Why Sales Training Fails

While organizations worldwide are spending billions of dollars on training, most of that investment is being wasted. Here’s what you can do to make sure your sales training initiatives add up to long-term results.

Have you ever observed a sales representative during a call and thought, “How can this be the same person who did so well during training? Why aren’t they doing what they were taught?”

They’ve been through the training and learned the skills—intellectually, they know what they should do—but now that they’re back on the job, they’ve fallen into old habits and behaviors. Unfortunately, the fact is, this situation is more often the rule than the exception. Data collected by the consulting firm has shown that 85 to 90 percent of sales training fails to translate into a lasting improvement in productivity.

So what’s keeping the training from moving sales professionals from knowing to doing? Here are 4 of the most common reasons most sales training fails

1: Lack of Structured Follow- Up

Training is often treated as an event instead of a process. We assume that if we teach skills in a workshop, sales representatives will remember and practice them. But study after study tells us that, without reinforcement, most people forget nearly everything they’ve heard and quickly go back to old habits. When participants leave training, there must be a structured follow-up process that ensures:

Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that online videos or modules are sufficient. Salespeople typically view these as an afterthought and treat them as such. Instead, regularly scheduled sessions with accountability for application are critical.

2: Lack of Integration into the Business Culture

Even if there are follow-up activities to support the training, that doesn’t mean the concepts will become part of a salesperson’s day-to-day business behavior. For the training and skills to turn into a way of doing business, they must be hard-wired into the culture. This starts with clear direction and expectations from senior leadership. Why are you doing the training? Why now? What does “success” look like? What role will managers play?

These are essential questions that should be addressed

Before the first session, participants must know what to do (expectations) and how to do it (application) and receive feedback on their application (coaching).

3: Failure to Address the Importance of Attitudes and Beliefs

Most managers agree: Attitudes and beliefs separate high achievers from the rest, particularly when it comes to sales. For example, 84% of sales leaders believe these factors matter as much as selling skills and product knowledge.

But only 26% said they were effective at developing these critical factors in their salespeople–a significant gap between what organizations say is vital and how they’re training their people to succeed. Yet, these essential factors of success are rarely acknowledged or addressed in most sales training.

Product knowledge and selling skills are critical, but beliefs, values, and a genuine desire to create value for customers are often the biggest influencers of sales success.

?4: Lack of Managerial Role- Modeling and Coaching

Just like that, your managers can undo everything. Too many managers sabotage the training efforts because they don’t fully understand, believe in, model, and coach the skills. Managers have to know the concepts, believe their people will benefit, and provide supportive coaching. In high-performing sales cultures, managers participate in the training and assume a leadership role in the follow-up process described above.

What’s missing in your sales training strategy? All four of these are critical. If they’re not addressed, you and your salespeople won’t be getting the results you need.

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