The Mistake that Sabotages Sales Training | Sales Strategies

Today, I will highlight what I’ve discovered about making training work—making it work in a way that you get and a way that will yield the highest ROI from your sales training dollar.

What I’ve Found

Your managers have to be engaged. I stop my sales training sessions if the manager is not in the room or if they’re overly fixated to their computers. Why? Because I know the info is not going to stick. If the manager is sending signals that it is not good enough for them, the team hears that loud and clear.

The 3 Things You Need to Do to Make Sure the Training Sticks

1.) The managers, indeed, need to be engaged. In fact, the manager should have done pre-work before the training. The pre-work would simply consist of coaching the sales team on how to implement the training as well as giving them a preview of what’s coming so it can be customized, tailored, and prepped for the meeting.

2.) Prep the sales reps by giving them a preview of the material that’s going to be delivered in the training. This ensures their minds are working and stimulated, helping them evaluate whether they like the training or not. Either is fine because they’re equipped to ask questions and be engaged.

3.) You have to follow up. There has to be a coaching program in place of action items, implementation, and accountability coming out of the training for weeks or months after. This is because we don’t want the sales team to get distracted. And that’s the manager’s job.

The success or failure and the ROI squarely lies on the manager’s shoulders for sales training. If your sales training is not giving you a maximum or any ROI, look at how you’re prepping and using your sales managers for implementation.