The Sales Training Dilemma
Did you know that there are roughly 1.5 million sales managers in the U.S? And roughly 10 times that amount who make their living as sales professionals? In fact, the sales profession is one of the largest (and continually growing) professions in the world. Salespeople are the machinery that keep our economy moving and growing on a daily basis. Although half of these 15 million salespeople reside in retail sales, the other half constitute a variety of B2C and B2B sectors including financial services, manufacturing, tech, medical and other critical business sectors.
To maintain an effective, productive sales function, regardless of industry, sales training has become an industry in and of itself. In fact, the market for sales training was estimated at $2.5 billion in 2018 and growing. Sales training takes many forms and functions, but most experts agree on the basic criteria, and define effective sales training as “the personal development of skills and techniques related to creating and exploring new sales opportunities, as well as closing sales for an organization.”
Sounds easy to do. Afterall, what could be so difficult about sales training? Isn’t it as easy as taking the habits and practices of your top sales performers, and simply spreading (or teaching) these skills to your entire sales and service teams? Not quite. We approached some of our largest customers to talk about effective sales training and most of them have experienced their fair share of challenges.
For starters, there is the issue of time. The time required for effective training. We all know that salespeople are extremely busy. Not only busy calling on and meeting with clients to close deals, but busy traveling, preparing for meetings, and even doing their own administrative work. Most sales folks simply can’t (and won’t) find the time to train and hone their sales skills. And what about sales managers? Too busy as well. In fact, it’s estimated that a full 50% of sales managers are too busy to train or develop their own sales staff. At least that’s their perception.
“Most companies I’ve worked for whether large or small address sales training once a year at the sales kick-off meeting. Three days spent together and we focus one afternoon reviewing new company presentations and policies, role-playing, coaching, conducting win/loss analysis, and sorting through mounds of new marketing material and collateral that we are expected to memorize on the flight home, and hit the ground running with the following week. So, in the time it takes to conduct one, in-depth client meeting, the sales team is expected to learn and absorb a years’ worth of training material….to carry them through the next twelve months. Not a great model.”
This scenario might be atypical, but the fact is most companies don’t spend nearly the right amount of time training sales and service teams. If they did, they would notice how effective training can be and how it can boost productivity, quotas, and the company’s bottom line. So, what makes for fast and effective sales training in the digital age of too much to accomplish and not enough time to accomplish it?