For anyone with any experience of training and learning, this pyramid makes a lot of sense.
Whenever we explain a concept to someone else, we understand it better ourselves. Good schools use the brighter children to help children who are struggling. This obviously helps the struggling child, as they get more attention and concepts explained in a different way that help them to learn. It also helps the brighter child as they learn the concepts better and in more detail as a result of explaining it.
Studies have shown that we need to spend approximately 10,000 hours practising an activity to get very good at it. So, the more that we perform an activity, the better we get at it. Practice by doing is therefore critical to any learning activity.
Ebbinghaus, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Ebbinghaus) shows that when we are taught something, we forget most of it within a month. As a result, lectures and reading are clearly the weakest forms of learning unless they are backed up by further activities. This is why students attend tutorials and seminars and write essays as well as attending lectures.
However, all learning has to start somewhere. We cannot teach others until we understand ourselves. We need some knowledge in order to participate in a discussion. Learning has to start at the top of the pyramid and travel downwards from there.
Not all forms of learning are always applicable. We will learn how to paint much more through doing than by discussing. However, we will probably learn more about philosophy by discussing rather than doing.
Application to Sales Training
For anyone learning a new subject, they need to start at the top of the pyramid and progress downwards. For sales, this means that:
New sales people need to attend classroom training, read books and potentially take online training. While it may seem counter intuitive, having experienced sales people in the classroom training benefits everyone.
It creates group discussions which promote greater retention
Experienced sales people get reminded of some of the things that they might have forgotten.
New sales people should accompany experienced sales people on customer visits so that they can observe what happens and start to participate.
As soon as possible, sales people should be out making calls. This is learning by doing. Again, having an experienced sales person with them can help as they can offer guidance and feedback after the meeting.
Sales managers should be helping by coaching their staff on a regular basis. Not only will this help the sales people, it will also help the sales managers to improve which ultimately benefits the staff as well.
Hoolock’s Approach
Hoolock’s approach to sales training follows this idea. All of our sales training is based on The Equation of Sales and comes in four distinct levels, Beginner, Basic, Advanced and VIP.
Beginner. We recommend that people start with our book, The Equation of Sales. This is a practical guide to selling technical products and services. It comes with a workbook that enables the beginner to apply what they have learnt from reading the book to their own products and services.
Basic. Basic sales training is delivered either in-person or online. It provides more detail and information about the various problems that sales people face and how to overcome them.
Advanced. Advanced sales training adds a series of one-on-one coaching sessions, delivered in person or virtually, to further develop trainees in the areas that need most attention.
VIP. VIP sales training is delivered in-person and is only offered to a limited number of customers who we believe will benefit most from this service. It includes Social Style, further coaching and joint meeting attendance.
Find out more at https://www.hoolock-consulting.com/training-levels