Sales Technique Courses

Closing sales is easier when properly trained.

There is a large array of quality resources available to the person who wants to learn how to sell or reinforce existing sales skills, or is looking for new ideas and approaches to selling. Information is readily available in an online format, in your local community or by attending a public seminar and workshop. Typical topics covered regardless of the method of teaching are cold calls, negotiation skills, handling objections, types of questions to use, listening skills, closing strategies, telephone skills, presentations skills and follow-up skills.

Public Seminars

Public seminars are generally offered in a one- or three-day format. The shorter time frame is usually held in a hotel meeting space, and costs will range from $99 to $159 per person. It is designed primarily to be in a lecture-type format where participants take notes and maybe go through a few simple exercises or assessment tools. Three-day seminars can cost from $450 to over $2,000, and class sizes are usually much smaller. There is more interaction among class members and many more role-play learning opportunities.

Online Courses

Online courses offer a very convenient way to learn sales skills on your own time. Some courses are offered by online universities and others by private companies. A key advantage of online courses is the ability to replay information until you feel confident in understanding how to use the information. In addition to online courses over the Internet, webinars (a web seminar) have become an effective means to convey information in a 30- to 60-minute time frame. These are offered many times as an alternative to an online course. Other times, they are offered in conjunction with an online course.

Local Community

In your local community, your neighborhood community college or university may run courses in the evening hours, spread out over a semester or a period of eight weeks or so. The advantage to this type of learning is it allows you to still work in your job or occupation during the day while building on your sales skills once a week at night. This approach is also the avenue taken by the very successful Dale Carnegie organization nationally.

Books and CD/DVD Programs

Books and CD programs are still a very effective and affordable way to learn about sales techniques. You can go to your local book store and look in the business section. You can also look on the New York Times Best Seller lists and typically find one or two books in the non-fiction area that pertain to selling. They're usually worth a read. CD/DVD sales training programs have also been around for a while and offer a wealth of content, as well as the flexibility of viewing them on your own time without an Internet connection.

References

• Entrpreneur Magazine; Why Straightforward Salespeople Close More Deals
• Businessballs; Sale Training Techniques

Resources

• Dale Carnegie Training
• American Management Association
• National Seminars Group; Seminars and Locations