Are You Wasting Money on Sales Training?

Is it possible that a significant amount of the $8 billion spent on sales training in the U.S. every year is wasted? Here are results from several studies you may find interesting:

• A study at Columbia University found that up to 95% of what is taught in training programs is wasted through a failure to transfer learning to the workplace.
• A Xerox study several years ago showed that 87% of the knowledge learned in sales training is lost within 12 weeks.
• In a recent Sales Performance International study, most sales professionals forget at least 50% of what they learned in training programs in less than five weeks. For over 44% of 6,000 sales professionals surveyed, they forget in less than one month. Further, salespeople only remember 16% of content from sales training workshops after only 90 days.

What's your personal experience? Do you find training improves your sales skills and behaviors or not? There's great discussion about this topic in an article entitled, Why (Most) Training is Useless, on David Maister's website and blog. If you're a professional, I highly recommend Mr. Maister's blog.

My own sales experience leads me to agree with these studies. When I began selling capital medical equipment for what was then the top-ranked healthcare sales force in the U.S., I had absolutely 0 hours of formal skills-based sales training. The only sales training I received upon joining the company was three intense weeks of industry, company and product knowledge. Yet, without any skills-based sales training, I was ranked in the top ten my first full year and number one in the country by my third full year of sales.

In my opinion, the fact that I had not received any sales training was actually a good thing. Why? I've learned that a significant portion of the sales training, methods and advice still offered today is not very congruent with the current buy/sell environment and can actually diminish your ability to sell successfully. The fact I never "learned" this poor sales advice enabled me to sell more effectively.

I think you should be very careful about spending money on skills-based or motivational training for three reasons.

First, these studies show that most sales training does not achieve the desired impact for most sales organizations - improved selling behaviors.

Second, many salespeople and sales organizations don't know the corrrect sales behaviors to teach or reinforce simply because there's a lot of bad sales advice out there from years past that doesn't align well with today's selling environment.

A great example of bad selling advice is discussed in my earlier post on using closing techniques. Many sales experts and managers suggest that salespeople can increase sales by increasing their use of closing techniques. This post discusses how one study found training that did indeed increase the use of closing behaviors. Unfortunately, the increase in closing behaviors actually resulted in a decrease in sales.

Third, the belief that skills-based sales training works can lead to poor hiring decisions. Many companies look to hire salespeople or professionals with previous industry or product knowlege as a top consideration. I think this is a mistake because industry and product knowedge can be easily and quickly learned. Talents and behaviors, on the other hand, are very difficult, if not impossible, to acquire.

Before investing in skills-based or motivational sales training, I believe your money is much better spent investing in one or more of the following to improve sales results:

1. Identify the individual talents and behaviors that lead to successful selling results in your specific selling environment.
2. Hire people who already possess the talents and behaviors your customers will buy from.
3. Improve your selling process by implementing positive trust elements that will lead to greater levels of trust with prospects.
4. Offer training focused on increasing industry, company, competitor and product knowledge. In today's environment, where buyers are much more educated than in the past, this type of training is critical in establishing your ability in the minds of prospects. Perceived seller ability is one of the four key factors in building trust with prospects.
5. Provide individualized training focused on enhancing strengths - not shoring up weaknesses.