As a professional sales training and consulting company, we train sales teams. But you know what? We also provide sales training to lots of other departments… many of which don’t see themselves as engaged in actual selling.
If you’ve ever applied for a job, asked someone out on a date, tried to convince a vendor to accept a new term or tried to motivate a supplier to pay a bill… guess what? That’s called selling, also known as influencing others. You may not have been asking for an order, but in each of these scenarios, you’re attempting to influence others to action.
Many corporate departments other than sales can benefit from sales training… and, it doesn’t really matter whether the department is customer facing. Your need to influence others can relate to suppliers, as well as so-called internal customers.
Which departments other than sales can benefit from sales training? The obvious ones are those that deal with sales people on a day-in, day-out basis. In those cases, it’s obvious that a better understanding of the sales discipline, a salesperson’s tool belt and a general sense of how to influence others would be beneficial in working with the sales reps.
But what about the engineering, accounting or shipping departments; why should you care to provide sales training to those folks?
Well, for starters, there are loads of scenarios where those individuals need to influence others. Not to mention that it makes good sense for those (non-sales) professionals to nurture and develop positive relations with their constituents. If you’re accounting or engineering department doesn’t understand how to get along well with other groups, chances are you’re making life more difficult for your entire company.
Sales Training
Sales training is a broad category and covers many skill-sets, such as: effective communication, reading body language, understanding different personality types, how to set expectations and many other people-related dynamics separate of the actual sales process. Wouldn’t your team perform better if they were more aware of how to win friends and influence people? Wouldn’t your department have better results if your staff could recognize when someone is trying to manipulate them through slick sales techniques?
There’s an old joke about engineering groups and how they set themselves up for pain without ever knowing it… or at least that’s how I choose to interpret the joke. A preacher, drunkard and engineer have each been sentenced to death. As they line up for the guillotine, each is given a choice of facing up or facing down.
The preacher chooses facing-up and the blade of the guillotine stops suddenly just before reaching his neck. The authorities see this as a miracle and set him free.
The drunkard chooses face-up too and experiences the same result – the guillotine does not operate properly and the authorities, sensing another miracle, set the drunkard free.
Finally, the engineer steps up for his anticipated beheading. The engineer chooses to face up and just as they are about to release the blade to fall, the “bright” engineer proclaims: “hold on, I see what your problem is.”
Rather than being saved by the miracle, the engineer assured himself of death by blurting out some information.
Whether you see humor in the joke or not, chances are that your non-sales teams are costing your company money because they haven’t developed their people skills. Some basic sales training can solve that riddle and save your company money. Not to mention that internal and external contacts enjoy working with departments that know how to communicate effectively.
Discover the power of sales training for your non-sales departments.
