Ongoing training is vital if companies are to keep up with the latest innovations in production methods, management and operations as well as keeping up with advancing technology. A company’s personnel are it’s backbone and base and it is of utmost importance that their training is kept up to date. Sales personnel, being the company’s front end, are equally, if not more, important to an organisation.
Although some of the sales managers take part in management training, in several organizations that does not take place. Usually most of the employees who participate in management training work in production and office. Employees are prepared for additional promotions or a career change in management training. Thus it is suggested that they participate in management training.
However, such training programs frequently do not include sales personnel. It is not that sales personnel do not get any training from their employers. They do get training sessions and courses on customer relations, interpersonal relationships, selling with integrity, sales management and other such allied subjects considered useful to their sales careers.
Sales are ential for an organization’s existence and sales force are its backbone. An organization can therefore be unwilling to send this vital resource away on a lengthy training period, especially if there is no adequate backup. It is hard to find suitable personnel to act in place of those sales persons who know their customers in their geographical areas by their visits, meetings and interactions. By this way, the plus points of a capable sales person sometimes become a stumbling block to his taking part in management training.
An organization can avoid this problem in a number of way. It can design sales training in modules so that personnel can access a module one at a time, instead of having to complete the entire program all at once. Sales trainees can be assigned to work with mentors from senior management so that training takes place on a more flexible if less formal timetable. Sales trainees should be urged to work with employees in other departments who are in the same program, to help trainees become part of the overall corporate culture.
Modern technology also lends a helping hand in the form of interactive web-based lessons and training modules as well as distance learning. Training sessions can be provided to the sales force on these platforms. Chapters of a management book can even be sent to them via email or they can be provided access to an online library to access management book of their choice.
Sales personnel are very accustomed to thinking quickly and are very fast on their feet. A sales personnel knows the customer and develops a very good interpersonal relationship, such strengths are valuable and need to be kept isolated in sales functions. Sales personnel also know the product, many organizations need to be more aware of this fact and promote their sales personnel to managerial functions.
Management Training is given to employees to keep abreast of changes in their functional areas, to groom them for leadership or for promotions. Management Books such as Selling with Intergrity also come handy in imparting the needed knowledge. However, the proportion of sales personnel in such training is low in many organizations. They are reluctant to spare the personnel to a lengthy training period, as finding suitable backup personnel for these frontline jobs is difficult. To avoid this problem, training can be given in modular format or senior managers can coach sales personnel as their mentors. New technologies such as web-based training and distance learning can also be useful.
- George Purdy