Many are the reasons why business owners/VPs/directors or managers look for sales training, but greater is the reassurance they look for before investing in a sales training program. The most common questions business owners ask when researching sales training:
- Will my team actually use it?
- Will we get increased results?
- Is the ROI worth it?
Now, once a decision is made and the investment into the sales training program is completed, the next questions arise: Are we implementing the training properly? Is my team getting the most out of the training? Are our results improving?
After years in the sales training industry, we have discovered some common mistakes that may be jeopardizing your chances of getting the most out of your investment.
1. No Clear Expectations
Most times, management forgets to set clear expectations for the training and end up feeling frustrated with the results. A fundamental to proper implementation is to write a clear and complete document with goals and expectations for both your team and company. Be specific
with details like frequency of training, amount of daily training required, timing and structure of meetings, expected attendance, checkpoints, how you plan to measure success, etc. Having your team commit to and sign a document with all these expectations is a great way to ensure staff members understand that this is now a requirement of their position.
Being explicitly clear with your expectations will avoid frustration and help guide you to successful adoption and application of the training.
2. Sales Training is Viewed as an Expense
If you think that training your team is just another expense, you are looking at it wrong; training your people is an investment. By looking at training as a longer-term investment that will actually contribute to the revenue of the business, it will change your viewpoint on its implementation.
Successful third-party training can help with the following:
- Create a powerful routine that will help your team get ready to win each day
- Help your team become expert communicators
- Unify your team and build a strong culture
- Help train new hires to get results faster and increase retention rates of new staff
- Drive revenue by providing your team with the tools they need to close more deals
- Increase profit by building confident salespeople who sell on value, not price
- Improve customer satisfaction scores by having a team trained to deliver a ‘service is senior to selling’ customer experience.
3. Management Not Training
Being in a management position it’s easy to get caught up in administrative tasks and leave aside the people management priorities of the business. A key principle to being a strong leader is one who is committed to continuously working on his/her own skills alongside their staff;
positive results are much more likely if you commit to learning together with your team.
Did you know that regardless of the management style a leader decides to adopt, most employees are led by example?
Having the management team committed to all the phases of training is crucial for the success of the group. So, if you’ve been lacking the results you would like to see with the training, reflect on how committed you’ve been to your and your team’s development.
Remember: One who leads is expected to go in front and show the way!
4. Lack of Accountability
In case you’ve never looked it up, the dictionary defines accountability as “the fact or condition of being accountable; a willingness to accept responsibility for one’s action”. Holding people accountable ensures people work towards their full potential.
You may have people on your team with skills, talent, and knowledge, and see the same old results month after month. The truth is that your team could be doing so much better, but you are not holding them accountable for their results; set clear expectations and hold people accountable to them.
Remember that being a leader is about wanting your people to succeed more than you want to be liked and as a leader accountability is your duty – it protects and strengthens your culture and a strong culture is the foundation of a successful business.
5. No Role-Playing of the Content
In the course of study, the staff are not practicing what they are learning. Eventually they become “academics” who “know the material” but can’t apply it; this usually leads to the person becoming disengaged with active learning. If this continues long enough the person becomes a disbeliever in the training and their attitude about training can contaminate the entire team.
Incorporate the three factors to building competency to prevent this; observation, study and practice. By incorporating the watching of videos, taking notes, having discussions and doing role-play scenarios it massively improves retention and application of the content.
Daily role-playing is foundational to successful training. After all you’d probably prefer your people practice on each other, not on customers.
Looking for Sales Training for Your Team?
If you are looking for sales training for your organization then get connected with our team at Grant Cardone Canada. We will get you access to Cardone Academy, the #1 sales training platform in the world used by 220,000+ sales professionals & 2,000+ businesses to grow their revenue!
Cardone Academy is a comprehensive and interactive online sales training platform with a library of over 1,500 video modules.
- It provides solutions to the most common sales and management challenges.
- It helps business executives, managers, and salespeople reach and exceed their goals and targets.
- Cardone Academy includes content for sales meetings, full sales certifications and continuous learning solutions.
- All training is delivered virtually to a desktop, tablet, or smartphone in manageable 3-7 minute micro lessons.
Get free access today: www.cardoneuniversity.com
