Do you know how much money the average organization wastes on sales training? I don’t know the exact number, but you can bet it’s enormous.
I get a few calls every year when a VP of Sales says, “I have a meeting with my sales team in 3 months and I’d like a proposal for sales training.” Of course the first question I ask is, “What are you trying to accomplish: Build the world’s best sales team? Improve sales performance in this tough economy? Or simply entertain your sales people for a day or two?”
And depending on the clarity of the answer I hear, I’ll often challenge the executive with a provocative statement, “Having led sales organizations and consulted and trained dozens of clients, I think there’s a high probability that a sales training “event” would not be a good investment of your time or money.” And when I say that, I couldn’t be more serious.
Unless an organization really understands what they’re trying to accomplish – or has clarity on where their skill gaps are, sales training is often fruitless. And unless they are committed to reinforce the skills they choose to train the sales team on, it won’t have a lasting impact.
What about you – have you spent money on sales training, only to find that the sales teams go back to their old ways of doing things within 4 weeks?
Share your experiences with others by commenting here!
I don’t think your observation should be limited to sales training. It applies to any type of training where adoption of the new skills and techniques is at the discretion of the student:
– a CFO goes away for 2 weeks on Activity Based Costing
– an Operations Manager attends a course of Theory of Constraints
– a Marketing Manager learns “Accounting for non-Financial Professionals”
When they come back, colleagues tend to steer clear of this person for a few weeks after they return from “Charm School”. Often, they are pumped up for this initial period, are likely participating in some post-course homework to begin to apply the new approach, and are sickening to be around. Most other employees have seen this enough times to know if they just keep their heads down, “this too shall pass”.
Herein is the key!
If the organization is sending a sales rep to a course at The Complex Sale, or Miller-Heiman, or Dale Carnegie, or anywhere, the organization must first have bought into the approach, and adopted it as part of its culture. As a Master Blackbelt at GE, I taught hundreds of employees the tools and techniques of Six Sigma. Most of them would not have thought of slipping into old habits a month later, because Jack Welch, the CEO, lived and breathed Six Sigma, as did any manager in the reporting chain between the student and Welch.
And it’s not good enough for the VP of Sales alone to be the reinforcement for the new training upon the student’s return. The CEO, COO, CFO, and the rest of the leadership team need to be believers in the techniques and value and recognize the new behaviors, even if they themselves are not expert in the methods.
Finally, even if the leadership team believes and talks up the training, it will still fall short if measurements and metrics are not changed to reflect the desired behavior. Of course the metrics should be tied into performance reviews and pay. Ways to do this? It depends on what behavior is mandated by the new training, but perhaps:
– # of sales plans prepared for negotiations greater than $100,000
– ratio of prospective clients “fired” to total prospects
If commission or bonus is based strictly on Sales or Profit, you can’t blame the student for working to maximize her income according to what’s worked in the past, especially if they’ve been successful. (Then you can argue against messing with a good thing). But if as a leader you believe that in the long run, your sales efforts will be enhanced by employees using the chosen methodology, then bake into their comp plan factors representative of someone who uses the new method.
I have come to believe that testing the sales team each year is needed, providing training based on their needs rather than ‘filling the room’ for the sake of it.
Testing identifies the gaps, improvements should be expected and sales people held accountable as part of their development plan. (Also believe product training should require a test before you can sell- elearning platforms are ideal for this. If you don’t get X% then you have to retest).
The key element in my mind is the sales manager. Often times sales managers are promoted because they are great sales people. Sales managers should be mentors and coaches, not necessarily great closers. Don’t get me wrong I think they need to have done the job but the coaching element is the most important.
(I agree with the top down approach that Dave mentions- drive a sales culture throughout the organization)
In summary,
– invest your money with the sales managers (coaches) first. Get them on board.
– test your sales people each year and plot improvements.
– put together a number of key training building blocks and focus on areas of weakness rather than catch all. More cost effective.
– manage those that fail to improve (and hit numbers) out of the business. You have to be disciplined enough to follow the whole process or the team will fall back into old habits.
Training has to provide more than a 3 week feel good factor.
I couldn’t agree more Dave – and yet, think about how much money the average company spends on training of all sorts and how little is actually institutionalized and reinforced in the ways you outline!
Peter
Been at this training thing for about 25 years. Been saying that sales training is over rated for about the same amount of time. It all starts with selection. Most sales people did not want to be in sales and arrived by default. All the easy jobs were taken. Interviewing for salespeople is a skill set that few mangers or HR individuals rarely master. Too much time is spent selling the job to the salespeople. There are many amateurs out there impersonating professionals. As for performance Sales Managers have tolerated good when they really want great. Good is good, but great requires a whole new perception, attitude and behavior. Enjoyed reading your blog. Skip