SALES TRAINING

Sales people are greedy. That the way it is, and how it should be. Without their hunger for more, a company will never achieve its commercial potential, so every effort needs to be made to feed that hunger, and a huge part of that lies in sales training.

It is said that sales people are born, not made, but at Activia, we beg to differ. Essential selling skills like asking the right questions, listening to answers, recognising buying signals and using closing techniques to suit the situation only come with learning, application and experience. For sure, natural characteristics like an inclination to engage with people, or win them over, will help you so far, but in a business environment you need much more.

Sales training must be effective, and focused on the individual sales person, the company and target market. We have a suite of modern selling courses that can be attended on a public schedule, or tailored to suit your needs.

The effectiveness of a Sales function in dealing with customers, in building and maintaining relationships and maximising the level and profitability of business, is almost certainly the most significant influence on the profitability of any company. And effective sales training can often improve performance betond recognition.

Just think of all the selling opportunities your sales team gets: not just incoming calls and emails, but outbound calls and visits to customer offices. What is your conversion rate on those? What effect would it have on your company's profitability if you could bring about just a 10% improvement on that?

Then there are the missed opportunities - those caused by failing to take proper advantage of selling situations. These can be a tendency to sell the obvious, or the easy, but not thinking of trying to explore for more. Or the follow-up call which doesn't progress the relationship, or the speculative call that fails through a lack of proper questioning.

Think about the sales that occur without the proper effort to upsell: the higher-priced alternative, the add-on product(s), or even a higher order quantity. The lost potential can be staggering.

It doesn't end there either. Sales opportunities are everywhere: customer service or support staff encounter situations every day where a question, or even a complaint, can be turned into a sale.

We can never measure what we miss. So you won't be able to put a number on the cost to your organisation of the business that slips through your fingers. You will, however, be able to feel from a little observation -- and your own logic -- that some kind of investment in preventing quite so much waste will repay itself many, many times over.

Activia's sales training courses cover all you need to know. Click on the buttons to the right to see full details for each.

An Introduction to Successful Selling, where delegates are given an understanding of the sales process along with basic selling techniques.

Putting Selling Skills Into Action takes delegates through simple but essential selling techniques, in a structured and proven way.

Professional Selling Skills raises the bar with further development of skills covered in the other courses, and introduction of new areas.

Field Sales adds great lessons on meetings and presentations to some core skills so you can make your field sales activity the efficient profit driver it should be.

Key Account Management enables you to properly qualify who you should be targeting, and how to get the most from these customers.

Successful Telephone Sales provides an understanding of the importance and usage of the telephone in selling, as well as tips on planning and creating effective scripts.

Selling Skills Fast Track is a great highly intensive workshop which takes you through the essential elements of the above courses in just one day. Be prepared for some hard work here!