Jackie Zach
August 5, 2024
In this episode of the Tough Love for Business podcast, Mike McKay and Jackie Zach delve into the essentials of selling. They emphasize that selling is a perishable skill requiring regular practice to avoid becoming rusty. Effective selling is less about elaborate techniques and more about genuinely understanding and addressing the prospect’s needs. Role-playing and ongoing training are highlighted as crucial methods for maintaining and enhancing sales skills, with real-world examples demonstrating their impact.
The discussion also stresses that many salespeople lack formal training, which can hinder performance. It underscores the benefits of consistent sales training, noting that well-trained sales teams often outperform their peers significantly. The episode wraps up with a call to action for business owners to invest in effective sales training to improve their team’s performance and drive revenue growth.
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Podcast Transcript
Mike McKay: Welcome back to the Tough Love for Business podcast. My name is Mike McKay, and I’m here with my co-host, Jackie Zach. The only thing I know about today is that it’s going to be a business topic. Jackie, what are we talking about today?
Jackie Zach: What do I want to talk about today?
Mike: Let’s talk about selling.
Jackie: What about selling?
Mike McKay: So I’m currently running a 12-week sales training program, and every time I do it, I’m reminded of how easily perishable selling skills are. We talked about entropy and mindset in past episodes. The reality of selling is, if you don’t practice every day, you’ll likely get rusty unless you spend a lot of time on role-playing and memorization. Selling is really about professional problem-solving—helping someone identify a problem or need, asking questions to expand on that, and then offering a solution if you have one. In a nutshell, that’s what selling is. It’s helping someone get something they already want. People tend to overcomplicate it. Would you agree?
Jackie: I would. How do they do that?
Mike: They think selling is about them instead of the prospect. They create elaborate schemes. There are different types of salespeople: the product pusher, the overpromiser, and the liar. These types annoy people. The effective salesperson cares about the prospect, asks enough questions to understand their problem or need, and then offers a solution. If you can’t do that, your sales skills will diminish quickly. Selling is a perishable skill that fades fast without practice.
Jackie: So how do you keep your skills up? Role-playing is one way, right?
Mike: Yes, role-playing is key. Use your sales script and find someone on your team to be the prospect, then alternate roles. It can be terrifying, but it’s necessary. We have a client who is uncomfortable with role-playing because his team isn’t good at it. My response is, what do you think they’re doing with customers then? People often say, “This isn’t how I do it in real life,” but that’s not true. If you don’t practice, you won’t say it naturally. We’re going to start recording conversations so people can listen back. It’s a powerful tool for both sales managers and salespeople. If you can’t record, just tell the person you’re talking to that it’s for training purposes. Most will understand.
I once thought I was asking for the business when I wasn’t. My closing statement was “Okay, see you later.” It took listening to myself to realize I wasn’t closing properly. I was terrible at selling initially. It took me seven months to enroll a coaching client. The lessons I learned were hard-earned but stuck with me.
If you’re not practicing, your skills will fade. Salespeople who get ongoing training outperform their peers by 47%. If your response is that you don’t have time for that, you don’t need to. You can send them to our sales training course, which will handle it while you stay busy with other tasks. If your question is about the effectiveness, it’s not uncommon for a salesperson to go from selling $600,000 a year to $1 million a year after our training. That’s a great return on a $1,500 investment. There are more expensive courses, but ours includes coaching and role-playing.
I think it was Salesforce.com who found that consistently trained salespeople outperform their peers by 47%. That means your sales team could be selling 47% more on average. What would that mean for your business? How many of you actually have sales training in your business?
Jackie: How many of you actually have sales training in your business?
Mike: And if you have, how many of you have been formally trained in sales?
Jackie: Exactly. Many people are onboarded with product knowledge and system processes but not trained in sales. Even experienced salespeople often haven’t had formal training.
Mike: It’s surprising how many people we talk to who say it’s their first time experiencing sales training.
Jackie: If you want a championship sales force, they need ongoing training. It’s essential.
Mike: Consistent sales training leads to better results. It makes life easier for business owners. Sales training is crucial for creating more revenue with the same number of people. Have a system in place: purpose statement, script, closing statement, objection handling, and role-playing. Follow this training process continuously. Otherwise, you’re taking an amateur approach to the most important process in your business—getting customers.
Jackie: If you, as the owner, want to focus on growing your business rather than selling, you need trained salespeople skilled in the art of selling, not just your business process.
Mike: Exactly. That was a fun discussion.
Jackie: I love it. Join us next time when we talk about the importance of a purpose statement. Have a great day.