19 May 2009 | brian

Frequently, managers and executives will purchase training for a sales team. Sometimes it’s purchased for the top performers, sometimes it’s for the members who are struggling. Too often, it’s wasted money.

Assuming the sales training wasn’t simply a pep-rally with delusions of adequacy, training participants probably learned techniques to help them improve their game in a number of different areas. Unfortunately, the best techniques don’t work in isolation. The concepts learned require disciplined and consistent application, generally across the entire team and sometimes through to other parts of the organization outside of sales. Without full deployment from management, requiring actual implementation and not just tacit support, most of the best strategies and tactics simply won’t produce measureable results. Even worse, if there’s confusion or disagreement on how the techniques learned should be implemented, performance could actually suffer.

According to the 2009 Miller Heiman Sales Best Practice Study, 89% of the sales organizations identified as World Class reported that they consistently follow a standardized process to qualify opportunities, as opposed to only 37% overall. Sales isn’t smoke-and-mirrors, or wishing things into being. Success grows from reproducible, sensible strategies performed with diligence and a clear eye towards the shifting economic landscape. This sort of thing needs to come down from the executive level, with oversight and reinforcement.

Solid training properly reinforced and consistently executed, however, is absolutely worth the expense and time it demands. According to a 2006 Sales Benchmark Index report analyzing sales management expenditures, turnover in sales came in at just under 40% across industries. The cost of this turnover was estimated at $200,000 per salesperson. Among the top three causes for turnover were “insufficient training of new hires” and “lack of support from direct supervisor.”

Sales is like any other skill. It can be learned and it can be practiced. Proper sales performance leads to predictable, reproducible results. These results don’t come from an afternoon’s lecture, but a consistent, concerted effort across an entire organization to support and promote the sales that are the lifeblood of the company.

Photo credit: striatic