Sales training to future proof your business

If you want your business to accelerate then investing in sales training is arguably the best way to achieve it. Staff who feel valued and invested in, and also have the right skills to succeed will be the biggest asset you have.

But how to you make sure your sales team is prepared?

The core training for any professional sales executive will normally include eight building blocks that form the foundation of their learning:

1. Product and brand knowledge
2. Competitors and marketplace
3. Digital disruptors
4. Legislation and compliance
5. Selling skills
6. Negotiation and objection handling
7. Teamwork and collaboration
8. KPIs and hitting targets

These can be undertaken through manufacturer training courses and independent training companies, usually involving a blended learning approach to appeal to all learners. 

Many retailers choose to grow their own trainees on supported programmes over a number of months, as well as upskilling existing colleagues on short workshops and refreshers with the latest information.

Once these basics are in place you need to look at two other elements: ever changing consumer behaviour and the willingness of staff to be trained.

Consumer behaviour

Ultimately your sales processes and people need to constantly adapt to the changing needs of your customers. Customers (like many of us) are short of time and patience these days.

With the increasing bombardment of technology on consumer behaviour, it’s important that sales teams adapt with the necessary training to capitalise on current trends, such as digital consumption in a timely and professional manner.  This naturally gives businesses a competitive advantage. Just like a telephone enquiry, if we don’t get back to them quickly, somebody else will.

The digital landscape has transformed the way consumers interact with businesses, brands and individuals. Customers no longer visit multiple sites gathering information about models, instead they enjoy performing their own research as it gives them a level of control. They are able to seek out details about specification, pricing, EV range and reviews using You Tube and dealership social channels. This means they are very well informed by the time they make first contact, normally online.

As more customers engage with the digital showroom, it’s important that the sales team, and business as a whole, represent themselves equally well online as they do in their physical showroom presence.  The digital touch points your customers experience must be just as slick and polished as if they were a ‘walk-in’.

With such well-informed customers, we can use our time with them to focus on other parts of the process.

Willingness to learn

This shift in behaviour towards omni-channel retailing is exciting and brings lots of opportunities, however, it also requires dealerships to ensure everyone in the business, especially first-response sales teams, are confident, knowledgeable, and effective at handling these changing trends. 

Businesses also need to ensure that ALL the sales team are trained to a consistent level, ensuring the customer service is excellent, no matter who is handling the enquiry on the day.

• Sometimes staff can be ‘over’ trained, and reluctantly attend ‘yet another course’, which eats into their selling time and therefore earnings.

• Some believe that they’ve been doing the job so long, that they don’t need more training, especially when it comes to digital or video!

• More often than not, a salesperson who is reluctant to engage in the video and digital enquiry with customers, purely lacks the confidence to make the video in the first place.

Digital future proofing

Forward thinking businesses that focus on their digital responses, are seeing huge success in conversion rates from online enquiry into sales, and thereby racing ahead of their competition who are slower off the mark.  Customers love the time saving efficiencies that digital offers, and return again and again to the dealers that are the most responsive.

By developing the following skills and structuring simple and effective content that drives responses, dealerships can steam ahead as more customers choose the digital route for their next purchase:

• Confidence on Camera
• Building Rapport & Trust through a Lens
• Presenting Skills
• Product Placement
• Social Media

Utilising video is a must over the next few years, and the dealerships with skilled people, delivering standout customer experiences online will be the ones that will seamlessly generate more business opportunities. That is why it’s more important than ever for management teams to look towards formal, specialised digital training as part of their overall sales training strategy.

Sabina Hegarty is Managing Director of Calibre Group Solutions. Calibre Group has been providing training and support services to the UK’s automotive sector since 2005