Non-Sellers Are Key to Improving Sales | Sales Strategies

We recently experienced great success with our sales training programs. The customers involved received up to 200 to 400 percent return on investment just a few short months after the program was implemented—not after a year or multiple years, but indeed just a few short months.

Why Is This Happening? 

There is one thing all of those customers have in common: these customers didn’t just include the sales department in their training program, they, more importantly, included management, customer service, marketing, operations, and other departments that were not even directly selling the product. Why did that help improve the return on investment? Because we got every department across the whole organization oriented around the methodology and process that the customer was transitioning to. In doing so, there was a single line of communication—a single playbook that the entire company was thinking about.

Moreover, that aforementioned example above prompted me to think back to another sales training program I oversaw years ago where I trained drivers and operational staff on sales. I initially thought it was unnecessary. However, I realized that they were a customer facing business and how important it was for them to understand good sales practice.

The Importance of Leaders Participating

All of these companies insisted that their sales managers, sales leaders, or senior management to participate in the training as well. That ensured everyone in that room took it seriously. Why? Because if it was important at the top, it was important to everyone. It sent a signal that it was a commitment throughout the organization. As a result, staff wanted to prove to their bosses that they could execute successfully. After the training, everybody executed and implemented quickly and held each other accountable for ensuring those results.

Next time you are integrating any kind of sales training program in the organization, ask yourself these questions: Who are you including? Are you including everybody that has a positive effect on the customer? Are you, as sales leaders, participating in showing your customers and employees that this is important? If not, consider it. I promise you it will drive a much higher return on investment.