Advanced Sales Training
It’s been a long time since the concept of formal sales training was introduced. At the bookshop, there are a lot of sales books, so many it can make your head spin. Thousands of ‘how to sell’ videos are available for free on YouTube and LinkedIn. There are about 1000 universities that offer undergraduate sales degrees.
Most sales training programs and materials concentrate on the fundamentals of sales– how to prepare for sales calls, how to ask open-ended questions, how to handle concerns, how to get commitment, and so on. Given the abundance of knowledge available on sales fundamentals, we believe you should hire people who are already familiar with them.
However, most businesses opt for the basics when seeking additional sales training for their established sellers to reduce sales gaps. When money is spent on basic sales training for experienced salespeople, the outcomes are frequently dismal. Many sales leaders, frustrated, bring in a different vendor for additional fundamentals (likely just packaged differently or using new acronyms).
It’s easy to forecast the vicious sales skills training solutions circle.
- Are the basics of sales important? Yes!
- Is it important to review them? Certainly.
- Is it essential for them to be coached? Yes, of course.
- Should you invest in sales training packages that aren’t specialized to your industry? No, we don’t believe so
Why? It’s a waste of money and time that produces subpar results. Hire salespeople that are well-versed in the fundamentals of sales. Allow front-line sales managers to use sales enablement to strengthen these sales abilities.
As a result, we arrived at the concept of ‘advanced sales training.’ Is there anything like that? Yes! At Pearl Lemon Sales we specialize in it, and our advanced sales training programs, which are bespoke offerings specifically created for each client, really work (and we have the testimonials to prove it.)
What is Advanced Sales Training?
Advanced sales training is similar to advanced training in other fields such as athletics, music, and medicine. Take, for example, the sport of football. Players learn the foundations of football starting in the 5-year-old leagues: positions, ball handling, formation, and basic runs. However, these basic abilities aren’t nearly enough to warrant a berth in the starting lineup on Sundays (or even Friday nights).
To master football, you’ll need advanced skills to deal with the game’s many variables. The basics must never be forgotten by players, and should be reinforced. The top athletes, on the other hand, combine the fundamentals with higher-level talents to run the proper play at the right time.
How can you turn this into a sophisticated sales strategy?
The pros in football employ a variety of coached strategies to execute in various game conditions. Their advanced training focuses on merging a variety of abilities and strategies that are relevant to the game’s realities.
Advanced training for sales is very similar. Pearl lemon Sale’s advanced sales training relies on a mix of four sales execution elements:
- Sales knowledge – what you need to know about what you are selling and the people you are trying to sell it to.
- Communication – What are the best ways to communicate what you are trying to convey?
- Sales Skill – Which selling actions and strategies will move the deal forward
- Sales Content – What content do buyers need to hear/see to engage their attention, convince them of value and get them into a ‘buying mood’.
Combining these components with context is the key.
Foundational sales skills are frequently taught in a vacuum. Many sales training programs, for example, are only focused on product expertise. Alternatively, they may just teach how to ask good questions or repeat value assertions. Going back to that football analogy, it’s not enough to memorize a receiver route from the playbook. What counts is practicing how to run that route in the correct game situation. The same is true in advanced sales.
Advanced selling begins with context and works backwards to determine what is required for a successful client connection. The context should be a specific selling circumstance – the aspects of a deal or customer interaction that a salesperson must consider.
The more specific your context, the more the value you provide to the salesperson. It’s not enough to teach sales staff how to conduct a discovery meeting with a CFO, for example. More context to the buyer’s situation should be included in your advanced training. The idea is to simulate a real-life scenario. Consider the following:
What is the purpose of the meeting for the seller? In today’s world, sales reps can’t merely ramble on without sharing their point of view in a discovery meeting. The meeting may be beneficial to the seller, but it will be a waste of time for the buyer if this does not occur.
You’re right if you believe this sounds like a role play. However, sophisticated selling entails a great deal more. Advanced sales training teaches sellers how to use a winning combination of message, action, and substance in specific scenarios. The goal of advanced sales training is to concentrate on typical selling scenarios, educate the necessary skills, and coach effective execution.
The importance of context-based sales training cannot be overstated. You’re not merely instructing on how to execute a football play. When it’s 3 and 6, you’re in the red zone, the defense is blitzing out of their nickel personnel package, and the crowd noise is overwhelming, you’re practicing how to run the play.
The Big Benefits of Advanced Sales Training
If done correctly, advanced sales training will enable your sales agents to perceive, pivot, and play. It will turn good everyday salespeople into sales superstars.
Advanced sales training does sound “difficult” when compared to basic sales training. But, in today’s market, can a squad of Pee-Wee all-stars actually win? Or do you want to be in charge of a team of top athletes who can produce results?
No single piece of knowledge, expertise, communication, or substance is sufficient in the most complex sales deals. The value for the customer is created by combining these pieces and executing them at the proper time.
This is something that your most experienced, top-performing sales reps do instinctively. The goal is to create a system that will train the entire sales team. The heart of your game-winning system is advanced sales training.
Ready to get started?
Contact us to learn more about how you can use advanced sales training to design your own system utilizing our knowledge and expertise.
Our advanced sales training method will quickly get your sales personnel game-ready, leading to bigger wins for them, bigger wins for the team and ultimately a big bottom line boost for your company.
Contact us. We’d love to hear from you!
If you have any questions, please do get in touch with us! If you’d prefer to speak directly to a consultant, book a call!