How Do We Develop Our Sales Team to Its Fullest Potential?
How many times have you or one of your managers come over to a sales person and asked why did your customer leave? And, the sales person answered with some erroneous or conventional overused answer? Or, how about the over eager sales consultant that chases down as many ups as he can yet has a low closing ratio? Or, how many sales people are taking prospect’s incoming phone inquiries and yet only a few are actually converting them into appointments? Do you really know what is being communicated through sales consultant’s word choices to your prospects out on the lot or on the phone to prospects who could potentially give you thousands of dollars for a vehicle? You do realize that your store’s reputation is on the line all the time and the aforementioned are only a few customer touch points where you are possibly losing thousands of dollars and/or acquiring a harsh reputation every single day. We seem to only count the ones we get but we need to begin pondering the importance of every single prospect’s expectations of us and our Sales team’s ability to fully capitalize upon every single opportunity to acquire business for our store. We can no longer, not that we ever could, afford to blow off potential sales.
Our marketplace is changing and so are the consumers. Consumers are now demanding that dealership’s exhibit enhanced professional skills in dealing with them much greater than ever before. And, guess what? They are also quickly eliminating where not to shop for a vehicle due to many dealerships simply not developing their entire team to professionally adjust to this ever changing consumer expectation. So, how do we infuse our sales and management team with the ever growing demand for accelerated sales and management professional skill sets? You introduce them to the new and refreshing techniques now being utilized in all the successful corporate environments. The choices for the deliverability of these techniques is another matter all together. Let me give you an example.
A long time friend of mine owns a Toyota dealership and shared an interesting story with me recently. Being frustrated because his managers were not taking the training and development of the sales team and themselves seriously this dealer, decided to use an example of the power, importance and differences in various training techniques to his sales and management team. In his high school years the dealer, Steve was a drummer in a band. Recently, he decided to pick up his drum sticks again after 40 years or so for his own satisfaction and to learn something he had never been able to figure out, how to twirl a drumstick in one hand. So, Steve went to the web and found no less than 500 videos on the subject. Try as he might he just couldn’t get it down watching these videos. To hear him tell it, sticks were spinning all over the place except in his hand. Instead of throwing in the towel or drumsticks if you will, he was more than ever bent on solving this decades old dilemma dogging him. So, Steve actually hired a drum teacher to come to his home for a few sessions and teach him exactly how this process worked. After some time, he conquered his mission and can now twirl with the best.
Steve decided that his experience had some solid practical lessons which he could use in developing two things; a greater appreciation for learning by his sales team and a greater appreciation for properly instructing the team by his managers. What he did in a sales meeting was to set up a laptop computer and had everyone watch several stick twirling videos just like he did. Then gave everyone a drumstick to attempt the spin. Sales consultants were ducking left and right trying to avoid being speared by a flying drumstick leaving the hand of their teammates. This is really tough was the most common comment radiating from the team. No one could figure it out even after watching the video over several times again. Then, Steve very methodically showed them how to do it step by step and they began to make rapid progress. I guess he now has the best drumstick twirling sales team in Virginia but more importantly he cemented the age old principle that in order to teach real professional sales skills properly management actually has to invest time and show them how to achieve these skills and practice with them through role playing instead of just telling them how to do it. Priceless.
Whether you are training new sales consultants or just want to upgrade your existing sale’s team selling skills, deciding between online and instructor-led training can be a challenge. In the end, the decision boils down to three factors: content, quality and cost. Online computer education can be cost-effective, but if you are looking for personal hands on how-to attention and an industry specific approach to learning, instructor-led training course is your best bet.
The most notable benefit to classroom instructor lead training is the direct and personal exposure to a subject matter expert (SME), a professional trainer or an in-house manager who has the ability to make the material clear and understandable. Then, practice or roll play with the team through role playing exercises. Depending on the topic you study, having a qualified instructor at your disposal can make a tremendous impact on the learning. If the topic you study has been well-documented through online tutorials like manufactures’ product knowledge, an online course may be sufficient. But when the topics become more complex, such as learning relationship communications, enhanced phone skills or the fine art of negotiations for example, it will require frequent and elaborate explanations and practical exercises including role playing. In such cases, opting for an instructor-led course yields much more bang for your buck. An experienced instructor or one of your managers can help guide a team in learning the appropriate best practices and help them avoid mistakes that an online course most often overlooks. Instructor lead training also needs to be tailored to the store which means the instructor has to have the ability to adapt and be flexible to different store cultures. Obviously one of the best instructors is one of your own managers who not only knows the store culture but also knows the personalities of the sales team.
An online course can be developed and delivered much more rapidly than instructor-led training. The students have the choice of accessing the lectures at times convenient to them, eliminating the overhead of travel and scheduling if training is not an in-house instructor lead training course. Learners can selectively pick the content they deem relevant and skip that which they do not, improving the effectiveness of the training and reducing its cost. The problem with sales consultants picking and choosing can be risky because many think they know everything and just may forego the lessons they most need. While sometimes cost is a drawback (if off campus and travel are involved) the benefits and end results of one-on-one mentoring you receive with instructor or manager-led training unanimously outweigh the higher price tag over online curriculum.
One of the drawbacks of online education is the lack of live feedback of your team’s curriculum absorption, understanding and utilization progress. It is similar to emailing your prospects; you cannot receive correct feedback as to whether or not the prospect is actually receiving the information properly. It is asynchronous or one way communications. The instructor-led (synchronous or two way) training provides your team with an unparallel opportunity to share their experiences with other team mates and receive tips on how to improve their learning progress from others. Utilizing your team’s experiences is such a valuable asset when they are in your training room together working towards team skill improvements. Most online courses today lack the live instructor’s presence. It is the one-on-one personal attention that often differentiates a “good” online training from a “great” instructor-led one.
Computer training opportunities abound. The instructor-led classroom training provides a number of benefits over online education. It is important to recognize the trade-offs between online and classroom training and choose the option that will best fits your budget as well as your individual learning style and objectives.
Who can and will take charge of your in-house training program? Obviously it would be one of your managers. But, you need to recognize the differences in managers and leaders then choose the one who best possess the skills to lead you team into expanded greatness.
The most important difference between a great manager and a great leader is one of focus. Great managers look inward. They look inside the company, into each individual, into the differences in style, goals, needs and motivation of each person. These differences are small, subtle, but great managers need to pay attention to them. These subtle differences guide them toward the right way to release each person’s unique talents into performance.
Great leaders, by contrast, look outward. They look out at the competition, out at the future, out at alternative pathways forward into growth opportunities. They focus on broad patterns, finding connections, cracks, and then press home their advantage where the resistance is weakest. They must be visionaries, strategic thinkers and activators of energy. When played well, this is, without doubt, a critical role. But it doesn’t have much to do with the challenge of turning one individual’s talents into performance.
Great managers are not mini-executives waiting for leadership to be thrust upon them. Great leaders are not simply managers who have developed sophistication. The core activities of a manager and a leader are simply different. It is entirely possible for a person to be a brilliant manager and a terrible leader. And, it is just as possible for a person to excel as a leader and fail as a manager. Of course, a few exceptionally talented individuals can and do excel at both.
If companies confuse the two roles by expecting every manager to be a leader, or if they define a “leader” as simply a more advanced form of “manager,” then the all-important “catalyst” role will soon be undervalued, poorly understood and poorly played. Gradually the store’s momentum will fall apart.