The goal of sales training initiatives is to grow revenue and improve margins. However, organizations struggle to prove that training initiatives deliver the desired results.
Before investing in sales training initiatives, it’s essential to benchmark current skill sets and needs and to look beyond the numbers.
Indicators Of Sales Training Success
Revenue and margin results are lagging indicators of success. It takes some time to determine if the training produced the desired results, and other factors may likely contribute to improved outcomes that have nothing to do with training investments.
Leading indicators of sales success help validate the potential impact of sales training investments long before the sales results come in.
These Steps Will Ensure Your Organization Is On the Right Track With Training Initiatives.
1- Conduct A Qualitative Assessment: Interview a cross-section of salespeople and leaders to solicit which skills matter most in sales success for the organization. New in-career sellers may need different skills development than tenured sellers. Negotiation skills may not be an issue, but prospecting may be challenging.
2 – Have Salespeople Complete A Skills Self-Assessment Before Training: Require salespeople to complete a survey to self-assess their skills using a four-part scale; Foundational, Experienced, Advanced, or Expert. Also, have sales leaders assess their sales team’s skills by applying the same rating scale.
3- Workshop Ratings: If the training curriculum and delivery aren’t relevant and engaging, the initiative won’t succeed. Having participants rate the workshop content, facilitators, and delivery methods helps to understand if the training initiative will lead to the desired behavioral change.
4- Provide Post-Training Engagement: Salespeople tend to forget 80 percent of learning within six days without reinforcement. Post-training reinforcement strengthens knowledge, and behavior change should include support, such as e-learning, mobile and email scenarios, simulations, and coaching.
5 – Measure Sales Pipeline Growth And Change: Often, the first indicator of success is a change in the sales pipeline. Whether adding new opportunities, larger opportunities, or shorter sales cycles, tracking pipeline changes can reveal whether or not the team is moving in the right direction. Take a snapshot at the product level before training and then monthly after the training.
6 – Have Salespeople Complete A Post-Training Self-Assessment: With the initial self-assessment as a baseline, a post-training self-assessment measures if salespeople believe their skills improved after the training investments. Have sales leaders assess their team’s skills post-training, which provides a rounded before and after skills assessment.