial sales 2. Continuing sales

training program training program

experienced salespeople, these programs

newly hired salespeople, it is are shorter, more intensive in specialized
comprehensive and usually lasts topics
three to six months.

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 Initial Sales Training Program

a. Company knowledge (organizational policies and the specific selling

policies of the company)
b. Product knowledge (the products or services the company offers
for sale at least) .
c. Knowledge of competitors and the overall industry
industry trends & how they will affect the demand for the company’s
products.
Knowledge of competitors’ products is necessary to deal with
objections concerning the purchase of one brand over another.)

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 Initial Sales Training Program

d. Customer and market knowledge

Aware of knowing present and potential customers so that can design more
effective sales presentations.
Customer knowledge is essential to the practice of the marketing concept, i.e.,
fulfillment of customer needs.

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 Initial Sales Training Program
e. Selling skills knowledge (the steps of the selling process must be
understood in order to facilitate the exchange process between the
buyer and the seller.
f. E.g. the 7 steps of selling process
g. Technology-based skills: to learn the company the latest sales force
automation (SFA) technology for better customer relationship
management.

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4.Delivering the sales training
• Who will conduct the training?
• Will it be for individuals or a group?
• What method of delivery should be used?
• Where and when will the training take place?

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Training responsibility
3. Outside
1. Line 2. Staff as company
sales trainer training
executives specialist

Staff trainers are

Line executives Outside training
either members of
(sales managers, specialists can be
personnel,
senior sales retained to enhance
production, or office
representatives, knowledge on:
management areas,
field supervisors, and • Motivating
or they are company
division managers) salespeople
employees hired
often train new • Leading
specifically to
as well as experienced salespeople
conduct sales training
salespeople • Compensating
programs.
salespeople
• Sales forecasting
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Individual vs Group Training
Group: Individual
• Lectures • On-the-job training
• Literature (manuals, workbooks) • Personal conference
• Group discussion • Literature (manuals, workbooks,
• Conferencing/e-learning etc.)
• Simulation games • DVD/video
• Demonstrations • DVD/video/audio
• Role-playing • E-learning
• Computer-based training, games
• Podcasts, wikis, etc.
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Training methods
Traditional
• Lectures , Literature, Group
discussions, Role-playing,
Simulation games,
Demonstrations, On-the-job
training, Mentoring, Personal
conferences, Audiotapes, DVDs,
Computer-based training
Emerging
• e-conference, Web conferencing
and webinar (Web conference
designed to be interactive
between the presenter and
audience.)
• E-learning
• Intranet
• Live broadcast and interactive
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Location of training
Centralized training programs
usually include organized training
schools, periodic conventions, or
seminars held in a central location
such as the home office
Decentralized training can include
office instruction, use of
experienced salespeople, on the
job training, podcasts, blogs,
webinars, and other e-learning
approaches.
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5.Preparing Trainees for Training
• A pre-training briefing tells participants the training’s purpose and
objectives, why they were selected to attend, and the business need
the sales manager hopes to meet.
• Setting goals in advance of training, the sales manager can make sure
trainees are more tuned in during the training sessions and thinking
about ways to apply their new skills
afterward.

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6. Motivating Trainees during Training
1. Use positive reinforcement
2. Use active training formats and variety
3. Encourage social interaction
4. Facilitate expertise sharing
5. Include realistic examples and situations
6. Establish a safe environment for learning
7. Encourage self-evaluation
8. Recognize early success
9. Include sufficient practice
10. Encourage goal setting

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7. Conducting Post-Training Reinforcement
• Coaching (developmental feedback) is informal, give-and-take
discussions between sales managers and salespeople for the purpose
of reinforcing training concepts, solving selling problems, and
improving basic selling skills.

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7. Conducting Post-Training Reinforcement
Effective coaching
• Managers and salespeople must trust one another.
• Salespeople must respect the manager’s expertise and ability.
• Salespeople must want to learn, grow, and change.
• Coaches should have excellent teaching skills.
• Coaches should be empathetic

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Reinforcement needed
• Important because people forget – and need
reminded of what had been covered in training
• Reinforcement can be done through
• Coaching by the sales manager
• Mentoring by experienced colleagues
• Web-based programs

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8. Evaluating Training Program
1. Reaction 2. Learning 3.. Behavior 4.Result
Level Level Level Level

measures trainees’ assesses how evaluation

well the trainees measures measures
attitudes and
learned basic changes in changes in
feelings toward the
principles during behavior as performance.
training program.
the training a result of
program. the training.

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Continuous Training Program
3.
1. Refreshing 2. Retraining Managerial
training

When a salesperson’s The purpose of the

to help salespeople job requirements programs is to
do their jobs better change because the introduce new
by company has added approaches to
keeping them new products or organization, planning,
abreast of changes services, revised sales motivation,
in technology, territories, or compensation,
products, markets, upgraded SFA or CRM supervision, evaluation,
and company technology, and control over the
objectives. retraining is needed. areas the sales
manager is responsible
for..
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Sales Training Challenges For Global Companies

Cultural similarity
Similar Dissimilar

Extensive
Cultural experience

little training cultural knowledge

needed training
Limited

cultural adaptability cultural adaptability

training and
cultural knowledge
training
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Five Myths about Salespeople
• Salespeople are born – not made
• Salespeople must be good talkers
• Selling is a matter of knowing the right techniques or tricks
• A good salesperson can sell ice to an Eskimo
• People don’t want to buy

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