There are more than three hundred million people in the USA. It is claimed that there are more than fourteen million salespeople in the USA. This means that out of every twenty people there is one salesperson. Why are so many people in the sales field? Because everyone thinks that being a salesperson is easy, after all, all you have to do is talk, right?

Woody Allen said, “Ninety percent of life is showing up.” This may be true for some people, but not the really professional person, particularly professional salespersons. Salesmanship requires focus, energy and commitment . . . and sales training. Focus, Energy and Commitment are from within each individual person. Sales training, on the other hand, is an elective offered by few, if any, public institutions of higher learning. Marketing is a curriculum offered in most business schools, but what about “salesmanship,” from whence does that come?

In the old school of salesmanship, prospective salespeople learned their craft from the more experienced salesmen, a coach-pupil sort of relationship. There was no formal course of instruction nor a manual or book to follow. Smart sales managers then developed regular courses to train their new salesmen, but most of those focused on product knowledge, leaving the actual schooling in salesmanship to field activity, either with a senior rep or the sales manager himself.

Forward thinking companies, recognizing the need for a better process to produce salespeople, developed complete formal sales training courses. Some of these became so effective that they were licensed to other companies. More and more corporations adopted training programs for their sales people, often going far beyond basic sales and product knowledge, incorporating specialized, industry specific, advanced courses for even their experienced people.

Now, the current economic crisis has companies making budget cuts and one of the first things to go is the sales training. This is a mistake because without trained salespeople making sales, there is no activity in the factory. These same corporate cutbacks mean that many departments are multi-tasking. Sales departments may also be handling order entry and customer service. This detracts from their primary function and leaves even less time for the very important activity of selling. Keeping the salesperson in front of customers as much as possible is one of the keys to maintaining customers and increasing sales.

Sure, the fat should be cut from the budget, but sales training may be accomplished without much cost other than time. Also, there are alternatives for companies facing budget trimming. Instead of stacking responsibilities on overworked staff members, outsource these duties to professional specialists. The cost is less than that of maintaining a staff or paying overtime and usually much more effective. Sales lead generation and qualification may also be outsourced. Database maintenance is another specialized activity that can be lifted from the company personnel.

TeleArk is one of the premiere companies in sales lead generation, inbound call center/customer service and database management. The TeleArk professionals will make your operation more efficient and cost effective.