The Sales Training Series: "Never Wing It"

Research shows that salespeople will never reach their
performance potential without a well-defined sales-call
procedure that they can follow and learn from. "Winging it" on
sales calls has grim consequences - lost sales, extended sell
cycles, margin erosion and no clear path to improvement. Bottom
line: Your entire sales career can be mediocre if you "wing it."
Performance improves by as much as 50% when salespeople have a
consistent game plan for their sales calls.

Most salespeople make the same mistakes over and over without
realizing it. Without a logical sales process to follow, they
can't even identify specific problems, let alone correct them. A
good sales process mirrors the pattern by which customers make
buying decisions. The nine acts of Action Selling break a sales
call into its most important components, sequenced in the order
of the five key buying decisions every customer makes. By
analyzing each segment of a call and testing against the
customer's buying decisions, salespeople can quickly recognize
problems and adjust their behavior accordingly. 

Without a system like Action Selling, the only thing salespeople
can look at is whether they won or lost the sale. If you don't
know what went wrong or why, you can't improve your performance.

In The Field:

A leading architectural service faced a common problem. They
were having trouble trying to sell an intangible service that
was seen more as a luxury than a necessity. The firm's growth
had stopped and they were losing business to far less capable
competitors. 

The Sales Board delivered a 2-day onsite Action Selling Sales Training workshop for their
sales staff, teaching the Action Selling process and documenting
the company's Best Sales Practices. Twelve weeks of Skill Drill
Modules followed, further honing the new selling and sales
relationship skills the group had acquired.

Within only three months the CEO reported business grew by 20%.
In addition, he said, "My [sales] team's professionalism and
sense of confidence increased as a direct result of the Action
Selling sales training program. Having a clear
understanding of the selling strengths and weaknesses of each
sales team member has made sales management both focused and
effective for the first time."