My name is Rich Vosler.
For the past 18 years, I’ve sold financial services in the mortgage industry. I’ve been involved with sales training on the outside and in management and executive levels on the inside working to improve sales processes. I understand the market and the way it works.
We face a very interesting time in our industry. At last count, almost 200 companies in the mortgage sector have shut down, severely changed their processes or have made major staff cuts. Was one of them yours? You can either look at that as a challenge or an opportunity. I choose to look at it as an opportunity and I think you should do the same. That’s because we’ll have less people in our industry and the one’s who will stick are the one’s who are serious about this business and who desire to build a long term career here. If you are one of those people you’ll want to continue reading.
For the past several years many people heard about the money to be made in our business and decided to get involved. In my opinion, those are the biggest culprits of the situation we find ourselves in. When the shakeout is done, the ones left will be the ones who’ve been committed all along. Then we can start building on the foundations we’ve already laid.
This site reveals the lessons and sales training I’ve used to succeed. I was in the business in 1998 when everyone thought the end was near. That’s when Southern Pacific Funding went down and took half the industry with them. The current downturn makes that look like a small business failure.
On a personal note, I live in New Jersey with my 9 children. I was happily married for 15 years until my wife Joanne passed away after a short battle with cancer in 2005. The lessons and insights I’ve gained from that experience have helped me in all areas of my life. In the pages of this web site and my blog I will share with you some of those lessons and insights and how I’ve been able to use them to get through that tough situation. I’ve become a master at sales training just by dealing with those 9 kids!
I look forward to providing you with sales training and motivation tips as we face the opportunity to rebuild this great business. Let’s get started!
Click here to discover the starting point of sales success
What is Sales Training?
When we talk about sales training, what exactly are we talking about? We’re talking about teaching people who sell for a living, particularly in the financial services and mortgage industries, how to be the best at selling their product or service. That’s about the easiest way I can put it. But it certainly goes deeper than that. Sales training, in reality, can mean training in any area of life.
In one of my blog posts, titled “Who Sells?” I talk about how everything is selling. Anyone who touches the product, even in the warehouse, or who works on the process or system, is selling. What I mean by that is this: When you do anything that affects how the product gets from manufacturer to consumer, you are affecting the sales process. Sales training can help you with that.
Let me give you an example. If you’re the receptionist for XYZ Mortgage Broker, and a call comes in but your talking to your friend on your cell phone and you ignore the call, you’ve just increased the processing time of that customers mortgage loan because now the customer has to call back or try and call someone else. Even though it’s only a few seconds or minutes, every time the process takes longer than it should it negatively affects your company’s relationship with the customer.
If you’re the manager of a branch office and one of your sales people calls about a problem, you have two choices. You can ignore the call or you can handle it. A lot of managers will ignore it. This not only causes a slow down in the process which ultimately affects the customer in a negative way, but it also creates bad feelings between the man anger and the sales person creating more tension in an already stressed process. Sales training can help you deal with that.
When we do things that cause stress, the extra stress we carry slows us down mentally and physically. That in turn slows down our pace which effects whatever process we’re responsible for. When the process slows, everyone who works on the process suffers and ultimately, the biggest sufferer is the customer. Sales training can help you with that as well.
We really have to learn how to keep attuned to this. We’re very quick to complain that someone else is responsible or the customer is just “difficult to deal with” when the real problem is ourselves. Let me repeat that: The real problem is ourselves. When we “get” that, we’ll get the best sales training available.
Who Is Responsible for Sales Training?
Sales Training can come in many different forms. It can be done one-on-one where the salesperson goes in the field with his or her manager or maybe even a more experienced peer. Sales Training can also be done in a round table format where peers can talk and feed off each other’s ideas. It can also be done in a seminar format where an expert is brought in to talk about sales training. Sales training can also be taught in a class room format where a teacher of sales training teaches the best concepts available on the subject. I’m sure there’s a few more but what I want to concentrate on now is your own personal sales training program.
Do you have a sales training program? Do you know how to develop a sales training program? Do you even want a sales training program? I’ve talked about this subject in my blogs before under the subject title of Personal Development. For this conversation will call it a Sales Training Personal Development Program. This program is one that you develop on your own and use to grow yourself and your knowledge so you can become better at sales. And going back to what I said earlier about Who Sells, sales training can benefit you in all areas of your life. Here’s a great example: Most men are better at sales when they get into bed at night with their wives then at their jobs! Why is that? Because they’re focused and they know what they want. The same needs to be true for the way we sell our products or services.
When you set out to build a Personal Development Sales Training program it may look like a monstrous project. It’s really not. There are four things you need to begin doing to start building your sales training program and to increase your sales training:
1. Increase your sales training by reading 15 minutes a day from books and magazine articles that talk about how to do what you want to do
2. Increase your sales training by listening to other people on tape or CD who teach what you want to do
3. Increase your sales training by attending seminars given by people who’ve done what you want to do
4. Increase your sales training by getting yourself a Sales, Success or Life Coach who specializes in sales training to help you
Let’s talk about each one separately.
1. Increase Your Sales Training by Reading 15 Minutes a Day
Reading is one of the quickest ways to get more sales training. But you have to know what to read. If I were to give you a list of books to start with that do the most for your sales training in the quickest way, here are some books I’d recommend:
– The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer
– The Greatest Salesman In The World by Og Mandino
– Skill With People by Les Giblin
– How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
– The Power of Positive Thinking By Norman Vincent Peale
– The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David Schwartz
There are probably hundreds, maybe even 1,000 more but that’s a good list to start with. In order for these books to help you increase your sales training, you have to cultivate the habit of reading 15 minutes per day, every day. You can do more if you want but for people who don’t read on a regular basis or who haven’t read these types of books, particularly sales training books, 15 minutes a day is a great place to start. I call it your MDR - Minimum Daily Requirement. What this habit will do (and remember it takes 21 days to form a new habit) is stretch your mind and condition you to start thinking about success and sales training on a regular basis.
When you read, have a pen or high lighter handy so you can mark important ideas and concepts that you can go back and study. Some people read with a notebook so they can take notes. My personal preference is to underline and star important ideas with a pen, and make notes in the margins or the blank pages in the front and back of the book.
If you ever get a chance to flip through any of the books in my library you’ll find them to be marked up with pen and dog eared pages. But do what you need to do to make the books your own. I have books that I refer to that I read more than 15 years ago. As you build your library you’ll also always use them because they will be great resources for you and for others if you begin to teach the concepts of sales training or any other concept.
2. Increase Your Sales Training By Listening to Other People On Tape Or CD Who’ve Done What You Want To Do
This is a similar concept to reading but it does more for you because you hear the speaker’s voice and in their voice you hear their emotions. Hearing their voice allows you to relate to them better than just reading. Its like reading a speech vs. hearing it. When you hear it, you’re more involved. I’m not talking about books on tape. I’m talking about people on tape who are speaking from their heart not from a script. When you relate to someone better, you’re more apt to listen to their teachings. This is especially true with sales training material.
The habit to cultivate here is to listen to one CD or tape a day, every day. When you listen you may want to have a small notebook and pen handy to write down some notes. The best times to listen are as you drive or as you workout. Even listening before you fall asleep is extremely beneficial. If you have a portable CD player the possibilities of when and where you listen are endless.
One thing I started doing about a year ago is putting all my sales training personal development material on my ipod. WOW! What an idea! Now I can virtually listen to anything anywhere and I don’t have to carry all the CDs, tapes and listening equipment everywhere I go. I just pop it in my pocket with my headphones and I’m ready where ever I go. I even have a special plug in in my car that allows me to play my ipod through any radio station that doesn’t broadcast anything in my area. It’s a great way to compact all that info into one small place for easy listening.
3. Increase Your Sales Training By Attending Seminars Given By People Who’ve Done What You Want To Do
This one is very important. Do you remember the saying, “You become like the people you associate with”? Or how about this one from your mother, “I don’t want you hanging out with those boys! You’ll be guilty by association!” Remember that? That’s what this concept teaches. You have to align yourself with successful people in order to become like them. The only way to do that is to spend time with them.
I recently attended a seminar in LA with over 250 other winners like myself who are striving to be better in all areas of their lives including sales training. I made some new contacts and friends while there that will serve me for a lifetime. Another seminar I attended was in Virginia Beach with a much smaller group of people. There were 13 of us! We spent the weekend learning and sharing. I now have 13 new friends that I will spend time with in the future. And these people are winners! They are striving to be better people in a world where most people are complaining about the economy, the war, their in laws, their jobs…you name it.
Another thing that happens is once you get back from the seminars and you immerse yourself into your normal environment, your old programming from that environment takes over again just as if you never went to that seminar. That’s why you’re always encouraged to buy materials from the speakers who are at the seminars. Because they know that you are going back to your old environment and you’re going to need tools to help you stay on track with the new things you learned at the seminar.
If you want to win in sales and in life, and really want to increase your sales training, you have got to start going to seminars put on by people who have already done it or are on their way. You can roll around in mud with the pigs or you can step up and take control of your life and your sales training by putting this one into practice. This one tip will change your life. When you start hanging around people who are moving on and succeeding, you start believing that it’s possible for you. And when you start believing that, it will happen.
4. Increase Your Sales Training by Getting Yourself a Sales, Success or Life Coach Who Specializes In Sales Training
This one has been around for a long time. If you don’t know anyone who has a personal coach of some kind you must be living in a closet. All these ideas that I’m giving you are great but only if you implement them. And that’s the problem. Most people who study sales training or any kind of personal development material feel really good during and immediately after that they learn it. But as they get back to “reality” or “real life” things begin to phase back to the old way.
There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it takes 21 days to make a habit. So you really have to work on it for 21 days or more before it begins to become second nature to you. Second, it’s got everything to do with your programming. In one of my blogs called “What Do You Say To Yourself” I talk about the power of self talk and the power of your environment. All your old ways are going to fight for their position and prominence in your mind. Having a coach that will help you deal with these struggles will make all the difference in the world. Coaches come in many formats. But they all help you in some form or fashion. One who specializes in sales training, like I do, will definitely help you increase your sales.
You see, increasing your sales training is not easy but it is simple. There are many things you can do to help but you have to do them. The tips I’ve given you can all help. I hope you’ll take a look around this site to learn more about sales training. And always remember that I believe in you.
