Online Sales Counselor Training Isn’t About the Hours or Canned Packages
I get asked all the time by builders if I have an hourly rate or an hourly package they can purchase. I also have builders that ask me if I have a recorded set of lessons. The thing is I can’t track hours, and I can’t feel good about putting together pre-canned “education.” If someone wants something that is only 30 days or 3 months… I can’t in good faith do it.
That’s just not MY style.
Online Sales Training isn’t just the hour per week I spend mentoring, coaching, roll playing and training your OSC. It also requires analysis of the data, reading emails, pulling phone recordings, and helping the OSC refine follow-up. It means being available when they have an issue or a question and getting back to them not within the one hour a week of training but being on call whenever the OSC needs help.
Almost like an OSC!
There’s back and forth emailing. Executive reporting. Calls with the executive team. If it’s a team of OSC’s there are group sessions. And no canned approach will work for each builder because each organization is different. Sure, there are foundational lessons to be learned, but if that’s all you learn as an OSC without seeing how it plays out in the real world, you are missing out on much deeper information that is applicable to you and your situation.
I personally don’t believe that just 4 sessions of training will help an OSC form good habits and help them through their issues (that would be the 4-hour package everyone hopes for or the 30-day quick start.) One month of service only begins to uncover what may be getting in the way of success. That’s why I put a minimum of 6-months on my packages. This way we can track results. I’ve never had a client hire me and not start to see results in the first quarter of tracking (So at least 3 months.)
And whether a builder doesn’t have an OSC program, has a temporary OSC program, a part-time OSC program, or a current OSC program – some form of program analysis needs to happen. This usually includes looking at your website and pulling back the curtain and looking at the back end of things. I can’t be of service to you and your team if I don’t know who you are and fully understand how the program is functioning.
We may have to do an agent survey and see how your sales agents like and interact with the current OSC. This is the only way we can train not only the proper company culture and attitude toward OSC’s but also how turnover training should be, and what the roles and responsibilities are once that lead is handed off.
I don’t have canned training that I just roll out for each new client, because every client has different:
- Pain Points
- Tools and Programs
- Products and Offerings
- Target Market and Segment
That’s why I am a boutique training company. That’s ALL I DO.
And that’s why I always say I’m not here to make a ton of money – but here to help my clients. If I worked on an hourly rate, it would honestly be more difficult for me to track and take me more time then I want to spend tallying hours for someone. And I don’t want to charge X amount for analysis, X amount for reading your emails. X amount for actual training session. X amount for prep… the list goes on.
And each client has their own set needs. And once I figured out how many hours were actually spent I can GUARANTEE it would probably cost more. Tracking hours is much more tedious then it is to just say hey, I’m giving you “ME” for X number of months.
If I create an hourly rate, or provide a canned program – or even create an inflexible package of services… I do YOU, my client, a disservice. I don’t actually take into consideration your needs and pain points. Because I’m trying to fit it all in under an hour or into a canned plan. (Where’s the yuck emoji?)
On a personal note, I have a short story to illustrate my point.
My mother recently passed away. The new Rabbi at my parents’ synagogue was…well new.
I don’t know how long he’d been there, but my parents were members for 50 years. The previous long-term Rabbi, knew them well, knew me, and my sisters. The previous Rabbi definitely at the very least knew how to pronounce my name… it’s Leeee Uhhhhh not Layyyy ya… (And he also knew all my high school antics… good and bad…)
We knew my mother was not doing well for a while. Slowly we’d been whittling away at my Dad to get him to consider moving closer to one of my sisters and out of that big house if Mom were to pass. He was starting to come around to the idea.
The new Rabbi met my mom at her worst, 4 days before she passed. He’s met my father a handful of times. Ultimately my point is he doesn’t know them at all. Yet he told my father that when you are grieving you shouldn’t do anything drastic for the first year.
Face in palm… I get it, that’s great sage canned advice. But for months we had been working on the idea of downsizing for my Dad. Now that Rabbi that didn’t know him at all, set the clock back a year for us. And really, he doesn’t even know how to pronounce my name! (I digress)
My point is, it takes a little time to get up to speed with all the ins and outs of every builder, a one size fits all plan doesn’t work for everyone. And honestly, I think it rarely works for anyone and any situation. For something to be excellent you have to make an investment of time. it’s not about hours, it’s about a result-driven process, expertise, and the secret ingredient – care.