How to have a Successful Training Event

Getting Value from Training

No matter what the event, the key to success is to first change or reinforce beliefs on being customer centric. Second is to focus on how to have accountability and follow up. If there is a clear goal and a plan for holding people accountable to learn and implement the training, then multiple types of venues can work. If there is no accountability and coaching, then no matter if it is in-house or a workshop, the training will have limited impact. The follow up after training is specifically more important than the training.

Effective Training and Receiving a Tangible ROI

In many situations, there is little lasting value in training events. After a training event sales leaders hopefully see a short spike in sales then sales results drop back to where they were 3 months later. Sales leaders continually complain that training does not deliver sufficient returns.

The number one issue is senior management involvement! Typically, senior management did not participate and do not hold those down the line accountable for training participation or application.

There could be several reasons for poor returns on sales training:

The training is all product focused.
No specific goals or tangible results for which training is targeted.
Training is about closing the sale not about adding value.
Sales training is focused on the transactional process – i.e. it is focused on how you want to sell, not on how the customer wants to buy or how to help them achieve their desired outcomes.
Sales management did not participate in the training and did not learn the material so therefore cannot evaluate the effectiveness of application.
Training was just educational, no role playing or application exercises with no method of tracking if your team learned the material or applied the material.
Sales training curriculum is based upon a 20th century model before the Internet and knowledgeable buyers.
Sales training material is anecdotally based, not based upon sales research, buyer research, and the delivery is personality driven.
The main driver of the type of training was time and venue, not results.
No follow-up or coaching.
One size fits all in the way material is delivered.
Not customized to your company, product and services – sales reps left to “figure it out” in terms of how the training applies to their specific situations.

Training Trends

Training trends have generally been driven by several internal factors: a) the sales process – from the seller’s point of view, b) the venue – time and costs and c) a selection by mid management with no tie to goals or specific results. Most training was focused on how to prospect, qualify, present and close. The goal of the training was to help improve making the numbers, i.e. the quota, in the time frame allocated for the quota. (What’s missing? How the customer wants to buy is what is missing.) The cost of training was more important in deciding how to do training than the results the training was supposed to deliver. Training was driven by a budget process or the venue, not a revenue-driven process. Few may ask “What percentage increase in revenue will we achieve from this training?” The venue or time frame allowed drove what type of training was done from a cost and implementation perspective. “We have a company meeting and so there needs to be ½ day of sales training.” Or, “We can’t afford for the reps to be out of the field more than two days so a seminar will have to work.” In many cases, if training was selected by mid management, cost and venue were the key drivers, not results.

Establishing a Goal for Training

All training events should have a goal and a way to measure if they are successful. The first goal should be to change or reinforce a belief about the proper way to sell. For without the proper beliefs, the proper behavior won’t show up. Other goals could be addressing a specific issue that is hindering sales to improving revenue in a specific market segment.

Finally in my critique of most sales training, 70-80% of sales education is on the company’s product or service offerings. The training is focused on what can be sold to the customer, not necessarily what the customer wants nor is information presented from the customer’s perspective. The training is on technical information, not on soft skills of human relationship or business acumen. Product training is almost always presentation focused, i.e. the sales rep is going to make a presentation on their products or services and try to relate the features to a customer benefit. The product training is not designed to be a dialogue with the prospective customer. There is little needs analysis and very little, if any, discussion of what the customer’s key drivers and goals are. The sales process is designed for the sales rep to do most of the talking.