Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
It's not unusual for an Executive to ask for Sales Training as a means to improve performance. After all, the executive knows the salespeople should be performing better. It's also not unusual for the executive to be disappointed with the training. Why? Below are my Top Ten reasons:- Some people aren't trainable and won't show any improvement
- Individual weaknesses that would prevent execution of learned skills were not identified in advance
- Sales Management weaknesses were not identified in advance
- Faulty Strategies and Processes were not flagged for modification or replacement
- Right people are not in the right seats (Jim Collins - Good to Great)
- Sales Training is a long-term process - some people will get better over time but it doesn't fix anything in the short term
- If activity doesn't improve, salespeople won't have prospects on which to practice
- If salespeople aren't being held accountable, changes will be slow to materialize
- The trainer may not be effective at creating change
- The system or process may not be consistent with your goals, culture, or business
Evaluate your sales force FIRST to determine exactly what needs to be fixed and keep in mind that sales training may be just one of several things that need to be addressed. You may be able to train while you are fixing the other problems or training may come after your infrastructure has been repaired.
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