The interesting thing about this list is that most of the topics have little, if anything to do with closing. As a matter of fact, if a salesperson is effectively executing the process of selling, all of these topics are dealt with long before a salesperson determines that an opportunity is even closeable.

Today I was asked about the difference between sales training and sales development. They are the same except for one ENORMOUS difference. Sales training takes place in the classroom and is often difficult to apply and put into practice. Sales Development takes place throughout the sales organization from the top executives down through the most junior of salespeople. While sales training is a component of sales development, some of the components that are even more important include:

Help your salespeople learn to do this and they will double or even triple their sales.

Your salespeople learn that they should ask questions to learn about the needs, issues, applications and problems that their prospects might have. And some of them actually ask one or two of those questions – like they get it – and then they start to present their product, service or company. Just like our son, they can think about the other person for only so long before they revert to thinking about what’s important to them or comfortable for them.