Why Sales Training is Rarely More than an Oxymoron

Why Sales Training is rarely more than an Oxymoron

We spend countless hours and dollars developing clever messages, compelling promises and expensive graphics, and training sales teams to get to “yes”, yet we often neglect to “train” our customer facing employees to deliver exceptional experiences that create enthusiasm, even excitement for our brands and all that we offer. Instead, most often sales teams focus on selling, and who wants to be sold? When we feel sold or like a transaction toward a sales quota instead of being treated as partners working toward a common goal, all marketing efforts can quickly be for not as customers remember the bad or lackluster customer experiences far better and far longer than they do the award-winning advertisements.

Example:
I recently test drove a car at a nice luxury car dealership. Before leaving, I called the sales person to tell him I was coming. He confirmed that it would take me about 30 minutes to get there. Twenty minutes into my ride, he called to tell me that the car I wanted had just sold, but since I was only 10 minutes away, I should still come and look at some others (higher priced of course). Though I didn’t fall for this sales game, I decided to go drive the car anyway. I loved it!!! I wanted to drive it home that very day. And even though I could afford it, I refused to purchase the car from someone who had gamed me. I questioned everything about anything he had told me about any of their cars, especially when my husband called the next day just to find out the lower priced car I was supposed to see had not sold at all. Weeks later it was still being promoted on their web site.

In this case, I was ready to buy and because of a bad apple sales rep or more likely entire culture, I walked away and called the competition, willing to buy the same car at a higher price from someone I could trust. My experience is unfortunately not so uncommon. The best and most expensive advertising is for nothing if you don’t train your sales staff to deliver on the promises you make in every way. In fact, sales training should be stopped altogether as we shouldn’t train someone to sell, we should be train sales people to create experiences because again, we consumers don’t want to be sold, and quite often walk away, like I did, even when they want the product, if they feel they are being sold, rather than served.

Sales skills do not equal negotiation skills
Sales training that lasting impact on business goals is much more than negotiation skills, and even account management techniques. It is about creating genuine experiences that are all about the customer, not the brand, and feelings of trust, credibility and affinity. Training needs to teach sales staff how to build emotional bonds through random acts of customer engagement that surprise and delight the customer.

Emotionally-engaging training is inspiring. It inspires sales staff to rise to a new level of service and customer care, and it inspires customers to want to learn more about how you can become their partner for the long-term. Following are some of the characteristics of what training needs to be in order to build your business for the now and long-term:

Characteristics of Successful Selling:
1. Selling is not a process of manipulation. It is a process of forming partnerships based upon mutually-beneficial outcomes for both parties.
2. Selling is not about closing the deal. It is about creating an experience that is gratifying beyond the product or service sold.
3. Selling is not about a single contract or a transaction. It is about a lifetime of continuous service.
4. Selling is not about one sales person and his/her customer. It is about embracing customers within a culture that is all about them.
5. Selling is not about making revenue goals or quotas. It is about representing a company with integrity and honesty at all costs.

Look at all the ads you encounter today. My guess is that the majority of them all have some claim about quality service, honesty and integrity. And my next guess is that most of these companies have done little to nothing to assure that their sales people treat their customers accordingly. In fact, in my years as a marketing consultant, and as a customer, I am pretty amazed at how many brands don’t even show their sales teams the advertisements their marketing teams have created full of many promises yet to be fulfilled by sales.

Lifetime Sales Starts with Basic Human Psychology
And beyond the above characteristics, sales training really shouldn’t be about sales skills but rather basic consumer psychology. This is where my training differs from many experienced sales consultants. I believe that far more important than sales skills is a strong understanding of consumer psychology and what makes us humans approach a new offer or a sales person or withdraw and look for alternatives. We are all born with affective systems – the predisposition to approach new ideas eagerly or withdraw to comfort zones – and these affective systems govern nearly all of our behavior and decisions without our realizing it. As neuromarketing expert and authority Gerald Zaltman says after years of experience in studying the brain’s reactions to stimuli, 95% of all thought is unconscious. When a sales person understands what is going on in the mind of a customer or prospect, consciously and otherwise, he/she can be far more effective in building trust, credibility and worth as a partner for life vs. a sales person trying to meet numbers.


Sale and marketing strategies and programs must go far beyond the fundamentals and newest communications channels to address the lifelong customer experience, and without training, you have no way to control the experience and create consistency for your customers at every interaction. Adding Training to your marketing mix gives you that competitive edge that today is critical to survival.