One of my pet peeves as a sales consultant and trainer is when someone says “I did sales training before and it didn’t work.” When I dig deeper, however, I almost always discover the client expected to see miraculous results when their sales staff went back out to the field following a sales training. To all of you who have that same belief — WAKE UP!

Results are a directly tied to the sales manager’s ability to communicate and reinforce clear performance expectations and follow-through. Unless there is follow-up and reinforcement after any sales training, sales reps left to their own devices will be more likely to fall back into their old daily selling habits.

Want proof? We just did a beta test on our new IMPACT Virtual Sales Training™ program (which is an amazing new technology for geographically dispersed sales teams). In one test, we conducted an “Open” enrollment program. We had six sales reps sign up — all of whom wanted to learn a sales process to help them improve their sales skills. The second beta group was drawn from a healthcare company whose regional manager wanted to do a pilot program for six reps. This group had the same objective — improving their sales skills — but were dispersed across several selling territories from New Jersey to California.

After only 3 weeks in the Open program, five participants had dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. None of them completed the required homework or projects to help them reinforce what they were learning. There was no performance expectation or management support from their within respective organizations. In the end, many of them simply decided that learning new skills wasn’t as important as their other daily activities.

By contrast, there were two sales management observers of the program in the healthcare group. Each week, a manager would send an email to the group praising their progress and follow- through. I just received a comment from this manager that read “For the first time ever, I was speechless on most calls. It was fantastic, and I think [our sales rep] made some great progress with these new offices (because of what she learned in the training.)” She went on to say she is seeing measurable results as a result of what they were learning and applying.

The obvious difference: the expectations, reinforcement and follow-through of the sales managers. The bottom line is, if you want to make a measurable difference in your sales, begin at your sales management level.

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Recently I tried out to be a referee for the 2010 Men’s Lacrosse World Championships (the equivalent of the World Cup in soccer).

There were 84 players trying out for Team USA and 19 other referees vying to be the U.S. representative for this prestigious event. Well, I worked hard and when the tryout was over I was not selected.

As much as I wanted to be a part of this and be recognized, I will say I was disappointed in not being selected. But you know what — that disappointment went away very quickly because I immediately shifted my focus to working towards tryouts for the next event. I took feedback from my peers and assessors, and am implementing steps that will leave me better prepared to qualify when tryouts come around again in 2013.

What does this have to do with sales? Everything! As professional salespeople we must continue getting better. Never be satisfied; never be complacent. As a salesperson myself, I know when I gain a new client I always take time to celebrate in some way. But that may also be the best time to uncover how I could have done something better — maybe asking a different question or sending a client an article relevant to them might have garnered me a greater margin or a significant referral.

I encourage you to do something every day that will improve you as a person, salesperson or sales manager. Whether it is reading a book, an article or something as simple as asking a prospect or customer how they feel about how you interact with them.

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In the best of times, selling effectively requires us to be optimistic, prepared, upbeat and all the other positives we know so well. I like to say “we must see ourselves in the best possible way.” In the worst of times, this mantra takes on even more significance.

With most news reports stressing the negative effects of everything, staying positively focused in the midst of the depressing onslaught becomes even more challenging! I am always amazed at how some salespeople remain undaunted in the face of negativity. I often thought it couldn’t be! I was wrong! I was a victim of my own mind — I bought into thinking everyone has negative thoughts, and reacted accordingly.

Yes, we all have negative thoughts. The difference is top salespeople don’t dwell on those thoughts. They:

• Recognize them as negative thoughts, put them aside, and move on
• Choose to focus on the positive
• Stick to the task at hand – what they can control
• Believe in themselves
• Say nice, positive things to themselves; self talk is positive
• Learn from experiences and think constructively
• Are realistic
• Don’t “set themselves up” with artificial limits in their thinking

Top performers maintain a healthy positive attitude. They welcome every experience as a new, unique opportunity to learn and grow and improve.

I’m still learning about the salesperson in me. How about you?

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Recently, a colleague of mine sent me a link to a blog post that I found quite intriguing. You may too. The concept behind the post is that the strongest B2B salespeople treat sales presentations like the most successful trial lawyers treat a trial.

At first, I was skeptical and didn’t really see how this concept made any sense; however, as I read the post, it started to come together for me. The basis of the post was that salespeople – much like good trial lawyers – must take the complex facts (in the case of salespeople, features and benefits) and make them simple for their audience.

One of the most compelling quotes from the post that ties into this assertion says, “Despite all the high-level sales training being jammed into our heads, we’d still have to learn to translate complex features and benefits into a simple language that everyone could understand.”

This hits home and rings perfectly with our philosophy: street-smart, simple and usable sales training doesn’t need to be high-level theory and complex models. It needs to be easily implementable! There are many out there that believe that the more complex a sales process methodology, the better. My position is that if it’s too complex, it’s not going to be used!

Don’t get me wrong…this post isn’t meant to “plug” our IMPACT Selling methodology. Instead, it’s designed to get you thinking about where you stand regarding complex vs. simple sales processes. You make the call based on your beliefs. However, before you do, check out the blog post:

http://www.simplenomics.com/sales-presentations-like-trial-lawyer/

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No doubt, these are tough economic times, and many of your regular customers may not be doing as much business from you as in the past. In fact, those same customers may be asking for concessions from you such as lower prices, easier financing terms or a variety of bundling options.

Some of your customers’ demands could appear unreasonable – or unprofitable – for you, so you may have to say “No,” and that’s okay. If there’s mutual trust between you and your regular customers, they will understand there’s a limit to your generosity. However, instead of responding to your customers with what you can’t do, try to offer some solutions about what you can do. I call it, “Throwing them a bone.”

For example, you may have some options that are low-cost to you but have a high perceived value for the customer. Adding those in to a proposal in place of a price cut demonstrates your sincere desire to help and could produce the win-win scenario that helps both sides.

Every salesperson and business faces hard times; however, history tells us those hard times will pass. Your customers may not remember everything you said or did for them in the past, but they will remember how you made them feel about doing business with you.

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