Despite the wide variance in diversity between companies, one core necessity all companies share is the need to make sales. Whether you've got a full team of salespeople or you're a small business owner handling sales as well as other duties, Microsoft Excel training can have a major impact on your ability to close sales quickly and effectively. How are Microsoft Excel and sales connected? This is an important question with an answer that is even more significant.
Anyone who has tried their hand in sales knows that prospects don't become customers unless they fully understand exactly how your product or service will benefit them directly. Enter the power of Microsoft Excel combined with low-cost Excel training. Through Excel training, you'll learn tools and techniques that will allow you or your sales people to create customised calculators and visual graphs that can instantly turn a few of your prospect's variables into a completely customised and highly visual display of benefits sheet.
For example, let's assume that ABC Company has developed a type of plastic that costs 22% less than the plastic they are currently using. However, in order to begin using this cost-saving plastic, the manufacturer would replace each of their current machines with one new $8,000 machine. If you found that difficult to follow - imagine how the prospect must feel! The prospect not only has to decipher the message, but then figure out if this new system would be cost effective for the company.
A good sales person will offer to do the math for them, asking questions like, "How much plastic do you currently use," "how many machines would need to be replaced," "how many widgets do you make in a year," and "what is the profit margin on each widget?" While the sales person is punching away on the calculator and scratching away on paper, the prospect is mostly likely formulating a good excuse to end the call early.
Here's where the benefit of Excel training comes into play. Imagine now that this same sales person has mapped out this complex equation in an Excel spreadsheet long before making the call. The equation created from the knowledge learned in Excel training will allow the sales person to ask the prospect for a few key variables that when plugged into certain areas of the spreadsheet, will instantly return the amount of cost savings the client will make over the next 5 years, less their initial investment. Not only does the sales call go much smoother with less fumbling on the part of the salesperson, the prospect walks away with solid figures tailored specifically for his or her company.
And that's just the beginning of what your salespeople will learn in Excel training. Imagine now that the sales person has also taken the time to create a series of stunning visuals, learned during the graphing portion of Excel training. Using the variables from the same customised formula previously mentioned, the sales person can show the prospect any number of charts, graphs, and timelines to drive the value of the sale home.
Your sales people don't have to be face to face with the prospect to share this completely personalised charts and graphs of cost and value benefits. Using tools like Go To Meeting and similar software that allows a client to watch your salespersons desktop, the prospect can see those numbers visually in real time during the sales call.
Most people need to see things visually to fully understand them - especially when it comes to a mess of complicated numbers. General graphs and charts are useful, but Excel training will show your sales team how to create great looking charts and graphs that can be customised in real-time while the prospect is engaged in the message. It won't be long before the small investment made in Excel training materialises in to greater profits resulting from a streamlined and more effective sales process.
Online Microsoft Excel Training
The heart of a profitable business is one that operates effectively and efficiently; one where every employee works hard at doing their part to meet the overall company goals. Having had the opportunity to peer inside the operations of multiple successful companies from established industry giants to fast moving internet startups, I have found that there are several very important reasons why Excel training courses can make a big impact on employee and company productivity.
Your Employees Want to Become More Efficient
Most employees have a desire to do their jobs well and to consistently look for ways to do their jobs better. However, most management teams don't offer employees the tools and training to become more efficient! Every employee has something to track, something to measure, and something to monitor. Excel is the ideal medium in which to accomplish these tasks and just about every employee already has it installed on their computer. You might be surprised at how innovative your employees can become after taking a few Excel training courses.
Because Excel training courses reveal so many tricks and shortcuts, each employee can quickly find ways to apply the knowledge to make their current jobs easier. After learning about all of the innovative features during Excel training courses, your employees may even find new ways to track critical tasks. Any employee, from an analyst to a receptionist can find ways to make their daily tasks more efficient with even one or two days of Excel training courses.
Reduce Load on Your IT Department
One fast-paced internet startup company that I worked with had a problem shared by many companies. Their IT department was inundated with work surrounding developing and maintaining their online product. At the same time, the customer service department was flooded with inquiries about bug changes, problems, issues, etc. The customer service department wanted to implement a tracking system for requests so that they could present the hottest issues to the management and development team each month, but the IT department never had any time to build any tracking tools for the CS department.
In this highly technology savvy company, the customer service department was operating in the Stone Age. That is, until they received Excel training courses. Excel is a powerful database program that at its most advanced levels can function like a custom coded application. After the Excel training courses, several members of the team pooled together to create a tool that allowed each rep to track the nature of each customer inquiry. From that data they produced sophisticated graphs and charts for the management team to view. These charts, graphs and reports had a major impact on the IT department's reaction to bug changes and ultimately improved the product for customers. Thanks to Excel training courses, the customer service team was able to accomplish all of this without utilizing already slim IT resources.
Employee Development Programs
The most organized and profitable companies that I've had a chance to peer inside of always offer some sort of employee development program or management track training program for employees who want to rise up through the ranks. In every case, these programs involved Excel training courses and other MS Office courses. It only makes sense that these types of hands-on technical courses would be mixed in with the employee development program.
Using technology is a critical part of most employee's every day tasks, yet most employees have had no formal training on the software they are using. Including Excel training courses in your employee development program schedule helps your employees on the fast track learn how to become more effective with the technology they use every day. Those who rise through the ranks to become managers, supervisors, trainers, etc then have a wealth of knowledge that they can pass along to newer employees.
Companies can choose to send employees off site for Excel training courses and other areas of Microsoft training or bring a training team in house. While there are 'learn it yourself' programs, Excel training and other Microsoft Office training proves much more effective when done in person. Like most types of training, the benefits of Excel training courses are well worth and far exceed any cost involved with training your employees.
Both Christine Harrell & Rich Talbot are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Rich Talbot has sinced written about articles on various topics from Software, Data Recovery and Software. Author is a trainer with a Microsoft Office training company, the UK industry leader in its sector. For more information on http://www.MicrosoftTraining.net. Rich Talbot's top article generates over 165000 views. Bookmark Rich Talbot to your Favourites.
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