Sales organizations continue to invest in customized sales training but are often challenged when it comes to demonstrating that the training had a lasting impact on how their sales team sells. According to ATD Research, sales organizations invested an average of $2,326 per salesperson annually on sales training. Interestingly, a survey by TrainingIndustry.com found that 43.5% of participants felt that sales skills training “needed improvement.”
There are a number of reasons that sales training programs fall short. These include:
- Lack of clear training objectives.
- Training content that’s not aligned with the actual skills needed for success.
- Training is offered as an event without a reinforcement plan.
- Sales managers are not coaching to address skill gaps.
- Lack of skill application tools.
Another challenge that often manifests itself post-training is unrealistic expectations on business impact. The challenge here is based on the expectation that sales training will improve sales results (lagging indicator) without an analysis of the behaviors (leading indicator) that need to …