DIY sales education is something that I believe eludes many new sales people and even some seasoned sales “pros”. They just don’t see themselves proactively self-learning. It’s hard for them to fathom that there is a certain amount of responsibility on their part to self-educate for success.

Don’t get me wrong… I believe employee training to be a crucial part of sales success. What I don’t believe is that an employer is 100% responsible for all of it. And this goes for basic Office and CRM skills, networking-relationship building, competitive information, as well as sales techniques in general.

“The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.” -Robert Cushing

As a manager I will give my sales people all the information that I can. I will advise of what the activity level needs to be and general direction for success in my industry. I will share best practices. With that said my ideas and way of doing things may not always work for others. I am smart enough to know that. Also, as much as I hate to say this, I won’t have all the answers. No sales manager does. So where does that leave the salesperson? They need to take responsibility and self-educate.

I can hear it now… “I don’t even know what I don’t know”. Yes they do. Everyone knows the basics of sales at some level. Even the newest salesperson knows that they need to be a skilled communicator at the very least. There are literally thousands of articles and books on this subject. There are even clubs and organizations that specialize in this.

With today’s ease of access to information, many times free, it never ceases to amaze me how some salespeople never take advantage of this? A simple google search will bring up wonderful sales success tools in the form of articles, blog posts, books, ebooks, videos, etc. All chocked full of powerful timely tips and advice.

Excuses that send me through the roof:

“I don’t know how to write well”
“I need a script to perform”
“I need a template to perform”
“Social media is a waste”
“Prospecting is old school”

Salespeople that have these excuses are simply not confident in the subject matter and their abilities to perform in general. There is a plethora of information on these subjects for them to self train with. With very little effort they could become subject matter pros regardless what the company they work for has offered.

“Collect as precious pearls the words of the wise and virtuous.” -Abd-el-Kadar

Sales pro…take some time and invest in your career. Sales manager… get your sales folks to see the value in this. We should all be finding ways to be more efficient and more proficient in our sales craft on our own.

Chris Lott

Chris has over 15 year’s Sales Management experience including Business Ownership, Product Management and Web Design/Marketing. He’s a national sales team strategist and trainer. Chris is the designer of the popular totallysales™ sales playbook with thousands of copies downloaded. He’s a nationally syndicated author with his articles on SalesBlog! rated as a “top must-read” on consultative selling.