It’s been almost two months since my last post. To say I’ve been busy is an understatement. Everywhere I go of late, the subject of sales brings looks of confusion in most cases. The business climate is very prosperous in some areas, and very dark and dismal in others. It depends on where you look and who you talk to.

The biggest challenge is to first admit that you don’t have it all figured out.
Companies just continue to trudge along doing the same things expecting different results. Few conversations take place between the sales person and the owner or manager. Most of those are client service and task related.

The other problem I’m seeing currently related to sales training is a lack of accountability relating to specific sales action. When did it become OK to be mediocre? Just do enough work to get by.

In a recent post by Radio Ink Publisher Eric Rhoads, he talks about the significant decline of the radio industry related to how sales people are managed, treated and trained. There is a clear lack of consistent sales training. Radio managers use “Grow Or Go”, “Make it or break it 90 day probation programs resulting in high seller turnover. One time I calculated the cost of firing and hiring a sales person and the total cost was well over $100,000. Expensive mistakes.

Bring sales training back to your company. Treat it like a part of your business like billing or order fulfillment. Provide the training and support that match realistic expectations. You’ll find your increases in sales lead to an improvement for everyone inside your organization.