Sales Training Doesn't Work – And What To Do About It

by Steve Chriest

For some time now I've known that sales training doesn't work. That isn't to say that sales training doesn't benefit some salespeople, sometimes, but it doesn't work for most organizations for a variety of reasons. There are, fortunately, steps managers can take to change this reality.

The number of reasons sales training doesn't work for most selling organizations are as numerous as they are complex. Besides important reasons like lack of executive sponsorship of the training, sales management's unwillingness or inability to reinforce and sustain the training, and the absence of a plan to incorporate new concepts and skills into a sales process that will be followed by all members of the sales team, the chief reason sales training doesn't work, in my opinion, is that few managers understand that sales training doesn't change behavior.

Thousands of training companies offer sales training for cold-calling, prospecting, planning account strategies, sales call planning, presenting to clients, negotiating and so on, and while many of these contain useful information, there isn't one sales training program I'm aware of that will, by itself, change any salesperson's behavior.

So, what is it that changes selling behaviors? The academic answer may be complex, but for us regular folks it's pretty simple – salespeople, like anyone, will change their behavior when they perceive that there is something substantial in it for them to change.

Changing behavior is a process, and like all processes, it must be managed. Behavior isn't changed in the same way you flip on a light switch. Salespeople almost never raise their hands to request sales training from their managers, and it's difficult to convince most salespeople that they need to change their selling behaviors.

An effective prescription for changing selling behaviors will include a consensus among senior manager of the relevance of the sales training to the most important strategic objectives of the business. Senior managers are much more likely to encourage and support a sales training initiative that promises to positively impact critical strategic objectives than sales training that delivers entertainment, and little else, to the sales team.

The next step, and this one is absolutely critical, is to communicate to the sales managers and the sales team the direct connection between the sales training and the strategic objectives of the business. Now, perhaps for the first time, the sales team can see the potential impact of their activities on important business objectives, instead of seeing only their effect on the top line and on their commission checks.

Once the sales team understands their role in helping the company achieve the strategic business objectives, they must clearly see how changing their selling behaviors will help them directly impact the objectives and how they will personally benefit from the change. Money is always an important factor, but so is personal development and growth as a sales professional.

The failure of sales training costs companies billions of dollars annually and wastes everyone's time, but it doesn't have to be that way. When sales training is an integral part of a well thought out plan for changing behaviors to meet strategic objectives, the sales training can work, selling behaviors can change, and the company, its managers and the sales team can win.

Copyright © 2006 Selling Up TM . All Rights Reserved.

About the author: Steve Chriest is the founder of Selling Up TM ( www.selling-up.com ), a sales consulting firm specializing in sales improvement for organizations of all types and sizes in a variety of industries. He is also the author of Selling Up, The Proven System for Reaching and Selling Senior Executives. You can reach Steve at schriest@selling-up.com .