You Can Train A Great Salesperson In 4 Hours Or Less!

CHANNEL ISLANDS, Calif. - Aug. 27, 2013 - PRLog -- Before he was hired as sales rep at Time-Life Books, Gary Goodman was invited to an interview and told, “If your interview is successful, we’ll hire you on the spot, train you, and you’ll be on the phone making calls the same evening. And of course, we’ll pay you while you’re in training, and thereafter.”

He was also informed that he would have a very good idea of what the job required and his prospects for succeeding at it, once that initial, four-hour shift had concluded.

True to form, Goodman was hired, trained, and before that shift had concluded, he had earned at least one sale via an outbound call.

They were happy with him, and he with them, and he would go on to conduct the same interviews and high-impact training sessions as a sales manager, within twelve months when he earned a promotion after being the top sales rep.

"What’s RIGHT with this picture, this introductory process?" according to Goodman, the best-selling author of Reach Out & Sell Someone and You Can Sell Anything By Telephone, two classic books in the field.

Just about everything, from his point of view.

Goodman points to a few crucial few highlights from his training:

(1)   The entire process was condensed to a four-hour interaction. Before you think this is impossible to replicate outside of Time-Life, Goodman asserts as a consultant he has done it. Before you say this wouldn’t work in B2B situations, know this: He says it does, time and again.

(2)   Goodman was selling before he had time to worry about whether he could. The longer it takes to achieve what he calls the Speed-to-Sale, the first deal, the worse the pressures are for all concerned. Recruits fret, “Will I make it?” Managers wonder, “Will he make it?” Paranoia increases exponentially with each passing hour and day. Cut delays and you’ll prosper, Goodman says.

(3)   Of course, Time-Life had distilled the essence of sales success and was able to train ONLY those behaviors that mattered in putting business on the books. This involved scripting presentations, answers to common questions and objections, transition phrases, product knowledge capsules, and more. These tools were at the trainees’ fingertips through a dashboard display.

(4)   The investment Time-Life made in developing the process was substantial, but once it had been distilled, it was the cheapest and most effective way to train new hires and to grow the sales team.

Goodman has gone on to revolutionize recruitment and training protocols based on the sense of urgency embedded in the Time-Life model.

For example, at a major mutual fund company, he pared back to five days a training program that had grown grotesquely to eight weeks. ("And still, there was plenty of fluff in it," he smiles.)

If you don’t know what it takes in your business for a new hire to succeed, immediately, Goodman says "You really don’t know your business. Or, you may know it, but you haven’t objectified these behaviors into an easily transmitted process."

Typically, business owners and shareholders appreciate what Goodman is describing. Curiously, it is the training establishment in companies that thwarts these sorts of process improvements.

They’re the voice of tradition, of equating training time with training value. They think the longer a program is, the better.

"When it’s just the opposite," Goodman points out.


Gary Goodman can be reached at (818) 970-GARY (4279) or at gary@customersatisfaction.com. His sales, customer service, and negotiation seminars and speeches are offered worldwide.