Hiring a new salesperson is a lengthy process. But what about a beginner who has never sold before? That’s an even more complex task.
A salesperson must master many skills to excel in their field. This is what makes it challenging to train young recruits who have never had a prospect on the phone or attended a meeting. Product training, sales behavior, customer relations, communication and confidence, responsiveness and active listening, and objection handling. So many essential practical skills to acquire that will turn your recruits into truly effective salespeople. Developing these skills is crucial for your team’s success, and we’re here to help you! Here are four essential lessons to teach your new employees to help them become seasoned salespeople.
Building a Customer-Centric Organization
If a man has two ears and one mouth, it is so that he can listen twice as much as he speaks – Confucius. The ability to listen is an essential quality for a good salesperson. Listening is the first phase of the sales process. Indeed, the primary goal of the initial discussion with a prospect is to determine their needs, understand their desires, and get to know them. This first step, if mastered, will then allow the sales process to be initiated coherently and optimally. A salesperson who is not customer-oriented will remain focused on their product 
and miss out on crucial initial information the prospect could have provided. Train your new recruits to be product experts and develop their listening, critical thinking, and adaptability skills. A good rule to teach new salespeople is that everything you say to your client must add value to the conversation. The ability to listen to and understand the prospect is sometimes a difficult step to master, as it often reflects the recruit’s maturity and experience. Coach your teams to guide them towards developing customer intimacy and always keep customer satisfaction in mind, which should be at the heart of concerns at every stage of opportunity management.
Storytelling
An experienced manager always learns to humanize both the company they work for and the product they sell. Knowing how to tell a story is essential for selling your product. A sales pitch should not be a long list of features that follow one another without a common thread. Your new salespeople would struggle to internalize the product and understand its human dimension if you leave them alone with a training manual. Coach your young recruits and tell them stories. Storytelling is a powerful method that, if well mastered, will bring value. Storytelling is crucial at the beginning of your sales process. It allows you to spark imagination, curiosity, and capture a prospect’s attention. Discover an exciting video on storytelling, its approaches, and implementation, created by Christian Godefroy, writer and master of positive thinking. Place humanity and authenticity at the heart of your product and sales strategy, and you will be rewarded by both your passionate salespeople and your receptive prospects.
Developing Motivational Leadership
Motivational leadership focuses on behaviors that impact team motivation and engagement. Being a salesperson means conducting meetings, having phone conversations… It’s a profession where human interaction is at the heart of the work, and it’s important not to be overwhelmed by this human aspect. Indeed, a salesperson’s first client meetings can be complicated and may not lead to success. The key is to teach your new salesperson what to do when this happens. Teach them to have the courage and maturity not to take objections personally and not to be carried away by negative emotions. Support your teams so they develop perseverance and a continuous improvement mindset with every objection. Implement debriefing sessions at the end of each meeting to gradually guide them towards success. If managed well, failure is a key step to success. These actions will motivate your sales force because they will feel supported and heard.
Reading Emotions in Non-Verbal Communication
Albert Mehrabian teaches us that in the transmission of a verbal message, the meaning of words accounts for only 7%, while tone and voice account for 38%, and above all, visual impression accounts for 55% in the interpretation of what is said. Develop your new salespeople’s ability to analyze micro-expressions. You know, those small, fleeting facial expressions that appear when someone unconsciously or deliberately tries to contain an emotion. Help your salespeople understand why these micro-expressions can be very beneficial. For example, if you detect a hint of disappointment in a client’s voice, you can share your observation with them to immediately gather feedback. Understanding non-verbal cues will enable your new teams to perform effectively during prospecting and negotiation phases with your prospects. A fun and enriching way to develop this analytical skill is to organize a few sessions with actors or body language experts. Detecting these micro-expressions will bring real added value to your sales teams.
These tips are part of an intuitive personal development approach. If you coach your teams according to these 4 basic principles, they will naturally evolve positively. Keep in mind that the human element is the most important component in the sales process!
Optimize the training of your young sales talents with the Incenteev platform