As you may be aware, the sales training being offered by Sales Careers Online takes a number of different formats.  For instance, we are currently in the middle of a two-hour, two-week tele-seminar on the “Foundations of a Successful Sales Career.”  In addition, over the coming months, there will be original articles posted written by some of the best and most innovative sales trainers in the country; there will be additional tele-seminars and interviews by these same trainers all free to Sales Careers Online users; and there is an open invitation to email me with any sales or management related questions you might have and one or more of our training experts will address them. A gentleman who identified himself only as Richard started the questioning off with a bang:

“My question to you, McCord, is simple.  I’ve been laid off from my job and I’m on this site to find a job—period.  Why should I spend my time attending a seminar or reading sales articles or a book?  In one of your posts you said that getting additional training will help me get a job.  How’s that?  I need a job, not training.  You really think an employer gives a damn if I sat through a training seminar or read an article lately?” 

Interesting question. The short answer is yes, I think continued sales training has a great deal to do with helping one find a job.  Let me give you three reasons why I believe that: 

1.  Richard actually happens to be a perfect example of how sales training can contribute to one’s job search success.  From reading his email, several things become obvious:  he is under a good deal of stress.  It comes out clearly in both his words and his attitude.  He needs a job—and he needs it now.   

There’s an air of desperation in his email.  It comes out in his first sentence—very direct, very short, bordering on rude.  No introduction what-so-ever.  Just a straightforward question that can be read either as an honest question—“show me how spending my time doing this will help me get a job,” or as an attack—“you’re wasting my time, if you really wanted to help, you’d find me job.” 

When you act in desperation, you tend to push too hard—you to try to force things to happen.  That desperation comes out in the interview, just as it does in a sale.  And just as your prospect reacts negatively to a desperate, pushy sales approach, a hiring manger does the same.  The harder you try to force things, the more elusive success becomes. 

How will sales training help Richard?  Well, it just so happens that last week’s first session of the “Foundations of a Successful Sales Career” tele-seminar dealt with the psychological foundations of becoming a top producer.  We addressed the issues of attitudes and beliefs and developing the belief system of a top producer. 

Richard is in the negative downward spiral of self-doubt and negative expectations.  Learning how to recognize self-defeating attitudes and to readjust them to reach one’s goals would have been a perfect session for him in his current situation.  

Not only do those self-defeating attitudes and beliefs sabotage sales, they also sabotage interviews and job searches.  After all, what’s a more crucial sale than selling yourself in a job interview? 

And what he learned—or was reminded of—in that session transfers directly to his new position once he secures one. 

In addition, the second session of that seminar Tuesday will discuss the 8 things one must do to become a top producer—most of it directly applicable to a job search as well. 

2.  The job interview is a sales presentation.  Everything you do in the course of finding and securing a job is selling.  The resume is your approach to get the opportunity to get the meeting—the interview.  Your initial phone conversation is your opportunity to secure the meeting.  The interview is your first opportunity to sell your product—you.  Each follow-up is an additional opportunity to handle objections and go for the close. 

Everything you’ve ever learned about sales comes into play when you’re looking for a new job.  A job search is the ultimate sales challenge, especially for a salesperson that is being judged not just on their past accomplishments, but on how they sell in the interview process itself. 

No one ever has enough sales training.  The biggest names in sales and sales training continue to read books and articles, purchase and listen to CD’s and tapes, attend seminars and conferences, and to research and learn about sales and selling.  The more you learn about selling—and, of course, the more of it you actually apply—the better prepared you are for your interviews. 

3. Although the hiring manager may not care that you attended a particular seminar titled “Foundations of a Successful Sales Career,” or read a book titled Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income:  Sales Success through Client Referrals, or read a particular article, they will be interested to know that you think enough about yourself and your career and are dedicated enough to your success that you are actively continuing to improve your knowledge and skills.   

Most employers are interested in the whole package you bring when you join their company.  If the hiring manager is good, they will care about more than just what you’ve done in the past, because, frankly, past performance is not an absolute indicator of future performance.  They will also care about how you will fit into their company’s culture; what your goals are and how those fit within the company’s planned growth and direction; your attitudes about what you do for a living and about yourself; and your commitment to success as demonstrated by what you are doing now—whether you’re currently employed or not.   

Part of that package is what you are doing—or not doing—to improve your selling skills.  If you can demonstrate that you are serious about your success, you have a leg up on much of your competition for the job. 

If an employer was only interested in past performance, all they would need do is collect resumes, pick out the one with best historical selling numbers, verify those numbers and make an offer.  It doesn’t work that way.  Often the person with best past performance numbers isn’t the person who gets the offer.  The employer is looking for the individual who brings the best combination of assets.  Continual sales training can be, should be one of the assets you bring with you. 

Sales Careers Online didn’t take the time and put in the effort to develop a strong sales training offering for their users because sales training alone is going to help anyone secure a job.  They offer it because continual sales training is part of the package you need to help you secure the best position for yourself, because it will help you be a better salesperson when you move companies or acquire another position, and because it demonstrates to potential employers that they are actively seeking to provide them with the best candidates possible. 

So, the answer to Richard’s question is an unqualified yes.  If you want to secure the best sales job possible, if you want to be able to positively impact a hiring manager, and if you want to excel in your new—or your current—sales or sales management position, you must be actively engaged in ongoing training.  Whether you get it through the training offered by Sales Careers Online or through another resource is up to you.  However, the advantage of using the training offered by Sales Careers Online is that you can receive training from a dozen of the best trainers in the country at no cost to you. 

Do you have a sales or management question or issue you’d like addressed?  If so, send me an email at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com and either I or one of our other trainers will be happy to address it. 

In addition, if you’d like to participate in the second half of the “Foundations of a Successful Sales Career” seminar tomorrow at 3PM Central, just send an email to seminar@mccordandassociates.com with the words Sales Careers Online Seminar as the subject and I’ll get you registered.