How many salespeople does your organization employ? The best answer is, “all of them.” Every employee has the opportunity to impact sales, so, aren’t they salespeople? Even if the employee has no customer contact, they affect sales. An employee’s quality of work and efficiency directly or indirectly relates to sales. An employee’s actions may mean the difference between being awarded a contract or not, especially in this social media age. Should you train everyone in sales? Yes, to an extent.
How Many Salespeople Does Your Organization Employ?
What Should Be Trained?
I believe the minimum training for every employee should include expectations of appearance and behavior, what it means to be professional, and when and how to promote the organization.
Appearance
Employees and their work areas should be neat and clean. Do you have a dress code? Is it taught and enforced? Do you have periodic housekeeping? If you viewed your business through the eyes of a customer, what would you see?
I recall my father taking his car to a mechanic’s shop, finding it unorganized, cluttered, and dirty, and for those reasons, deciding against leaving the car. I thought auto shops got dirty so I asked my father why. He said he’d never trust his car to someone who didn’t take better care of their shop.
Professionalism
All employees should conduct themselves in a professional manner, not only in the shop or around customers, but anytime they represent the organization and on social networks as well. This means courtesy, smiles and positive behavior.
It also means not divulging unauthorized information about customers, or sharing disparaging views about the company, management, or customers. Do you have a social media policy? Who monitor’s what’s being said about you online? Do you conduct customer contact and customer service training?
Promoting the business
The best company cultures help their employees feel invested by showing they care about the employees. Happy employees make customers happy. So, promoting your business through your team begins with employee satisfaction. Without happy employees it won’t matter what you do to help them promote your product or service.
Share some product knowledge. Hold a meeting about the benefits of your product. Share customer stories on social media, your newsletter, and in a blog. Talk about what the employees contribution means to the client.
I work with a landscaping company that shares what the employees work means to customers. The culture has become more than mowing grass and planting flowers it’s about improving the lives of customers. That’s one heck of a motivator.
Employee Training As The Preventative
I worked with a company that received an inquiry requesting confidential information about one of their customers. The individual claimed they had authorization from the customer, but because they unable to confirm the authorization, they didn’t release the information. The person called again after regular business hours insisting on the information. One of the employees, who happened to be working over and wasn’t sure how to handle the call, said they were “housekeeping” and couldn’t help. The caller didn’t believe the employee and complained on the businesses Facebook page. Could this have been avoided? I believe so. How?
Train employees on how to interact with customers
- Develop and train a script for answering the phone
- Share how to present oneself in public when wearing company apparel
- Explain safety and courtesy expectations when driving a company vehicle
- Discuss appropriate behavior when attending networking events, trade shows, conferences, etc.
- Provide social media guidelines
What experiences do you have with your company, or another company, where better training would’ve helped customer relations?
How Can I Help?
I like to help people and organizations, but I have three criteria I consider before taking an assignment – I believe in what the organization stands for, I know I can help, and it looks like fun. If you have any questions, Contact Me.
Does your business have a management training plan? Businesses and universities use my book, The New Manager’s Workbook, a crash course in effective management, as the basis for their leadership development program. I’m also available to conduct training.
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