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Thursday, November 22, 2007

Small Business Can Benefit from Sales Training and Customer Service Coaching

When you are trying to grow your business during those first few years, the ability to turn prospects into customers and to keep customers satisfied with your products and services is MISSION CRITICAL.

However, some entreprenurs and small business owners make a common mistake of thinking that the sales and service staffs they emply also possess the same abilities and desires that they have in keeping the business running and growing.

I have heard the "not in the budget" "we are not big enough for training and coaching" and "I am the sales manager-trainer" answers before and that only makes me more committed to help them see the importance of investing a little money and allowing me to invest the time and resources necessary to turn their operation into a successful and cohesive sales and service organization.

I have first hand experience with not thinking it was a necessary investment - I thought I had all the answers and could train and coach my own teams over 15 years ago. Through a major business crisis for my organization in the mid-90s, I became convinced that sales and service training (we really didn't have coaches that didn't wear jerseys during that time) saved the company. After finding that I needed to retool and retrain my staffs, I had no alternative but to make a necessary monetary investment in trying to save my business. Looking at the results in the late 90s through the sale of the company in 2004, I see that I had made a HUGE mistake and probably had lost sucess momentum by not taking that step 5-8 years earlier.

The sales training that I chose was actually not appropriate for my team of "inside sales" account managers, but it was all I could find. This is early in the internet world and it was a referral from a business associate who gave me the name of the trainer and the program. It was not the best choice, but it did help me to retool the entire sales and customer service team.

It was in 1995 that I decided that in my "next and final career" I would develop and teach a personally written Sales Training System for small sales organizations (2 to 20 Inside Sales executives) and a complimentary coaching system for Customer Service Departments (3-10 CSRs) that would help business owners and staff members reap the benefits of the systems that I had honed over those 10 years.

Over the next 10 years, I did just that and I tried out many variations on my own sales and customer service orientation. Unlike some of the high-ticket sales training, the NuVo Partner Training is individualized and tailored to the needs of the client. The Customer Service Module is cohesive with the Sales Training program. The "named training programs" demands months of training. Our program helps to assess if the sales and service teams are really well-suited for the job. If they are - the training will be completed in less than 3 months. If they are not, recommendations will be made about replacing or reassigning employees in the wrong jobs.

Results are almost immediate. We provide a way to set goals, develop a process, overcome fear of cold calling, a method of improving their Vocal Skill to make a greater first impression on those critical calls. We can add on modules as needed for more advanced training. The basis of our programs are very simple: If you have a passion for sales, or the emotional empathy to be a great customer service representative, then we provide the training and coaching to make you excel and be professionally and personally fulfilled in your CAREER while allowing you to make the necessary impact and deliver the needed results to help your company grow.

For Business Owners, it is an opportunity to insure results and growth in revenue and satisfaction with customer service and support.


About the Author: Melissa Vokoun

Melissa has been involved in all aspects of sales and marketing management since her 1981 affiliation with GeneralTel.

After completing studies at Rosary College, she was involved in the initial marketing development, product implementation and sales efforts for the emerging paging industry for GeneralTel's 10,000+ customer base from Chicago and the outlying suburbs.

This opportunity led her to co-founding, Communitech, Inc. From 1983 through 2005, Melissa was COO and Vice President of Sales and Marketing for this national telecommunications equipment distributor. Her passion in recruiting, assessing, training new employees, and managing sales executives was instrumental to the company's growth and reputation as a premiere distributor of the industry.

Throughout her tenure, Melissa was not only responsible for the training of her own staff, but also of assisting in the training and education of both telemarketing and sales staffs of the vendors in her field.

From 1995 through her departure in 2005, annual sales were consistently in the $20M- $30M range, making the organization's sales and marketing staffs highly respected in the industry for marketing strategy success, product expertise, outstanding customer service, and superior sales achievement.

The consistency of the marketing and sales message was a direct factor in the success of the organization and its eventual sale. In 2005, NuVo Partners was founded to address the need of working with small businesses in helping these organizations hone their marketing message, and hire, train and develop successful sales and service organizations insuring sustainable growth and industry success.

She can be reached to discuss more about the NuVo Partners training and coaching programs at: melissa@nuvopartners.com or at 847-259-0278.

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