Greetings,
Perhaps someone might point me in the direction of a good resource for sales training exercises for an upcoming 3 day sales meeting. Looking for some team building, skill evoking, and hopefully fun, activities.
Any assistance is appreciated!
Happy New Year.
What is the skill gap?
The most important point regarding sales training is identifying the skill that you want to train on. Is it product/technology specific, prospecting skills, presentation skills, closing skills, etc...
My personal favorite is role playing. Nothing replaces a dress rehearsal. For example, if you want to work on presentation skills. First, identify where the gaps are. Second, do some training on those gaps. Show them what good looks like. Then have them present in a role play setting. If this is a group, I like to have them present as a group. You act as the customer and jump from one person to the next in the presentation. Dont let them have a plan on who is going to do what part of the presentation as you would in the real world. I think that a person knowing they could be called at any moment keeps it exciting and keep them on thier toes.
Another favorite of mine is working on open door questioning techniques. Seat everyone around a table with you acting as the customer. Go clockwise from one person the next asking you questions. The questions must be open door questions and must keep the conversation going linear. This is easier than it sounds. Usually the first round is easy, but it gets harder as you go. Keep a point system and reward the person with the most points.
If it is product or technology training, how about a game of Jeopardy. You act as the host and provide a number of "topics". Provide everyone with a buzzer, or kazoo if you want to lighten it up. Then play it out just like a real game of Jepardy. Keep points and have a prize for the winner. For a team building twist, how about grouping them into teams that compete against each other.
Hope this helps
Sales training excercises
Wow!
Thanks for the thoughtful contributions. I will definitely incorporate some of this into our retreat. The 'open door' idea sounds much like a regimen practiced by improv actors. Excellent at keeping focused and sharp on feet.
Again, many thanks for your help!!!
DISC Sells
I was introduced to DISC about 10 years ago and I have implemented it in ALL facets of my sales technique. In today's economy where sales, and more importantly customer retention are crucial, Horstman's 2nd Law "More Communication is Better" is key. If you know HOW to communicate with someone based on their behavioral tendencies you will be much more effective. I have also based much of my marketing and written communications to trigger the interest points of each type of behaviour.
There is a list of the podcasts and other tools at this link - http://manager-tools.com/purchase-the-disc-profile
Good Luck.