According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there were 5 million job openings on the last business day of January 2015, the highest level since January 2001. That’s great for the economy, but unfortunately, it has just the opposite effect on sales managers.

Sales jobs are a dime a dozen these days, and a quick search through indeed.com confirms this. Currently, there are more than 340,000 openings under the title of sales representatives, with more than 10,000 at a salary of 6 figures.

A recent DePaul University report on sales representative turnover indicates that the time to replace an open position ranges from 5.8 to 7.8 months, averaging 6.2 months. Acquisition costs of a rep average $29,000, product training costs average $36,000 and lost sales in territory average $50,000.

Those jaw-dropping statistics are the costs to a company. Can your company afford that kind of cost? And worse, once you hire that new rep are you guaranteed the WILL know how to sell effectively?

I recently interviewed a top executive of a placement firm in the design industry and in his exit interviews can you guess what the TOP reason is that salespeople leave a company?

This top executive says, the majority of sales people do not leave because of money, but because of the lack of sales training. They don’t know exactly how to sell.

Could it be any more clear that not only do sales representatives need and want sales training, but it really makes so much financial sense for companies to give them sales training? Oh so many do not. I speak with salespeople on a daily basis and ask if they get sales training and almost all say no.

They all get product training (even some are flown overseas for it at a phenomenal cost). But few are told the HOW’S of being an effective salesperson in today’s marketplace. They’re told, here’s our beautiful product, here’s the features and benefits, go out and sell.

Salespeople need to know what a priority is and what is not. What is going to make them money and what is not? What the difference in servicing a client is vs. selling a client.

Most sales people are taught to focus on product…that won’t cut it in this new economy where more companies are vying for the same sale than ever before . I know we WANT to think ours is special, unfortunately not the case anymore. That’s the tough reality.

So with these kinds of statistics, and the competitive information I’ve just laid out, how can companies NOT invest in sales training? It’s not enough to know the product, it’s as important to have the correct techniques to sell that beautiful product.

Don’t you want to save $115,000.00.

If you want system proven to accelerate sales exponentially, take a peek and let’s start that Dialogue.

(Image from GoEmerge.com)

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