Available in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne
- Professional selling skills workshops 100% tailored to your team.
- Delivered at your premises or sales conference Australia-wide.
- Customised sales training program developed with your input for maximum relevance.
Do your technical, professional or specialist staff shy away from being in ‘sales’?
Do they avoid sales activities that could create extra revenue, and miss new business opportunities?
Unfortunately many people from non-sales backgrounds – and those with “old school” sales training – believe selling is all about being pushy, manipulative, and convincing clients to buy. But that’s a very out-dated view.
It’s time to learn proven professional selling skills
Over the last 5-10 years client expectations have evolved. A lot.
Sellers now need to be smarter and better prepared for sales conversations. Recent research from CEB has shown many buyers are already over 60% of the way through their buying process before they even talk to a supplier.
However, many people in “sales” roles, including those in professional, technical, and advisory positions have never received any sales training that enables them to effectively recognise, initiate and manage sales situations. Understandably these trusted professionals and technical specialists get nervous when they are asked to undertake tasks they are unfamiliar with, such as selling.
The good news is they can easily learn appropriate selling skills. And they can even enjoy the experience!
Read what our training clients have said about our work
Sales training for technical specialists and sales pro’s
Your team could be considered to be product or technical experts within their industry. But when it comes to selling and business development activities they may still feel like a novice.
Delivering corporate sales training to technical experts and sales professionals can be pretty challenging…
- They are often wary of the ‘dark side’ of influencing others.
- They may dislike the idea of being a sales person.
- They don’t want to be pushy with clients and may take on a reactive ‘service’ mindset.
- They often feel like the guardian of the client relationship, and don’t want to upset that.
- They are cautious about stepping outside their comfort zone of product information, established relationships and process-driven thinking.
The outcome of effective sales training will be your staff are more confident, more proactive, and more capable to pursue and win new business opportunities.
Creating a customised training experience
You probably understand there’s more to great sales training than simply workbooks, slides and whiteboards. Creating an effective training program means more than just preparing the paperwork. It requires a combination of:
- Current industry knowledge (of your industry).
- First-hand input from participants prior to the session.
- An understanding of your company culture and priorities.
- Involvement of management to support the program and changes.
- Inclusion of “best practice” sales strategies and professional skills.
- An interactive adult format to encourage discussion, learning and retention.
Training for professional sales and technical staff must be practical, well structured, and delivered in a way that addresses the realities of managing your clients. Importantly, staff must gain extra confidence in their ability to proactively seek sales opportunities and effectively manage sales conversations.
Sales training format options
From experience it has been observed that every company requires a different training ‘solution’. The specific industry, the company culture, and the existing staff structure and skill-set all combine to create a particular manner of handling sales opportunities.
Effective sales training must cater for the environment in which your team operates.
Training may be conducted in a number of formats to suit the availability of participants, the experience level of participants, and the degree of support required to achieve the desired goals:
- From half-day to two-day training sessions.
- Combined with follow-up sessions to maximise personal change.
- Follow-on individual coaching.
- Participation in company webinars or teleconferences.
- Additional support and resources.
Individual sales coaching
If you have individuals requiring particular attention a personal sales coaching program may be more suitable. Individual coaching can also be used to amplify the impact of group sales training by ensuring more consistent application of the desired techniques and strategies.
Sales training topics
Corporate sales training is developed to achieve improvements in specific skills, attitudes, and business outcomes. These outcomes are investigated in detail with each client and sales training topics may include:
- The flow of sales conversations.
- Managing communication styles.
- Using the SOX™ question strategy to explore and gain commitment.
- Making initial contact.
- Managing objections and questions.
- Being assertive.
- The client meeting agenda.
- Time management.
- Identifying value for the client.
- Recognising new business triggers.
- Key account management.
- Trust building factors.
- Personal networking skills.
- Effective delegation skills.
- Sales coaching skills for sales leaders.
… and more
Your sales trainer
Your trainer is Stuart Ayling, Director at Vectis and a professional ‘real world’ sales trainer who has been at the pointy end of business to business selling himself. He has the experience to understand your sales and business development challenges and apply relevant learning solutions.
For over 20 years Stuart has worked in sales and marketing across a variety of industry sectors. In addition to his extensive hands-on industry experience Stuart has also taught sales and marketing at the internationally accredited University of Queensland Business School. He understands the theory and the practice.
As an experienced sales strategist and trainer, Stuart Ayling has faced most situations before. He has developed and delivered customised in-house sales training and presentation skills training programs for a wide range of organisations in the business-to-business and services sector within Australia and internationally.
Would you like to learn more about how your team may benefit?