Measure and Maximize Sales Training

A blog post I noted?by an organization called Sales?Sells addressed how, as possible, sales training can be effectively measured and results can be maximized.

The column was directed?at sales leaders with some practical ways to follow up on training and establish ways to get?more consistent results.

Sales training, formal and informal, is a cumulative process much like earning a college degree.

The college degree is a total?reflection of individual classes. While one class may end up being more important or beneficial than another, any one individual class does not make a total college experience or result, in linear fashion, in?specific career success.

Still, you do need to measure the success of individual training efforts, just like we measure individual classes.

10 points shared in the post are noted below.

If you are a newer sales manager let me note I have included a link below to an outline?on how to be effective starting?in a position.?

There are also a few additional links as resources, including a report from HubSpot providing a summary on different sales training programs.

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Truth is that there is no single best way to measure sales training effectiveness. A holistic approach works best. Here are some ideas you can implement right away.

1. Be present?at some of the training sessions and watch what your people are doing. If communication skills and sales techniques improve over successive role plays, they are on the right track.
2. Use sales meetings and individual contacts with your sales people to observe whether?morale, self confidence and professionalism?have improved.
3. Are your people happy at work? Do they look?motivated? How long does the effect last?
4. Have your sales people changed their work habits and?increased productivity? Measure the number of calls, appointments,?quotes, proposals and deals closed.
5. It’s not enough to ask your people for an?evaluation?right after the training. They are pumped and excited, 9 out of 10 the reactions will be 100% positive. Do it again three months later and check what exactly they have learned, improved and put into practice.
6. In your?coaching or follow-up sessions?you can verify whether techniques that were trained before have stuck. If they are still used in the next training session, chances are high they have been used in the field as well.
7. Probably the most effective way to see whether any improvements have been made is to accompany your sales people for a full day of?in-field coaching. Are they able to discover needs, build rapport, demonstrate value, detect buying signals and close deals?
8. Another good way to assess your sales force’s communication skills is to?record phone calls?and go over them together. Make sure to always ask for their permission first.
9. Why not ask the sales trainer to?call your sales people?a couple of weeks after the training to evaluate their performance and make note of any weak points?
10. In the long term regular training should impact?employee loyalty and?retention. Has turnover decreased?

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Additional Resources

About me

I have been a career sales professional in B2B sales.?This has included managing my own territories, selling jointly with others and managing sales teams.

My sales career started in Seattle with the Puget Sound Business Journal, but a significant portion of my professional time was in California, split between Los Angeles and Orange County, before a return to Seattle.

You can also reach me via InMail or [email protected]

Also

I am group owner and community manager for the LinkedIn group?Seattle Sales, Marketing and Advertising Professionals, which has 4900+ members, and one of the first million members of LinkedIn (2004).

Additionally, I am a volunteer and served as a board member (2013-2019) for the?Friends of the Seattle Public Library. I still maintain the company page on LinkedIn.

When I lived in Orange County I was a volunteer for the Friends of the City of Orange Library.

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