Most salespersons receive various types of training, but the most essential is training in sales techniques and handling people. For example, a marketing agency that provides consulting services may offer sales training and people handling skills to their clients. Sales training is more straightforward because it involves the execution of the job. On the other hand, developing interpersonal skills is more complex, as there are many things to learn. Aside from interpersonal skills, there is also personality development so that a salesperson can put their first foot forward.
Training for salespersons is vital because they are the customer-facing representatives of a company. Therefore, their performance directly reflects on the organization. If a marketing agency suggests hiring a firm for sales staffing services to various companies, their hired personnel represent two organizations – their agency and the company they are assigned to provide service.
Importance of interpersonal skills training
If you are going to work or already working in sales, you should have training in interpersonal skills. You might be thinking about why you need interpersonal training when you are in sales, and your priority should be convincing consumers to buy. Keep in mind that you can be a supervisor, a manager or hold a vital desk job later, and your interpersonal skills training will be an asset. Thus, it is essential to have interpersonal skills training because it will help you later when dealing with customers.
Given the skills you need to develop, you’ll realize that you need them when you’re working in sales because you will be interacting with different people whose behaviors, expectations, motivations, and desires vary. You also have to interact with different departments and colleagues, so it is not possible to avoid interacting with other people.
Let us look at the primary interpersonal skills training a consultant from a marketing agency may provide.
- Managing conflicts. This is beneficial to managers and staff. As a salesperson, you might meet irrational customers, and you should know the techniques to appease them while you reign in your emotions. You have to keep the customer happy because you know that a happy customer can lead to increased sales.
- Handling troublesome people. This training benefits everyone. For frontline personnel, such as those in sales, it provides you with different methods to deal with customers positively and constructively. Managers can also use the training to deal with company employees. People that are difficult to deal with the need to be approached differently.
- Effective communication.This communication skills training is a very popular training course, and it is one among the many that a marketing agency consultant will offer. Learning how to communicate effectively is a critical skill for people in sales.
- Skills in active listening. Often, conflicts arise because active listening skills are absent. Sometimes you only hear the words of the speaker, but they do not register, so you do not have any reaction. When you are actively listening, you understand what a person is saying and provide feedback. Active listening skills help you provide the response the other person expects. It is a skill you can use to settle conflicts.
Using the best landing page in marketing your marketing agency
Aside from promoting its primary services, a marketing agency may offer its sales training and interpersonal skills training courses online. Therefore, the agency needs a dynamic website with an excellent landing page. A landing page is part of online marketing strategies. Just like all the parts of your strategy, the landing pages must have specific goals. You need these goals, so you have clear directions when you start your webpage design.
A marketing agency needs a steady stream of clients to survive. It cannot just rely upon referrals and word-of-mouth advertising. It needs to attract clients, thus it must have a great landing page. A landing page is an entrance to a website, and it’s the first place where a web visitor makes contact with your online portal. Thus, it should have the appropriate elements to make it as effective as possible in engaging with your web visitors.
They should have a primary headline together with a subhead. In addition, it should feature the company’s unique benefits it offers to its customers. To make your landing page more engaging, you should have appropriate images (including videos), along with text content that provides the necessary information regarding your company and the services or products you offer. It should also have a statement that reinforces your headline and specific content, a closing statement, and a call to action (CTA) statement.
Going by the importance of a website to a marketing agency, and the discussion regarding the various services it can offer, let us go back to the training of salespersons. The training a salesperson may receive correlates with understanding the motivations that compel consumers to buy, which we’re discussing next.
Buyer motivations every salesperson should know
A person who is in sales must understand each customer. It can be a difficult task because each person has a special set of characteristics, behaviors, and needs. Their reasons to make a purchase differ as well. A salesperson must instinctively know why a consumer prefers one product over the other and if the price point differences matter.
While there’s a wide range of buying motives, here are the most important and prominent reasons that drive customers to purchase a product or service. Broadly, they are:
- Need. This is an essential motivation why a consumer buys a product. It could be to fill a vital need, like food and clothing. It could be to solve an immediate problem, such as an umbrella, because of a sudden downpour. Some buyers have a definite idea of what they want to buy. However, some consumers do not know what they need until some products are shown to them. In this situation, the salesperson needs to inspire the consumer. You can give them some guidance, probe them a little with some specific questions, make them aware of the issue, and explain how the particular product can solve the problem.
- Impulse. Many people do not think before they make a purchase. Impulsive buyers may see a product and want it at that instant. You can create a situation by capitalizing on this behavior. For example, some people get excited when they see flash deals and promotional pricing schemes, such as an instant discount when the buyer pays in cash or a buy-one-take-one deal for a limited time.
- Fear. There will always be buyers who fear that they will miss out on something if they do not buy a particular product. Salespersons should learn to recognize this type of buyer. You can create urgency with the appropriate words or use them to highlight specific needs when creating short-term promotions. Some companies play on the consumers’ anxiety to drive home the point of their products’ safety features.
- Acceptance. This buyer motive is a typical result of consumer fear. Specifically, it pertains to fear of missing out (FOMO). The buyer wants to have some specific products because every person close to them is buying the same item. Acceptance is a buyer motive when there are trending products, wherein interest is generated quickly, and people follow the trend rapidly. They want to join the fad, thus they accept that they must have the product as well, so they can show off.
- Health. Most consumers are concerned about their well-being. You can sell them a product by showing and proving to them that your product is effective, with demonstrations, product trials, and credible evidence.
- Pleasure. Many consumers make purchases to indulge themselves. They want to enjoy something other than the essentials once in a while. More often, you can use this motive when you are selling something luxurious, such as designer items or home décor, where the idea of owning the item gives them pleasure.
- Financial Gain. Some buyers buy specific products to complement their business. When you want to sell to a consumer with this motivation, it is vital to show actual results. Cite customers or companies similar to them that gained from purchasing your product.
- Aspiration. Some consumers buy certain products that will make themselves better. If self-improvement is their motivation, you can encourage them to buy, prove to them your product will help them advance in their career, improve their health and well-being, or improve their resumes.
- To feel safe. There will be buyers who want to ensure their protection. They want to have organizational memberships, insurance policies, and security systems for their homes.
- Feel important. Some buyers are motivated to shop in specific stores, buy certain products, and ensure that other people who recognize them see where they shop. They feel that it enhances their status and make them feel that they are somebody to be respected.
You can learn many things from a marketing agency that provides interpersonal skills training, which is essential when working in sales. The training will help you to recognize the buyer motivations quickly and use them to improve your sales performance.
