Bank Sales Corner

Is Your Bank's Sales Training in the Stone Age?

  

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Here are some good insights from a recent blog post from the Sales Training Connection ( http://salestrainingconnection.com/)  on how sales training is changing:

• The best-in-class programs focus on skills such as partnering, selling to the C-suite, and account management.
• High-performing organizations see their sales teams as one way to differentiate themselves in the market place and have concluded that front-line sales leaders are critical to improving performance.
• Team members can’t rely on what worked for them in the past. Old dogs will be asked to learn new tricks and keep current with state-of-the-art tools and techniques.  “They will constantly need to adjust, modify, and upgrade their skill sets—learning new skills and learning to apply their existing skills in new buying environments.”
• Salespeople need to be prepared to share an informed point of view in business conversations with their customers and prospects.
• Product knowledge training is undergoing significant changes with the availability of real-time support tools that can be delivered to mobile devices.
• As prospecting becomes even more difficult, training programs will focus more energy on top of funnel activities like lead generation and qualifying opportunities.

The days of objection resolution clinics, trial closes and pitching products are (thankfully) over. It’s a new world out there, and your sales training has to evolve to make sure that your team members can compete.

Is training branch managers a priority for you? For information on how to improve the ROI on training branch managers, check out our white paper at http://www.mzbierlyconsulting.com/a-winning-strategy/.

Webinar Alert: You might also be interested in our webinar series on “Branch Manager As Inside Sales Coach and Outside Business Developer.” For more information go to http://www.eventspan.com/event/2012-01-30-branch-manager-as-inside-sales-coach-and-outside-business-developer.