How I taught my dog to whistle

The manager looks at me and says – I have told them a million of times how to do it but they never learn how to sell properly.

Do you recognise this? That your co-workers fail to follow the routines when it comes to selling and servicing the customers.

You have done selling manuals, trainings, e-learning, workshops, individual assessment talks but still no improvement?

Everything I presented to  the manager he claimed that he already tried.

Then I told him the story about a boy and his dog …

– Aha, said the manager. I think I got it.

There are some obvious principles to improve learner motivation, principles that could easily be applied to any sales process that you would like to implement. Prescriptive or Descriptive? Do as I say or do as I do?

Motivation is key to learning. Stimuli activates receptors. But it is important that you chose the right people to work for you, not everyone has the sales spirit.

One of my own learning lessons was  that I had tried to apply my own “old” school methodology to students that are used to a new way of learning.

When I went to school in Sweden it was more common that the teacher stood in front of the class and lectured what he or she already knew and wanted us to learn. Then we had to read books.

Nowadays most students are used to an interactive way of learning where they have to explore and find the information by themselves or together as a group, preferably in a stimulating environment. Research show that this is a much more efficient way of both learning and actually remembering what you have learned.

So my advice to the manager was to allow the co-workers to learn according to their learning style. To let them extract the knowledge that they have collectively and describe the selling routines by themselves. They will be very proud of their achievement but it will also ensure that the routines are properly understood and ready to use.

If you have any ideas, input or feedback regarding this topic, let us know.