When a modular home factory hires a new sales rep, the
average number of days for new hire training ranges from 3 days to 10
days. Most new reps learn how to sell on
the job. They don’t have any bad habits
to break as most sales managers don’t have very many new habits for the rep to
learn except to fill in the CRM software properly, exaggerate how business is
going, complete an order form and look busy when the sales manager shows up.
Most of the training a new rep gets is company-centric, not
focused on the home builder. Any training they get is about product and sales
metrics. So the reps often don’t learn
about business drivers and market forces affecting builders during new hire
training. This makes it tough for them
to get a great jump when they try to sell to the established builders in their
new territory. Forget about any training
for prospecting, cold calling, follow up, etc.
As I’ve said in prior articles, successful sales reps
practice their sales conversations every day, read everything they can get
their hands on concerning the modular industry and have lots of good
suggestions to help their builders market and sell homes.
But not developing business acumen about builders in new
hire sales training leaves new sales reps to obtain that information themselves
– an inefficient process as well as one that also leaves sales reps to develop
their own understanding of the value of their solutions. When they do it on their own the results are
usually partially incomplete or even incorrect.
If there any modular home factories that start new sales
reps off on the right foot, let me know.
These would be the ones that move beyond simple product and order taking
training. The ones I’m looking for train
new hires in sales skills, competitive knowledge and go all the way through
modular business acumen such as understanding builders, market drivers and
knowing their competitors.
Any factory that actually does this will give their sales
reps, not only the new hires, a definite unfair advantage.
