1. Make your team members strong in the basics first. Once the basics become second nature to them, they’ll be ready to learn and master the finer points.
2. The most basic rule of basic rules for salespeople is to be willing to make contact with strangers. No selling business can survive, let alone thrive, if the salespeople limit their contacts to people they know.
3. Make your team members independent of you, not dependent on you. Aside from the fact that you’ll save time, you’ll also make your team more confident and, as a result, more efficient if you teach them how to stand on their own feet.
4. Your team will only be as good or bad as you train or allow them to be. If you have poor producers, the fault may be in the training. If it is, correct it. Make your team role play certain selling situations to strengthen them in the basics. If the fault isn’t in the training, perhaps the poor producers should be let go. If you allow them to remain on the team, you will in effect lower your standards, and the remaining team members will notice.
5. If you teach, practice what you preach. You team will pay more attention to the principles you espouse if you practice them. Don’t expect them to be organized if you’re not. Don’t expect them to develop good human nature skills if you haven’t developed any yourself.
6. Don’t teach your team too much too soon. Let them get strong at each point they learn before introducing them to another.
7. Give refresher training periodically. Even your best team members will get away from the basics the longer they stay in the sales business.
8. Start a good training process by telling your salespeople what you intend to teach them. Then have them role play the situation and watch, then critique them. Repeat the last two steps until they get it right.
9. Repetitive learning is the best way to learn anything. Audios and videos are invaluable tools for teaching. They’re efficient, effective and most of all inexpensive, especially if they’re self recorded.
10. More advice for developing a strong, successful team can be obtained by scheduling a free, no obligation coaching consultation at www.floydwickmancoaching.com. No fluff, no hard sell…just the facts!