Have you ever sent your sales team on a sales training course, only to then find out that it hasn’t really changed anything in either their behaviour or their sales results? Well, you’re not alone.
Recent studies have shown that 94% of companies invest in some sort of sales training with an average of 4 days per year. Despite this, the same research found that only 9% of these companies see any behavioural change in their trainees, and an astonishing 85 to 90% of sales training has no lasting impact after 3 months.
This is usually because many sales training companies - and there are many out there - assume that everyone in the room is the same. Instead, the right way to start is by first assuming that everyone is different. That they have different strengths and weaknesses that either support or hinder them in executing effectively in their primary roles. It’s always important to first know the why - for both your sales team and their managers.
The reality is that some of your sales team perform better than others, some have stronger supportive mindsets, better skillsets, or their sales DNA is supportive of better outcomes, and sending your whole salesforce for the same standardised skill-based training is backwards.
To succeed, you need to diagnose where the actual gaps are regarding your team’s skills, and your current supporting structures, processes, and strategies, before you prescribe the fix. No more guesswork or “gut feelings” needed. Real measures of sales effectiveness, execution, and potential.
There’s no long-term benefit to once off sales training. Other research shows that only 7-10% of the content is ever actually remembered after 90 days. Training is only a single piece of a more complex puzzle when it comes to growing your sales – so why continue wasting money investing in the same old sales training courses? Training is only one piece of the jigsaw if you want true transformation in your team.
Skillset training only accounts for approximately 10% of behavioural change anyway. The rest is made up of 20% managerial coaching, observation, and coaching, and 70% on-the-job practice – this is known as the ‘70/20/10 Rule’.
Sometimes poor, or often no direction, accountability, or coaching from managers can have huge consequences too, as they frequently fail to perform the 20%, or fail to observe and support their team in attempting the 70%.
If you or your company are considering partnering with a third party to help increase sales, the actual sales training and coaching should be the last piece of the jigsaw to be delivered. What should happen before this?
You must get the foundations solid first.
If your company intends on partnering with a third-party to help transform your sales, the sales training component should always be the last piece of the puzzle.
Making the mistake of rolling out sales training instead of a sales force evaluation as the first step, means you won't have the ‘MRI’ of the sales organisation. You won’t even have a ‘sales radiologist’ to read the MRI. When it comes down to it, that’s a bit like picking surgery as an option yourself from your GP’s waiting room brochure or leaflet, instead of receiving the proper diagnosis.
After all, only with a definitive diagnosis can you then begin deciding on the next steps through a ‘needs-based’ treatment plan.
Evaluation has to be the first step though. To get the best results, you need absolute clarity on your present situation - the roadmap for the future success of your sales organisation. Know the gaps, the problems, the challenges, and most importantly the reasons why your sales results are what they are – both at a team and an individual level.
In practice, sales development needs a comprehensive multi-step blended approach, in order to be effective and to bring real change and transformation. In short… results.
At Grow Sales we do so more than simply train your salespeople. We change sales culture. Using scientific data, we help you to understand exactly what’s going on with your salespeople, your structures, your systems, and your processes. Then we tell you what needs to happen next.
No more guesswork or gut feelings needed. Just real data and insights to significantly improve your team’s performance. Once we understand the gaps, only then do we begin the process of transforming your sales team. Only then can we change your sales culture.
Powered by sales-specific diagnostic assessments from OMG, at Grow Sales we can help you answer these 4 key questions about your sales organisation:
Remember: Sales training and transformation is a process, not an event.
Get a free skills gap analysis (insights), for one of your team members and see for yourself the accuracy and power of our findings. Take advantage of our free trial today.
