How to Institute a Sales Training Program for Your Staff

When it comes to extraordinary sales growth, having an effective training program is usually underestimated. It’s not as simple as distributing a handbook.

You need a more effective approach. We sat down with the founder and CEO of Absolute Sales Development, Carlos Garrido. He discussed how you can get started on building a powerful and streamlined training program for your sales team.

Listen to the Full Episode:

About Carlos Garrido:

Carlos is the co-founder and CEO of Absolute Sales Development of Sandler Training Company in Miami, FL.

He has more than 20 years of international consulting, coaching, and business development experience.
He's also served as senior director of business development for Astrazeneca.
He started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a CPA and an investment banker. Welcome, Carlos.

The Goal:

Every company needs a system for effective sales training and professional development. Doing so can yield continually effective results.

"Training is an ongoing journey for all members of the team. Those four responsibilities where the value creation is in leadership.

I have a very simple view of the world, and then you get into strategy and all the other things, but that's about leadership and team development."

The Problem

"Oftentimes, the common training approach is to just throw the company handbook at the new employee or the veteran and say, "Hey, here's our new policies. Good luck. Read that when you have a second!" This approach is both ineffective and damaging to your company's growth!

"The way in which a lot of companies make a mistake is they make the training for the new and the needy. There's a culture in the organization. If you're involved in training, it's because there's a problem, or you're new, the new and the needy.

It becomes almost, like it gets to the point where some companies have got the kind of culture they're, if somebody's invited them to a sales training or any training, the first reaction is, "Hey, what did I do wrong?" It's crazy.

Now, then there are those other companies, those companies that typically take a stride ahead of the pack, that increase market share. Those other companies, they make training in every role, not just sales. I get involved in sales and management and leadership training, but in all parts of their organization, they have an attitude which is continuous development of skill and attitude and behavior."

The Benefits of an Ongoing, Effective Sales Training Program

"A system means that you can identify forecast and identify which opportunities are on track or off track. A system gives you the ability to duplicate positive results and things that went well.

A system gives you an opportunity to debrief a sales call or a sale, an opportunity. Without a system nobody's speaking the same language and a system gives you the opportunity to recognize problems. Identifying that, "Okay, I get it. There's a system that we need."

Well, then once you create the system, people need to be trained to use it. Otherwise, they will fall back into their behaviors and habits and it'll turn into a... Most people that we speak to, they haven't even got a sale system and they haven't even got salespeople. They've got order takers.

There's no judgment in that. I don't say that with any judgment, because they've not been given a sales system to operate, so what are they going to do?They're going to take orders. An order comes in, an inbound lead comes in and some close and some don't and, "Hey, what can I do? It's all about the leads."

Have a solid sales system, and then you've got people who can truly be salespeople rather than order-takers."

How Do You Know if Your Sales Program is Working?

"Well, the outcomes is easy. More money, more margin, more team development, more hiring engagement. I think that those three magic cubs, autonomy, self-sufficiency, autonomy, high skill, highly motivated. That's the outcome.

How do you get that? Well, first you design us a solid sales system because if you're training without a system, it's like trying to teach someone how to drive without letting them drive on the road.

You coach attitude, you manage behaviors, you train skill, train a technique. In that three legged stool, which is the most important leg? They're all important in a three-legged stool."

How Can Your Organization Help?

"Our sales program is, we have what we call public clients, which is where leaders, managers, and salespeople from different industries and different companies all come together and work through our curriculum and our role playing. I actually believe that is our most powerful program.

I think it is so powerful if I'm teaching. For example, if I'm training that particular day on, I don't know a particular closing technique, or maybe how to speak about money, how to do a budget question or whatever. To have an insurance guy sat next to a guy who sells capital goods, sat next to a guy who's a lawyer, having these different disciplines all together and hearing how different industries are manifest in the techniques, that is extraordinarily powerful, because it really does ram it home."

We have a beautiful online environment where we bring video tips and coaching and curriculum and development through our online system too. We create a very rich development environment. Instructor led training is usually a cornerstone. We have virtual coaching, face-to-face coaching. We have audio/video resources that we bring them. We create this rich development environment for people."

How to Connect With Carlos Garrido

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This content is from a recent episode of Growth Marketing for Martians, a podcast dedicated to discussing tomorrow's business growth tips -today!

Hosted by Rogelio Rodriguez and Jeff Lambert, these marketing Martians share an intergalactic love for learning and sharing with other podcast space travelers.