Slide 1 (Title Slide): Sales Training for Sales Victory
Scene 2 (Introduction): James enters frame wearing green flight suit. “Hello I’m Jim C. You might remember me from such films as “Blood Flows Red on the Flight Deck” or “Basic Fighter Maneuvers for Basic Fighter People”, but today I’m here to talk to you about sales training.
“Training is the essential part of being a learning organization. A learning organization is quite simply one that doesn’t make the same mistakes over and over again. Everyday military aviators and astronauts are able to safely perform demanding tasks in difficult and demanding environments. How do they do it – Training! They belong to learning organizations that can’t afford to relearn the same mistakes over and over because mistakes in their business mean crashed airplanes and lost lives.
“But can you afford to make the same mistakes over and over in your business? When we think of sales we often think of profits and dollar signs. Keeping costs low and volume high. But we don’t often think about training. For businesses looking at the bottom line, training might seem like an unnecessary expense. But as the old bumper sticker says, ‘if you think education is expensive – try ignorance!’ Just look at these examples …
Slide 3 (Example of training success): James voice over …
• IBM’s Global Sales School (GSS) • Experienced new hires improved 26% over 6 quarters • Novice new hires improved 70% over 6 quarters • Graduates 2 to 3 times more likely to be above quota
• Furniture@Work’s New Training Program • Reduced attrition 90% in 12 months
• 70,000 business owners surveyed • 39% of purchasing decisions depended on effectiveness of sales rep • Greater than any other category including price, product or service
• The top 100 companies consider “training” part of their competitive advantage
Scene 4 (Transition): Return to James standing in flight suit. “So if training is so important, how do you it? How will you know you’re getting a good return on investment and not just wasting money? Simple – Military Aviators are some of the best in the world at training. They have to be. So over the next few minutes we’re going to show you how to train like they train to give you the edge.”
“The first thing a training program like the Navy’s Fleet Replacement Squadron will do is asses just what type of training is needed. What skills do the rookie pilots posses, versus what will they need to survive in combat …”
Scene 5 (Asses Training Needs): Sasha in business suit speaking … “Likewise your first step should be a needs assessment. You need to compare the current skills and actions of your salesforce with what you think they need to be competitive. Too often, the need for sales straining becomes apparent only after a decline in salesforce performance. When assessing your needs you should strive to be proactive not reactive. Also realize that just like seasoned pilot transitioning from one aircraft type to another have different needs than totally green pilots, your experienced sales force will have different training needs from your new hires.”
Scene 6 (Set Training Objectives): Tom voice over while Syed in flight suit is writing training objectives on whiteboard … “Every training flight a military pilot does has training objectives. Likewise by setting your training objectives up front, you’ll be better positioned to make the right decisions in the next steps of evaluating alternatives and designing a program. So your second step should be to set the training objectives. As the sales manager, by setting objectives you’ll find it easier to prioritize various training needs, and the proper sequence of training will be more apparent. Additionally, by defining expectations up front, it is possible to later determine if objectives have been met and more reasonably calculate a return
