Building Best Practice Product Knowledge Training

Being Vice President of Sales is a tough job. You’ve climbed your way up in the organization not only through your innate talent as a salesperson but also through your organizational skills. Now’s the hard part: building a sales team that’s as good or better than you at bringing in new clients. You’ve hired the best people you could find, evaluating their natural aptitude, past performance, and fit into your company’s culture. Now what? Send them right out to the field? Maybe that’s rushing it a bit. More likely than not, it’s best to first spend time preparing your hunters to hunt.

The February 20^th Asher Sales Sense Podcast, “Building Best Practice Product Knowledge Training” with host Kyla O’Connell features Sahar Mehrabzadeh, Executive Vice President for Sales at Bay Cities Packaging and Design.  Sahar describes how she constructed a best practice onboarding and sales training program focusing on product knowledge that gets the kind of super sales results that reward salespeople and delight company executives. 

 How did such a best practice product knowledge training program get started?  How can you structure your own?  What are ways to handle fast-learners?  When do you know a salesperson is ready to start interacting with customers?  What happens when more experienced salespeople join the team?  What’s the end deliverable after the training is complete?  Tune in on February 20^th to hear Sahar answer these questions and give valuable advice to VPs of Sales in need of developing internal training programs.  Follow Sahar’s lead and equip your hunters to beat the competition and delight your customers!

 Sahar Mehrabzadeh  Executive Vice President of Sales

Sahar’s journey with Bay Cities began in 2006 as a Marketing Manager. In this role she developed Bay Cities’ first marketing department and pioneered a fresh approach to customer outreach for the company.

 In 2013, the contacts and account relationships she developed in marketing led her to step into a new role as the Director of Sales for Point of Purchase Displays. In this role, Sahar broke new ground for Bay Cities by opening multiple new national accounts, such as the Electronic Retailers Association (ERA), while continuing to keep Bay Cities’ focus on sustainable development through her position on the Executive Leadership Team.

 In October 2019, Sahar became Bay Cities’ first Executive Vice President of Sales. In addition to leading Bay Cities Sales force, she champions Bay Cities’ unique position as the liaison between brands and the retailers and sales channels they serve by connecting brands with the end consumer through point-of-purchase displays, packaging, and consumer experiences.

 Sahar continues her outreach through presentations around the country on sustainability, the fundamentals of performance packaging, and the use of emerging technologies such as augmented reality to create dynamic customer experiences and engagements with brands and retailers.

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Asher Sales Sense is hosted by John Asher and Kyla O’Connell of ASHER Strategies which is a program on the Funnel Radio Channel.  ASHER Strategies is the sponsor of ASHER Sales Sense.