How to Develop An Effective Mentoring Program – Mentoring Skills

Thirty professionals, ages 28 to 65 and with incomes from $20,000 to $100,000, took part in the TRAINING 79 session on mentors led by Richard C. Grote, president of Performance Systems Corp., Dallas, TX, and Kaye Stine, director of training and management development for Blue Cross/ Blue Shield of Colorado.

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All 30 participants reported that having a mentor had been instrumental in their careers. They attended the session because they were curious about the importance of a mentor’s influence on career success in general and because they were interested in exploring the possibility of formal mentorship programs in their organizations, according to Grote and Stine, who asked the group to define the characteristics of a good mentor. Continue reading

Product Knowledge Training for Sales Reps

Most companies do a superb job in training their new sales representatives in the technical aspects of the products they sell. Companies have management, scientific and engineering personnel who “know” their products. For this reason, they can easily overtrain sales people in the area of product knowledge.

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Salespeople should understand the products they sell well enough to be able to converse intelligently about them with their customers. They should be able to answer routine questions and know how to get the answers to complex ones. In other words, sales trainees should acquire a thorough knowledge of their products, but not at the expense of sales skills. The salesperson’s technical knowledge need not be at the expert level. Continue reading

Developing Training Program for Sales Trainee

Training in the geographies of the territory. One of the first problems a new salesperson has upon taking over a territory, large or small, is that of traveling in an unfamiliar area. This can be frustrating and time-consuming and may cause an inexperienced person to waste considerable time and become discouraged.

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While a person is in the initial stage of training to take over a sales territory, he or she should have an opportunity to study the best ways to travel that territory. There are numerous ways a sales trainee can develop an itinerary that will cover a territory efficiently. The trainer need not deal extensively with the techniques used to develop computer-generated itineraries. However, if the company does use a computer for this purpose, the trainee should be shown the principles underlying this procedure. Continue reading

Training for Sales Process

Training in the nature of the sales process. An attempt to make a sales neophyte into an effective salesperson by teaching him or her only one of the many sophisticated sales techniques probably would not work and might even be detrimental.

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Seldom will one approach to sales work with more than a handful of customers. The many situations a salesperson confronts on a daily basis are too varied to be accommodated by one approach to the sales process.

It makes much more sense to help the trainee understand the essence of the sales process so that the person can tailor his or her own approach to a given sales situation. Continue reading

5 Core Materials in Sales Training Program

Most training programs for newly hired salespeople either are cluttered with a great deal of unnecessary information or emphasize product knowledge while neglecting other selling information and skills. Actually, training in only five basic areas should prepare an inexperienced person to become effective quickly in field sales. The five essential topics are:

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1. The nature of the sales process.
2. The account distribution (geographies) of the territory.
3. Prospects in the territory.
4. Sales knowledge.
5. The competition. Continue reading

Preparing and Developing Great Presentation Materials

Nitpick your presentation – and all the components – to death. You may have conducted the best study in the world and developed strong, compel¬ling results and findings, but you won’t gain a grain of favor if your presentation has halitosis.

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Using sharp word-processed copies of written materials instead of poor photocopies or mimeos, packaging written materials in attractive binders and the like, and using professionally prepared visuals gains points important credibility points. Likewise, making certain that presentation rooms are the right size for the group, appropriate AV equipment is on hand and functioning, chairs and tables are appropriate to the group, and the room itself is clean and temperate are examples of nitpicking that gain credibility points for a face-to-face presentation. Continue reading