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!
 

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat 
the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don't Perform 
and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, 
helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by 
implementing The Right Formula™ for building top-performing 
sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales 
management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.