Investing in Sales Training Series #2: When NOT to Invest in Sales Training

By Tim Rooney

Here’s a quick list of 6 things that might suggest you should not invest in sales training

1. Do you have the right people worth investing in? Do they have what it takes to be successful in in the first place? As my dad used to say – “You can’t put in – what God left out!”
2. Do the people to be trained – have “intellectual humility” – meaning they accept that they often “don’t know what they don’t know”.
3. Are they open to change & do they have a natural sense of curiosity about people and things
4. Do the people to be trained have the right attitude about training itself – a belief-in continuous self-improvement & not looking for “quick fixes”
5. Do you have any “hostages” – who “know it all” and who could be disruptive in any training you might be doing. They should be disqualified or dealt with before any training begins as they pollute the environment for those who do want to learn.
6. If you or your sales people are “comfortable” where you/or they are and lack the necessary motivation to do the “new” behaviour that training implies – this again should be a disqualification

So taking care of steps 1 to 6 will ensure you have the right people in training to begin with and enhance your chances that you will see a decent ROI.

6 Ways to get maximum ROI from your actual sales training program itself?

1. Play for the long run
• You are trying to change behaviour and learn new skills - that takes time and means that the training needs to be on-going and continuous. Ask any professional golfer
• Don’t look for “quick fixes” – like only “hooking” your training onto the annual sales conference. It will have a short term “feel good” impact and no lasting benefit.

2. Don’t over-emphasize product knowledge
• Make sure you don’t spend too much time on product training [ as important as it is] at the expense of your actual selling skills & strategies.

3. Measurement
• Don’t measure results purely by looking at sales in $ terms alone. While sales in $’s is the ultimate measurement - it’s just as important to measure the behaviours that get you there - such as appointments made and referrals obtained.

4. Role Plays
• If you’re teaching new skills – make sure that you “test” the new skills in a safe classroom environment. If you can’t do mock sales calls in a “safe” environment – you won’t be able to perform under pressure in a real world situation.

5. New Hires
• Make sure new hires get support from the very best & not some tired sales hack who will possibly pollute the “newbie”

6. Team Selling
• Joint sales calls are a powerful way to get better results and are also a great way to see how someone handles themselves in a real live situation - providing the ideal coaching opportunity after the call.

7. Your sales training program should mean that your sales people never have to wing-it or guess what their next move should be
• One of the truly most rewarding benefits of having a comprehensive selling system as part of an effective sales training program, is that the sales person should never be in a situation in which you don’t know what your next “move” should be.

8. No Manipulation or high-pressure tactics – just the truth as quickly as possible
• An effective selling system – as part of your sales training should provide you with the most efficient process to qualify prospects as quickly as possible without having to resort to manipulative or old fashioned “closing techniques”