An innovative contractor that I coach recently asked me if she should bring on sales training for two of her weakest salespeople. The short answer is: invest in training with your Strong and Natural salespeople; outside training will not help someone who is not predisposed to sales. Let’s explore this further:
1. Weak salespeople tend to sell at discounts or allow the price of a job to be beaten down. They get overwhelmed easily, and they are probably on the wrong seat on the bus.
BTW, even owners can be weak salespeople; sometimes selling out of fear of lack of backlog, sometimes they are better suited in other roles in the company.
2. Strong salespeople love the challenge of winning the client at the price the company needs to make a strong profit. They relish the competitive nature of sales. They do not get thrown off base by objections, flinches or challenges to their value. They have an abundant mindset (more on this below.)
3. The natural salesperson is a young or untrained salesperson that brings natural selling talent and would benefit from mentoring and training on your value proposition and your sales / estimating processes. They need mentoring, and would also benefit from external sales training once they have a good grasp of how your company works.
Discounted Selling is internally focused and based on fear:
- I may run out of work
- My competition may be eating my lunch
- Our value is not strong enough
- I am not good enough, I am a fake
Abundance Selling is externally focused on serving the customer:
- My client and I are building a strong rapport
- We offer tremendous value
- We are uniquely qualified to service our clients’ needs
- My price is fair and a great value for the customer
Jeffrey’s Breakthrough Idea: External sales training cannot turn a weak salesperson into a strong one. Focus on staffing salespeople who have potential, and then invest in mentoring and training them.
Take Action: To be successful at abundance selling you need three things: Know your costs, Have a smooth selling process with no gaps, and Spend the majority of your time building relationships with Green Light prospects.
