Personal field sales training via the Internet

HEADNOTE

Have you ever invested in a sales training seminar or a workshop to solve a problem, but six months later the problem was still there?

It's not the fault of the seminar, the sales trainer, or the intent

on your part to do something that improves performance. The people who put on sales training seminars are successful salespeople, great communicators, and deliver a great package. The employees who attend the seminar want to improve, and you want the satisfaction that the program you've invested in will have a return in improved performance.

Unfortunately, in today's world we are all competing with too many inputs: e-mail, voice-mail, pagers, cell phones, meetings, etc. We're trying to squeeze 25 hours into a day, and eight days into a week. We put together a beautifully orchestrated workshop on how to improve sales and selling skills. Two weeks after the program, we're back in the same rut of putting out fires. For a moment it looked good, but then we were overwhelmed by the same problems that caused us to have the meeting in the first place.

How do we make training become effective in today's hurryup-and-get-it-done-now world? How do we create the habits that are necessary for us to improve performance not only two days after the seminar, but for the next six months?

The most effective way to train anyone is on the job. There is no learning environment more dynamic than one that connects the classroom with the real world.

As an online instructor at the UCLA Business Extension, I became fascinated with the ability to teach people in a class that was essentially held globally. Online education gave us the ability to reach students who couldn't attend a local university. Furthermore, it gave students the opportunity to choose where they wanted to attend school without the added travel or housing expense. I've had students from New York to Tokyo in the same class. The only part I didn't like was the fact I never met my students personally, and as a public speaker, I love to get in front of the group.

What if we combined the best of both worlds, a powerful seminar followed up with eight weeks of online field sales training? The ability to deliver the initial message in person (selling it to the participants through the workshop) coupled with in-the-field sales training to establish the habit of improved performance.

Personal Internet Training

When you work with a sales trainer, you should tailor the program to achieve specific goals. Initially, you need to identify the goals and agree upon the course of action with your sales trainer. Once that is finished, the program is implemented in two parts. The first part is to deliver a personal message to the team outlining the goals and getting the team pumped up to achieve those goals over the next eight weeks and beyond. Part two is the eightweek online program that develops the habits required to achieve the goals of business.

What are the major issues you need to address?

What goals do you want to achieve?

Follow up more leads?

Make more sales calls?

Develop new business opportunities?

Increase the number of quality sales calls?

Plan calls, strategies, and time management?

Be more effective on each sales call?

Communicate with the home office more effectively?

Work with the whole sales team more effectively?

Manage accounts more effectively?

Increase business at existing accounts?

Increase the number of opportunities that become orders!

Turn orders into cashed checks?

Turn cashed checks into repeat business or referred business?

Grow by X% to achieve a company objective?

The personal workshops would be set up with all participants in the same meeting and cover the following:

Show them the money. Show the end result first (where).

Connect the objective with the purpose (why).

Review the path to accomplish the objectives (how).

Introduce the resources that will be used (what).

Go through exercises of what is to be accomplished (preview training).

Get the participants to believe in the objectives and the program to achieve those objectives (sell them on the idea).

Get the participants involved in the process (they are a partner in the training).

The personal workshop is followed with an eight-week online on-the-job training class to achieve the objective of good selling habits. The online software has been proven successful in university distance learning. Each training class is broken down into weekly assignments and class discussion. Assignments are designed to provide building blocks of applied knowledge toward the training objectives. Each week's assignment builds on to the previous week's assignment, In the end, a new habit is formed to carry forward that will not only meet the objectives of the training, but provide a solid foundation upon which continued growth can be built.

The advantages of online learning are:

Reduces follow-up training costs by keeping personnel in the field.

Improves training effectiveness by using on-the-job training.

Allows global participation.

Easy, quick access to information. This is not a chat room. Participants don't have to be online at the same time. All responses to homework, questions, class discussion, and personal mail are done offline. This allows everyone to go online according to their own schedule. The only time constraints are the due dates and times of the assignments.

Group interaction through class discussion file folders. The student learns not only from the instructor, but from each other.

Individual attention through private channels. Some students require a little more work than others.

Orderly, clear, concise documentation of all correspondence.

Online sales training allows us the opportunity to train many salespeople in the field at the same time using one instructor. It combines the personal approach to training with the use of a modern business communications tool: the Internet.

AUTHOR_AFFILIATION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

AUTHOR_AFFILIATION

MANA member Paul Pease is a sales trainer and published author living in southern California. He has a BSME from Purdue University and has sold more than $75 million in automation control products as a 20-year sales representative. He can reached toll-free at (877) 220-7900, or at www.speakpease.com.