Building a Killer Training Initiative to Aid Sales-Focused Pros

Learning and Development professionals are increasingly called on to deliver sales training that directly supports the business goals of the organization and provides clear evidence of impact.

Many reports show that L&D departments are facing an increased demand for training while dealing with restricted budgets. This places increasing pressure on making sure that sales training generates a significant and sustainable return on investment.

For L&D leaders in dynamic B2B markets, sales training has the additional complexity of helping their organizations deal with constant change. The pace of change has never been faster and is continuing to accelerate according to researchers and including David Chandler of MIT. No matter how much change teams have gone through recently, the need to adapt is going to be a critical factor in the success, or even survival of companies around the world.

The pay-back for getting this right is clear with companies who have a formal training program, including effective follow-up reinforcement, outperforming their industry average significantly.

According to one report the results are clear with 82% of sales people who go through a comprehensive training program achieving sales targets, compared to 60% for their industry average and only 32% for companies classed as “laggards”.

CONVENTIONAL TRAINING

Conventional sales training has traditionally consisted of a one or two-day seminar led by an external trainer using off-the-shelf training materials. There are some obvious attractions to this:

• Established training programs which are provided by external suppliers have a track record of success, minimizing risk of failure
• There may be some brand awareness of the training company making the “internal sale” to the organization easier
• The challenge of defining content is passed on to the training company

However, the retention rate for information supplied in short, lecture style training sessions can be very low and is often illustrated by “The Learning Pyramid”.

Since an effective trainer can make the experience enjoyable for participants, it is more than possible for a seminar to be given high approval ratings but fail to achieve its basic objectives of driving effective change in behavior.

The initial feedback from participants is at the ‘reaction’ level – what the student thought and felt about the training and does not determine the increase in knowledge, change in behavior or results that would positively increase business performance (Kirkpatrick)
The learning experience can be successful, even though the impact on the business may be negligible.

WHAT IS TO BE TRAINED?

Before considering “how” to design and deliver effective sales training, it is worth asking some other key questions.

A clear summary of these questions is given in a report on the effectiveness of training in organizations.

1. Which organizational goals need to be attained?
2. Where is the training needed within the organization?
3. What must trainees learn in order to perform their roles effectively?

This report also highlights three other key questions.

• What learning needs to be trained?
• What behavior needs to be changed?
• What results need to be achieved?

All these points should be thoroughly reviewed before any decision is made on course content.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

A review of the available materials on the topic shows that there are a number of factors that can make a training program as effective as possible. These include:

1. Senior leadership support for the training initiative, actively communicated throughout the organization
2. On-going and frequent reinforcement of the training
3. Clear connection of the training experience to the sales situations through the use of relevant case-studies and role-play exercises
4. Sharing of experience and “best practices” across the team
5. Learning materials available to participants in a variety of formats for self-study (audio files, video clips, written summaries of key points
6. Direct training of line managers in how to implement the processes and practices of the training in daily work
7. Participant feedback on multiple points, which is then subjected to formal review by L&D
8. Connecting sales training to specific corporate goals
9. Awareness of the cultural differences of participants and the markets they work in

“MAKING IT STICK”

Sales training must deliver sustainable change in how people behave and to this end it is worth considering sales training to be a form of change management. One of the world’s leading thinkers on this topic, Elizabeth Moss Kanter, has provided a valuable checklist of how this sort of organizational change can be helped:

• Memorable messages – find a way to summarize your vision of the future
• Stories – people forget PowerPoint, but retain stories
• Action tools and roles – give people checklists and sales tools
• Coalitions of partners – selling is more than just one sales person talking to a prospect. A key part of ensuring that sales training has lasting impact can be to create the awareness of the importance of “internal partners”
• “Points of Action” nudges – give people something concrete to do

Any sales training program must, at least, consider these points as they are being developed.