| The first thing you worry about when designing a new | | | | that offered an eight-week instructional program for it's |
| sales training program isn't whether the material will be | | | | sales reps. I asked the trainers of that class to reduce |
| useful or practical. | | | | its contents to THREE DAYS and to deliver the |
| If you've been a successful seller, you know you're | | | | radically condensed version to me, which they did, |
| offering good techniques. Heck, they've worked for | | | | under haughty protest. |
| you, right? | | | | Would you believe me if I told you that those three |
| While organizing the material may be a challenge, this | | | | days still contained a substantial amount of BLOAT? |
| isn't a worry, either. If you simply follow the Anatomy | | | | Obviously, wasting time in overly long sales training |
| of a Sale, from start to finish, you'll be in good shape, | | | | programs is foolish from a monetary standpoint. But it |
| there. | | | | is especially problematic because it needlessly and |
| What you'll fret about whether you have ENOUGH | | | | foolishly elongates a new hire's |
| information to fill the time allotted. | | | | SPEED-TO-THE-FIRST-SALE. |
| "Gee, what if I finish a few hours or a day, early?" you'll | | | | If I can deploy a new rep in a week's time, she has a |
| wonder. | | | | chance to prove herself during Week 2. If it takes four |
| This is especially alarming if you are a hired gun, | | | | weeks to train her, she can't start to succeed until |
| offering a seminar in a hotel or offsite. Onsite, as a | | | | week 5 or 6. |
| company's sales trainer, if you finish early with a | | | | What difference will a few weeks make? Each day |
| particular group your attendees can simply begin their | | | | that the training lasts longer than necessary, it is adding |
| jobs or resume them. | | | | needless and senseless complexity and confusion to a |
| After you've delivered your new training program once | | | | new rep's repertoire. |
| or twice, you'll see the opposite has happened. | | | | (This violates the ages-old wisdom of the KISS |
| The course will grow LONGER than you anticipated. | | | | Method: "Keep It Simple, Salesperson.") |
| Your stories and jokes will take on lives of their own, | | | | Your trainee comes to believe that ALL OF YOUR |
| and at every turn you'll be tempted to overindulge your | | | | MATERIAL IS ESSENTIAL to becoming a successful |
| expertise and the comments and questions of | | | | seller. So, when she is finally unleashed, if she hasn't |
| attendees. If you then train another trainer, he'll add his | | | | forgotten 80% of what you have covered, she'll tend |
| war stories to yours, and the process of endless | | | | to over-talk and to confuse, and to waste too much |
| elaboration will worsen. | | | | time with the wrong prospects. |
| A one-day program will stretch to a business week. A | | | | These are terrible habits, inculcated by the bloated |
| week will require a month. And a month will call for a | | | | sales training program she survived. |
| full third of a year. | | | | Worse, the slower the SPEED-TO-THE-FIRST-SALE, |
| As I'm writing this, I'm aware of a company that sells | | | | the more insecure reps will feel about their ability to |
| gold coins and bullion. It BOASTS about having a | | | | generate business, successfully. |
| 16-week sales training program. What is there about | | | | Ironically, as you believe you are investing trainees with |
| selling gold that takes this long to learn? | | | | more confidence, you're actually eroding it with each |
| If I asked this firm's trainers, "Why does your training | | | | passing hour, week, and month. |
| take several months to deliver?" they'd reply that | | | | How brief can great sales training be? |
| EVERY MINUTE of it is necessary and filled with | | | | In a separate article I'll describe a FOUR-HOUR sales |
| essential wisdom. | | | | training program that I conducted that enabled a |
| Moreover, they'd believe it! | | | | Fortune 500 company to soar. |
| I was doing a consulting project at a financial company | | | | |