With fall right around the corner, it’s a football fan’s favorite time of year: watching games and eating buffalo wings! We can’t help but think of how similar great sales management is to a successful NFL training camp. Coaches are working hard to create a team, hone their player’s skills, and prepare for the long season ahead. Great sales managers are likewise working hard to create a team, hone their sales team’s skills, and prepare for a never-ending season of selling.
Want to create sales teams that are better equipped to build great client relationships that generate more sales revenue? After all, when a sales manager’s team hits their annual sales quota, it’s just as good as winning the Super Bowl. So, let’s take a closer look at how to run your sales training like an NFL training camp.
Training Preparation
Why do football teams spend countless hours memorizing their playbooks, running cone drills, and rehearsing game-day scenarios? In football, there’s no greater asset than preparation. Just ask Malcolm Butler, the Super Bowl 2015 hero. His extensive game-day preparation led him to anticipate the final play of the Super Bowl, make the interception, and secure the Super Bowl win. It was epic. That’s what preparation does; it prepares you to be a closer. Interestingly enough, the Sales & Marketing Business Brief discovered 70% of sales teams have lackluster closing skills. Wow! Perhaps a lack of effective sales training is to blame for these results. The operative word here is “effective” – there is no end to sales training options, yet few are effective at helping sales teams win.
Team Motivation
Every NFL team places a certain level of importance in motivating their players to maximize their performance. Football is a game of passion and competitive play. Selling should be about the same. It’s my offense vs. your defense. It’s my players vs. your players. If you want to inspire success you’ve got to find out what motivates your sales team. Is it money? Closing a particular sale? The process of completing a sale? Either way, as a sales manager, it’s your job to improve your sales team’s performance and put your players in a position where they each can be successful – however, they each define success. Create goals that motivate your sales team to succeed.
So how do you do this? Here are a few articles to point you in the right direction:
This article from Criteria for Success has some great ideas to switch things up in your next training session. A lot of these tactics give your sales team the chance to show off their skills while also teaching them to adapt to a new situation.
Andrew Fayad, CEO and Managing Partner of eLearning Mind, presents five suggestions on how to effectively train your sales team. These tips help engage and motivate your employees.
Entrepreneur guru, Barb Hauge, has some useful tips to practice your closing strategies. She has some really fun and useful ideas on how you can be in the 30% who close effectively.
Integrity Solutions produced an article about what you can incorporate into your sales training to be prepared for how the sales world is changing. These tips will help your sales be ahead of the game and ready for what’s next.
Become the Ultimate Sales Manager Coach
If you want a sales team that turns rejection into success, then you must become the manager and mentor they need. Greatness takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. Not everyone knows how to put together a successful sales training program. It takes research, time, and fine-tuning.
Is your company’s sales training everything you want it to be? Does it include:
360° feedback from everyone involved in your company’s sales process?
Videotaped dry runs of sales presentations and negotiations?
The latest technology for measuring and improving sales effectiveness, such as digital perception analyzers and relationship measurement tools?
30-, 60- and 90-day action plans for every participant?
Regular post-training “dripfeed” reinforcements to make sure the training sticks?
Most importantly, can your training program prove its effectiveness to your company’s top managers? The Brookeside Group has been conducting sales training for over three decades. Our workshops make use of several advanced, proprietary tools and techniques. And we have produced dramatic sales gains for clients worldwide, time and again – and can prove it.
If you’d like to learn about our sales workshops or other training workshops, please contact us.
Note: A version of this post was originally written for the salesEQUITY Blog.