Amity Business School
Sales Management
MKTG603
Amity Business School
At the end of this session, you will be
able to identify:
• Significance of Training
• Training Process
• Sales Training Cycle
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Significance of Training
• Is Training a firm’s investment or a wasteful expenditure in its
sales personnel?
– Helps in attaining better results, better productivity & job satisfaction
for employees.
– Training should not be ignored as “too expensive” or “too time
consuming” as it is critical for the very survival of the firm
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Training Process
• The process differs from firm to firm depending upon size,
resources & the markets they operate in.
• In some cases the Regional Sales head himself is in charge of
sales training.
• One thing common amidst all sales managers is the
responsibility of training their sales team.
• Training is a 4 stage process :-
Identifying firm’s training needs
Develop the training program
Deliver the training
Assess the training effort
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The Sales Training Cycle
Assess Training Effort Identify Firm’s training needs
*Determine the training’s value *Determine the objectives of the
to individual salesperson. training & the areas in which salespeople
*Determine the training’s value need training
To the whole organization *Determine who needs training
Develop training program
*Determine the content to include
Deliver Training in the training
*Schedule training *Develop objective
* Facilitate the transfer of learning *Determine the program’s staffing
needs
* Determine delivery method
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Identifying the firm’s training needs
Can additional training correct the gap b/w the outcome of what sales people are achieving currently
& what they are expected to achieve?
Sales training objectives
The same should be carried out at three levels :-
Organizational- short term & long term strategic marketing objectives
Task – input from sales managers’ & customer’s observations
Individual- inputs from sales person’s performance, self reports, feedback from customers
• At task level the focus is on identifying what level of knowledge, skills, abilities are needed for a
sales job
• Customer complaints can also be a good source of inputs while developing sales training plans
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Contd.
Who needs sales training?
• Not all people need the same training program
• The needs shall differ based on experience levels & the markets they
operate in
• This analysis helps in avoiding a situation of too less information or too
much information
• A plan should be in place to schedule training at their different career
milestones . For e.g Advanced training course after the accomplishment of
certain level of experience
• Training from outside vendors can also be included.
• Job rotations can also be a good method of training
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Designing & Developing sales training programs
• What content is needed?
• The content needs to be developed keeping in mind the target
audience. New joinees or established sales representatives
• Some of them can be Orientation/ Induction program, sales
management trainings, professional or career development
programs.
• Training can also be with regards to skills like networking,
how to develop new sales contacts, time management etc.
• OJT or Job shadowing can also be a part of the sales training
program for new hires.
• Refresher courses for experienced sales people can cover
advanced sales skills, advanced products/ services
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Contd.
• Training can also be w.r.t the integration of sales technology
with sales process.
• Some examples of technology driven applications: CRM,
contact management, sales call scheduling, travel route
planning, in house templates etc.
• Another category of training program can be overall
professional development of sales personnel on parameters
like professional speaking, account management, team selling,
negotiating skills, category management etc.
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Staffing the training program
Internal vs External staffing resources
• Should the trainer come from within the company or from outside vendor?
Time pressures
• How frequently is the training needed? Should it be on recurring basis or
one time event?
• Also can the training program be rolled out gradually or within a short
period?
Cost pressures
Cost of developing & delivering program
Training site travel, how many will be involved in training
Internal trainer more economical or outside vendor?
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Selecting & Training delivery method
Instructor led training
More flexible, interactive, helps in socializing & allows networking
Alternatives to instructor led training : Online training
On demand (self paced) training
Web conferences, Webcast, webinars
Podcasting
Wikis
Role playing
Delivering the training
•Logistics of the training
•Location- centralized/ decentralized
•Travel & Lodging costs
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Facilitate transfer of learning
• Learning transfer- whatever learnt can be retained or applied on field.
Assessing firm’s training efforts
• How effective was the training?
• Was the training objectives accomplished?
• Is there any definitive method to measure the value of sales training.
• Training is not like capital asset
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In this session, we have discussed:
• Significance of Training
• Training Process
• Sales Training Cycle
