Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2004-08-25 06:50:53 - Graham Ellis
I have what an interviewer would call a "proven sales record". I've taken an average sales territory and turned it into the best in the land. I've less formally helped with sales enquiries for a small training outfit (not ourselves) and seen them thrive with my help. And for the past few years, Lisa and I have grown "Well House Consultants" year by year into the position where we want it to be. And yet - I don't enjoy selling. I hate making cold calls, and I would rather not be badgering potential customers for their order. Much MUCH better to have a product that's second to none, and to have a sales role that's concerned to assist the customer in ordering what's right for him - even if it's not your product. If you can afford to take the time to build up a customer relationship and you have an excellent product to back it up, then there's no need for pressure sales.
Training is a "funny" business. A course is a huge success if the group of trainees goes away and makes effective use of what they've learnt. And that may mean no repeat business! Learning something is often a "one-off". You may need to buy coffee every month and company letterhead from time to time, but you only need to learn Python once. So why the long term approach? Because it still pays dividends.
I'm writing these notes in a training room just to the north of Bristol [posted following morning]. I was last here, I believe, about 3 months ago and at that point the discussion was that this would be the last course here for a while. "You've trained us all" were the words. So what happened? A new contract, and a requirement for some of *their* clients to be changed. A few new staff. People who missed out on previous courses because of date clashes. And suddenly we have a very full course of 10.
So is *this* the last time I'll see folks here for a while? No - I'm sure it isn't. A former trainee walked in yesterday and is talking about arrangements for coming on a public course on MySQL next month. Good. And he mentions that there's a whole group of his colleagues who are likely to want the training too if he reports that the course was useful.
Can our sales approach work for everyone? No - it can't. For it to work for you, you'll need a special product and an enthusiasm for it. You'll need to have EVERY duck in a row - from good initial enquiry handling through crisp order fulfilment and an excellent product to a high standard of post-sales support.