WHY SALES TRAINING FAILS

by Mike Schultz & John Doerr

Discover 7 common mistakes that derail sales training efforts and what you can do to avoid them.

Why Sales Training Fails

Discover 7 common mistakes that derail sales training efforts and what you can do to avoid them. Report Summary
Between 85% and 90% of sales training has no lasting impact after 120 days. At the same time, companies are spending billions of dollars on sales training each year. With such a high failure rate, thats billions of dollars wasted. Training can be a disappointment right away when it doesnt go well, or it can be a disappointment months later when results dont materialize. Regardless, sales training strikes out a lot. When it does, its usually for common reasons. By avoiding these mistakes, you set yourself up for successful training initiatives that lead to increased sales performance and long-term revenue growth.

7 Reasons Why Sales Training Fails

1. Failure to Align Desired Outcomes with Learning Needs: Leaders often base their objectives and expecations for sales training on
wishful thinking versus incisive analysis. Without analyzing the learning needs of your team, sales training is often irrelevant and uninspiring, and doesnt produce results.

2. Failure to Build Fluent Sales Knowledge as well as Skills: Most sales training focuses on building sales skills, not building knowledge. Your sellers have to knowand be able to speak fluently aboutyour products and services, the needs you solve, the marketplace, your competition, and more. 3. Failure to Assess and Develop Attributes: Its not enough to give your team the capability to sell; you have to know if the members of your team have the attributes required for top sales performance. With this knowledge, you will learn not only who can sell, but who will sell at a high level, and how to motivate and develop them to reach their potential. 4. Failure to Define, Support, and Drive Action: Even if sellers leave training with increased skills, they often dont know what to do to get the best results. Sales process must dovetail well with training. Organizations should adopt a consistent method of selling in order to raise performance across the board. Coaching that includes goal setting and regular action planning and reviews maximize action. 5. Failure to Deliver Training that Engages: Adults learn by doing. Your training program needs to be engaging, customized, delivered by facilitators participants can respect, and allow opportunities for sellers to practice their newly learned skills. 6. Failure to Make Learning Stick and Transfer: Most sales training is a multi-day event in which sellers learn and practice new skills. Without reinforcement to make the learning stick, most will forget what they learned, how inspired they were, and they will return to old behaviors. 7. Failures of Evaluation, Accountability, and Continuous Improvement: Few companies actually evaluate the effectiveness of their sales training and sales performance in general. Without evaluation, its nearly impossible to hold sellers accountable for changing and improving behavior, or for taking actions and achieving results.

Why Sales Training Fails

by Mike Schultz & John Doerr

Failure of Sales Training

Fortunately, the reasons sales training fails are predictable and fixable for those so inclined. Here are the most common problems we see: 1. Failure to Align Desired Outcomes with Learning Needs 2. Failure to Build Fluent Sales Knowledge as well as Skills 3. Failure to Assess and Develop Attributes 4. Failure to Define, Support, and Drive Action 5. Failure to Deliver Training that Engages 6. Failure to Make Learning Stick and Transfer 7. Failures of Evaluation, Accountability, and Continuous Improvement Well cover each in turn in this report.

The Measure of Success

Nine out of 10 sales training initiatives have no lasting impact beyond 120 days.1 Perhaps youve had more luck (and we hope you have), but if youre reading this report, something about the Why Sales Training Fails title resonated with you. Whether youve felt the pain and want to avoid it next time, or youre ahead of the game and like to line up your ducks for success, you want to know why sales training fails. And, assuming you can avoid the failures, how you can make your training initiative succeed. Here are two striking statistics: + Companies spend $3.4 to $4.6 billion on sales training every year with outsourced sales training providers.2 + Between 85% and 90% of sales training has no lasting impact after 120 days.3 Thats a lot of investment with little to show for it beyond short-term, short-lived gains.

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Why Sales Training Fails

Failure to Align Desired Outcomes with Learning Needs

Sales training has virtually no chance of producing lasting results if business leaders base their objectives and expectations of results on wishful thinking. They underestimate what it will take to implement training that will create desired behavioral change. They overestimate the impact of periodic and uncoordinated training events. As researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Louisiana State University put it, business objectives for sales training are all too often platitudes rather than real plans for action.4 We asked if there was any training delivery time available over-and-above the four hours? No, a half-day was it. We asked if it was possible to invest time and energy before the training through elearning, or after the training with learning reinforcement and coaching. No, just the half-day, and could we focus on really jazzing up the team? The training needed to be healthcare, but the approach was entertainment. We didnt think it was going to work. The proportion of the input (i.e., the training initiative) needed to be rigorous enough to produce the desired output (i.e., account penetration with a team not used to selling, let alone inspiring buyers with new ideas, which is what they had to do). In this case, the business objective was clear, but the learning and change effort was nowhere near aligned to achieve it.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led.
- Thomas Jefferson

Healthcare or Entertainment?
While writing our book, Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently (Wiley, 2014), Neil Rackham commented to us how sales training can be compared to two industries: healthcare and entertainment. We hadnt thought of it quite like this, but we certainly see the same thing. When sales training is like healthcare, its purpose is to make something better. For healthcare sales training to succeed, you need the right understanding of the issues, the right treatment plan, and dedication from the healthcare provider and the patient to stick with the plan. When sales training is more like entertainment, its just an enjoyable diversion. It might make an impressionyou might even remember months later how fun it wasbut it doesnt accomplish much beyond that. We recently spoke with a business leader who was planning a half-day sales training program. His desired outcome was transforming a service and delivery team into a proactive sales force tasked with increasing sales to existing accounts by selling new offerings. He communicated to us that success was critical. The future of the company literally hung in the balance.

Under-resourced sales training efforts dont have the horsepower to produce what they need to, and often dont produce much at all.

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Why Sales Training Fails

Assess the Learning Needs of Your Team
When it comes to the learning needs of sellers, leaders need to figure out: + Where your sales team is now regarding the skills, knowledge, and attributes needed to succeed (this is the starting point, or Point A) + Each individuals improvement potential + In which sales role each individual is most likely to succeed + What it looks like when theyve succeeded (this is the New Reality, or Point B) + What kind of effort and time its going to take to get from Point A to B Many companies fail to assess their teams learning needs rigorously enough. + Fail to deliver content at the right level of sophistication (e.g., too basic or too advancedgetting it just right is left to chance) + Fail to build learning processes rigorous enough to actually develop needed skills and knowledge to the point they transfer to on-the-job behaviors.

Before implementing a sales training program, the companies that succeed are serious about making sure the learning approach is rigorous enough to do its part in producing behavioral change and getting results.

What Happens When Leaders Dont Assess Needs

When leaders dont dig to find out what sellers need in order to produce the outcomes they seek, it makes for sales training initiatives that: + Focus on content the team doesnt need + Leave out content the team does need

Compared to other firms, 36% more best-in-class5 companies have a strategy for creating targeted individual development plans based on assessment output.6

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Why Sales Training Fails

Failure to Build Fluent Sales Knowledge as well as Skills

At the risk of oversimplifying, sales training initiatives work when they help sellers do things that produce maximum revenue. Without rigorous inquiry into what those things are, and what it will take to make sure sellers do them effectively, the focus of sales training ends up heavily skewed towards skills development. Whether its prospecting, asking questions to uncover needs, making sales presentations, maximizing account revenue, or something else, these kinds of skills topics tend to dominate most training. While sales skills are essential, they are only one side of a very important coin: capability. The other side of the coin is sales knowledge (Fig. 1). + Your products, services, and overall approach as solutions to those needs + The competition and how you win + What happens when buyers buy, including what makes implementation most successful In our What Sales Winners Do Differently research, we asked buyers what most separated sales winners from second-place finishers.7 Included in the top 10 are factors such as: + Educated me with new ideas or perspectives + Persuaded me we would achieve results + Understood my needs + Helped me avoid potential pitfalls + Crafted a compelling solution + Overall value from the company superior to other options
Key components

Figure 1. Right Skills + Right Knowledge = Can Do

You need salespeople who

You need the right

Can do

Capability

Skills

and

Knowledge

Without the appropriate sales knowledge, sellers have a difficult time doing the things that top performers do. Some company leaders say to us, Wait. We provide knowledge training. We even hold a retreat each year focused on knowledge topics. Unfortunately, this typically doesnt get the job done. Its often focused only on product or service offerings, which isnt nearly sufficient. With a common death-by-PowerPoint delivery format, sellers dont remember what they heard. Some companies do better than this, requiring sellers to study the content and pass tests for knowledge accuracy. Still, they find their sellers dont weave what they learned into their sales conversations. For sellers to put knowledge to work they dont just need accuracy, they need fluency.

Your sellers need to have expert sales knowledge. They must be able to speak fluently about: + The marketplace + The dynamics of the customers business + Your company and your value proposition + The needs you solve and the difference you make

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Why Sales Training Fails

We define fluency as accuracy plus speed plus appropriate breadth and depth. When knowledge training stops at accuracy (if it even gets this far), companies miss out on a major revenue growth opportunity had they trained to fluency (Fig. 2). Indeed, best-in-class companies are better at demonstrating product knowledge, understanding client business challenges, and mapping products and services to those challenges.8 In other words, best-in-class companies have fluent sellers. Sellers need to know more than just their offerings and how they solve needs. They need to know the buyer industry and their own. They need to know what happens after a buyer buys, and how to help them navigate the murky waters of difficult implementations. They need to know how they can maximize their impact on the buyers success. Sales training will continue to fail until sales knowledge training: 1. Takes its appropriate place alongside sales skills training 2. Covers the right content 3. Trains sellers to fluency To this last point, many say, Fluency happens over time. You cant expect someone to become an expert right away. True, not right away. However, it can and should happen a lot faster than it does at most companies. Build knowledge experts, and train to fluency. Otherwise, sellers wont be capable of leading the masterful sales conversations you need them to lead.

Accuracy is not enough. Sellers need fluency.

Figure 2. The Real Revenue Opportunity: Training Sellers to Fluency
Top 10% Rainmakers

SALES PERFORMANCE

(in $ sold) Top 25% Average Bottom 25%

(Off the mark and slow)

BEGINNER

ACCURATE
Training usually stops here

FLUENT
Real revenue opportunity

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Why Sales Training Fails

Example: Why Skills Training is Not Enough

One of the most important skills in sales is, as many people refer to it, asking great questions. In skills training, this often takes the form of: + Defining what asking great questions means + Giving examples of what it looks like when its done right + Walking through the process of asking great questions in specific stages (e.g., prospecting, needs discovery, overcoming objections) of the sales cycle + Allowing participants a little time to craft a handful of great questions + Practicing asking great questions in role plays and case studies + Sharing and discussing all the great questions everyone came up with Assuming the training is designed and delivered well, this is laudable. But is it enough? Ask yourself: + Even if your sellers practiced these skills in a training class, could they ask questions that uncover needs across all products and services your company offers? + Could they appropriately include all of your products and services as solutions to the various needs that prospects might have? + Would they be able to position the companys value proposition the right way for the different situations they encounter? + Would they consistently get all of this right in the moment during a sales conversation?

Even if your sellers have the skills to ask great questions, its often a lack of knowledge that holds them back from actually putting asking great questions to work for them.

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Why Sales Training Fails

Failure to Assess and Improve Attributes

When I (John) worked for a large company, I knew a number of people who were top performersreally excellent results producers who retired. But there was a big problem they never told anyone! For years, they just kept showing up to work, but they werent nearly the producers they used to be. They had the skills to be top performersthey could sellbut they were no longer actually doing what it took to produce results. After years of overachievement, results dropped as their commitment waned. In this case, attributes were the difference between past success and current mediocrity. Its not enough to just give your team the skills to sell; you have to know if they have the attributes required for top performance. We call these attributes drivers and detractors of sales success. Together these will tell you not only who can sell, but who will sell at a high level (Fig. 3).

Assess Attributes Along with Skills and Knowledge

Researchers publishing in refereed academic sales journals note assessing competencies (we use the word attributes) is a must.10, 11 When sales leaders dont assess their teams attributes, sales training fails because: + Sellers dont have the drivers to succeed: People end up in sales training who may actually gain the requisite skills and knowledge to succeed, but they dont have the drivers in place to achieve top performance, or, sometimes, any performance at all. + Sellers have detractors holding them back: People end up in sales training who have some drivers in place to succeed, but may have detractor attributes that act like weights pulling them down.

According to research by Aberdeen Group, 82% of best-in-class companies require Sales Drivers and Detractors sales training, as compared with If the drivers of success arent in place only 68% of laggard companies.9 meaning the person doesnt have, for example,
Figure 3. Right Drivers + Acceptable Level of Detractors = Will Do
You need salespeople who You need the right Key components

passion for work and for selling, performance orientation, sense of urgency, assertiveness, and so onits quite possible the person shouldnt even be in the training at all. Much as you might want your kids to go to medical school, if they failed chemistry and what they want to do is teach art history, medicine rarely works out. If too many detractors are in place, the seller might have capability, but they can still fail.

Can do

Capability

Skills

and

Knowledge

Will do

Attributes

Drivers

and

Detractors

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Why Sales Training Fails

Example Detractor: Lacks Assertiveness

Say a seller is listening to a prospect talk about his plans for a technology purchase. The prospect says he plans to move forward in three areas. The seller, having been through these technology challenges many times before, knows two are good ideas, but the third is a disaster waiting to happen. He should bring this up to the prospect. If he does and, after the buyer makes his case, the seller still thinks the third is a bad idea, he should talk to the buyer about it. However, if the seller lacks assertiveness, its likely he wont say anything at all. A common reason why sellers lack assertiveness is their need for approval. Sellers with a need for approval have great difficulty speaking with prospects about anything that might upset the prospect or rock their relationship boat. In sales, need for approval is when the desire to be liked and preference for harmony are stronger than desire for sales success. About 47% of sellers have a need for approval to the extent that it affects their sales behaviors.12 In the table to the right, we share examples of how the lack of assertiveness due to a need for approval creates sales problems. What Happens Seller avoids confrontation Common Problems Cant maintain peer dynamic with executives Wont push back on a buyer when it would help the buyer if they did Will accept stalls and putoffs, get pushed down the agenda for action Pipeline fills up, looks big, doesnt yield business Problems with questions (wont ask tough questions or enough questions, cuts meetings short) Insufficient needs discovery Leaves buyer in control of discussions Doesnt establish expertise, incisiveness of thinking Wont prospect because worried about rejection Wont prospect or follow up because doesnt want to bother the buyer Deferential statements and actions (such as being overly effusive) Inappropriate follow up Doesnt maintain peer dynamic Comes off as needy or meek Invest time and effort inappropriately in order to gain approval

Call reluctance

Neglect real, incisive inquiry into each persons attributes and sales training initiatives leave the gate with weights tying them down.

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Why Sales Training Fails

Failure to Define, Support, and Drive Action

According to Aberdeen Group, 85% of best-inclass companies use a formal sales methodology, preferably supplied by an external firm. Whats more, these best-in-class companies are seeing dramatically better performance: + 83% of their sales reps reached quota vs. 52% among industry average and 6% for laggard companies + 15.4% average year-over-year increase in corporate revenue vs. 5.6% increase for industry average and 1.5% decline among laggard companies + 5.3% year-over-year increase in average sales deal size or contract value vs. 0.7% industry average and 2.6% decline among laggard companies The best-in-class companies are investing more in sales trainingmore than double that of the average and laggardsand theyre clearly reaping the rewards.13 + Process allows for process improvement. If you can measure it, you can manage it. Find the people that are succeeding and learn what theyre doing to succeed, then you can help other people do the same. Methodology: A system of strategies, principles, rules, guidelines, tools, learning approaches, language, and evaluation methods for selling. + Methodology provides guidelines and tools for how to do specific things in the sales process like leading sales conversations, prospecting, delivering presentations, closing, goals setting, account expansion, and so on. + Methodology creates a shared language that everyone in the company understands, uses, and follows. + Methodology helps define what works in various areas of the process, and provides a platform to share that across the sales force and company. For a partial example of how the RAIN Buying and Selling Process and the RAIN Selling methodology have have been tailored and overlaid into a major CRM system, see Fig. 4 (next page). When sellers have visual cues to remind them what they are supposed to do, real time training and tools available, and tracking directly in their CRM, both the process and the method have much better chance for adoption. If you want sales training to succeed, dont let it float in a process-less and methodologyless vacuum.

Process and Methodology

Here are how process and methodology help. Process: A systematic series of actions, typically grouped in stages, aimed at producing a specific output. + Process is a guide to action. No guide, and youre on the road to nowhere. + Process helps people be efficient and get more done. + Process prevents re-inventing the wheel.

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Why Sales Training Fails

Figure 4. RAIN Selling Built into a Major CRM System
RAIN Buying & Selling Process

Buyer Stage Opportunity Stage Seller Actions and Outcomes

Dissatisfaction/Investigation

Analysis

Intervention

Selection

Contracting

Prospecting
Initial prospect research

Needs Discovery
Opportunity presentation, convincing story delivered

Solution Crafting
Analysis of issue and affliction causes clear Solution crafted Solution is best to solve client need Solution is easy to buy Impact case tightened and clarified Strategy for presenting solution Proposal checklist

Solution Presentation
Resonate: Present compelling solution Resonate: Present Impact and New Reality cases Differentiate: Negate competitor advantages Substantiate and mitigate risk Solicit all feedback

Commitment
Deliver executable agreement Negotiate and refine proposal Gain commitment verbal, written, and public Handoff to implementation team

Plan to penetrate prospect Initial value proposition compelling Outreach to generate appointment Opportunity plan started Continued prospect research Plan for first appointment

Rapport established Aspirations and Afflictions uncovered Overall Impact (ROI case) clear Possible New Reality established Discussion/presentation of possible approaches

Overcome objections

Facilitating the Purchase

Appointment set

Buying process clear and understood Buyers and buying roles clear All buyers appropriately involved in conversations

Buyer involvement in solution crafting Buyer solution pre-agreement Buyer agrees to specific next step

Buyer confirms you are best option

Buyer agrees with solution implementation plan

Buyer signs agreement

Buyer curiosity and interest generated

Buyer announces purchase

Buyer agrees to commitment plan

Goals and Action Planning

Process and methodology are essentially guides for behavior. They help you know when to do certain things (process) and how to do them well (methodology). Sales training that gets this far, but doesnt focus on goal setting and action planning, misses a huge opportunity to boost results. When researching one of our own books, we spoke to Dr. Jim Harter, Gallup Consultings Chief Scientist of Workplace Management and Well-Being. Gallup has asked over 12.5 million people, Do I know what is expected of me at work? Just over half answered the question, strongly agree. In other words, just under half are not so sure whats expected of them at work.
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Dr. Harter further told us, Workplace performance suffers dramatically with those that answer below strongly agree. When sales training helps sellers build and track goals for themselves, it not only erases the problem of sellers knowing whats expected of them, but also maximizes motivation and commitment.14 With action plans, take care not to build them without first focusing on goal setting. Without clear, written goals, action plans arent meaningful to the individual. Without meaning, execution over the long-term suffers. When goals are in place, not only do they have the effect of maximizing action, they can also increase the sellers attributes of passion for
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Why Sales Training Fails

work and sales, their performance orientation, and their money orientation. Together these often increase motivation to succeed in sales. Earlier in this section we discussed building capability. When sellers are capable, they can sell. Just after that we discussed attributes. When the right attributes are in place, they will sell, and sell well. Add process and methodology, and goals and action planning to the mix and you add the catalyst to bring it alive: what to do to sell (Fig. 5). When process and methodology are in place, and sellers have goals and action plans, sales activities are more organized, more energetic, higher volume, more effective, and more efficient.

Figure 5. A Dynamic Sales Methodology Improves Sales Results

You need salespeople who

You need the right

Key components

Can do

Capability

Skills

and

Knowledge

Will do

Attributes

Drivers

and

Detractors

Process

and

Method

What to do

Action Goals

and

Action Plans

Coaching Drives Action15

Sales training should help sellers learn to build goals and action plans, but often sales coaches are needed to a) make sure goal and action planning actually happen, and b) make sure using the goals and plans become a part of sellers habits. Most sales coaching we encounter focuses on opportunities, or how to win whats currently in the pipeline. This helps, but its not all sales coaches should do. Sales coaching should focus on maximizing execution as well as advising on opportunities. Great sales coaches actually play five roles to maximize the performance of their selling teams: 1. Define: The best sales coaches help sellers define both their goals and a path to their own personal New Reality, the future state they most desire. 2. Execute: Coaches help sellers build and execute action plans, optimizing seller efficiency and focus. 3. Advise: Coaches give direct advice as appropriate to maximize immediate sales wins. 4. Develop: Coaches develop coachee knowledge, skills, and attributes to improve performance fundamentally. 5. Motivate: Coaches motivate coachees to find and sustain their highest level of energy and action over the long term. In fact, three of the five roles serve directly to focus seller action on the right activities, and help the seller get the most out of their time and days. Especially when change is necessary and the stakes are high, coaching is essential for success. Without it, sellers often revert back to how they sold in the past.
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Why Sales Training Fails

Failure to Deliver Training that Engages

Too often training can be boring and confusing. It can be unclear how to apply strategies and sellers are often left unconvinced they should bother trying. As noted earlier, ES Research estimates that between 85% and 90% of sales training initiatives have no lasting effect beyond 120 days. If a training event itself fails, theres no positive effect at all. In fact, delivering a poorly designed and poorly received training event has greater negative effects beyond the obvious wasted time. Bad training discourages sellers from participating in future programs, and can have a negative impact on sales team morale.16 When training is boring, not applicable, not at the right level, and too focused on lecture versus practice, participants dont engage (Fig. 6).

No engagement = no learning = no behavior change.

For training events themselves, companies have to get the content right and engage their teams with instructors they can respect. Trainers must also use appropriate adult learning devices such as role plays, case studies, simulations, exercises, video, and other interactions (Fig. 7). Otherwise, not only will training fail, itll be more difficult to get anyone back in the room for the next go round.

Figure 6. Poor Pre-Training and Training Activities Lead to Virtually No Results

During Training Event
100% 90%

Figure 7. Effective Pre-Training and Training Activities Lead to a Big Bump in Results
During Training Event
100% 90% Program: Engaging On target Well delivered

LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS

70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Program: Not engaging Not on target Confusing

LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS

80%

80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Effective preparation and delivery

Poor preparation and delivery

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Why Sales Training Fails

Failure to Make Learning Stick and Transfer

If you dont reinforce training and do it with enough rigor (most dont), even good training is likely to fail eventually (Fig. 8). Months after a sales training initiative, sellers too often say: + I dont remember what was covered in the sales training program + I dont know enough to use the tools and apply the advice + I didnt get enough practice to feel confident enough to give it a try + I tried something and it didnt worknot sure if I did it wrong + Im pretty sure the powers that be dont remember that this was a priority anyway Most sales training is focused around a two- or three-day event where sellers learn and practice new skills. The problem with event-only training is that the effects of the event fade. Even if positive effects are seen initially, four months later results and behaviors go right back to where they started before the training.

Reinforce Training for Lasting Impact

Adult learning is an ongoing process. Only through repetition and practice will your sales team internalize the training and put it to use consistently. Lets assume a sales training event is well received. After the event, you can either build on its effectiveness, or let it fade (Fig. 9 on the next page).

Figure 8. Poor Reinforcement Leads to Reduced Impact of Training Over Time

During Training Event
100% 90% Program: Engaging On target Well delivered No motivation enhancement No concept reinforcement No complementary learning No action plans and reviews No practice & feedback No technology embedding No expectation reinforcement

After Training Event

LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS

80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

10

12

14

MONTHS

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Why Sales Training Fails

Figure 9. Whats Possible with the Right Preparation, Delivery, and Reinforcement Activities
During Training Event
100%
for c

After Training Event

ent em
YES

90% 80%

LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS

With R

Program: Engaging On target Well delivered

ei n

70% 60% 50%

Tra ical Typ

Motivation enhancement Concept reinforcement Complementary learning Action plans and reviews Practice & feedback Technology embedding Expectation reinforcement
NO

40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 2

i ni n

10

12

14

MONTHS

In fact, Best-in-class companies outpace laggards by nearly a two-times factor in providing post-training reinforcement of the best practices commonly learned in classroomstyle instructor-led sales education sessions. These firms have learned that long-term success depends on underscoring the best practices in sales training deployments17 And the reinforcement makes a difference in results (Fig. 10).

The concept that learning needs to be reinforced wont be much of a news flash for most readers. Still, strong post-training reinforcement is the exception in sales training. For those companies that insert reinforcement that works, it makes a tremendous difference in sales training effectiveness and sales results.

Figure 10. Impact of Reinforcement in 835 Organizations that Recently Employed Sales Training
2.00% 1.00% 0.00% -1.00% -2.00% -3.00% -4.00% -5.00% Team Attainment of Quota Time to Productivity Reps Achieving Quota Sales Turnover Reduction Sales Cycle Reduction Reinforcement Users Non-users of Reinforcement

Source: Aberdeen Group, February 2011

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Why Sales Training Fails

Failures of Evaluation, Accountability, and Continuous Improvement

These wont be the most exciting topics to many readers, but that doesnt make them any less important. Most companies implement sales training in order to increase revenue. Selling (like anything else) is a process with a series of identifiable and measurable inputs and outputs. If you can improve process efficiency (getting more things done) and effectiveness (getting things done with greater success), you can improve the eventual output, in this case, revenue. Without effective training and sales performance evaluation processes, sales training can fail simply because companies have no idea if it has succeeded. Moreover, without an evaluation process, its nearly impossible to hold sellers accountable for changing and improving behavior, or for taking actions and achieving results.

No evaluation system = no accountability.

Implemented in the right way, sales performance evaluation analytics can be the source of significant competitive advantage. In fact, 67% more best-in-class companies have sales analytics than laggards.20 As Tom Davenport noted in Competing on Analytics, Organizations are competing on analytics not just because they canbusiness today is awash in data crunchersbut also because they should. At a time when firms in many industries offer similar products and use comparable technologies, business processes are among the last remaining points of differentiation. And analytics competitors wring every last drop of value from those processes.21

Only 9% of organizations evaluate behavioral change and 7% evaluate organizational results stemming from training initiatives.18
Evaluating Sales Has Its Advantages
Those companies that do evaluate sales performance systematically have a number of advantages: + They can measure the effect of sales training and performance improvement initiatives + They can improve sales strategies and rollout successes across the team + They can remove ineffective sales strategies and training components in favor of those working better + They can shorten learning curves, and get new sellers producing faster than before + They can improve continuously The evaluation process itself also has a positive effect on sales results. Customer renewal rates, deal size, team achievement of quota, and seller achievement of quota are all positively impacted by performance management processes.19
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Why Sales Training Fails

Employ analytics and youll be able to join an elite club: companies that actually succeed with continuous improvement. When everything comes together, youll have sellers who: + Can do + Will do, and do well + Know what to do + Get it done and keep getting better (Fig. 11)
Figure 11. What Happens When Capability, Attributes, Action, and Evaluation Work Together
You need salespeople who You need the right Key components

Without evaluation, accountability, and continuous improvement, sales training and sales performance improvement can never be completely effective.

Can do

Capability

Skills

and

Knowledge

Will do

Attributes

Drivers

and

Detractors

Process

and

Method

What to do

Action Goals

and

Action Plans

Get it done right, and keep getting better

Evaluation

Accountability

and

Continuous Improvement

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Why Sales Training Fails

Conclusion
The fact is sales training can be an enormous driver of revenue growth. Yet so many sales training dollars go to waste. It doesnt have to be like this. At RAIN Group, weve been helping organizations implement successful sales training programs that lead to lasting results for over a decade. Our RAIN Sales University (RSU) offers a complete sales training curriculum designed to build the skills and knowledge your team needs to achieve top performance, and your company needs to foster a culture of sales excellence. RAIN Sales University is built around 5 key tenets:

World Class Sales Method

RAIN Selling is a top-rated sales method built to help companies succeed with the complex sale.
SM

Complete Learning System

RSU gives you access to our suite of world-class sales training programs covering the gamut of sales topics. Learning happens over time to drive real behavior change and performance improvement.

Flexible and Customizable

RSU is designed for flexible delivery and customizable content and programs from light tailoring to from-scratch development.

Innovative Technology
Enabled by our online platform, sellers can access learning, tools, and job-aids 24/7. We can integrate with your LMS (or use ours) and CRM systems.

Fast, Efficient Implementation

We value speed, tailoring, and not reinventing the wheel. RSU provides the foundation that you can quickly and easily add on to.

If you want to implement a sales training program that leads to real behavior change and results, RAIN Group can help. Contact us to learn more about RAIN Sales University and to walk through a demo of a custom RSU environment.

CONTACT US
Phone: 508-405-0438 Email: [email protected] Web: www.raingroup.com
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Why Sales Training Fails

Notes
1. Dave Stein, Sales Training: The 120-Day Curse (ES Research Group, 2011). 2. Outsourced Sales Training Worldwide: Examining the Major Markets (ES Research Group, 2013). 3. Dave Stein, Sales Training. 4. R. Erffmeyer, K.R. Russ, and J. Hair, Jr., Needs Assessment and Evaluation in Sales-Training Programs, (Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 1991). 5. Aberdeen Group defines best in class as companies in the top 20%, employing practices that are significantly superior to the industry average, and which result in top industry performance. 6. Mollie Lombardi, Assessments 2013: Finding the Perfect Match (Aberdeen Group, 2013), 8. 7. Mike Schultz and John Doerr, What Sales Winners Do Differently (RAIN Group, 2013). 8. Peter Ostrow, Optimizing Lead-to-Win: Shrinking the Sales Cycle and Focusing Closers on Sealing More Deals (Aberdeen Group, 2010). 9. Peter Ostrow, Train, Coach, Reinforce (Aberdeen Group, 2012), 4. 10. Mark P. Leach, Annie H. Liu, and Wesley J. Johnston, The Role of Self-Regulation Training in Developing the Motivation Mangement Capabilities of Sellers, (Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 2005). 11. L.M. Spencer, Jr. and S.M. Spencer, Competence at Work: Models for Superior Performance (John Wiley and Sons, 1993). 12. Dave Kurlan, Baseline Selling (AuthorHouse, 2005). 13. Peter Ostrow, Train, Coach, Reinforce. 14. Robert B. Cialdini, Harnessing the Science of Persuasion, Harvard Business Review (2001): 76, accessed January 3, http://hbr.org/ product/harnessing-the-science-of-persuasion/an/R0109D-PDF-ENG. 15. Mike Schultz and John Doerr, The 5 Roles of High-Performing Sales Coaches (RAIN Group, 2013). 16. George M. Alliger, Scott I. Tannenbaum, Winston Bennett, Jr., Holly Traver, and Allison Shotland, A Meta-Analysis of the Relations Among Training Criteria, (Personnel Psychology, 1997). 17. Peter Ostrow, Sales Training. 18. Mark E. Van Buren and William Erskine, The 2002 ASTD State of the Industry Report, (American Society of Training and Development, 2002). 19. Peter Ostrow, Advanced Sales Training Deployments, (Aberdeen Group, 2011). 20. Peter Ostrow, Reaching Sales Quota More Consistently, (Aberdeen Group, 2010). 21. Thomas H. Davenport, Competing on Analytics, (Harvard Business Review, 2006).

RAIN Group | RAINGroup.com

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About RAIN Group

Unleash the Sales Potential of Your Team with RAIN Group
RAIN Group is a sales training, assessment, and performance improvement company that helps leading organizations improve sales results. Weve helped hundreds of thousands of sellers, managers, and professionals in more than 34 countries increase their sales significantly with our RAIN SellingSM methodology. We can help you:

Implement Sales Training that Delivers Real Results

RAIN Groups sales training system inspires real change and delivers real results that last. Our rigorous approach includes sales team evaluation, customized training programs, robust reinforcement, and coaching to help you and your team develop sales skills in each of the Three Levels of RAIN Selling, and maximize your results.

Identify Who Can and Will Sell with Great Success

Our assessments measure sales attributes and skills, identifying the factors that really make a difference in sales performance. Whether youre looking to hire someone who can and will sell, or looking to improve sales performance, well help you build the most successful sales team.

Grow Your Key Accounts

At most companies, theres a huge, untapped opportunity to add more value and thus sell more to existing accounts. We help our clients capitalize on these revenue growth opportunities. Whether its simply increasing cross-selling and up-selling or implementing a major strategic account management program, we can help.

Implement World-class Sales Coaching

We coach sellers, professionals, and leaders individually and in groups to achieve the greatest and fastest increase in sales results. And we train and certify leaders and managers in our RAIN Sales Coaching system. Often, its RAIN Sales Coaching that truly unlocks the teams potential, and keeps them motivated to produce the best results consistently.

Find out more about how RAIN Group can help you unleash the sales potential of your team by visiting RAINGroup.com or calling (508) 405-0438.

RAIN Groups Clients

Locations
AMERICAS EMEA ASIA-PACIFIC

Connect with Us

RAIN Group | RAINGroup.com | (508) 405-0438 | [email protected]

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