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When an employee isn’t living up to their potential, don’t give up on them. They may just need some tips on how to improve selling skills.

Tom is one of your favorite employees. He’s friendly, responsible, and brings the best snacks to the office parties. He also misses his numbers every month.

If you’ve been in the selling business a while, you’ve undoubtedly encountered an employee or coworker like Tom. That’s because, no matter how friendly and welcoming a salesperson is, a sales job requires skills that need to be learned, cultivated, and continually honed. But learning how to improve selling skills doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. There are some simple things a struggling employee can start doing today that will almost surely bring an improvement in sales performance. All of which begs the question that, no matter how much you like Tom, wouldn’t it be easier to let him go and hire a salesperson who can hit the ground running? That’s not always true–especially with an employee who is motivated to improve.

When you consider the amount of time it takes to source, interview, hire, and onboard a new sales rep, it’s often more effective to teach an existing employee tips and tricks that will help them improve their sales performance.

And training current employees to improve selling skills also means consistency for your business. Your customers know exactly who to go to for questions. By investing in the employees you already have, you build a foundation that can support your business and the customers you want to reach.


Increase your confidence by using an auto-dialer designed to boost your success. See all the great features Call Logic offers by scheduling a free demo today!


improve selling skills

Teaching employees how to overcome common obstacles and improve selling skills

If you want to improve selling skills in underperforming employees, you need to know where to begin. This won’t be the same for everyone. For example, one employee might struggle with people skills while another may be disorganized and another still may not excel at responding to prospect objections. To know where to start, you have to identify the problem(s).

Once you know what an employee needs to work on, you can create a learning plan that will help them improve selling skills quickly and efficiently so they can start hitting those targets right away.

One of the most common obstacles that sellers face is their own attitude. If you don’t believe in yourself, it’s going to be difficult to get someone else to do so. Approach each prospect with confidence. Believe you’re going to close every sale before you even pick up the phone. Your certainty may become contagious.

Another obstacle that sellers run into is failing to follow-up. In one survey, The Brevet Group found that a whopping 80% of successful sales require follow-up calls after a meeting. That same study found that 44% of sales reps give up after a single follow-up. That’s not a formula for success. Sales requires persistence and perseverance. Follow up three or four times with your leads (which is much easier and organized with call management software).

Another tip to improve selling skills is to focus on customer needs. This sounds intuitive, but the reality is that we too often become focused on our own needs—making the sale—and neglect to find out what the customer needs. You can’t help someone solve a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. Ask questions, learn about your customer’s needs, then respond accordingly.

Well-crafted call scripts can also help boost sales. Call scripts—whether for cold calls or follow-ups—help you focus, so you don’t get distracted. That said, don’t let your call scripts sound vague and generic. Do your research on each customer and tailor a call script to engage them individually rather than expecting the same script to work on everyone.

improve selling skills

Using technology to stay organized and efficient

One of the best ways improve selling skills in any of your employees is to invest in a sales CRM such as Call Logic’s call management system. Besides being an autodialer, which will help your employees make more calls in less time, it also stores client information, sends you reminders, automatically follows-up with emails, and so much more. If your employees are struggling with the volume of calls and keeping organized, something as simple as Call Logic might be the answer to turning them into a top performer.

Each salesperson has to be driven from the beginning. It’s a field that requires patience and persistence to succeed. But if your struggling salespeople employ even a few of these tips, we’re confident you’ll see some of the improvement you’re looking for.


The best way to improve your selling skills is to improve your outbound calling technology. Find out how Call Logic can boost your numbers and shrink your call times by scheduling a free demo.


 

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