Training Programs
Personal selling is a form of oral communication with potential buyers of a product with the intention of making a sale. The personal selling may focus initially on developing a relationship with the potential buyer, but it will always ultimately end with an attempt to "close the sale. " It is one of the oldest forms of promotion. Unlike advertising, personal selling has always been task and goal orientated.
Measures other than sales have been integrated to retain highly qualified staff. Training and development is now a key factor used to measure personal selling. Superior sales managers learn that effective training and coaching help their companies outperform their competitors. Training and coaching involve sharing ones knowledge on selling products as well as motivating salespeople to practice what you tell them with customers on the sales floor.
One of the best ways to get people to practice is to provide encouragement and acceptance for achievement and allow them to develop their strengths. It's much less effective to focus and emphasize a person's weaknesses because that only acts to help discourage and reduce self-esteem.
Effective training programs includes group role-playing. Employees should take turns pretending to be salespeople and customers to practice various sales tactics. Management should also take time to train all employees in their product offerings. This includes benefits to using the product, product specs, and competitor information. This can easily be done through weekly meetings, which would be necessary to give employees updates on new products, sales, and promotions.
Apple Products
Employees at an Apple store would ideally have been trained in what differentiates the iPod from competing products.