A recent study by Sales Performance International shows that most sales training has been discarded by the fifth week following completion of the course. By 90-days, 84% of what was learned is lost. What are we doing wrong? What can be done right?
Developing skills is important. But the sales training won’t stick if you don’t work on the underlying belief systems that drive the implementation of these skills.
Sales training isn’t asking the right questions to uncover and change underlying factors such as state of mind, work ethic, values, self-image, and even their purpose within the company.
Listen To The Podcast:
Resources:
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More about the Episode:
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Sales Training is Too Activity-Focused
It’s true – you really can lead a horse to water…but you can’t make them drink. Successful selling is part activity and part psychology. You cannot win without learning skills in both categories. But sales training is almost always singularly activity-focused, teaching better product knowledge or prospecting skills, but completely neglecting what lies beneath the surface of what truly motivates an increase in sales activity.
Good sales training should teach a sales leader to focus on:
- Results and how they are affected by sales person’s behavior.
- Behavior including activities follow-up strategy, communication, etc.
- Skills and how to close deals, including selling techniques, how to communicate value, unique selling proposition, target market approach, product knowledge – to name a few categories.
- Hidden beliefs, values, and state of mind that delves into the core of whether a sales rep has faith in their own abilities, what they value, and what is important to them.
- Self-image, identity, and mission lie just under the surface of the individual but so strongly affect your company’s bottom line.
When was the last time your high-priced sales training touched on all of these areas?
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Sales Training is Not Personalized
One size does not fit all. The sales techniques that work in your industry may not translate to another field. Traditional sales training rarely adapts a cookie-cutter curriculum to the core competencies that are crucial to your business. These groups of skills can vary by industry, affecting prospect targeting, prospect marketing, and even how the deal should be closed.
But standard sales training models are not personalized in another way; it doesn’t take into account the individual internal belief patterns that serve as the motivators behind the activities of a sales executive. Our state of mind and personal values strongly affect our code of conduct and work ethic.
Yet traditional sales training completely avoids these important behavioral factors and instead focuses on external activity alone.
Developing skills is important. But the sales training won’t stick if you don’t work on the underlying belief systems that drive the implementation of these skills.
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Sales Training Doesn’t Ask the Right Questions
Many people end up in sales by accident. Asking your sales team what led them to sales in the first place, might help you uncover some interesting correlations between their external behavior and internal motivations.
The truth is that many of your sales executives probably have spent their entire career with an underlying belief that any success they have is attributable to luck. Imagine the energy it takes to make a cold call when you ultimately don’t believe in your own success!
If a salesperson’s own personal belief structure tells them that they lack the skills to succeed, then every win will be accredited to luck or great timing, and every loss will confirm their negative state of mind.
The majority of sales leaders never take the time to explore the underlying assumptions going on in the psyche of their individual sales reps. Traditional sales training rarely touches on the internal system of beliefs (and stories they say to themselves) that make up the personality of a sales rep.
Many companies are buying sales training and their bottom-line results don’t change. Standard sales training focuses on developing skills. That’s because sales training isn’t asking the right questions to uncover and change underlying factors such as state of mind, work ethic, values, self-image, and even their purpose within the company.
Leave a comment below:
Let me know what you think and what will you change regarding being better at sales and finding the right sales training for you. Let me know your favorite strategy or revelation you’ve had about sales in general. I can’t wait to hear from you!
Ask Alen!
Send me your sales-related questions and I will answer them in the upcoming podcasts – send your questions via Linkedin or fill the form here.