Over the last few weeks, I have ran a couple of polls about how often people do sales training or should do sales training. The overwhelming response was that it should be done every year. However, I know for a fact that not every organisation does this so I then investigated why. These are the results.
It was reassuring to see that 60% of the respondents did indeed have sales training every year. However, that still leaves 40% who do not.
It was interesting to read the comments that were all made at the same time. They essentially broke down into two responses.
The first was that the quantity and type of training required depends on the experience of the person being trained. For people who are starting out in their careers, they need more formal, regular training to equip them with the skills required to do the job. Thereafter, they need more product training on a regular basis to keep them familiar with the products that they are selling.
That said, we all forget things. Even the most experienced sales person needs to be reminded of elements of their job every so often. Having a mix of experienced and inexperienced people in the same training course helps everyone as the experienced people get their reminder but also share their experience with others which can be extremely valuable for all. However, there is no point doing the same training every year. The training needs to be varied and focussed on different aspects of the role each year to ensure that it stays relevant.
The second main response can be summed up by the comment “Why wait a year to get better at anything?” Formal training is just one way that we can improve. We need to be learning and developing all of the time.
We can control this ourselves by reading, watching other sales people, attending lectures etc. However, we can also be helped by everyone around us and particularly sales managers. Good sales managers coach their salespeople regularly. This coaching adds to the formal training by applying the theory to real world situations. Some companies even build coaching sessions into their weekly work so that they are constantly training their staff.
The final comment to make, which was made by a number of people, is that the training needs to be planned and managed by the sales managers. While they might not hold the budget for training, it is their team that needs it and they should be the ones who control the content and format of the training. They understand the needs of their team.
For those who do not see the value of training or cannot afford it, I have written a few other blog posts about this recently that might be worth reading.
https://www.hoolock-consulting.com/blog/2023/10/27/the-value-of-training
https://www.hoolock-consulting.com/blog/2023/10/13/the-value-of-regular-sales-training
https://www.hoolock-consulting.com/blog/2023/9/28/what-does-sales-training-consist-of
https://www.hoolock-consulting.com/blog/2023/9/19/the-value-of-sales-training
I know that I am biased about the value of sales training but I just do not understand how you can improve as an organisation without training of some form or other. It does not always have to be formal, classroom style training but if you do not nurture your team, you competition are going to beat you more and more frequently.