THREE WAYS TO TRAIN

Knowledge + Attitude + Skills = Behavior

by Hank Trisler

A lot of what passes for training these days is some old dog standing up in front of a group and telling them "How I Done it." It consists of war stories and cute-sounding phrases, most which are largely ineffectual and only partially true. That sort of training is a blast for the trainers, but often bores the learners and seldom does much to change behavior.

"What's that you say? Behavior? My job is to teach 'em how to sell, not change their behavior," one might well say. And one might well be wrong. Our job is not so much to teach people what they don't know, but to help people behave as they don't currently behave. Behavior is comprised of Knowledge, Attitude and Skills, as exemplified in the Pawn Broker's Globes above. (I used to say Pawn Broker's "Balls," but that often brings about tittering, another word almost certain to induce tittering.) Let's examine these three words and how you can use them to improve the results of your training programs.

KNOWLEDGE. If a person isn't performing in a certain way and couldn't if his/her life depended on it, the problem is a lack of knowledge. The best ways to convey knowledge are lecture and reading. Lecture has fallen into disrepute, largely due to its overuse and poor quality. Trainers love lecture, as it's the easiest form of teaching to prepare and deliver. You just jump up and run your jaws. It's also the most fun, from a trainer's point of view.       

The key to effective lecture is to see how little of it you can use to convey the bare minimum of knowledge necessary to do the deed. Good lecture is strewn with real world examples and supported with visual aids and written material, from either pass-outs or text books.


The subject of effective lecture has already filled libraries, so I'm not going to bore you with more of it here. The key is to see how little lecture you can get by with and how much learner involvement you can use to supplant the lecture.


ATTITUDES. If the thinking is stinking in your sales force, look to yourself first. Attitudes are caught, not taught. As long as we're slinging platitudes, try, "What you are speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you say." Sales critters are like children, in that they will obtain and reflect the attitudes of their leaders. The very best way to get an honest, positive, "can do" attitude in your team is to have and project those qualities yourself.

SKILLS. A tried and true training formula taught me years ago went:

• You tell them how.
• They tell you how.
• You show them how.
• They show you how.
• You drill for skill.

A truly skillful performance will only occur after it has been repeated often enough to commit it to the unconscious mind. Now, you can do this in the field, which is where a lot of us "old dogs" did our learning, but it's godawful expensive compared to drills you can perform in the classroom.


One of the more effective drills I have found is the three-person instant role play. The group is divided into three-person teams: salesperson, customer and a neutral observer. A problem, or objection is displayed and then the salesperson has sixty seconds to deal with it. At the end of the minute, the observer tells the team what he saw and how it might be improved. Then you change roles and go for the next problem. The key is to do things fast, to avoid boredom and to quicken reaction times. Greater detail and lots more exercises are available in NO BULL SALES MANAGEMENT. Get hold of a copy, it'll make money for you.


Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent. If you let your people practice flawed techniques, you'll end up with flawed people giving flawed performances. Your weekly sales meeting is a terrific place for practicing for a half hour, or less. It warms the folks up and get's minds moving, in addition to honing skills.


Any thoughts on training that you'd like to share? This would be an excellent place to do so.

IS SINCERITY OVERRATED?

By Hank Trisler

Some folks have been holding forth about the importance of sincerity in selling. I thought about that and found it a charming concept that leaves me with a warm feeling, much like a kitten in my lap.

How does sincerity and bluntness convert to success in selling? If you are completely sincere, not only will you not make any sales, you won't have a family, or any friends, either. You may well have noticed that your customer's wife has breath like an acetelyne torch, but you would not be well advised to so inform him in the interests of sincerity.

The prime job of a salesperson is to create congenial relationships by making people happy. Excessive sincerity gets in the way of that. I'd much rather get an insincere compliment than a sincere insult. Oscar Wilde was heard to say: "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

"Diplomacy," "Tact," "Consideration," "White Lies" are all the antithesis of sincerity, but that doesn't make them ineffective in selling. Charles F. Kettering, the inventor of the overhead valve V8 engine, said: "You can be sincere and still be stupid."

The best salespeople I have met are, without exception, charming, considerate, pleasant people. They go out of their way to be charitable in describing others and very careful in dealing with people's emotions. You know it would be absolutely impossible for them to actually like all these people, but they certainly give the impression that they do.

Jean Giraudoux said, "The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got it made." If you can't trust Jean, then who?

It's just possible you might have an opposing view. Let it fly.

TEN COMMON ENEMIES (6)

By Hank Trisler

Because we have been busily chatting along about things in which the customer has no interest, we:

INCORRECTLY EVALUATE THE CUSTOMER'S ATTITUDE

There are only three attitudes a customer can have and he can only have one of these attitudes at any time. They are:

Objection

Indifference

Acceptance

Objection is when there is a clear and specific obstacle to buying. Examples: "You’re price is too high." "Your delivery is too slow." "I don’t like that color."

The first time you hear an objection, ignore it. That's right, just shut up and look at her. She may think she said something stupid and never say it again. In the absence of support (discussion) from you, 80% of the objections you currently face will simply go away and never be heard from again.

If the objection comes up again, we'd better find a way to deal with it, not try to get a commitment. We need to harmonize with the objection by rephrasing it to be sure we clearly understand it and then dispatching it. How? Hell, I don’t know. I don’t even know what the objection is, but you probably know because you’ve heard it before. Just deal with it. Sheesh.

Indifference is often indicated by statements like: "I want to think it over." "I need to shop a little more." "I have to ask my Uncle John." We deal with indifference by probing for additional needs, or discomfort with the status quo. We need to keep asking questions until we find some "hot buttons" to push.
Indifference is certainly no time to ask for a commitment.

Acceptance is the only attitude that lends itself to a commitment on the part of its holder. If you’ve been listening and watching, you’ll know when your customer’s attitude is one of acceptance. If you haven’t been listening and watching, you’re in trouble. Not BIG trouble, however. If you ask for a commitment when the customer holds an attitude other than acceptance, he’ll tell you. If it wasn’t acceptance, it must be objection or indifference, in which case we know what to do.

If you know how to accurately determine the customer's attitude and then know how to appropriately respond to that attitude, you're well on the way to a sale. And without pressure, argument or manipulation.

How do you determine a customer's attitude?