So, you're thinking of investing in sales training...
Before you spend even a penny, make sure you're clear on why so many sales training initiatives fail.
In recent years, companies globally have invested a combined total of approximately $4,200,000,000 (£3.26bn) every year on sales training.
Yet, according to London-based consultancy ES Research, 85% of sales training has no measurable impact after 120 days.
Whether sales training focusses on improving people's product knowledge, developing their closing techniques or giving them more effective sales processes, the over-arching goal is typically one of three things:
To help a company improve its revenue, its profitability or its customer retention.
And, when done properly, it can deliver phenomenal results:
- Karl Watson, former president of concrete manufacturer CEMEX in the US, credits sales training with a $650,000,000 turnaround in the company's fortunes.
- Ben Gower of UK-based Microsoft Office 365 reseller Perspicuity grew from 15 to 1,300 customers thanks to actively following a sales training programme.
- And sales training was behind veteran salesman Carey Windeatt of industrial power supply company XP Power, increasing his annual revenue from £1.5m to £3.1m while working half a day less every week.
So why do some companies fail to get lasting improvements from sales training?
Here are six common reasons sales training fails to deliver the desired results:
1. Management can't articulate a clear vision of success
As the saying goes, you can't hit a target you can't see. Sales training will not succeed if there's no clarity on exactly what success looks like.
Wanting to "rapidly grow revenue", "increase market share" or "improve margins" are the kind of vague outcomes that leave people unsure whether they've succeeded or failed.
The objectives of sales training need to be defined in clear, time-specific and measurable outcomes grounded in reality, rather than wishful thinking or hope.
2. Management can't articulate a compelling reason to change
Even if it's not ideal, the status quo in business is a comfortable place to be.
For improvement to occur, change needs to happen and change involves temporary disruption which is typically uncomfortable and occasionally downright painful.
For sales training to work, people (especially leaders and managers) need to change and they will not do that unless they're clear on their own personal and compelling reasons to go through that period of disruption.
If people don't understand why doing something different might prove valuable, they won't.
3. Relying on a one-size-fits-all approach
People are different and what helps one person succeed will not necessarily help the next.
It's essential to know two things about everyone you're considering for sales training to ensure a significant return on investment.
First, do they have the underlying capability to succeed in sales in the first place? Do they have the necessary ambition and other sales-related characteristic to suggest they're capable of significant success?
Some people will, through no fault of their own, struggle to excel no matter how good the training material is.
Second, what are each person's individual strengths, opportunities for improvement and barriers to success that are currently holding them back?
Tailoring training material to individuals - rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all process - will help deliver quick wins and sustained success.
4. Not providing a process or methodology
Sales skills on their own will not deliver lasting results if there's no over-arching framework.
Without a process or methodology, sales training creates useful skills but no capability to deliver sustained, repeatable, long-term results.
A strong sales process with an underlying methodology gives a company a means of duplicating positive results, learning from mistakes and creating a self-perpetuating culture of sales success.
5. The training fails to engage
No matter how good the ideas, if people are bored during training sessions, they will not put the material intro practice.
People learn not only by reading or passively absorbing information but by doing. Training must get people's attention and give them a chance to put ideas into practice for it to result in changes in behaviour and changes in results.
6. There's no ownership, accountability or reinforcement
It takes time for new habits and behaviours to develop which means that one-off training sessions, no matter how engaging, will not deliver long-term results.
Regular reinforcement is fundamental to long-term success. Without it, knowledge, skills and ideas fade over time and people revert to doing what they've always done.
Similarly, if people don't agree to be held accountable for their performance, they'll find excuses to stop doing anything they don't actively enjoy – usually, this means prospecting!
Effective sales training helps people get clear on why they want to be held accountable.
What you can do to stop sales training failure
Now you've learned about the pitfalls of sales training, it's important to consider what you can do to ensure its success.
First and foremost, don't progress with any sales training until you've discussed all six potential problems with your training provider.
Make sure there are quarterly meetings scheduled to discuss progress towards your overall objectives and, importantly, get clear before you start on the so-called 'leading' indicators of success.
If your goal is to bring in an extra £1m in new business revenue within a year, make sure you're clear on what needs to happen on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to achieve that (a good training provider will be able to help with this).
And make sure you agree a process for tracking and fine-tuning your progress towards that end goal early during your partnership.
Worth a chat?
Curious about whether sales training could help you or your organisation, or whether it's likely to fail? Contact Tom Mallens or Nigel Dunand for an informal chat.
Tom Mallens > Tel: 07917 005 938 / Email: tom.mallens@sandler.com / Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/TomMallens
Nigel Dunand > Email: nigeldunand@sandler.com / Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/NigelDunand
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