The need for training your sales team has never been so urgent! Now that your customers are more informed and they have many options to try, your sales team should adopt new selling techniques to be able to convince them well. This means you need to train your sales team well to set them up for success. Ideally, you should rent seminar room and organize a sales training program after every few months, so that your sales team can keep updated with the ever changing rules of sales. Whether you want to rent training room or train your salespeople through trial and error, here are five lessons to teach them to help them improve their sales performance.

1. The importance of feedback

Whatever your products or services, your salespeople should aim to provide your customers a great buying experience every time. It is important to ask for feedback from each of your past, existing, and prospective customers. When you receive feedback from your customers, you can get a chance to know what they are thinking about the quality of your products, your customer service and after sales support. Constructive criticism helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses and improve on your products and services accordingly. Also, when you listen to customer feedback, they feel important and come back to buy from you, again and again. This brings to the next lesson.

2. Listening resolves many problems

When you listen to your customers, it shows that you value their opinions and are sincerely trying to resolve their problems. Bragging or shouting your messages to everyone is an outdated sales technique. Customers today do not want to be guided from the beginning. They already know their options. All your sales team needs is to provide them exactly what they want – a personalized solution. Instead of talking more, your salespeople should listen more. Let the customers say what they want. Then you can tell them how your services can help them achieve their goals.

3. Identifying FUD

FUD stands for fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Almost every customer has some levels of doubt, uncertainty and fear about something. Your sales team should be able to identify the fear, uncertainty, and doubt of your customers. At times, your salespeople may even want to instigate a feeling of doubt and uncertainty in the minds of your customers. For instance, you can tell your customers that their competitors are already using your services and already getting great results. That way, you can bring about a sense of urgency in your customers’ mind.

4. Encouraging e-learning

It is also important to teach your sales team the importance of learning new skills and sales techniques. You can encourage them to enroll in e-learning programs, so that they can keep themselves updated.

5. Checking customer background is important

If your company is using CRM software, you should ask your salespeople to enter details of each customer they are dealing with, on a regular basis. This helps keep a record of your customers’ buying history, buying behaviors. Later, your sales team can access this information from the dashboard. Ask your salespeople to check the background of customers before selling to them. This will help them use the right sales technique for the right customer.