All too often, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) salespeople push their products without properly understanding where these items sit and how they contribute to the overall success of their clients’ businesses. This can result in partnerships becoming strained, products being mis-marketed and sales opportunities being lost.
In order for your FMCG salespeople to be successful in the modern marketplace, they need a much better understanding of customer needs. They also need to be able to demonstrate this understanding and show how the products they’re selling can benefit customers and meet their requirements. Essentially, there needs to be a fundamental shift in the dynamic so that salespeople work towards customer satisfaction and away from just selling.
As FMCG salespeople require a very particular skill set, it’s important to invest in specialist, targeted training. This will ensure that your team is armed with the understanding, insight and communication skills needed to excel and drive your business to success.
Before your FMCG salespeople can meet customer needs, they first have to understand them. One of the most important parts of FMCG sales training is learning to read the room. Participants are taught to interpret body language and to pay attention to voice cues when meeting with customers. This helps to improve communication and build trust and rapport between the customer and salesperson.
FMCG sales training also emphasises the importance of listening over talking. Focusing on asking the right questions, and actively listening to the answers, can help salespeople to really understand customer needs and get crucial insight into their target audience.
Once a salesperson has a deeper understanding of their customers’ needs and requirements, they can tailor their pitch to align with customer priorities. This should help the salesperson really engage with the customer and boost their chances of success.
In depth product knowledge is essential in any field, even in a fast-paced world like FMCG sales. Salespeople should know enough about product features to have confidence in their offerings and be able to handle customer queries and objections. Having a good understanding of a product will also help salespeople to effectively position their product and show customers that the benefits it offers meet their needs.
In FMCG sales training, salespeople are equipped with the skills they need to negotiate beneficial deals. Ideally, these should be win-win outcomes that leave both the customer and the salesperson happy. Achieving this type of outcome is a lot more likely if the salesperson has good commercial awareness and understands the product range, revenue dynamics and profit margins.
As well as having the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to strike a good deal, salespeople need to be able to close negotiations with confidence. This often requires a specific set of skills and behaviours that need to be honed and perfected with training and practice.
As communication, understanding and engagement are so important to the success of negotiations, learning how to improve these skills is key to boosting metrics and increasing sales. PDW’s unique behavioural training works to improve sales performance and helps teams to exceed their targets. What’s more, by helping salespeople to understand and meet customer needs, PDW training works to create more satisfied customers who may then go on to become loyal advocates for your business, boosting sales even further.
In today’s modern sales market, sales professionals need to focus on understanding each customer’s business, meeting their needs and demonstrating a deep knowledge of their products and the benefits they offer. By mastering these skills, salespeople can have a powerful influence on their customers and help your business achieve its goals.
If you think your business could benefit from innovative and targeted training, invest in FMCG sales training for better ROI and a stronger sales team. Get in touch today.
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