WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT ‘TECHNICAL SALES TRAINING’ ?
Good, standard ‘Sales Training’ covers all the bases and offers proven skills and techniques that result in excellent sales conversion in any market.
‘Technical Sales Training’ does all of the above, but also adds in the extra level of skill needed to sell into technical markets, such as:
- Identifying all decision makers, technical and commercial
- Building relationships with engineers as well as buyers
- Understanding and adapting to the different needs of technical and commercial personnel
- Ensuring all specification and quality needs are addressed as well as price, deliveryand other commercial requirements
General Sales Training can be adapted for individual businesses, but it is Technical Sales Training that covers all the issues that can be experienced when two very diverse mindsets have to be satisfied before a sale can happen.
CASE STUDY (personal experience as a sales novice; from the early part of my sales career!)
A large established customer specialising in car instrumentation needed specialist electronic circuitry to be manufactured in significant quantities.
The Chief Engineer called me in and over 4-5 months our parts were prototyped, quality checked and ‘designed-in’. The Chief was very pleased and said the order for the first million parts would be with us in a matter of weeks.
Nothing happened and contact attempts were ignored so I made another appointment to see him. At this meeting I learned that our main rival had won the business! The Chief was furious as he had not had parts from them and had not met with any of their personnel. He wanted to give us the business but had been over-ruled by the purchasing department who had approved our competitors using an extensive paperwork exercise(!)
The lessons: Always involve both technical and commercial personnel in any sales approach, and avoid assumptions, such as who is the decision maker.
I never made that mistake again!
This is a classic example of just one of the issues that can be faced when selling into technical markets. There are many more as it is rare that technical personnel understand the needs and priorities of the commercial department, and vice versa.
Those skilled in technical sales can overcome all these issues and more.
The courses are ideal for technicians and engineers moving into sales as well as for commercially trained personnel needing to sell into technical markets.
For more information, contact Andy on 01793 843118, or 07941 041364, or email [email protected]