Brand Focused-Training

WHITE PAPER:
What’s covered in this white paper:
: A look at today’s top sales challenges
: The reasons why typical sales training does not provide ROI
: The four crucial elements of successful sales training
: How neuroscience based training programs ensure sustainable change
: Why leading by example is essential to any sales training success
Brand-Focused Training Alters
Your Team’s Perspective and
Leads to Game-Changing Results
HOTEL SALES TRAINING CAN ELEVATE YOUR SALES TEAM
INTO AN AMAZING POSITION OF POWER –
ONCE FOUR CRUCIAL ASPECTS ARE ADDRESSED…
High Impact Presentations by Sue Hershkowitz-Coore
CUSTOMIZED SALES TRAINING FOR THE LUXURY HOTEL MARKET

BRAND-FOCUSED TRAINING ALTERS YOUR TEAM’S PERSPECTIVE
AND LEADS TO GAME-CHANGING RESULTS 2
The role of a sales person has changed considerably over the years. In 2012, according to a report
published by Fleishman-Hillard, “89% of consumers turned to Google, Bing or another search engine to find
information on products, services or businesses prior to making purchases”. That same year, CEB reported
“57% of the purchase is completed by the buyer before interacting with the seller”. Customers today are
able to approach the buying process from a perspective of power; they have diagnosed their own “pain,”
and require an effortless buying experience and a curator of content to mitigate buying risk.
Sales approach has shifted dramatically from aggressive, powerful and pushy (40 years ago) to
“relationship” and solution provider (20 years ago), to that of being a comforting, insightful virtual bridge,
a source of knowledge and a collaborative trusted advisor.
Buyers today don’t need to be sold, informed or diagnosed. Rather they need authentic advocates who
can demonstrate an understanding of their needs, provide the support and education that enables them
to make informed, knowledge-based decisions and help them feel confident and calm with their choice.
Sales training that does not take these significant shifts into consideration cannot deliver what is needed to
take a sales team to the next level.
Accelerating technology, communication trends and changing buying styles have not bypassed the
hospitality industry, and hotel sales face additional unique challenges. The expectations are high to drive
revenue despite:
• an ever increasing supply of competition,
• stabilization of demand, and in some cases
• tired, worn products that are in dire need of upgrades and renovation.
Without fresh skills to adapt to the ever-changing purchasing dynamics of prospects and procurement
officers, meeting planners, corporate clients and third-party agencies, heightened activity is simply

that — activity, followed by frustration about leads that are not converted and business
results that cannot be achieved.
Hotel sales has entered a new era.
It’s not that they aren’t trying. Sales professionals want to exceed their numbers and
beat the competition. But with limited real time communication, online eRFP leads —
half-completed and demanding attention hours ago, social selling mandates,
and learning how to speed date at the sound of the hosted buyer bell, sales people
are working harder to deliver the results their Executive Committees, Hotel Managers
and Owners demand.
When converted leads and profitable referrals don’t follow, it is not surprising that questions
arise among leaders: Do we have the right sales and management teams in place?
Would new blood adjust and manage the new reality better to ensure sales keep pace?
An untrained sales team is pretty much like any other untrained team.
It’s out-of-shape, out-of-date and out of options.
Realizing just what an impact well trained and highly skilled teams can have on their
bottom line, VPs and Directors of Sales heavily invest in training.
And yet, these efforts stand in harsh contrast to the results of training programs. Studies
show that despite the efforts, the return on training investment leaves much to be desired.
“US spending
on corporate
training grew by
15% last year.”
Josh Bersin,
Corporate Learning
Factbook 2014
Organizations
in the U.S. spent:
$164.2 billion on
learning and
development
$1,195 on average
per employee
30.3 hours of
average training
per employee
57.7 hours each
were averaged in
“best” organizations
ATD
(Association for
Talent Development)
State of the Industry
report, released in
December 2013

Research also indicates that following the productivity increase of a sales training program,
on average 3 months later, activities and motivation return to pre-training levels.
“Knowledge is power only if man knows
what facts not to bother with.”
-- Robert Lynd, Irish writer
Typical sales training can never work. It’s doomed to failure.
Sounds like a paradox? And particularly unexpected coming from an organization that
provides sales training. But picture this: New competitors have entered your market and
are offering opportunistic and unsustainable pricing. Everyone turns towards the new
product and your numbers are suffering. Pressure builds, your sales team is stressed and
distressed, and sales training seems to be a great option to solve the problem.
You schedule a mandatory training program — Charm school! — and for a few days
after, everyone is energized and buzzed (well nearly everyone… that “seasoned” sales
person knew from the get go that this was just going to be another “flavor of the month”
and spent most of her day checking “very important” emails instead of participating)
and then gradually, the enthusiasm and motivation needed to implement and sustain
change dies down. Your “newbies” struggle to apply what they learned and the
experienced sales people go back to their known, comfortable and ineffective
strategies. The cycle starts again, except those with talent don’t want to go down so
they jump ship, employing the skills you just paid for them to learn, elsewhere…
Sales training programs too often follow the cycle of short-lived enthusiasm and energy,
followed by stagnation and resignation, not because the team isn’t eager to learn, but
5.1 weeks after
a sales training
program, half of
the content is lost.
90 days after,
on average, 84%
of sales training
content is lost.
67% of sales
professionals do
not obtain their
individual quotas.
50% close less
than 40% of
qualified leads.
According to a
published study
of Software Sales
performance
specialist TAS Group

because it’s based on an approach that claims that everything old is bad and
everything new is good. Yes, there are many outdated sales methodologies but mainly
what sales people need to know is how to build on their knowledge to why their success
pivots on making the buying experience appealing and effortless for today’s buyer.
Sales training does not meet the needs of today’s buyers, if it:
• Focuses on sales skills instead of buyer experiences
• Is generic, off-the-shelf and interchangeable for products and brands
• Talks about demonstrating pain instead of demonstrating
understanding of need
• Claims that either:
a) relationship selling is dead or
b) sales follow relationships
• Suggests that buyers don’t really know what they want
• Expects sales people to push, push, push
• Provides scripts that must be followed
• Hasn’t changed since 2008
With a nod to
Jeff Foxworthy:
You know your
sales training might
be oh so 2008 if:
• you’d be
embarrassed for
your customers
and clients to see
the training
materials or hear
the strategies
being advocated
to sell to them.
• the customization
is primarily <insert
your company
name here>
• is built around
a unique, never-
before-known
to mankind
perspective

Sales training focused on creating insightful solutions targeted
to the unique needs of buyers will make all the difference.
A well-designed training program that is brand-tailored and focuses on building on existing knowledge
can indeed achieve amazing outcomes.
In a recent training program for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel brand, titled “Communicating 21st Century
Luxury with Oriental Charm”, participants were asked if they felt more prepared to authentically convey
the essence of their brand.
With one exception, all respondents agreed
that sales training made a positive impact
on their sales performance (Fig1). More than anecdotal “feelings” however, good
training drives results, sales and success.
A full 65% of respondents booked more business
as a direct result of new selling skills (Fig 2).

What then does successful training look like?
It applies four crucial elements that will help change perspective and behavior and create the shift needed
to move to the next level.
• Create a powerful “why,”
• Deliver honest, relevant, authentic, immediately applicable content,
• Design a respectful training process and
• Lead by example.
Creating a powerful “why”
Today’s learners don’t just want to be engaged; they must be. Busy, competitive sales people may say that
all they want are “just the templates, please” yet what they really need is to understand how and why
they’ll benefit from doing things differently.
Starting with “Why?” and enabling them to answer that question for themselves is fundamental for success.
Stop telling them why they’re there and start asking them to consider the possibilities:
Why do this?
What would it mean if I took a different, fresh approach to selling?
What am I doing that isn’t yielding great results? What is? How can I build on what I know
to interact with today’s buyers in the way they want to do business?

Even mandated training can be successful when participants understand, for themselves — not because
they’re told — what they stand to gain from participating, learning and applying their new skills.
Engage your team before the training starts. Pre-work in the form of reading blog posts and tweeting key
points learned or questions formed, watching or creating You-Tube videos, and answering on-line surveys or
polls can elevate the “why” to create a winning learning environment that propels and sustains learning.
Successful sales training begins by building on success, not changing everything everyone is doing. It starts
by collaborating with the sales team and leaders.
Delivering honest, relevant, fun and immediately applicable content
“Off-the-shelf” and “sales training that lasts” are rarely heard in the same breath. When the training is the
same for every client, regardless of how attractive it may appear, it isn’t effective. Personalization,
customization, aligning with distinctive and unique brand attributes, building on the team’s strengths and
mitigating their weaknesses — bespoke training is pivotal to provide a return on your investment.
Since this approach develops dynamically through collaborative conversations, research and pre-work
directly from the team, it has another huge advantage — important stakeholders are actively involved,
and a maximum practical level of consistency is achieved. A training program based on the idiosyncrasies
of the product will build on the team’s confidence and strengthen it further.
Just as prospects aren’t interested in features or benefits that won’t impact them, sales team’s aren’t likely
to be interested or inspired by methodologies that are not practical, transparent, relevant and authentic.
This is not to suggest that sales training shouldn’t push sales people out of their comfort zone. That is exactly
what it should do. Rather, expecting sales people to apply fake “selling” skills — anything that seems pushy,

slimy or cheesy — should have died out with the Benjamin Franklin close. But then, some folks still think that
is what selling is about; tricking the buyer into saying yes, manipulating them by overcoming their
objections, and in general acting as if the buyer is, if not stupid, slow.
Invite your team to co-create the content by submitting “here is what I struggle with/here is what I would
like to improve” examples as the basis for training.
And add fun! Gamification is one of the easiest and most compelling ways to ensure tangible results
are achieved.
According to a 2013 report published by Training Industry.com, organizations that included gamification
in their sales coaching training programs were rated “very effective” ...… “more than four times as often
as those that were not rated very effective (see Figure 1).
Successful training programs
are highly customized.
They are based on research,
on the assessment of a team’s
strengths and weaknesses,
and on the insights provided.
Source: Training Industry.com, Ken Taylor, April 2, 2014

Designing a respectful training process
Changed behaviors and transformed habits don’t happen overnight. In fact, even as we seek out
new ideas, we tend to look for proof of the acceptability of our comfortable, old ways of doing things.
This phenomenon even includes attempts to ignore and contradict ideas. Whether it’s called
“confirmation bias,” the “cost of competence,” the “curse of knowledge,” the “Einstellung effect,”
it’s just hard to change a habit.
Usually, participants leave sales training eager and determined to make behavior changes. The motivation
is high and the new ideas fresh in their minds. But continuing is the hard part. Maintaining the new skills,
especially when they don’t yield instantaneous results, requires added, time-consuming thoughtfulness
while the older, easier, comfortable ways beckon. Initiating new thinking seems like it is the most
challenging part, but it is sustaining the change that truly requires the most effort. That’s why sales training
that is designed by incorporating the latest neuroscience research has a distinct advantage.
Respectful, results driven sales training builds in maintenance and mentoring. Whether follow-up comes
in form of a designated team member as the to-go to expert, trainer facilitated webinars, motivational
gamification, contests, challenges, virtual office hours, or additional training — for sales training to result in
better selling, training must be designed as a process rather than an event.
Successful sales training is a process not an event. It is based on the reality that relapse to old behavior is
inevitable without follow-up and a continuous learning process.

Leading by example
There is not enough time in the day to get it all done. So when the training dates arrive, it’s easy to
introduce the speaker, wish the team well and exit the room. With so much to accomplish and constant fire
drills, leaders can appear too busy to attend training and too distracted when they do.
But here’s the thing.
When the frontline is sent to training and management doesn’t participate fully, the message is loud
and clear. “Do as I don’t. Training is important, kind of. My time is more valuable than yours.
Other things are more important”.
Directors of Sales and other sales leaders are uniquely positioned to influence their teams.
Teams watch and model what they see.
Setting a table in the back of the room so that management can observe without getting dirty can be
even worse than not attending; a death knell for successful training. Not only is the team aware they are
being monitored, but they clearly see that they aren’t really a team at all.
Sales training experts spend all their time researching, curating and doing. Without the responsibility of
having to lead a team, they focus on just one thing: how to bring knowledge the team needs at this
moment to sell more, more easily. Working through new concepts with reports, colleagues and managers,
questioning and applying fresh behaviors as a team, sends a powerful and profitable message:
We can and we should do this. It’s worth the time and effort.
When buy-in is expected, everyone needs to participate, not just those who “have to go to training.”
But other benefits reveal themselves, too. When the team participates together, they know they will be

expected to perform and produce; they know they’ll be held
accountable. And they know they’ll be supported through their
struggles and learning and success.
Successful sales training requires commitment from leaders, too.
It’s not just a matter of sending the team to school but in providing
them with the coaching, encouragement and leadership needed
to ensure sustainable sales success.
By leading through example, designing a respectful training process,
delivering honest, fun, immediately applicable content and creating
desire to want to change comfortable behaviors, sales training
results are optimized, resulting in an energized team, talent retention
and converted leads.
So how do buyers buy today?
In many ways, buyers still buy on
relationships. When all things are
equal, the sales person the buyer likes
best will get the business. But trying to
build — or buy (think trade show
tchotchkes, fancy dinners, over-the-
top fam trips) — relationships, so that
sales follow, is old school thinking.
Today, relationships grow organically
because sales people collaborate with
buyers to ensure best results for the
buyer. First the sale, then the relationship!
Connecting the dots for the buyer is
key to advancing sales because it
makes buying easier. This starts with
authentically understanding buyer
needs, and aligning the offer with
their key stated and unstated drivers.
Providing personalized, emotionally
sticky insight-led solutions give buyers
confidence that their best interests
motivate the sell. The more effortless
the experience is in working with a
new partner, the more likely it is that
a partnership will grow.

High Impact Presentations
www.speakersue.com
Sue@SpeakerSue.com | Phone +1 480-575-9711
Founder of High Impact Presentations, Sue Hershkowitz-Coore
and associates help sales teams generate additional revenue
through the use of authentic, relevant, emotionally
appealing sales messaging.

Brand Focused-Training

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