Research shows that training can have immediate outcomes – such as new learning, skill development, and change in approach and methods used on the job – as well as long-term impacts, including consistent gains in productivity.
By Pam McDonald
Your dynamite salesperson might be great at discovery but only so-so at getting referrals from physicians. As the community’s Executive Director, you know she could up those skills with just a little more training and practice. But, your plate is too full to add one more project. That’s when it’s good to remember that you have resources at your fingertips to ensure that your sales staff is at the top of their game.
Both Jay Reischl, DEI CEO and Founder, and Jeanine Aspen, President of DEI-Central, a sales management system, training provider, and senior Housing Forum partner, remind Executive Directors that they don’t have to develop curriculm or do the training themselves. They can simply visit http://dei-central.com/online-training-2/ and choose from among nearly a dozen training modules designed to fine-tune and elevate sales skills.
Education Is The Key Success
Most senior living companies agree on the importance of training. They understand that it can have significant positive effect on job-related behaviors and staff performance. Research shows that training can have immediate outcomes – such as new learning, skill development, and change in approach and methods used on the job – as well as long-term impacts, including consistent gains in productivity.
For the past several years, DEI has delivered effective online training content, which has produced extremely positive outcomes for such senior living clients as Spectrum Retirement Communities, Stellar Senior Living, and Kisco Senior Living. Jeanine noted, “I believe a major reason our training courses work so well is because of the contributions of our consultant – award-winning learning designer Rick Koch.”
With over 15 years experience, Rick has designed, developed and delivered education and training programs for both academic and corporate settings, including Bellevue University in Nebraska, TD Ameritrade, and the Gallup research organization. He has created e-learning programs, virtual instructor-led training, mobile learning, and effective use of social media.
What learning designers such as Rick add to development of training courses is that they know how people learn and how to help them learn better. “Good training,” he said, “should not be a one-time event. Participants retain relatively little of what they ‘hear’ in a traditional training course. Training should be considered a process.”
The 4 Elements
He also noted that course content should be designed with the following elements:
- Short duration (10 – 20 minutes maximum)
- Relevance to a specific situation and NOT an application of broad concepts
- Easy accessiblity (making online, 24/7 courses ideal)
- Accessed over time in several sittings. For example: a 10-minute session on how to answer the telephone should also include a follow up practice session with assignments to be completed during the following couple of weeks.
Focused Course Topics
From elementary to advanced topics, current DEI course offerings include the following:
- Foundation Concepts: establishing meaningful goals and understanding the processes of creating visibility in sales operations
- Overcoming Objections and Closing the Sale
- Physicians as Referral Sources – How to Get in Front of Local Doctors
Over the 35 years DEI has been in business, they’ve trained more than 600,000 salespeople in 10,000 companies. Since 2006 when they adapted their sales system to meet the specific needs of senior living providers, they have been helping senior communities achieve year-over-year improvement in both census and profitability. For more information, call 402-991-6735 or visit http://dei-central.com/.
What kind of training do you provide for your sales and marketing staff?
