Peer Training Group

Maybe We've Been Asking the Wrong Question
I'm starting to think that we've been asking the wrong question about training.
The question isn't, "Did the training go well?"
Or even...
"Did people enjoy it?"

Surely, the only question that matters is:
"Did performance improve?"

I've spent most of my working life conducting sales workshops, coaching salespeople and talking to sales managers.

One thing has puzzled me for years.

Companies will spend substantial amounts of money on training. Yet, many companies do not invest much time afterwards, to ensure that anything changes and performance improves.
The workshop finishes. Everyone goes back to work. Job done.
Or is it?

I reckon that training, by itself, rarely changes behaviour.
I don't think people become better because they attended a learning event.
They become better because they practise what they learned.

Training introduces new ideas.
Practice turns those ideas into competence.
Competence, repeated often enough, becomes habit.
And that's the point.

When the pressure is on, we don't stop to remember what was said in a workshop months ago. We rely on what we've practised.

It reminds me of Mike Tyson's famous observation:
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."

In sales, the customer's objection is the punch.
Even now, when a customer raises a price objection, I don't panic.
My mind immediately goes back to the Six-Step Approach that I practised years ago.

I don't stammer. I don't hesitate. The model is simply there.
Why?
Not because I attended a workshop.
Because I practised it, until it became part of me.
And that's where the confidence comes from.

Think about Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks.
Nobody expects the Springboks to become world champions after attending a seminar.

They become champions through repetition. Practise. More practise. Feedback. Adjustment.
Then more practise.

Business isn't very different.

Unfortunately, many organisations seem to live in what I call a "Move On" culture.
Finish the workshop. Tick the box. Move on to the next priority.
The trouble is that people don't learn at the speed organisations move.

Real learning takes time. Practice takes time. Managers need to make time for it.
And perhaps that's the biggest challenge of all.

Ironically, I've found that the hardest part of training isn't delivering a top-notch workshop.
It's getting managers to make time for their salespeople to practice.

Over the years we've experimented with a different approach.
Instead of expecting already busy managers to coach every individual, we help delegates coach one another.
We provide the lesson topics, the agendas, the checklists and the outcome forms.

Managers don’t conduct these sessions.
They simply review the outcomes and monitor progress.

The learning becomes part of the working week instead of something that happened in a training room months earlier. In our experience, this habit can continue for many months after the original workshop.

Perhaps we've been asking the wrong question.
It's not whether people enjoyed the training.
It's whether managers created enough opportunity for people to practise.

Training introduces new ideas.
Practice develops competence.
Competence, repeated often enough, becomes habit.

If practice develops competence, why do we invest so much in training....... and so little in practice?

Clive Price
Helping organisations turn training into performance.

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Remember to Nurture Your Pleasant Customers

We spend so much time chasing new customers that we forget about the good ones.

You know the type:
They are polite.
They pay on time.
They work with you, not against you.

Then there are the others.
This week, I'm cross with myself for wasting time on a customer who was hell bent on creating conflict.

He would not join an online meeting.
He would not list his concerns clearly.
Every tele-discussion turned from a debate into an attack.

I don't often run away from conflict.
But sometimes, protecting your standards, and your peace of mind is more important than keeping a rude customer.

Not every customer is worth keeping.

Do You Know 5 Common Sales Laws that Haven't Changed?

I learned these immutable laws, whilst Selling in the "Swinging Sixties".

Long before Google, the Internet or AI, knowledge came in the form of heavy volumes of encyclopaedias.
And in the 1960s, I was one of the people knocking on doors to sell them.

I had just returned from a scholarship year in the USA — yes, including a trip to “Woodstock” — and needed money to continue my studies.
When I applied to sell Britannica Encyclopaedias, the instruction was simple:

Cut your hair.

A small price to pay for employment.

Looking back, I learned lessons on human behaviour and sales psychology that still apply today.
Work started in the mid-afternoon.
Each salesperson claimed a suburb for the evening and out we went canvassing for prospects.

Knocking on doors.
Even the knock had rules.
Britannica trained us to knock in a way that sounded “friendly”.
In the training room they even installed a wooden door so we could practise.

When the door opened, I'd say:
"I’m conducting a survey on education in the neighbourhood.
Do you have children?"

Then came the next qualifying question:
“What time does your husband get home from work?”
If things went well, I’d secure an appointment for later that evening.

The nightly target was simple: Three qualified appointments.
When I returned, another rule applied.
Sit at the kitchen table, apparently the friendliest room in a house.

Then came the questions, learned off by heart.
Ten closed questions, all designed to get a yes.
For example:
"Is education important to you and your children?"
The rule of thumb was simple.
If you collected five yeses, the sale was 99% certain.

The psychology was straightforward:
Once someone gets used to saying yes, it becomes supremely difficult to say no.

And the close itself?
It wasn’t focused on buying encyclopaedias.
It was all about the type of bookcase, they wanted.
"When we deliver the encyclopaedias, would you prefer this bookcase… or that one?"

Looking back, here are five sales lessons from the "Swinging Sixties" that still work today:

1️⃣ Collect the yeses – small commitments lead to big ones.
2️⃣ Use the “pregnant pause.” Ask the question… then stop talking.
3️⃣ Silence is powerful. The first person to break it often loses.
4️⃣ Listen carefully. The smallest nuance can change the conversation.
5️⃣ Sell the feature that simplifies the decision. For us, it was the bookcase.

At the time, I thought I was just earning money to pay for my studies, but in reality, I had started an apprenticeship. in the profession of selling.

More than fifty years later….
I’m still learning about Selling in this complex world.
Hell, I'm happy I got a solid foundation

Curious:
What’s the earliest sales lesson you learned that still holds true today?

The Sales Elephant Everyone Ignores: Discovery

We all know that an effective Discovery is the crux of all sales deals.
Yet, most salespeople skip it and go straight into their pitch, while the prospect’s real problems remain uncovered.
Most salespeople skip Discovery because it feels uncomfortable—yet it’s the one step that decides whether you "win or lose the deal.”

At Peer Sales Training Group, we see this regularly, when we conduct mystery shops.

Only last week, we conducted a Mystery Shop, that revealed this scary stat:
Ten salespeople made sales calls to us:
· Only two (20%) asked about our concerns, pain points, or needs.
· Eight (80%) skipped discovery and went straight into their presentation.
It’s tempting to skip the Discovery Phase, because it can be uncomfortable and awkward.

Further research reveals:
- 57% of salespeople fail to qualify prospects properly (HubSpot)
- Only 13% of buyers feel understood by salespeople (Gartner)
- 90% of salespeople run terrible discovery calls.
At best, they "Check the boxes.
At worst, they annoy the hell out of buyers”. (Chris Orlob)

Here’s a challenge for sales leaders: conduct your own role-plays with your team and follow this rule: the salespeople are not allowed to talk about their product, service, or company for the first 5 minutes. Not one word.
Give it a try and we bet, you’ll find most salespeople can't do this.

Here’s the reality: without proper discovery, your presentation is guesswork, and that rarely wins.

Here’s another challenge for sales leaders.
Start measuring your salespeople on the quality of their “Discovery Phase”.
Customise your CRM so salespeople can write down the ‘pain-points’ of prospects.
Stop asking “Did you close the deal?” and rather ask “What are the prospect’s Pain-Points?”

This is the sad truth: the Close doesn’t happen at the end of a pitch — it happens in the Discovery Phase. Skip it, and no amount of presentation polish is likely to save the deal.

If we don’t address the problems with Discovery, the elephant simply stays in the room.

How We Fix It
At the Peer Sales Training Group, we help salespeople master the Discovery Phase. We train salespeople to become fearless, master questioners.

Do You Brighten Your Client’s Day?

Sales Gurus talk about the importance of ‘serving’, when selling.
“Sales is the Ultimate Form of Service” – D. Mitchell

Makes me wonder what if I don’t feel like it. What if, I get out of the bed, on the wrong side and feel damn negative. Sure, I’ll put my best foot forward but is this good enough?
Nope, I don’t think so, and here’s why.

Every week, regular as clockwork, I get a direct phone call from Brian. He works for a stationery company that supplies us with all things to do with running an office.
What I enjoy about Brian’s phone call is the boost of happiness he brings.

I even look forward to his weekly phone call. It’s my dopamine kick!
His greeting is joyous and personal and his polite enquiry of ‘how are you doing’ is real and authentic. He leaves me feeling alive and better off.

It makes me wonder whether I do the same for my clients.
I don’t know.

So, this week, I’m doing a test-run and after every client interaction, I’ll do a quick self-rating on this question,
“Did I leave that person in a happier space, after our chat?”

What do you think about doing Self-Ratings?

ARE YOU NICE TO COLD CALLERS?

I decided to give Cold Callers a chance this week.
Yep, I was pleasant and not looking to nit-pick.

What struck me was the barrage of Closed Questions, the callers asked, most all of them inviting a "No" answer, which I gave.

I lapsed into silence when I realised these callers weren't listening to me, and heard their lengthy monologues.
I was hoping for an invitation to join the chat, but that didn't happen.

I wanted to give away knowledge, so when I finally got a chance to speak, I shared the 5 Whiskey & 1 Hotel tip on how to ask Open Ended Questions.

My advice went down like a leaden balloon and has dampened any altruistic thoughts, I may have had for next week.

Cold Callers - you can stay in your rut!

“GLITCHES” KEEP US IN BUSINESS

I used to get frustrated when salespeople would consistently make the fundamental error of spouting out solutions before first diagnosing the problem areas.
Last week, Peer Training hosted 3 different companies for Refresher Sales Skills Programs, one company per day.

We kicked off each program with a sales Role Play to a prospect, that we tailor- made for that company and I played the role of the prospect.
On the positive side, the introductions and ‘small chat’ were business-like and courteous and then, without exception they hit me with their ‘pitch’, their presentation and their Value Prop.
It sounded marvellous but didn’t help solve my problem.

With so much knowledge out there about the Sales Process and the fact that the Discovery Phase comes before the Presentation Phase, why on earth do salespeople keep on getting this wrong?

Yes, it used to frustrate me, now I am cool, because these ‘glitches’ keep me in business.

And, come to think about it, “glitches” keep us all in business.

DECEPTIVE?
I get this pleasant email from my bank, saying "My name is ............... and I am delighted to inform you that I have been
selected as your Business Banker".
After more pleasantries and niceties, he says "Should you be unable to reach me, our skilled agents will be happy to assist you ........"
Then I get all the details you'd find on their website.
WHEN will Banks - and others - learn we are not stupid?
WHAT we want is authentic and true human relationships, not crap.😡