Looking for sales training? Here are some options. For individuals, there are great publicly available training programs that individuals can attend. For large companies, consider bringing the training in-house. For any size company, use a sales training professional to create your own customized training and to integrate it into your sales operations, like KickStart Alliance.
Sales training has the most powerful impact when it is the foundation for common language in sales, integrated with your CRM (like Salesforce.com or others), aligned with marketing programs and customized to fit your unique business needs. KickStart Alliance can help you accomplish those important goals.
Below are some great public sales training choices. Programs with books are at the top of the list because they provide reinforcement of concepts and allows you to infuse the core concepts throughout the organization to executive staff, marketing, product management and beyond. Customized training programs can be based on these books or a combination to fit your needs.
- Strategic Selling and Large Account Management Process are two of many courses offered through Miller Heiman Sales Performance. It’s one of my top picks. There is also a book by the same name – great reference & reinforcement. Miller & Heiman’s first book “Strategic Selling” is the source material for many sales books that followed.
- Sales Advantage is one of many courses offered by Dale Carnegie. It’s one of my top picks. It really reinforces good selling techniques but requires commitment as the course is delivered over 8-weeks. There is also a book by the same name.
- Mastering the Complex Sale is offered through Thull’s Prime Resource Group. They also have a book by the same name
- Customer Centric Selling offers public courses. They also have a book by the same name.
OTHER RECOGNIZED NAMES:
- SPIN Selling offered by Huthwaite is good but basic, they also offer several other training programs as well. The book is a classic and should be on your shelf.
- Solution Selling offers several workshops, couldn’t tell if public workshops are offered. LSA Global is the prime vendor. There is also a book by the same name.
- Powerbase Selling does not seem to offer public courses. This is a good book for understanding and navigating company/organizational politics.
- Target Account Selling has all but disappeared from existence. It was purchased by Siebel systems who integrated it into their CRM and was later bought by Oracle. I couldn’t find any reputable public workshops and they never did write a book. Too bad. It was a good program, I used it at several companies.
- Zig Ziglar http://www.ziglar.com is loved by many and he is a good motivational speaker but he’s not one of my favorites for sales training. He has a bunch of books, “See you at the top” and “Secrets of Closing a Sale” are two popular ones http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Zig%20Ziglar&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3AZig%20Ziglar&page=1
- Jeffrey Gitomer http://www.gitomer.com/sales-training/TrainOne.html has a number of training options. He is loved by many and a very entertaining speaker but he’s not one of my favorites for sales training. I love his “Little Red Book of Selling” and have given it to many sales teams & sales people over the years. He has a host of other books too http://www.amazon.com/Jeffrey-H.-Gitomer/e/B001H6PSOO