SALE TRAINING CONTENTS

Sales training can help aspiring salespeople develop

and practice the skills they need to succeed and
increase their confidence level. Proper sales training
is important for a number of reasons.
 Importance of training
1. Improving Communication Skills
2. Learning Sales Methodology
3. Overcoming Objections
4. Developing Administrative Skills
5. Product Knowledge
6. Customer Service Skills
 1.Improving Communication Skills
While many salespeople enjoy talking to people,
they may not possess well-rounded communication
skills. Sales training should help to foster key skills
such as listening to gain an understanding of what
the prospect truly wants and needs, as well as the
art of asking the right questions during the
presentation. Training should also involve learning
how to effectively communicate with all types of
personalities and diverse populations.
 2. Learning Sales Methodology
Sales training can teach the salesperson a proven
methodology that has proven to be successful. This
gives the salesperson a road map to keep her on
track throughout the presentation instead of simply
"winging it." A key component of most sales
methodologies is the development of various closing
techniques to gain a buying commitment from the
prospect. Trainees should learn how to look for the
various signals that indicate the prospect is ready to
buy.
 3. Overcoming Objections
Objections are a normal part of the sales process, as
prospects tend to seek reasons not to buy. An
improperly trained salesperson may simply agree
with the objection and stop selling. On the other
hand, the most successful salespeople expect to
receive objections during their presentation. Sales
training can teach salespeople how to anticipate
objections as well as techniques for overcoming
them. A commonly used training technique is role
playing, where the "prospect" offers numerous
objections to the trainee during a mock presentation.
 4. Developing Administrative Skills
Some salespeople have a tendency to focus solely on the
"people" aspects of the position, such as prospecting and
making sales calls, while overlooking the administrative
tasks. Effective sales training points out the importance of
functions such as tracking daily activities, keeping accurate
records and analyzing closing ratios. This information can
help the salesperson better manage their time, increase
organization and determine areas that need improving.
Training can include how to use software programs that can
simply the administrative process and save precious time.
 5. Product Knowledge
Product Knowledge quite simply is the salesperson’s
knowledge of the product or service that they are selling and
the ability to answer any question the customer may have
about it. Product knowledge is one of those things that you
have to have. However, you may not need to use it. If the
customer needs a technical presentation, then you have to be
prepared to give a technical presentation. If the customer is
more emotionally driven, you may not need to use any of
your technical product knowledge. Be prepared for every
different type of customer.
 6. Customer Service Skills
Customer Service is the salesperson’s knowledge of
how to treat a customer in order to gain their respect
and commitment to the individual salesperson. It is the
salesperson’s ability to build a customer base of
clients that will knowingly and willfully come back to
them again and again to satisfy their needs and to
recommend that particular salesperson to others. That
is the difference between extremely successful and
mediocre. Providing outstanding customer service
happens before the sale, during the sale, and after the
sale has been completed.
Objectives of sales force training
1. Sales Growth
2. Sales Force Turnover
3. Repeat Customers
4. Up-Sell Strategies
5. Increase Productivity
6. Sales effectiveness
 1.Sales Growth
The most basic of sales force objectives is to raise
the total sales numbers in each period, generally
each week, month or quarter. Sales forces record the
number of customers served daily, and sales
managers view detailed reports displaying trends in
daily sales volume.
 2. Sales Force Turnover
The sales component of marketing can experience
one of the highest employee turnover rates of any
area of business, as new salespeople are often ill
equipped for the stresses and demands of the job.
One possible objective of sales forces is to
continually reduce their level of employee turnover,
which can increase sales productivity and reduce
training costs.
 3. Repeat Customers
Repeat customers can be a company's most
profitable customers. One possible objective of a
sales team is to increase the number of sales made to
existing customers compared to first-time buyers.
Customer-relationship management or CRM
strategies can help to achieve this objective,
strengthening relationships with customers and
turning repeat customers into champions for the
brand.
 4. Up-Sell Strategies
In settings where customers come to salespeople, such as
retail outlets and inbound call centers, sales forces commonly
have an objective of increasing the average total amount of
each transaction through a technique called up-selling. Up-
selling is the art of strategically suggesting one more item to
compliment what a customer has already ordered. While up-
selling can contribute to the sales growth objective
mentioned above, it can also reduce inventory holding costs,
reduce inventory cycle time and boost profitability. Sales
team competitions with rewards that employees actually
want can motivate team members to try up-selling with each
customer and to be more strategic in their up-selling pitches.
 5. Increase Productivity
Using best practices to improve sales force
productivity — achieving substantial sales growth
from an existing sales force, which produces
improved profitability — may offer a fast, attractive
payback for many businesses with a large direct
sales force.
 6. Sales effectiveness
It refers to the ability of a company’s sales
professionals to ―win‖ at each stage the right time
frame. Improving sales effectiveness is not just a
sales objective issue; it’s a company issue, as it
requires deep collaboration between sales and
marketing to understand what’s working and not
working, and continuous improvement of the
knowledge, messages, skills, and strategies that sales
people apply as they work sales opportunities.
 Phases of Sales Training Programme
(i) Assessing needs of training program- the purpose of assessing the training needs
is to understand specific goals of training for individual sales person such as
improving project knowledge, selling techniques, relationship building .

(ii) Designing & execution of training program – after the first phase of accessing the
sales training needs, the second phase of designing & execution of STP(Sales
Training Program) is considered. There are 5 decisions a sales manager has to take
while planning STP.

(iii) These decisions are popularly known as ACMEE, where A stands for Aim of the
training , C stands for content of the training, M stands for methods for training , E
Stands for execution of training & E stands for evaluation . the first 3 parts of
ACMEE i.e. ACM & organizational decisions relating to the design aspects are
considered in second phase where as evaluation of sales training is considers in
third phase.
The steps involved in designing a sales training
program.

After the first phase of assessing the sales training needs, the
second phase of designing and execution of sales training
program is considered. There are 5 decisions, a sales manager
has to take while planning on a sales training program. These
are popularly called ACMEE where,

A- Aim
C- Content
M- Method
E- Execution
E- Evaluation
 a)A- Aim of training
The first step of designing the sales training program is to decide the
specific aims or objectives. Although, training needs and objectives vary
from 1 company to another, some of the common objectives are as
follows:-
i. To increase sales productivity.
ii. To increase sales, profit or both.
iii. To improve customer relations.
iv. To introduce new products, market and promotional programs.
v. Preparing new sales person for assignment to new sales territory.
vi. To create positive attitude and to increase sales force morale.
 b) C- Content of training
The content of the initial training for new sales trainee will be broader and
different from experience sales person. Usually the content of training
program may include :-
i. To understand the nature and importance of selling job.
ii. Knowledge of company, its goals, its policies, procedures, history and
values.
iii. Knowledge of the features, advantages and benefits of the company’s
products and services.
iv. Knowledge about competitor’s products and services.
v. Knowledge about customers.
vi. Selling skills and relationship building skills.
vii. Team work skills.
viii. Knowledge of legal constraints.
ix. Computer skills.
c) M- Method of training
 I. On the job training :
i. Coaching
ii. Mentoring
iii. Understudy
iv. Job rotation
v. Job instruction technique(JIT)
 II. Off the job training
i. Case study
ii. Role play
iii. Presentations
iv. Simulation games
v. Demonstrations
vi. Group discussions
vii. Lectures
viii. Sensitivity training
 d) E- Execution of training

The execution step of ACMEE requires 5 important

organizational decisions, which are also the components of
designing the sales training program. These decisions are:-
i. Who will be the trainees?
ii. Who will conduct the training?
iii. When should be the training take place?
iv. Where should training be done?
v. What will be the budgeted expenditure for training?
 e) E- Evaluation of training
It is difficult to evaluate or find value of a sales training
program. This difficulty arises because it is hard to decide
which future sales performance variations are due to sales
training. There are factors such as:- environmental ( like
economic conditions, changes in companies marketing and
sales strategies, which may affect sales and profit performance
of the company more or less than the sales trade.
In evaluation the company must decide what outcomes to be
measured? How these outcomes to be measured? And when
these outcomes are to be measured?
 These outcomes

1. Reaction: These outcomes point out the participants, perception and reaction
whether the sales training achieve the objectives and whether the training staff can
be measured by using interview method or asking them to complete few
questionnaire.
2. Learning: This outcome measures how much knowledge, skills or attitudes were
learned or absorbed by the sales trainees. The information collection method are
test and interviews of the sales trainees. There may be before and after test or a
test and an interview taken after the training is completed.
3. Behaviour: The outcome here measures whether there was change in the trainees
behaviour. The assessment of the trainees, change of behaviour is conducted by
immediate supervisor, who can observe the trainees after the sales training is over.
The measurement may also include self assessment by the trainee or observation
from customers.
4. Result: These are the most important outcomes. They point out
whether the outcome of the training has improved performance results
and whether the benefits of training more than the cost
 Sales Training Methods
Sales training is done to through different methods to
improve attention and interest the sales force. It
helps the organisation to enhance and increase their
sales
in terms of units, in profit etc.. Training methods are
divided under two heads these are on the job training
and off the job training.
On the job methods:-

The most important and frequently used method of training salespeople is on-the-job training.
Most of the companies uses on the job methods for training. The following are the on –the-job
method used by the companies..
1 . Learning and mentoring - it is an informal type of on the job training used by many
companies. Mentors usually provide the new employee advice and support, as well as
information about the culture. In some of companies sales managers or senior salespersons
serve as mentors.
2. Job rotation - the sales trainee or new salesperson work in different jobs for short stints. For
instance, in a fast moving consumer goods company, a new salesperson, as a part of training is
asked to work for two months in each retail shop, company logistics department, and field
selling sales person. In some companies, job rotation is used to groom sales person for
management positions.
3. Under study - Under this system, senior and experienced workman is assigned the job of
teaching the new employee as this understudy. The trainee under this system loses is
motivation an morale because the person under whom he is working does not take interest in
him. A common version of such training is ―three position plan‖. Under it, a man learns from
the man above him and teaches the man below in. This system is more suitable in
circumstances where the trainer requires an assistant.
 Off the job methods
Off the job method is the method organized by the companies outside the
company for the improvement and betterment of the work of sales force .
and improving the sales.

1. Lecture method
2. Presentation/Demonstration
3. Case studies
4. Role play
5. Stimulation games and management games
6. Vestibule Training
 7.Online Training
a) EPSS
Electronic Performance Support System improves on traditional computer
based training by making the information available to the salespeople
immediately and in a personalized manner.
b) Interactive multimedia training
It is faster, less expensive and more effective than conventional employee
instruction. It is used for retaining salespeople, who can repeat or skip
material as desired.
c)Distance Learning
It is personal training method. The system is interactive. Salespeople can
ask questions to the experts and also share information with their peers by
calling on toll free numbers.