Charles Dunkin
ECPI University
201509-OSY105-CO
Dr. Anyika King-Gurley
October 11, 2015 Observational (Social Learning) in Sales Training
Sales training is an essential but sometimes overlooked aspect of today’s business environment. All companies realize that nothing happens until a sale is made by someone in the organization. Since sales are made by people interacting with other people the necessary skills that are required can only be truly learned by observing someone actually performing a sale, because of this social learning or observational learning must be utilized by the company in its sales training program. There are essentially four elements in social learning; observational learning, reciprocal determination, self-regulation, and self-efficacy (Cushard, 2011). There are basically three basic fears that sales training must overcome; fear of rejection, fear of talking to people, and the fear of failure. Successful sales training will use the four elements of social learning to overcome these basic human fears.
Observational learning …show more content…
A new salesperson must be placed into an environment that would be the most conducive to setting a successful appointment. Cold calling and door knocking most of the time is a negative environment. That is why most sales companies want to have the new sales person communicate to the people they are most familiar (warm-market), the general idea is that the fear of rejection is not present if the salesperson is a familiar environment. But, this brings up another subconscious fear, the fear of talking to people or alienating our friends and families. In order for the new salesperson to overcome this fear is to understand that the product they are offering is of value and will only be seen as a positive by the family and friends that they communicate the