Most money spent on sales training is money wasted. The longed for improvements in sales performance never arrive and the expectations raised by expensive training programmes are often subsequently dashed through lack of sales management follow-up and support.

Wrong Diagnosis

Most sales training is based on a poor diagnosis of the essential training need. The lack of a training needs analysis or at least some kind of meaningful evaluation of any sales performance issues, reduces sales training to an act of faith.

As a result, sales training is often undertaken without any real objectives or strategy and is often reduced to giving the guys an enjoyable experience – hardly a measure of success.

Missing the Mark

As a consequence of failing to understand the real sales performance issues, most sales training is doomed to fail. There are many factors responsible for sales performance, but too often sales training only focuses on some of the more obvious ones such as a perceived lack of closing skills or poor objection handling.

However, most sales performance issues are often more likely to be found at the front end of the customer engagement process, in the areas of customer understanding and in the creation of rapport and credibility.

The Need for a Sales Strategy & Sales Process

A sales training need can only derive from a sales strategy and sales process that defines how salespeople can best engage their customers to ensure sales success.

A sales strategy needs to consist of a thorough understanding of the organisation's Value Proposition i.e. the value to customers of the organisation's product and service offering.

The sales strategy also needs an understanding of the most important Customer Targets and what these customers require in a relationship with the selling organisation.

Finally, a sales strategy needs a Sales Process – the steps that a selling organisation needs to take to help customers move through their buying process...

The Importance of Sales Competences

Having a sales strategy helps to define what kind of sales people are required. What Knowledge they need, what Skills they require and what Behaviours are important.

The Knowledge, Skills & Behaviours required to deal with professional buyers of large global organisations are very different from those needed to deal with small local businesses.

The Requirement for a Development Plan

Any training should therefore be part of an overall Development Plan that specifies the most important Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours required for sales success, but which also indentifies the individual and collective development needs for the sales organisation

The Crucial Role of Sales Management

Sales management support is then necessary to ensure that any training results in improvements in sales performance.

Motivation and Coaching are two of the most important elements of this support. Motivation provides the need for achievement through the provision of appropriate incentives and rewards, whereas coaching develops the abilities of salespeople to sell and to account manage their most important customers.

Conclusion

Sales training is only effective if it is conducted against the background of a thorough understanding of the selling job required, together with the essential sales competences that salespeople require. It also requires the full support of sales management in creating the overall culture of sales success.