Personal Selling

Electronic Sales Training

Developing the skills and techniques needed to be successful at selling requires an extensive commitment by the individual seller and the seller's company to sales training.  Sales training is the hallmark of professional selling.  If there is one thing that separates the truly successful salesperson from those who are not, it is the amount of training and preparation they engage in.

Most organizations that employ a sales force offer new salespeople an extensive formal training program often held at dedicated training facilities.  These training programs can range from a few days to many months depending on the industry.  But once a salesperson has made the move to the field, training does not stop.  Those involved in selling must continue to stay abreast of their products, customers, markets and competitors.  While many companies may continue to employ the same methods used when they first trained their salespeople, a large number of firms are finding that ongoing training can be just as effective using electronic options such as delivering training over the Internet, through downloadable computer programs or through interactive CDs or DVDs.

While feedback using electronic means is not as personal as it might be with in-person training, sophisticated electronic training programs are effective in educating and testing trainee’s knowledge.  Also, a live trainer can be contacted very quickly via e-mail, online chat or by a phone call if a question does arise.

Using electronic delivery, the cost to the company for adding or updating training material is inexpensive and quick compared to the cost and time needed to produce and ship paper-based materials.  Additionally, the use of RSS feeds or email enables salespeople to be quickly notified when new training material is available.  This is useful when the sales force must be made aware of a recent change that will impact how products are promoted such as a price change, new information to be used as comparison to competitor’s products, a potential problem that has arisen when installing or using a product or some other adjustment.