Jay Tankersley

Imagine your ideal salesperson: They always close deals. They’re optimistic in the face of challenges. Your customers love interacting with them.

Finding a team of ideal salespeople could greatly impact your company’s success. So, before you begin the hiring process, keep that ideal salesperson in mind. It’s important to determine the characteristics that make a candidate a compelling salesperson.

When you come to each interview already knowing what you’re looking for, hiring winning talent is an easier endeavor. And, sure, there may not actually be the perfect salesperson, but there are a few essential sales skills that all ideal hires possess.

Let’s uncover which characteristics you should look for in order to hire winning talent for your sales team.

With the start of a new year, you’re likely to see more people heading to the gym to improve their fitness. Maybe you’ll observe some individuals with nicotine patches trying to kick their bad habit. New Year’s resolutions are commonly associated with personal goals, but it’s also important to set objectives for your professional life.

Every business’s main goal is profitability. So, when you hear professionaldevelopment programbenefitslike “team morale” and “employee loyalty,” you might write them off as “nice-to-haves” that aren’t really essential to your company’s bottom line.

But, you’d be wrong.

The right professionaldevelopment program returns much more than an intangible ideal: It reaps real monetary advantages for your organization.

One of the key components of being an effective sales representative – one who creates business and generates revenue for your company – is mastering the incoming sales call. After all, the sales call sets the tone for your company’s entire relationship with a customer.

So, do your people have this skill, or are they in serious need of sales performance training?

In evaluating your current sales team, you may find that some team members are comfortable on the phone and connect with customers easily, while others are stumbling through sales calls and having difficulty closing deals. Regardless, even the most experienced sales representatives make mistakes that could cost your company a new account.

Review the following list of sales call “don’ts” to help your team avoid these major blunders and master the incoming sales call.

There’s a difference between making a sale and building a relationship with a customer. Trained sales representatives shouldn’t always be thinking about closing the deal quickly. They should be thinking about how to use customer-oriented selling to create connections with their prospects.

So, how do you take your sales strategy from hollow to impactful? Focus on your sales team’s ability to make helpful recommendations. If they acquire the skills to do this correctly, they’ll be better equipped to build trust and forge lasting relationships.

Explore these four steps to developing customer-oriented sales recommendations.

In business, it’s usually more valuable to develop a long-term customer relationship than to make a one-time sale. But, if your team is too focused on closing the deal and pushing products, they’re going to have difficulty developing that all-important relationship with your customers.

A customer-oriented sales approach is the key to increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty and business. Instead of forcing your products and services on prospects, your reps should be thinking about identifying customer needs and working to solve those problems.

Consider the following ways to improve your sales team’s success through customer-oriented selling.

When a company seeks to grow its current client base or increase profits, the first impulse is often to invest in pricey marketing efforts or bulk up the sales team. But, in reality, these may not be the solution.

In many cases, it’s more effective to turn your focus inward and examine the customer service skills of your employees. Here are a few statistics that illustrate this point and put the value of customer service into perspective:

• 84% of customers say their expectations were not exceeded during their last customer service interaction.
• Approximately 64% of consumers take their business elsewhere after having a poor customer service experience.
• It costs five times as much to acquire a new customer than it does to retain a current one.

Workplace diversity is a rising trend in our country. According to the Center for American Progress, women account for almost half of today’s workforce, and people of color make up nearly a third of American workers.

Gender, age, race, background and many other types of diversities make for a rich company culture. These differences also allow for fresh perspectives and new ideas that benefit your organization as a whole.

But, they also present a number of challenges for your management team. Don’t allow these difficulties to impede your company from taking advantage of workplace diversity. Consider these four secrets to managing a diverse workforce more effectively.

We’ve all experienced the difficult customer. (Maybe we’ve even been one!) They argue. They complain. They may even yell.

Since your customer service team members are likely to encounter difficult customers, knowing how to deal with them is vital to your company’s success. Explore five customer service training solutions to help your team members satisfy unhappy customers.

When workplace performance isn’t improving like it should, you know you have a management training problem to address – and soon. If you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind.

Overcoming ineffective leadership is a challenge, especially when training program participants are snoozing during their sessions. If you want leaders to step up their game with greater productivity, better management skills and a contribution to higher employee morale, you need professional development training that engages.

So, how do you enable your team to get the most out of a training program?

Start by making the training more fun. To provide an enjoyable experience with tangible results, make sure your employee training program comprises these techniques.