Looking for Sales Training? Select for Sustainability

This post was written by Jacob McNulty

A recent report in Chief Learning Officer magazine stated that 90% of all sales training programs resulted in only moderate increases in sales and those increases lasted for just a very brief period of time (90-120 days). 

The report was compiled by ES Research (ESR) Group and it lists some specific findings; the main message, though, is that most sales training doesn’t stick.

For organizations looking for sales training, ESR’s report confirms that many vendors can fill the need of a training event that will boost sales for a brief period.  I encourage people to look at how a training vendor will sustain the momentum created in training. 

Can the vendor cultivate a community of practice for the sales positions?  Will they seed a knowledge management repository to capture the best practices of participants as they take the foundational concepts and make them their own?  How about action learning assignments for sales managers that have them optimize the sales function within the operation of the rest of the company?  How can the networks of informal learning be supported around the initial sales training?

There are countless things that could be done that would extend the effectiveness of a sales training initiative.  I believe that the selection of a training supplier takes a back seat to exploring some of the options that can be implemented that would complement the content that is delivered.

P.S. Sales training certainly has a high profile due to its direct link to organizational performance but the lessons learned from this report could be applied to any area of learning.

Tags: Action learning, Blended Learning, collaboration, Communities of Practice, CoP, enterprise 2.0, informal learning, Knowledge Management, learning, learning strategies, Organizational Learning, sales training, social networking