This article was first published in the September 2024 issue of Top Sales Magazine …
Numerous studies have shown that without reinforcement, most formally-delivered training content is forgotten or abandoned with a few short weeks. Influenced by the effectiveness of the trainer (whether live or pre-recorded), the quality and relevance of the materials, and the receptivity of the intended audience, many of the concepts may never be absorbed at all.
This is at least as true of sales training as it is of any other learning environment. And yet, year after year, an enormous amount of money and time is soaked up by sales training programmes that are negatively regarded by their intended audience and have little or no positive effect in improving sales outcomes.
Even if the sales training appears to be well-received on the day, if that initial positive impact is not reinforced through simple, effective sales tools and ongoing coaching, we can safely assume that its impact will decline (usually precipitously) over a relatively short period of time. It’s like giving a small child an energy drink and seeing a short-term “sugar hit”. It won’t last.
And yet companies continue to invest significant sums in “sales training”. So how can they maximise their return from their sales training investments? I would like to offer a few recommendations:
1: Diagnose before you prescribe
I’m stealing a medical metaphor for this first suggestion. We must always diagnose our salesforce’s weaknesses and development priorities before we commit to a training programme. If we don’t know what we are trying to improve, why we are trying to improve it, or how we will measure success, the chances are that our training programme will have little-to-no impact on sales performance.
Training needs to be intentional. It needs to have an evidence-based goal. And we need to be able to measure whether or not we have been successful. Before we train our salesforce, we need to assess them. I have had particular success with Objective Management Group’s methodology, but other alternatives are available. We MUST always diagnose before we prescribe.
2: Tailor the programme to your needs
Generic sales training programmes have a particularly high failure rate. If the content or supporting materials (and particularly any reinforcement programmes) are not tailored to our specific sales environment, they will be poorly received by the salesforce and will likely fail.
I don’t mean to suggest that today’s widely adopted sales methodologies are without merit. I simply want to propose that they need to be customised to our specific sales environment. If any of the sales training vendors you have in mind are unwilling, unable, or can’t see the point of doing this, I suggest you look elsewhere.
3: Ensure your sales managers are on-board
This may well be my single most important recommendation (I’ll leave you to decide). Our first-line sales managers are the single most important success factor in the adoption of any sales training programme. If they are not bought-in (or have not been trained to support the programme), that programme will inevitably fail.
We need to ensure that our first-line sales managers are involved and represented in the specification of requirements and in the selection of training providers. Trying to impose a new methodology on them without properly involving them is a recipe for disaster, and an avoidable waste of precious resources.
As we will see in a moment, these first-line manager’s contribution will be critical to the success of our programme – to the point that any attempt at a significant attitude or behaviour change initiative will not work without them, and failure will be inevitable.
4: Support with tools
I’ve observed enough of these to be sure of the following: A training programme without supporting tools will be a failure. If we want our salespeople to change their attitudes, behaviours and competencies, we must provide them with simple, easy-to-adopt frameworks that make it easy for them to adopt and comply.
In the long term, these frameworks are best embedded into the CRM system we expect them to use on a day-to-day basis. But in the short-term, simple one-page frameworks that can be uploaded and attached to the CRM can be an even more effective option, because this allows us to fine-tune the frameworks in the light of early experience.
5: Reinforce through coaching
Back to our front-line sales managers again: they are the critical success factor in any training initiative. Not the trainers, although they are important. Not the materials and content, although they are important. Our front-line sales managers – and their ability to coach to the concepts embedded in the training – are vital.
Without them, there can be no effective in-the-moment, in-the-field reinforcement. Without them, the concepts that have been taught will be disregarded or forgotten. Without them, our salespeople’s learning will decline rather than being applied, practiced, and strengthened.
If your organisation has a weak, inconsistent or non-existent coaching culture, I’d even go so far as to suggest that training your sales managers to be effective sales coaches is even more important – and an even higher priority – than training your salespeople in your chosen methodology.
I’m not suggesting that we don’t need to train our salespeople, of course. I’m simply suggesting that we need to put our front-line sales managers – and their coaching skills – at the centre of every sales training initiative.
The Outcome-Centric Selling Academy
We have adopted these principles in creating the Outcome-Centric Selling Academy – a combination of self-paced training, customisable tools, interactive workshops, ongoing reinforcement, and support for managers. You can find out more here.
You can subscribe to Top Sales Magazine here.
