Sales training wake-up call…

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I remain optimistic. But I recently suffered through yet another meeting with a Fortune 500 sales representative where I was the prospect, not the trainer, and the result was a complete disappointment.

In this instance I was simply buying promotional wear (polos, jackets, etc.). I’ve talked with this individual on multiple occasions (we’ll call him David), yet he arrived without the samples I expected, without information on the other items we had discussed, and without the pricing we planned to cover. He was utterly unprepared.

This was the third experience I’ve had along these lines in recent weeks with others.

It’s time we set a higher standard for what I call “high activity selling.�? By high activity selling I mean environments and industries in which many sales professionals get by—in many cases are taught to primarily get by—on high call levels. Sales training is typically provided in high activity selling companies, but after results, “number of calls�? is the primary measurement and discussion topic. A few example industries: promotional products, company uniforms and textiles, financial services and insurance, industrial distribution, package delivery services, credit card merchant services, home security, first aid and safety supplies for business, wireless, long distance and other phone systems, and there are many more.

Of course, it’s a cop-out. Sales executives and managers can always pull the “low number of calls you’re making,�? out of their hat, which avoids the responsibility they have to train you to SELL BETTER with the prospects you DO have.

It’s time for high activity sales executives and professionals to step up to the plate. To put an emphasis on customers buying, not simply your selling technique. To focus on what moves prospects through the pipeline, not just number of calls. To building rapport and trust with customers FIRST. And then to go out of the way to ensure they’re ecstatic about the service and account management they receive.

I’m throwing down the challenge that we clean up the high activity selling profession—getting rid of tired, stale, tricky techniques and hidden details that are revealed only after the prospect says “yes.�? We need to snuff out the 1001 closing techniques used in the past.

Now, I’m not suggesting we abandon the measurement of activity levels. Never would I suggest that (see a previous post here). Success in any sales role STARTS with making enough calls to have a sufficient number of prospects in the sales pipeline. But a greater effort needs to be made to teach professionals basic business and sales etiquette, along with how to appropriately move prospects along in the pipeline without the age-old pressure tactics.

Bits and pieces of this type of training are out there. See Ron Willingham’s Integrity Selling, Ari Galper’s Unlock the Game, and Jacque Werth’s High Probability Selling, among others. But the “full gospel,�? so to speak, isn’t here yet. What’s missing are full executive buy-in (or executives who have been successful in integrity-based selling themselves), field management accountability, and training on how to build better relationships—not just sales techniques.

What do you say or do? When do you say or do it? How do you create a sense of urgency when one doesn’t seem to exist? Should you? What if a formerly interested contact cools her jets? How do you better qualify prospects up front? How do you find customers who are “shopping�? now for what you sell?

These are questions demanding sales training. I think we need to demand not only better training across the board, but we need far, far better follow-through to ensure the training becomes habit—an automatic. And we need more rigid sales management discipline and accountability to stick to a system built on integrity.

I think we may even want a consensus, professional organization (with all due respect to the National Association of Sales Professionals, which has an interesting Ethics Study Guide and Sales and Marketing Executives International) that is more widely known, heavily marketed, highly sought after by both newcomers and veterans, and emphasized by sales executives to their sales force, maybe even demanded in some industries.

It’s time that conducting thorough surveys and assessments (whatever you might call them) before presenting possible solutions is automatic and expected. We need a standard, a manifesto that is so compelling that every sales professional’s conscience approves when it’s heard or read.

It’s 2005. The time is long overdue.

If you have an interest in participating in this project, or this “movement”-  let me know. But I’ve got to hear from you soon.