Focus Magazine - Spring 2016 - (Page 40)

SELLINGSKILLS Defending Your Sales Process ■ By Patrick D'Amico W alking into the oﬃce of the vice president of sales, you're unsure why you have been summoned. Is something going right or is something going wrong? A couple minutes into the meeting, it's revealed: "I'm not sure our selling skills process is working. I've been talking to a new vendor and I really like their sales process training. I think we should engage them." Cue yet another re-packaging of the same sales process. If you've ever experienced this, you may be thinking, "Change again?" Don't worry, you're not alone, not by a long shot. While misery loves company, it's little consolation when faced with responding to leaders. Confession. Aer more than 20 years in this industry, I have observed that most sales processes will work if the training translates into actual implementation in the field. e success of a "new" sales process is too oen linked to the marketing firepower of its seller, and not data proving superiority over others. e sad truth is I have seen new sales processes be more eﬀective when an organization spends so much money on it they demand adoption. Now, isn't that a little ironic? In the scenario described above, there's a good chance you would be thinking how to communicate to the vice president that it's not the process, and likely not the training, which is lacking. If your sales skills training or process is not being adopted in the field, the most likely reason is the lack of pull-through and coaching from sales management, and lack of alignment with marketing. Addressing this though is fraught with emotional and rational challenges. First, you may worry that sharing this opinion will be taken personally, a suggestion they can't eﬀectively drive adoption. Maybe they aren't driving it at all? Sales leaders know selling skills and processes are important, but oen prefer to believe their teams of professional sales people appreciate the need to develop this skill. It becomes a "You should be motivated to do this on your own." Truth is, no matter how many analogies are presented to a sales team about how professional athletes practice X number of hours versus X number of minutes actually playing, or how Oscar-winners rehearse every line hundreds of diﬀerent ways before they are in front of the camera, our experience tells us sales people need to be prompted, and oen more than gently. Second, sales training almost always feels somewhat responsible for a lack of manager buy-in and/or pullthrough. is can be a mistake and can cloud your judgment. At times, this thinking even causes us to look for other answers that are not accurate but soer to deliver. Instead, you should feel confident that if the sales training department is providing adequate training and pull-through tools or communication, it is not their failure to own. So how might you address this concern? Instead of agreeing to seek a new process, focus on analysis and course evaluation to determine why pull-through and implementation is not occurring. As training professionals, these are our core competencies and responsibilities. is may be an uncomfortable approach - fearing what it may reveal - but it should provide a picture that will tell the senior sales management staﬀ that there are root causes not related to the selling process. Ultimately, it should point to solutions that don't require a change in process. at route forever dooms our organizations to the equivalent of a training "Groundhog Day," where we launch a new sales process again and again and again. ■ Patrick D'Amico is director of sales training at Medtronic. Email Pat at patrickdamico@yahoo.com. 40 FOCUS | SPRING 2016 | www.L-TEN.org http://www.L-TEN.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Focus Magazine - Spring 2016

Focus Magazine - Spring 2016
From the President: Change is in the Air
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Guest Editor: 'Training Event' or 'Learning Experience'?
Directions: Engaging with Life Sciences Leaders
Front of the Room: 'It Can't Be Me, Right?'
Neuroscience: The Science of Imitation
Bristol-Myers Squibb: Launching a New Global Selling Model
Accelerating the Journey to Customer-Centricity
Cognitive Science: Creating More Effective Multimedia Learning
The Art of Sales Improvisation – Your Competitive Advantage
Developing Leaders Who Excel at Strategy Execution
Learning Technologies for Event-Based Training
Defending Your Sales Process
Virtual How: Market Access Training
Ad Index
Focus Contacts
5 Questions with Kevin Kruse

Focus Magazine - Spring 2016