The most common feedback from sales training and how it can help you
After more than 20 years of training and leading salespeople, I truly enjoy the one-on-one moments of feedback. It’s that moment when someone in a training workshop or coaching session opens up about their pivotal learning point from the session.
At every event, training workshop, coaching program, and speaking event, one or more salespeople in the audience will approach me afterwards and open up about what they took from the session. I really appreciate these interactions.
The most common occurrence is when they shake my hand and thank me for the presentation. These are great, and I love the professionalism this shows on their part. Acknowledging their compliment, I like to ask one further question after shaking hands: “What do you think was the biggest help for you from the presentation?”
Over the last nine years of running an Ag-focused sales training service, I have heard several answers to my question. I compiled the most common ones below. I share them as they might help you to understand how your career should include continuous learning. These discussions might be helpful or open up your perspective on your selling approach.
First and most common is:
“I need to start asking questions! or ‘ more questions,‘ or ‘better questions.”
This is the single most important skill and concept that I want salespeople to take from my training. Most of us don’t ask our customers and prospects enough questions. We don’t dig deep enough into their answers to the few questions we do ask. The real revelation is when the salesperson realizes they have been flying blind into the closing process all along. Previously, when asking for the sale (a closing question), they had no idea if the customer would say yes or no. Often, this indecision would lead them to not even ask for the sale. If they did, they were just hoping for a positive answer.
However, with the awareness of asking questions, they are now more confident to close.
Next most common feedback I hear is:
“I never realized there was an actual process. I have just been going out, meeting people, and getting to know them.”
While there’s nothing wrong with spending time to get to know our customers and have a relaxed conversation, that’s not the entirety of a sales call. Your customers are busy. They are running a large, high-investment, low-margin business. Time is both a resource for you and your customers to use wisely. They want you to buy from their vendors in a professional approach. They might tolerate and even enjoy a short discussion to reconnect. However, they want you to get to the point and meet their needs.
In workshops, we learn the best way to approach that within the highly competitive agribusiness selling world. With 4-5 salespeople a day calling on them, you have a very short window of time to capture your customer’s attention and not appear like you are pushing product.
The next is my all-time favorite because it really is about their confidence to sell:
“I’m excited to get out and try this on my sales calls.”
Variations of this indicate they now feel reassured that they have a process or a system of steps that gives them a path to follow on their sales approach. Previously, they just ran on gut instinct. Call on as many customers and prospects as possible…tell them about our products and how they work…. Then just fill in the rest of the sales call with social discussions…hoping they ask to buy from me…if not, I might ask for the sale or just leave the farm.
The feedback from the training tells me they now feel confident that they have an approach that focuses on an actual sale. The important distinction about this newfound confidence. It’s not in their ability to sell. That confidence comes later from actually going to the farm and applying the training concepts. However, they now have confidence that there is a system to follow, and they are excited to go out and try it.
The last one I want to share with you isn’t as common, but very important.
“I guess I have been doing it all wrong!”.
It’s important because there is a lot of sales psychology going on with this feedback
Recently, at the end of two full days of training, I was soliciting feedback and getting commitments to put the training into practice right away. One of the salespeople mentioned, “I think I have been doing it all wrong!”. The importance of this comment comes from the tone and intention of the person saying it.
Sometimes, it’s a sarcastic comment. If the person has been selling for a longer time and has had success, they might say this to indicate their sarcasm at someone like me telling them how to sell.
However, in my recent case, the salesperson was sincere. They went through the workshop and felt their previous approach was wrong. My reply to this person was to first remind them that my training, just like everyone else’s, is an opinion. Hopefully, a fairly educated opinion based on my experience and knowledge. It’s not about right and wrong. It’s more about sharing my knowledge and experience in a format that they can remember and put into practice with their customers. As long as you are not out there damaging relationships, all sales calls are good. Typically, the more you see a customer, the better the relationship. However, the more you see them and apply a focused sales approach, the more you should sell.
My comment to this group was that I hope I didn’t depict my training as the best way or the only way to approach selling. There are many ways to approach it. Again, it’s not about right and wrong. It’s all about finding the approach that feels like a natural fit for you and works. It’s about a career-long journey of continuous improvement.
Final note: I encourage you to approach the speaker or trainer the next time you have one of these sessions. Let them know what resonated with you the most. Hopefully, it will be me and we can have a discussion about it!
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