Can you teach someone how to sell?

Earlier this month, I ran across this question on LinkedIn : Can sales be taught?

We hear this question from customers all the time so I wanted to share my response here:

Yes, sales skills can certainly be taught to anyone, however, identifying someone’s behavior is key to remove barriers during the sales process. Being a seasoned sales professional for 30 years, a sales trainer and publisher of Know Your Talents™ – Sales Process for Champions, I observe over and over again how enlightened individuals become when they begin to understand why their own behaviors may be the barrier to their success in sales.

At times, there may be parts of the selling process that can be painful to individuals because of their behavior stopping them. Let me give you an example: if a person has a natural behavior which includes patience, typically folks with patience do not want to ask for the business! Of course, with training, they understand that they have to ‘ask’ for the business. However, in order for this person with patience to feel comfortable and be able to give themselves permission ‘to go there’,they need to learn their own trial closes that feel comfortable. The person with patience feels as if they need to ‘earn’ business, not ‘win’ it. When they understand their own transition statements and trial closes, only then they will ask for the business and feel great about doing so.

No matter what type of sales it is, whether it be products or service, more and more companies today are first considering what behaviors are needed when hiring into the sales role. Once the right behavior is identified….then let the training begin!