There's a point in development that every company hits sooner or later – a wall in their growth and sales that they just can't seem to bypass. After you've grown for awhile, your ability to succeed is no longer dictated purely by how well you advertise your products; it's directly affected by elements like sales training meetings, how much you can improve your approach, and how you communicate with your customers.

By discovering and implementing these helpful training components regarding your team's communication efforts, you may find that you can can make your existing good business even better by breaking through those walls that are holding you back.

Shorter, More Intentional Meetings

For many growing businesses, the solution to a slowdown in growth is "more meetings." The idea is that if the best employees can just sit down and talk, they'll come up with ideas that can magically solve everyone's problems. While there may be times that this approach somehow works, it usually ends up wasting everyone's time.

Instead of trying to just add more meetings to the schedule or allowing meetings to become unfocused and lacking in purpose, be intentional about maximizing the time already spent in meetings through techniques like:

• Determining how to approach the problems in a manner that involves the unique problem solving abilities of everyone involved, i.e. whole brain problem solving
• Keeping meetings to a practical attendance size
• Building relationships between the members of the group outside of meetings

Intentionally creating a structure that allows for viewing issues and opportunities from the unique perspectives and personality-inspired vantage points of everyone involved generally results in shorter and considerably more productive meetings. As a bonus, each individual then feels more involved and fulfilled as a part of the final solution and becomes more engaged with the team in daily problem solving efforts.

Reach New Heights on the Wings of New Ideas

With regards to sales training, most representatives are given a dusty handbook and are told to just play by the rules. That's not entirely a bad thing – if you have a working sales strategy, you do want people to be using it as much as possible. However, it's hard to reach levels you've never reached before if you never give people the chance to try things you've never tried before.

Consider, once a year or even once a quarter, asking your sales reps what they see that could be done differently or better, and then – with an open mind – talk it over. Consider the possibilities. You may be seeing the process through your own internal frame of reference, but you'll find that the different personalities around the table have an entirely different vantage point that they are seeing situations through. Try out the best ideas on a small scale to see if they're viable, then integrate them into your overall sales training if they actually work.

Focus on Customer Solutions, Not Only on Sales

Customers don't want to be treated like they're just another sale waiting to happen, but if that's how sales representatives think of them, customers will pick up on it. Making a sale isn't just about presenting your products' features – it's about forming an intentional understanding of what the customer's need actually is and offering them a solution to that problem. Training your sales representatives to approach sales from this angle allows them to focus on all aspects of the customer's experience before, during, and after the sale, ensuring not only a happy customer, but also a happier bottom line for your company.