3 Myths About Sales Training
A lack of consensus exists as to when the foundation for present day Sales Training was founded. One date around which a number of practitioners have rallied is October 1936 when Dale Carnegie first published How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Ever since then Dale Carnegie sold 15 million copies and many people have spent lots of time building the content and methodology of present day Sales Training. The great news is the Sales Training circa 2011 bears little resemblance to the versions of 25 years ago when product pitches reigned over the land and closing tricks such as the trial close and the puppy dog close were the sophisticated skills of the period.
Yet time also offers an opportunity for the creation of perceptions. Now, in the case of sales training many of the perceptions are harmless. However, three often heard troublesome misconceptions are:
1. "We just did it a couple of years ago hence it's not time to do that again." The demand for sales training is now driven by changes in the market not the elapsed time since the last program. As companies enter new markets, introduce new products, deal with global competitors, and cope with ever changing demands within customer organizations, sales people need help to change and adapt their skills to the recent reality.
Sales training needs to help and it needs to give that help now rather than later. Potential negative consequences of postponement range from reduced revenue to lost accounts to the departure of top performers.
2. "Which program we do doesn't matter that much. All fundamentally are similar. What truly counts is what we do after the program." This perception persists because it is a half-truth. What you do after the program when it comes to reinforcement, like sales coaching, is absolutely important. For that matter, the leadership and communication that occurs before the program also significantly impacts success.
But which program you decide on does matter. The good news is considerable advancement has occurred over the past ten years so the number of sales training choices have increased significantly. Today's sales training is not the "same old - same old." Programs differ widely as to sales best practices, level of modification, and learning methodology. You can make a difference yet you must know there is a difference.
3. "Given all our budget priorities we thought it best to postpone it til next year." Given the economic uncertainties of the last couple of years, sales training has frequently been postponed. In some cases real budget issues existed; therefore, postponement was a necessity. On the other hand, in so many cases the "we will do it later" idea is based on some variation of - "it costs too much". The "it cost too much" notion qualifies as a perception as it is one of those compared-to-what propositions.
If you believe that sales training works, and it shouldn't be considered unless you think it does, then most sales training is a bargain when compared to the improved probability of - closing much more business, closing better business, or closer business sooner. This perception persists since it's easy to calculate the money saved if you do not do the training - it's difficult to calculate the money gained if you do.
3 Myths About Sales Training
Sales training needs to help and it needs to provide that help now rather than later. Possible negative consequences of postponement range from reduced revenue to lost accounts to the departure of top performers.
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