Why most sales training doesn’t work.

  

While we would like all sales training to work, most of it does not work.  Here are some simple reasons:

 

1.     Turnover is so great that by the time the training is complete, the majority of the salespeople who took the training are gone. 

 

2.     We are training only a few salespeople at a time, and the entire sales force, managers included, are not on the same page with growth and development.

 

3.     Management refuses to buy into the training, and when salespeople begin to use the information they learn, after several rebuffs by the manager, any benefit from the training is effectively cut short.

 

4.    We attempt to train only the salespeople, and we forget about training the other 80% of employees on how to deal with customers.  Managers, office people, parts and service, ASM’s, and technicians, everyone deals with customers.

 

5.     Most training today is 40 to 50 years old.  H-e-l-l-o….. that cloud of dust you see up on the horizon is our customers, and they are way ahead of us.  You see, our customers are more serious about buying a car than we are about selling one.   How do we know that,  because they are studying how to buy.  They are reading every new piece of info they can get their hands on, trying every new thing imaginable- - -BECAUSE  THEY  ARE  SERIOUS  ABOUT  BUYING  A  CAR.

 

What do we do?  The same old thing, come in, get coffee, check the paper to see if the boss spent enough on low price advertising, and we wait for price buyers, then we take turns trying to get the price low enough so we can “sell” them.   H-e-l-l-o… THAT  IS  NOT  BEING  SERIOUS  ABOUT  SELLING  A  CAR.

 

6.    The veteran salespeople, you know, the ones selling between 14 and 20 cars a month, have a vested interest in seeing that the newbies are not successful.  (And so grasshopper, your best salespeople are not usually your best salespeople.)

 

BTW - - your best salespeople are those who support the dealership by helping the new salespeople become proficient at the trade.

 

7.    And last, we don’t do enough of real world sales training, and we usually don’t give it enough time to sink in.  We look for immediate results, and if they are slow in coming, we chuck the training, wait a few months and try something else.

 

Training which brings desired results takes time, dealer buy-in, manager buy-in and sales force buy-in.    Real training  begins inside a person, grows from inside out, it changes the person, and then that changed person can get out of the way and let the buyer buy what they want, need and are willing to pay for.

 

Most of what we have been taught is counter productive, and keeps people from buying. We know that because four out of five people who enter the dealership, on a national basis,  LEAVE  WITHOUT  BUYING.  And friends, that is not effective selling.

 

john@salesmd.net

Toll-Free 1-800-380-3040