Training Service and Marketing Sales Representatives

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A recent conversation with the co-founder of SharperAx revealed a shocking statistic that 89% of people who had recently bought technology services felt as though their time had been wasted by the service representatives. The co-founder also shared the age-old anecdote that for most companies, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. He then began to discuss how to get this discouraging statistic to change in the world of sales reps. Two of the common misconceptions he brought up about the other 80% of the task force is that they are either lazy/dumb, or that good sales reps are not made; they’re born.

Of course, both of these reasons are completely untrue. The real reason so many sales representatives struggle is because of the training they receive. The training given to sales reps is often similar to the training give to pilots in the 1920s, who were told to watch a successful flight and then try it for themselves. As you might imagine, most of the beginning pilots in those days had tragic airplane crashes. For sales reps, they are told how to do a sales call, then they watch a successful call, and they are handed the reins to try a call for themselves. Just as this did not work in the days of pilot training, it is not much better for sales reps.

Pilot training eventually got better when a flight simulator was invented. Pilots were able to try a realistic version of flying before they actually flew the plane themselves. A similar technique has been introduced in the training of sales representatives, and it has been remarkably successful so far. By allowing reps to practice what they are going to tell a customer before the actual call, representatives have been able to achieve a great deal of success.