While many companies are seeing a recovery from the economic downturn, the distribution and pace of forward progress are not necessarily being enjoyed across the board by all companies, industries or geographies.
Given the economic downturn, companies actively are seeking to capitalize on all competitive edges – including human capital. Their sales force represents one of the most significant opportunities to grow revenue and market share. The Aberdeen Group just published a new study – Sales Training 2011 – Uncovering How the Best-in-Class Sustain, Reinforce, and Leverage Best Practices. In the summer of 2011, 970 organizations were surveyed about their sales training. Of that group 707 currently offer sales training.
Some key findings were:
- There has been a continuous increase in sales training spend among the survey recipients
- 87% of sales reps in best-in-class performance achieved quota in the last year, compared with 49% among Industry Average and 4% among Laggard companies
- Best-in-Class companies realized a 9.5% year-over-year improvement in average deal size or annual contract value, vs. 2.2% for Industry Average and a 1.8% reduction among Laggards
- Sales training looked like this:
- 91% focus on instructor-led training – believing it’s the most effective training design
- 85% have defined competencies and training for each sales role
- 83% use a formal sales methodology – either home-grown or from an external vendor
5. To achieve successes, companies must:
- Gain executive-level support for sales training initiatives
- Publicize sales performance metrics throughout the company
- Support a formal “training the trainer” environment
- Deploy a central site of sales training content and other best practices
If you want to read the study, you can access a copy of the report, click here.
