Top 3 Reasons Why Sales Training Doesn't Change Your Salespeople

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Thu, Nov 17, 2016 @ 11:11 AM

I get asked this question a lot: "We've tried sales training before and it didn't really change anything. Why didn't it work?"

It's a common frustration and often explains why companies try it once and don't go back, or why they use a different company every year.  There are three powerful reasons why sales training won't work, and what you can do that will make it work everytime.  To explain why it doesn't work, I recorded this 3-minute video to save you from having to read a long article.

So what can you do to make sure that sales training works?  These are the four most important factors:

  1. Evaluate Your Sales Force so that we know exactly which competencies need to be addressed through training.  Canned, off-the-shelf training won't address the real issues if you don't know what they are!
  2. Invest in 90-days of sales management training and coaching to help them coach to the content and incorporate Sales DNA into the coaching.
  3. Make sure that the frequency of your training is at minimum twice per month for at least 6 months - or more.
  4. Make sure that the training company and specifically the trainer know how to get your salespeople engaged and committed to change.  This isn't school, you're not providing education, you're investing in training your salespeople to achieve different results than they are getting today.  It's about change.

 

Topics: Dave Kurlan, sales training, Sales Coaching, CEO, sales management training, VP Sales

Top 10 Ways to Increase Sales

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Mon, Oct 03, 2011 @ 02:10 AM

top10I'll bet that every CEO, President, Director, VP of Sales and Sales Manager asks the "how can we increase sales?" question on a regular basis.  Do you?

There are as many answers to this question as there are politicians running for US President in 2012.  They include but aren't limited to:

  1. Acquire smaller competitors
  2. Add new product lines and/or services
  3. Expand to new geographies
  4. Add salespeople
  5. Increase advertising 
  6. Raise quotas
  7. Improve Quality
  8. Lower Prices
  9. Land some terrific stories in the press
  10. Develop your Sales Force
I'll bet you can't guess which one I'm going to address here...
Surprise - I'm going with #8 - Lower Prices.  Yes - you can increase sales (and go out of business!) by lowering your prices....so instead, I'm going with #10, OK?
Why does developing your sales force make the most sense?  How about 10 more reasons?
  1. It's more affordable than the other options
  2. It makes it easier to accomplish #4 - add salespeople - and #6 - raise quotas
  3. B players become A's.  C's either become B's or get replaced with A's.
  4. It has an immediate impact.  The majority of the work can be completed in the first year and some of the most important work is completed in the first 90 days.
  5. Organic growth returns much greater profit, much more quickly than acquisitions 
  6. Significant increase in closing percentages
  7. Significant increase in new opportunities
  8. Best practices are instituted and become legacy
  9. Sales Systems and Processes are optimized and become legacy
  10. Improved morale as they become a great, top producing sales team.
Between the global economy, the recession, the internet's effect on buyers' access to information, new selling tools and applications, and the need for an optimized sales process, selling has changed more in the past 5 years than it has in the past 50 years.  Most companies haven't changed their approach and still hope that their salespeople, who succeeded prior to the 2008 crash, will somehow get some momentum.  But what worked in 2006 doesn't work in 2011 and won't work in the years to come.  If you want to grow revenue, the best option is to invest in your selling machine. It's the only one that pays dividends!

Topics: Dave Kurlan, sales training, sales force development, sales management, Sales Coaching, CEO, President, VP Sales, Sales Director

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Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker and Sales Thought Leader,  Dave Kurlan's Understanding the Sales Force Blog earned awards for the Top Sales & Marketing Blog for eleven consecutive years and of the more than 2,000 articles Dave has published, many of the articles have also earned awards.

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