4 Mistakes Sales Managers Make When Training Their Reps

 

Anyone that follows me on social media or the SellAssist blog know my opinion of sales training - it’s utter crap. What’s worse, I’ve encountered several managers and leaders recently that continue to allocate significant portions of their budget to sales training year after year after year. In fact, the average spend on sales training for the average company is up to $1500 USD per rep - that’s roughly 20% more than training spent on other roles within the organization. What. A. Waste. 

So why are these captains of industry so hell-bent on tossing part of their corporate revenue directly into the equivalent of a paper shredder called “training”? Many reasons, but mainly because they have been sold on the bullshit ROI of sales training. 

In 2011, ES Research did a study to determine the effectiveness and retention rates of training delivered to sales teams. They noticed that between 85-90% of the training was forgotten after 120 days with no lasting impact. That means if you had a team of 10 sales reps it would cost you about $15,000 USD to train them, and to ensure the retention rate was maintained throughout the year, you would need to administer that training every quarter. That’s $60,000 USD per year. Another study shows similar results with a reported 80% loss of knowledge after 90 days. 

If you’re considering sales training from an outside third-party, you need to read the following 4 common mistakes made by managers when providing training. 

1. Forcing sales staff to take training.  As we just learned, knowledge retention is dubious at best, forcing reps to sit through training for a day or two will have them paying even less attention to the material. The engagement level will be minimal at best because you’re taking away their control. Instead, let your reps choose the types of training programs they can take. Programs can be assessed by management on a case-by-case basis prior to approval, or the rep could draw from a list of pre-approved courses. Regardless, it’s about empowering the rep to take initiative and have control over their own destiny. 

2. Justifying training with “ROI”.  Sales leaders are already quite familiar with reportable and trackable metrics. They live and die by these numbers and they can provide some incredible insight when it comes to the sales funnel and rep habits. Naturally as sales leaders we think this will transfer over to sales training and provide us with a direct and quantifiable result, eg. If I put my team through this training program I can expect a 10% increase in closed sales. Utter bullshit, and here’s why:

• To determine ROI on anything involves knowing the right numbers to track and devising a formula.

• The typical ROI formula is far too simple for measuring training. 

• KPI metrics on soft skills are nearly impossible to accurately measure. 

• In the end there is no way to draw an exact correlation between the spend and the return.

3. Cookie-Cutter training programs.  There is no one-size-fits-all sales training solution. There just isn’t. I’ve been in sales for over 22 years and owned 2 companies, both focused on training and consulting.        There. Is. No. Cookie. Cutter. Solution.         Ensure that any training programs given to staff are designed to fit the team values, process, sales cycle, industry, product, and vision of the overall organization. Most trainers won’t be able to check off more than a couple of those. 

4. Confusing “Training” with “Coaching”.  Let’s face it - if reps have a passion for sales they will make the effort to read books, study, attend webinars, get a mentor, and generally put in the extra time to learn their craft as would anyone who’s truly committed. They really don’t need training on skills as much as they need a coach to help them turn theoretical into practical. Instead of paying for training that will wear off next quarter, consider hiring a team coach that can spend time with them on a regular basis and help them apply their knowledge.