Why Traditional Sales Training Doesn't Work | BrainTrust

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Why Traditional Sales Training Doesnt Work

• braintrust101.com

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• For some of you, the title of this blog made you
  immediately nod your head in agreement. For
  others, it made you say, what!?! then why in
  the world does my manager keep making me go to
  these useless sessions?? Recent advances in
  neuroscience have finally proven what great
  salespeople and great communicators in general
  have known all along That teaching a
  transactional, mechanical, fact-filled, executive
  summary process of Open-Probe-Present-Overcome
  Objections-Transition-Close has the complete
  opposite effect on the human brain than we were
  hoping for.

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• If thats the case, then why in world does every
  sales training program teach sales this way?
  Because until recently, they didnt know better.
  Our entire educational system was built around
  the knowledge we picked up from the industrial
  revolution. We created the assembly line as an
  innovative solution to meet the demands of a
  booming economy needing products faster and more
  efficient. We trained those workers for a
  specific task that could be repeated hour after
  hour, day after day. Someone then had the bright
  idea to educate our kids the same waylike an
  assembly line. We group them in batches by age
  and grade and teach them to memorize as many
  facts and statistics as possible. We then measure
  their capabilities simply by how many of these
  facts they can regurgitate on a test. This
  happens year after year all the way from
  pre-school through college. Then they graduate,
  get great sales jobs and its more of the same.
  We make them learn the five thousand features of
  a product and the statistics to back up why its
  better than the competition. We then send them
  out to throw up all this data on the
  prospective customer.

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• Guess what? It turns out that when we train
  people that way, it actually creates skepticism
  or at best, ambivalence in the mind of our
  customer. In fact, this way of communicating
  triggers the customers left brain. Our left
  brains handle all data and facts. Its geared for
  processing and organizing. Its the transactional
  side of our brains. Its also the skeptical side
  of our brain. Its the right brained approach
  that produces visualization, emotion and trust.
  This is where decisions are made and connections
  are formed. As author Daniel Pink states in A
  Whole New Mind, its the right brained people
  who will rule the future. In my book, Story
  Based Selling I show you how we can actually
  train sales people in a right brained approach
  through the mechanism of storytelling.

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• Using this approach, you accomplish the
  following
• 1. You force the customer into their right brain.
  It is here where emotions and feelings reside and
  where your customer finds connection with you.
• 2. Your customer, like all humans, is conditioned
  to actively listen to a story. They cannot help
  themselves. It happens at the subconscious level
  of the human brain.
• 3. You break down the feelings of being sold to
  in the mind of a customer. When you wrap your
  product or service into a story, the customers
  instinctive skeptic walls come down. They dont
  feel threatened.
• 4. By using personal illustrations that show
  vulnerability, the customer really connects with
  you and sees that you are genuine.

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• For all the hard core S.P.I.N. or Solutions
  salespeople out there, dont fret. Story Based
  Selling doesnt replace the principles you have
  learned. It accelerates your ability to connect
  and communicate in a way that is much more
  receptive to the customer. You still need to know
  your stuff, or the whatthis just helps you
  with the how.
• Question Do you agree that a traditional sales
  training approach does not connect with your
  customers?
• Visit https//braintrust101.com/
• About the Author
• Jeff Bloomfield is the Founder of BrainTrust, a
  sales and marketing consultancy that teaches
  companies how to leverage neuroscience in their
  overall sales and marketing
• message strategy.