Training Your Sales Dogs

Catherine just got a brand-new puppy for the family. In the course of integrating this cute little four-legged critter into its new environment it was interesting to note the similarity in training a puppy to bringing on a new salesperson.

The first step in getting a great sales dog is to pick the best from the litter. This may seem easy, but it can be tricky. It will take time to observe the puppy with the best characteristics needed for sales. A good sales puppy needs to be confident, resilient, independent, but also plays well with others. Unfortunately, the puppy’s personality can change when it leaves its litter and goes to a new home. So take the effort to find a good choice, however, don’t be surprised if it does not work out.

Use praise and reward for accomplishment. All dog trainers will tell you to use praise for your sales dog to build confidence. Make sure that every success for the sales puppy is acknowledged. It might be like finding a needle in a haystack to offer some praise. However, it is important for your sales puppy to be acknowledged on the things that they do correctly.

Set reasonable goals. Learning is sequential. Do not expect your sales puppy to be a star right from the beginning. It does take a learning curve to become a great sales dog. Several months are required to see if a sales puppy will succeed. It is important to not expect tremendous results from a brand new sales puppy in its first year.

Make them stretch. All sales puppies want to please the owner. In order to do so, the puppy needs to prove it is worthy. This means to set reasonable goals, but throw in some challenges and expectations beyond their current capabilities. Sales puppies like to prove that they are worthy of high expectations.

Keep them active. Sales puppies need to be constantly active. As a puppy trainer one cannot expect a puppy to train or entertain itself. It is important for the sale puppy trainer to keep them active with meaningful activities. This means the trainer needs to schedule events such as meetings with prospects, networking meetings, cold calling sessions, and time with centers of influence. The sales puppy needs to also have time learning about products, agency operations, and developing prospect lists. The trainer needs to make sure these are all scheduled and accomplished.

Give them what they need to succeed. There is no sense in trying to train a new sales puppy without giving them the tools they need to succeed. Some owners and sales managers come from the perspective of the school of hard knocks. They feel that they were not given any tools when they started, so their new sales puppies do not need any tools either. This is ignorant thinking. A successful business is one that makes sure all new employees are trained properly from the beginning. Send new sales puppies to a training class such as the Society for Producer Studies Sales training class or the CIC class called Dynamics of Selling. These two courses have excellent tools to give a new sales puppy a track to run on.

Feed them right. As we all know nutrition is very important for all new sales puppies. There is no sense in expecting great results if the puppy is malnourished. Make sure the sales puppy has good leads or the tools to develop good leads. Success happens when the sales puppies have the right nutrients to help them grow.

Continual practice. It is very important for sales puppies to practice, practice, practice. Just like any professional athlete, a sales puppy will only do its best by going over every possible situation they may come up against, especially common objections, like price. It is very important for the sales puppy trainer to be involved with helping the sales puppy in role-playing common scenarios.

Initial training is done on a leash. When working with a new sales puppy it is important to make sure they know who is in control. This is done through the use of a leash. One can direct the actions of the sales puppy by proper use of a leash. All puppy trainers will tell you not to jerk on the leash, but rather, use the leash as a means of directing the sales puppy toward a desired direction. This can be done by the use of praise, compensation, training, lead generation, goal-setting, double-teaming on sales calls and regular one-on-one coaching.

Variety is important. Sales puppies will tend to get distracted quickly. It is important to watch the progress of a new sales puppy and make sure that they are not bored. A bored sales puppy will only get in trouble. Once they have mastered the fundamentals they need to be pushed to higher levels. This can be by going after bigger accounts, or increasing the variety of the type of accounts that they sell.

Keep training sessions brief, but action-filled. To be effective, training sessions with sales puppies needs to be succinct. Get to the point quickly in training sessions. The attention span of your sales puppy is short. Don’t drone on about things of marginal interest to the group. Sales meetings need to concentrate on all of the important points to make in a short period of time.

Have patience. Bringing home a new sales puppy will be a time consuming and sometimes frustrating decision. In the long run, however, with proper training, it can also be a rewarding and wise decision.

This article is a partial introduction to Oak & Associates training manual for new producers. Contact Oak & Associates for a free expanded version of this article.

Topics Training Development