{"id":3652,"date":"2013-03-12T12:42:51","date_gmt":"2013-03-12T12:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=3652"},"modified":"2013-04-12T00:08:48","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T04:08:48","slug":"making-sense-from-your-sales-training-dollars-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/sales-and-service\/2013\/03\/making-sense-from-your-sales-training-dollars-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Sense from Your Sales Training Dollars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gary<\/a>

Gary Schwartz<\/p><\/div>\n

Sales organizations, almost universally, believe that sales training is a critical lever in driving sales performance and yet so few organizations have devised an effective training continuum.\u00a0 Logic would indicate that if you 1) believe that something is critical to your success and 2) understand that your current system is flawed, you would dedicate the appropriate amount of time and resources to remedy the situation.\u00a0 All too often, this logic goes unheeded.<\/p>\n

It is a given that companies need to train their sales professionals \u2013 doing so costs money.\u00a0 The question really is: what are you getting for your sales training dollars?\u00a0 Too many are simply throwing money down a very deep, very dark hole.<\/p>\n

Where are they missing the boat?\u00a0 85 percent of material discussed in a \u2018learning event\u2019 is lost within 6 months.\u00a0 So the information from your last \u201cSales Kick-off\u201d is pretty much gone \u2013 along with the investment you made to bring that powerful speaker.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that today\u2019s sales reps need to spend a great deal more time honing their craft. That said, how does skill training fit into the sales process – is there a sales process?\u00a0 How are the lessons reinforced? Most organizations rely on the sales managers to deliver this training; after all the job of the sales manager is rep development.\u00a0 The difficulty lies in the fact that skill training is opportunity specific.\u00a0 In other words, the sales manager has to physically be on the sales call to provide evaluation and feedback to fully develop the skill.\u00a0 Sure, role-play is an option but there is no disputing the value of real world experience.<\/p>\n

Lets face facts: no sales manager can be on every sales call.\u00a0 To effectively drive skill development, you must have a repeatable sales process with programmed coaching opportunities.\u00a0 Without the post training coaching, reinforcement on a consistent basis is impossible.\u00a0 The coaching session allows a sales manager to influence multiple accounts within the span of an hour while focusing on skill development and knowledge transfer.\u00a0 Further, metrics should be applied to identify areas for future skill improvement.<\/p>\n

The next challenge we must tackle is knowledge retention.\u00a0 Again, without retention mechanisms, 85 percent of training material is forgotten within 6 months. Think about the last rep you sent to a workshop.\u00a0 When he returned, how was the learned material put in practice?\u00a0 How did the manager reinforce what she was not <\/i>there to learn?\u00a0 The expression \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d could not be more true in this circumstance.\u00a0 Did the course material get filed away in the cube or was it put to use on a consistent basis?<\/p>\n

What does \u201cgood\u201d look like for a retention mechanism?\u00a0 Back to the \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d scenario, learned material must stay at the forefront of thought rather than the back corner of the desk in the cube.\u00a0 Consistent communication of concepts is key to knowledge retention.\u00a0 E-mail is an effective tool to keep concepts \u2018top of mind\u2019. \u00a0Webinars and similar technology also make it easy and cost effective to provide refreshers or group discussions to keep material fresh and relevant.\u00a0 The bottom line is communication needs to be constant and in varied formats to drive retention.<\/p>\n

The final piece to the puzzle is the trickiest of all\u2014corporate culture.\u00a0 If you have a larger sales organization with multiple sales teams the challenge can be daunting.\u00a0 Getting all the teams moving on a consistent path is tough.\u00a0 One bad banana can certainly spoil the bunch. If you fail to gain adoption on one team all the other teams will eventually check out. Executive sponsorship is critical.\u00a0 Consistency is key.\u00a0 Sales organizations are conditioned to the \u2018flavor of the month\u2019 \u2013 programs that come and go like the wind.\u00a0 On average, full adoption takes 4-6 months of consistency for a procedure to become engrained in the corporate culture.<\/p>\n

Turning your training dollars into revenue and commission dollars takes focus to the process, knowledge retention, and most importantly adoption into your culture.\u00a0 Look at your current training investment, whether it is time spent by your employees or money spent in workshops and off-sites.\u00a0 Are you getting a return on your training dollar?\u00a0 Does your training dollar make sense or cents?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sales organizations, almost universally, believe that sales training is a critical lever in driving sales performance and yet so few organizations have devised an effective training continuum.\u00a0 Logic would indicate that if you 1) believe that something is critical to your success and 2) understand that your current system is flawed, you would dedicate the appropriate amount of time and resources to remedy the situation.\u00a0 All too often, this logic goes unheeded. It is a given that companies need to train their sales professionals \u2013 doing so costs money.\u00a0 The question really is: what are you getting for your sales training dollars?\u00a0 Too many are simply throwing money down a very deep, very dark hole. Where are they missing the boat?\u00a0 85 percent of material discussed in a \u2018learning event\u2019 is lost within 6 months.\u00a0 So the information from your last \u201cSales Kick-off\u201d is pretty much gone \u2013 along with the investment you made to bring that powerful speaker. There\u2019s no doubt that today\u2019s sales reps need to spend a great deal more time honing their craft. That said, how does skill training fit into the sales process – is there a sales process?\u00a0 How are the lessons reinforced? Most organizations rely on the sales managers to deliver this training; after all the job of the sales manager is rep development.\u00a0 The difficulty lies in the fact that skill training is opportunity specific.\u00a0 In other words, the sales manager has to physically be on the sales call to provide evaluation and feedback to fully develop the skill.\u00a0 Sure, role-play is an option but there is no disputing the value of real world experience. Lets face facts: no sales manager can be on every sales call.\u00a0 To effectively drive skill development, you must have a repeatable sales process with programmed coaching opportunities.\u00a0 Without the post training coaching, reinforcement on a consistent basis is impossible.\u00a0 The coaching session allows a sales manager to influence multiple accounts within the span of an hour while focusing on skill development and knowledge transfer.\u00a0 Further, metrics should be applied to identify areas for future skill improvement. The next challenge we must tackle is knowledge retention.\u00a0 Again, without retention mechanisms, 85 percent of training material is forgotten within 6 months. Think about the last rep you sent to a workshop.\u00a0 When he returned, how was the learned material put in practice?\u00a0 How did the manager reinforce what she was not there to learn?\u00a0 The expression \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d could not be more true in this circumstance.\u00a0 Did the course material get filed away in the cube or was it put to use on a consistent basis? What does \u201cgood\u201d look like for a retention mechanism?\u00a0 Back to the \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d scenario, learned material must stay at the forefront of thought rather than the back corner of the desk in the cube.\u00a0 Consistent communication of concepts is key to knowledge retention.\u00a0 E-mail is an effective tool to keep concepts \u2018top of mind\u2019. \u00a0Webinars and similar technology also make it easy and cost effective to provide refreshers or group discussions to keep material fresh and relevant.\u00a0 The bottom line is communication needs to be constant and in varied formats to drive retention. The final piece to the puzzle is the trickiest of all\u2014corporate culture.\u00a0 If you have a larger sales organization with multiple sales teams the challenge can be daunting.\u00a0 Getting all the teams moving on a consistent path is tough.\u00a0 One bad banana can certainly spoil the bunch. If you fail to gain adoption on one team all the other teams will eventually check out. Executive sponsorship is critical.\u00a0 Consistency is key.\u00a0 Sales organizations are conditioned to the \u2018flavor of the month\u2019 \u2013 programs that come and go like the wind.\u00a0 On average, full adoption takes 4-6 months of consistency for a procedure to become engrained in the corporate culture. Turning your training dollars into revenue and commission dollars takes focus to the process, knowledge retention, and most importantly adoption into your culture.\u00a0 Look at your current training investment, whether it is time spent by your employees or money spent in workshops and off-sites.\u00a0 Are you getting a return on your training dollar?\u00a0 Does your training dollar make sense or cents?  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[87],"tags":[193,339],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3652"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3652"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4610,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3652\/revisions\/4610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}