Page 112 - DMGT205_SALES_MANAGEMENT

Sales Management

Notes Identifying Continuing Sales Training Programmes

The identification of continuing sales training needs means to identify training needs of
experienced sales personnel which are felt due to changes in market, product, marketing policies,
procedures, organisation and even in the sales personnel itself.

8.3 Content of Training

The content of training is not the same for all the sales training programmes. It varies from
company to company because of differences in products, markets, company policies, trainees'
ability and experience and organisational size. Every initial sales training programme comprises
mainly four areas: product data, sales technique, markets and company information.

Product Data

Product training depends on the nature of the product – if the product is highly technical then
they will devote more than half of their programme to product training, if the product is non-
technical, then minimal amount of product training is required. But in all the cases the sales
person should know about the products, their uses and applications to serve customers'
information needs.

Sales Technique

There are two views in this context. Some sales managers believe that if an individual has an
attractive personality, good appearance, voice and reasonable intelligence and knows the product,
he will sell it easily. But the predominant view is that new sales personnel need basic instruction
in how to sell. This view is reflected in most of the companies.

Markets

The sales person needs to know who the customers are, their particular locations and particular
products in which they are interested. Not only this, the sales person should also know about
their buying habits, motives and their financial condition. But the training in this context should
not be stagnant, it should be continuous because markets are always changing.
Company Information

The company should essentially inform the sales person about the company's pricing policy,
product services, spare parts and repairs, credit extension and customer relations.
To boost the employee morale and job effectiveness, the company should also provide
information to the sales personnel about their selection procedure, training programmes,
compensation, incentive systems, advancement requirements and opportunities, savings and
retirement plans, medical and insurance plans.

8.4 Methods of Training

The selection of appropriate training method for a training programme depends on the content
of training. Few of the important and appropriate methods of sales training are: lecture,
conference, demonstration, replaying, case-discussion, impromptu discussion, gaming,
on-the-job training, programmed learning, correspondence courses.

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