ETL Sales Forum

According to research, the most common cause of failure in direct selling is lack of training. A good training and follow-up program can almost guarantee success for even people with average levels of motivation. And a lack of training limits the opportunity to those who are persistent and willing to learn from their mistakes. See where you stand with your training program: Do you

□ Have a standard training program (at least 16 hours) that every new recruit must complete? Or do you often make exceptions and allow ‘comprehensive’ or ‘intensive’ training programs?
□ Have a dedicated and qualified trainer (could be one of the managers) to conduct the standard training program? Or do you assume that every manager can be a trainer?
□ Use audio-visual technology to enhance your training? Or is it just the traditional white board and flipcharts?
□ Include enough role-playing during the training to enhance the learning and confidence levels? Or most of it is just lectures?
□ Cover the features and benefits of all the key products? And have all the components of the products available to review and understand? Or is it just covered from the sales material?
□ Include ‘attitude’ training to cover critical topics like importance of a healthy self-image, belief systems, handling rejection, persistence etc.? Or is it just products and selling steps?
□ Conduct an evaluation at the end of the training, usually through a mock presentation, to see if the trainee is prepared to go out? Or does everyone automatically qualify?
□ Have a precise field-training plan for the first week after training? Or is it usually left up to the trainee and manager to work out?
□ Have a follow-up system that tracks the improvement of the trainee in key areas like number of calls, appointments, presentations, orders, cancellations and referrals? Or the trainees are left on their own to figure it out.
□ Always include some element of training (product or selling or attitude) in every sales meeting? Or is it done sometimes?

It’s easy (relatively) to promise the world to our new recruits and bring them into the classroom. The tough part is to follow through on our promise – to ensure that they actually get what they came looking for. That’s the biggest responsibility of the trainers and sales leaders!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Checklist, ETL, leaders, trainers, Training & Motivation