Technical Sales Training: To train or not to train, that is the question
The need for Technical sales training is often driven by a need to improve individual selling skills. The desired outcome is to ultimately increase the companies sales success through the increase of individual sales effectiveness.
We could argue whether or not one should take a Top-down or Bottom-up approach towards the improvement of a companies sales activities, but it goes without saying that without the understanding that increasing selling skills is only one piece of the puzzle, sales training will surly have limited impact.
Like all B2B success, there is more to it than just being good at executing certain skills. In this article, we will look at the 4 pillars of Technical Sales success and how to employ Technical Sales Training to make individual sales engineers sell more effectively.
Technical Sales training, pillar 1: The Process
Now, the sales process is to be seen as the route one takes towards being awarded the customer’s order. With each checkpoint cleared, the team will be 1 step closer to the end destination, with each base touched, chances of reaching home base increase. If the sales process is set up correctly, it will not only make sure all customer questions are answered but also helps to trow your competitors off route and positions your offering clearly as the most desired outcome. Regardless of your company, your market, or the products/services your company offers, the basic process is universal. At technicalsalesacademy.com we teach individual Technical Sales Engineers to understand the general process of technical sales and how they can claim their spot and take control. If you do not know where you were, don’t understand where you are, and cannot see where you’re going, how will you be able to improve your lap times? To be a good player, you have to understand the game.
Pillar 2: Sales Engineering Skills
The engineer’s way is what you can consider a direct route from A to B. It often is as simple as: Define the problem -> design a solution -> implement the solution. This zero nonsense approach engineers are known for, have given them a position Sales reps can only dream about. Engineers have what I call “the instant trust factor”. Their intrinsic desire to call X, X and Y,Y provides them with the trust factor. Engineers are the doctors of Tech. You don’t have to like one to trust one.
The engineer’s way is what you can consider a direct route from A to B. It often is as simple as: Define the problem -> design a solution -> implement the solution. This zero nonsense approach engineers are known for, have given them a position Sales reps can only dream about. Engineers have what I call “the instant trust factor”. Their intrinsic desire to call X, X and Y,Y provides them with the trust factor. Engineers are the doctors of Tech. You don’t have to like one to trust one.
Imagine what could happen if technical sales engineers would be able to actively drive a sale forward while keeping their “technical expert” status. Be able to understand and act with commercial intelligence. Would they be able to get account managers in a better position to win more deals? That’s exactly what the Technical Sales Academy is all about. We teach sales engineers to drive sales forward making use of “the engineer’s way”.
Pillar 3: Personality & mindset
Unfortunately, many sales managers just settled for less. You cannot have it all, they may believe. That’s because many sales trainers have tried and many have failed to try to get engineers to sell.
But we’ll let you in on a secret here… you can develop a technical person’s commercial side, you just need to do it inline with their values as an engineer. Within the academy, we focus on taking the “sleaziness” out of sales and teach engineers how to use their personalities to drive more sales. To sell in line with their moral beliefs one may say.
By rearranging the sales process to accommodate the engineer’s way, we’ve put in measures that would require mutual commitment as we’ll go through different steps of the sales process. We effectively integrated commercial sense into the working method. This way sales engineers do not have to worry about commercial equality while having customer interactions. This technical sales method enables engineers to stay true to the engineer’s way, gaining trust through clarity. Yet the working method ensures all actions are geared towards securing that order.
There is an exception to be made. For those engineers that truly have an antipathy towards selling, Technical Sales Engineering is not for them. The belief that without sales there is no business, should be a common understanding among all Sales engineers. Technical Sales Engineering gives Engineers a way to stay true to the engineer’s way, while they actively drive the sale forward.
Pillar 4: Continues learning
In learning&development much is know about the retention capabilities of students. For Technical Sales Training the results are no different. 95% of all information will be lost if not practiced and repeated. This is where the Academy truly stands out. By integration of our continuous learning philosophy into our courses we make sure sales engineers practice newly learned skills until they become second nature. Continues learning makes sure we have a process in place to track results and continuously help sales engineers to grow towards technical sales mastery.
Technical Sales Training: A good idea in shark hands
By making use of the engineer’s “instant trust factor”, a solid sales process, and mastery of some pretty fancy sales kills, sales engineers can drastically improve their personal results. Do you want to know more, download the free mini-course and get started right away.
Read more here about how technical sales training can be used to increase your companies sales results.
