When your company invests in sales training, what is the expected
outcome? Is it a change in how your salespeople perform their
daily activities – in other words, a change in BEHAVIOR?
Unfortunately, most companies drastically underestimate the
amount of time and effort that must be invested to accomplish
behavioral change. Sitting in a class for a couple of hours or
days is a good way to EXPOSE salespeople to new skills and
techniques. However, new skills and techniques often feel strange
and uncomfortable. Many salespeople worry that attempting to use
the new skills and techniques with real, live prospects or
customers will cost them sales and hard-won credibility. So, they
abandon the new skills and techniques and continue to rely on
"old" behaviors that are comfortable for them.
Here is a real-life example of a sales training program failure:
Executive management at a company I worked for invested more than
$600,000 to teach the entire sales team (100+ salespeople) a new
sales approach. However, at every turn they looked for ways to
reduce training costs and time out of the field. As a result, the
sales manager training session was cut from a full day to half a
day, and the sales team training was cut from three days to a day
and a half. Plus, post-training conference calls (intended to
reinforce key concepts) were rescheduled multiple times and
eventually cancelled.
What was the return on the company’s $600,000 investment? Only
10% to 20% of the salespeople ever applied the new sales approach
in the field. The training project was considered a failure.
If you want your sales training investments to produce changes in
your salespeople's behavior, your company’s entire management
team, from top executives to individual sales managers, needs to
make a different level of commitment to sales training. The
skills and techniques that are taught during training sessions
must be REPEATED and REINFORCED on a regular and consistent
basis. Plus, you should provide your salespeople with A NON-
THREATENING ENVIRONMENT where they can practice new skills and
techniques until they become second nature.
To further demonstrate the level of management commitment that is
required to accomplish behavioral change, consider these two
scenarios:
SCENARIO #1: A top executive mentions the importance of a new
sales approach in a company meeting or conference call. They
mention it again occasionally (once a month or once a quarter).
The sales manager also mentions the new approach in a few sales
meetings before or after the training session(s). However, the
focus soon returns to "business as usual".
SCENARIO #2: A top executive explains the importance of a new
sales approach in a company meeting or conference call. From that
point on, they repeat the message in ANY conversation they have
with any member of the sales or sales management team. The new
sales approach becomes part of the executive’s DAILY dialogue,
and they mention it multiple times a day.
Sales managers invest the time required to become proficient in
using the new sales approach. They also explain to their
salespeople that each salesperson will be held ACCOUNTABLE for
using the new approach effectively in the field. They help their
salespeople become comfortable using the new approach by
conducting repeated ROLE PLAYS in individual and group meetings.
They also INSPECT for use of the new approach in a consistent and
predictable fashion.
This level of management commitment causes the salespeople to
recognize that the new approach is not "the flavor of the month",
and it will NOT go away if they ignore it. As a result, the new
approach eventually becomes part of the company’s sales culture.
Do you see the difference in the level of commitment described by
the two scenarios? Do you see why the second scenario is much
more likely to produce lasting behavioral change?
In summary, if you want to change your salespeople’s behavior,
your company’s entire management team needs to demonstrate a
different level of commitment to sales training. Here are the
recommended steps for this process:
1. Any significant new sales approach becomes part of top
executives’ DAILY DIALOGUE.
2. Sales managers learn how to EXECUTE the new approach.
3. Salespeople are TRAINED in the new approach.
4. Sales managers HOLD salespeople ACCOUNTABLE for using the
new approach.
5. Sales managers increase their salespeople’s comfort with
the new approach by conducting repeated ROLE PLAYS in a
non-threatening environment.
6. Sales managers consistently and repeatedly INSPECT
salesperson activity to confirm they are using the new
approach.
When new skills and techniques become SECOND NATURE to your
salespeople, they are more likely to apply them effectively in
the field. Designing training curriculums to produce behavioral
change is the best way to ensure that your company receives its
desired return on sales training investments!
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