Sales
Get the competitive edge
Sales is a competitive industry. Equip your team with the skills they need to meet sales targets faster, increase revenue and impress your customers.
Skills can help you provide staff with training that will increase their understanding of the sales processes, as well as help them develop and apply sales techniques to establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with customers.
What are the benefits?
For the learner
- Ability to communicate and negotiate effectively with customers
- Improved confidence and morale
- Sales processes and planning developed
For the employer
- Increased productivity and sales
- Improved customer and business relationships
- Retention of talented staff
Partnering with Skills
Building high performing teams is what it’s all about. Skills partners with organisations to create programmes that recognise their needs, fill gaps in skill sets and meet their industry requirements and timelines.
We can work with you to review your current practices (including induction, in-house, on-the-job and external training programmes) to map where your training systems and national requirements overlap. Once this is established we can help to align your current training programmes with the national standards, so your team can achieve formal recognition for their training and knowledge.
What qualifications are available?
New Zealand Certificate in Sales (Level 3)
This qualification enables learners to develop business relationships based on an understanding of the core principles of sales, individual buyer behaviour and target markets.
New Zealand Certificate in Sales (Level 4) with an optional strand in Sales Prospecting
This qualification will enable learners to select and apply sales tactics using knowledge of the market, customer and business processes, develop sales proposals that meet specific sales situations and manage sales portfolios and processes. They will be able to confidently use communication to influence customers and meet business needs in a sales environment.
Learners who undertake the Sales Prospecting strand will also cover planning and implementing new sales opportunities with potential customers.
How it all works
Here are the most commonly asked questions on what makes up a training programme and how these programmes work.
How does training with Skills work?
We work with businesses like yours to map out where weaknesses in skill sets lie, and how training can be used strengthen them. Our account managers will then work with you to select the right training programmes (and if required, customise them) to suit your needs.
Once a programme is chosen our team helps you to set up and embed the training programmes in your organisation, so that they work seamlessly with the daily activities of your staff, and with minimal disruption.
Skills training programmes and course materials are developed in consultation with industry representatives to ensure they are relevant and can drive consistent performance and growth in your organisation.
What are alignments and how do they work?
If your company already has strong internal training, alignment could be a great option. An alignment involves an assessment specialist looking at a company’s induction programmes, training and structured learning and mapping this to the competencies needed to gain a National/New Zealand qualification.
The assessment specialist may then recommend a supplementary assessment resource to fill any specific assessment gaps needed to ensure that staff can obtain the formal recognition they deserve. This tool relies on great support by managers/team leaders through verification (they would be fully supported by Skills through training to obtain the necessary skills to do this).
What are the differences between unit standards, credits, qualifications and certificates?
Nationally recognised qualifications are made up by a number of unit standards, which are set at different levels. The level of the unit standard indicates its degree of difficulty. This allows people entering into a qualification to start at a lower level, with easier to achieve unit standards, and work their way up to the higher levels as their knowledge grows with training.
When a trainee completes a unit standard, they earn credits for that particular unit. Once all the required credits have been achieved for that qualification, the trainee will be awarded either a National Certificate or a New Zealand Certificate.
Note: NZQA has reviewed its qualification systems and decided to update it to meet changing industry and technology needs. As a result the old National Certificates are being phased out and replaced with New Zealand Certificates which are the updated versions of the old qualifications.
How do assessments work?
Learners are assessed towards the end of their training to make sure they’ve gained the key knowledge/competencies they need to meet the nationally recognised standards.
Assessments can be carried out in the workplace by trained and registered workplace assessors, or through accredited training providers. Skills can assist with sourcing registered assessors or in training up your internal staff so that they can carry out the assessments in-house.
What support is available once we’ve signed up?
The support from Skills doesn’t just stop once your company is setup with a training programme or aligned to a national standard. We offer a wide range of resources, tools and dedicated staff to advise and support you on a continuing basis.
What are the benefits of training staff to national standards?
Helping your staff to receive national recognition for the skills and training they do in their everyday work is something that pays for itself in no time at all. Here’s why:
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- It ensures consistency in training, so that regardless of the trainer, your staff are learning the key information they need to succeed in their roles.
- It ensures consistency in performance as everyone receives the same level of training and ends up with a similar level of expert knowledge.
- It reduces error rates and re-work, which saves your business money and protects your brand name.
- It reduces staff turnover rates as staff feel more valued and are more engaged. Lower turnover rates protect organisational knowledge and reduce recruitment and training costs. It also helps to boost morale and improve company culture.