FAQ: What if I have too much success after sales training?

Strangely, this is actually a question we get asked from business managers that hear about our past success with other clients and consider the effects that such success may have on their own business. Fear of success is a very real concern for many managers.

What sort of problems could arise after sales training?

Some business managers worry:

·       That they’ll run out of appointment space

·       That they’ll need to hire more people to handle the increase in business

·       That their systems will not be able to accommodate the increase in business.

Of all the possible problems that a business might encounter, we feel that these problems are good ones to have.

How could those problems be avoided?

However, planning ahead to deal with the extra business that should result from training is always a sensible strategy. Each business that is about to undergo training should consider how they will manage the increase in bookings that might result.

For example, we worked with a law firm in which the lawyers who held appointments also answered calls. After training, the conversion rate of this firm increased by over 200%, drastically increasing the number of appointments.

As the lawyers were seeing appointments most of the time, they could no longer also deal with calls effectively. This had a knock-on effect of reducing telephone conversions again, after the initial increase.

If this problem had been anticipated ahead of time, it would have probably been quicker and easier to deal with when the issue occurred.  Staffing problems like this can often be solved by having an emergency recruitment process in place or by researching temporary or locum staff options ahead of time.

Another example involves a cosmetic surgery clinic that booked so many appointments after training that their diary was filled for four months in advance. This sounds great for business but may also have an unintended consequence of a lack of availability and increased waiting time for appointments, which would threaten high conversion rates.

In this case, it made sense to space appointments to allow for some near availability for those prospects who wanted consultations and treatments as soon as possible. Having the option to add more surgery dates also helped this clinic absorb some of the overflow that improving their telephone handling and consultation process created.

It’s important to remember that increased business is the aim of training but if your team and systems do not have the capacity to deal with this increase in customers, your success will be limited. Sales training planning should anticipate the extra resources that may be needed if the impact on your business is high and you should have a strategy in place that can be deployed within a short timeframe.