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.

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Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on Excel Training and MS Access Courses, visit www.MicrosoftTraining.net.