Five Reasons Why Sales Training Doesn't Work

Today’s sales training programs do not work- that’s right you read correctly, and you’re hearing that from a professional sales trainer of 31 years. Literally, after working with thousands of clients and hundreds of companies, 80% of the time the sales training programs fail to deliver. Interestingly, it’s not that the programs are bad or that one is head and shoulders over another. After many failures and lessons learned, let’s explore a little more deeply what causes these failures and what you can do to avoid these pitfalls.

Is sales training helpful? Of course, any sales professional needs to know their product and service, their ideal customers, how their product stacks up to the competition, how to demo or present their solutions at the proper time, how to onboard new customers, how to use a CRM platform to advance one’s sales pipeline, and how their company handles orders, customer service/ care, etc. I was fortunate to have exceptional training when I worked for a medical supply company, Medline Industries. Their training was fabulous- product knowledge, experts showing us/ telling us what to say, providing great technical knowledge and how to present to the doctors and nurses we called on. This gave me a lot of confidence, until, as David Sandler used to say, “Ok Lions, the Christians are ready”. This is the battle ground, and although things are vastly different today, mainly because of the rise of technology and sophistication, the common denominator then and now is people (in general) and how to deal with all the people that sales teams must interact with.

It doesn’t matter what you sell. Prospects have their own buying methodology, and it is usually not in the favor of salespeople. All salespeople hear statements like, “we are happy with whom we are using, send me information, a quote or proposal, give us a demo”, and afterwards hear statements such as “your price is too high, or we’ll get back with you” and other such phrases that put salespeople into the follow up cycle that can have no end. (And that doesn’t even take voicemail into account) Sound familiar?

So, we rationalize that we need to do some sales training to improve our results. Often this task gets delegated to the Sales Manager or lead salesperson, and although there may be a short-term improvement, it doesn’t last long. No offense against the Sales Manager or lead salesperson. The problem is that Sales Managers have too many roles that are important and thus do not have all the time to help Joe, Mary and Susan at the same time. The same holds true of the lead salesperson who, after all, has their own territory and quota expectations to meet. So, the attempt to help the sales team becomes diluted with good intentions, however it is not usually a good long-term solution.

The other course of action is to hire an outside resource: yes, a professional Sales Trainer and the sales process they bring with them. The remainder of this article is intended for those who are considering bringing in an outside resource and the lessons I have learned.  Perhaps these can keep you from the many mistakes I have seen in my 31-year profession of selling, and by adopting these measures, hopefully these can help improve your sales team’s results and ROI.

#1 Mistake:  The leader of the company, CEO, president, VP of Sales, CRO, Sales Manager is not directly involved in the training, or only involved in the on boarding process. This makes no sense! Every company is driven by and sustained by revenue. Yes, operations, distribution, manufacturing, customer care, IT and finance are important; yet how we are fueling our economic engine is vitally important. Developing a sales culture all starts at the top. No excuses like: “I don’t have time, I need to administer other projects, or I’ll let someone else manage that” are valid. One undermines the success of a large financial outlay and the likely unfruitful investment.  

Solution: Leadership of the entire company (not just sales leadership) must be involved from the beginning of the venture and be present at the training sessions. Salespeople understand that if the leader is involved, then this is serious, and they will take it more seriously. When the leader is not there, salespeople say to themselves, “this is just another training flavor of the month” and the program fails to stick. 

#2 Mistake: Failure to establish and incorporate 3 sales metrics that are vital to your organization’s growth and profitability. You and your sales trainer need to identify what those top 3 metrics are and establish some measurable accountability to ensure success. If it’s working: great, if not, why not? Don’t pull the plug on the training – make the needed adjustments and determine if the issue with the sales team are attitude, behavior (ex.: lack of consistent prospecting), or sales technique. Now you are working on the real issues and that may entail having to let non-performing salespeople go and replacing them with stronger salespeople. I often find with salespeople that it’s usually a poor belief issue (ex.: the market is soft, can’t remove an incumbent), or it’s a lack of prospecting consistency centered around the accomplishment of those 3 sales metrics. Sales technique is usually not the first issue to solve.  

Solution: Do not begin a sales training program until you and the chosen Sales Trainer have established the top 3 sales metrics and how you will hold each other accountable for the results.

#3 Mistake:  Your chosen Sales Trainer has failed to discuss customizing a Sales Playbook for your sales team. Every sales organization needs a Playbook, and one that is updated at least every 90 days. Do you have a poor sales on boarding process? It’s probably because you don’t have a Sales Playbook provided for all new sales hires. Allow your Sales Leader, salespeople and Sales Trainer develop it together - that way it becomes yours and your team will value the creation process. 

Solution: Yes, you guessed it: develop a Sales Playbook that incorporates the following:  What does our ideal customer client look like? Where do our leads come from?  What does our “Cookbook” look like? (a weekly prospecting behavior plan that identifies opportunities with current customers and the attainment of new ones) What is our 30 second value proposition? (in other words, what do we do and how do our customers benefit?) What are our top 3-5 stalls, objections we usually hear? and most importantly What can we say in response? 

You must however be careful because there is a difference in what salespeople are being taught here: the wrong technique is continuing to attempt to overcome stalls and objections by old sales tricks that don’t work anymore; today’s buyers are more sophisticated than they used to be – so your salespeople must in turn be more sophisticated. Here is where a trusted sales trainer can train how to first soften these customer stalls and gently learn the real issue(s). Often, it is not the objection “your price is too high”.  Other principles such as CRM usage, on boarding new customers, getting qualified, referral introductions and other specific, unique features to your company can become a part.

#4 Mistake: Allowing your sales team to decide the hiring of an outside resource. Huge mistake. (That’s like asking a 16-year-old if they want to go to school that morning.) What I have learned is that the best salespeople always want to get better, and many will invest out of their own pocket to do so. Unfortunately, the data shows that 80% of salespeople are “At-Leasters”; meaning that they do enough to get by and make their numbers or are just below their objective and you choose not to let them go, thinking they will do better. At-leasters initially will like the idea of training, knowing if they resist will be threatened. Some who are vocal will say things like, “they don’t know our business or our customers, it will take too long, it won’t work, or we tried doing that years ago and it’s just a waste of my time”. Really, do you allow yourself to be subject to your sales team’s approval to launch a strategic initiative that could transform your sales engine? Here’s my opinion of the real reason: At-leasters fear being accountable; that’s it! Let me ask you this: what is your At-leaster sales mentality costing you in new customers, profit margin gains, renewables, as well as add on services with existing clients? By the way, no judgement here, this doesn’t mean they are bad people, it’s just they don’t know how much better they truly could be. 

Solution: Please assess your current sales team- from leader to all members. Yes, you will invest some money, however there are several good points to consider: One, your sales team will appreciate that you are investing in their growth and well-being. Two, how can one design a sales training program without evaluating the sales team and seeing their vulnerabilities and strengths? Knowing your team’s x-ray so to speak, you can more successfully partner and design a strategic plan between your chosen trainer and your sales team. Thirdly, the trainer doesn’t know the weaknesses, however, you probably do. Validating your leadership team so that the trainer understands your team allows you to both be on the same page for a more accountable, strategic solution.

#5 Mistake: Hiring the wrong sales trainer. I believe there are many good sales solutions and processes in the market today. The problem is usually not the program but the trainer implementing the program with precision. Again, I have made my many mistakes here. My 96-year-old father says to me, “the only good thing about getting old is that you get smarter”. Selling is a profession. If I am a doctor needing more training, then I want to go to the best, right? There is no quick fix to sales issues. If a trainer can’t look you in the eye and says this will be a minimum of a one-year partnership, run! And the good one will say,” be ready to let some of your salespeople go”- can you handle that? What a good trainer brings to the table is not only a process but really, they will help you/ your sales team work on developing the right habits for each individual sales team member and leader. Habits take time and repetition to perfect. That’s why sales training needs to be scheduled not only each month, but weekly perhaps for some teams. 

Solution: Well, I believe if you follow these first 4 steps, and have the personal recommendation of another reliable source who has had success with that trainer, then you are well on your way. One other recommendation I received from a client and have found to be a genius attack. He said to me, “Why don’t you develop a questionnaire and send it to a prospective client before the training engagement? The reason being, to learn more from the client to better understand their culture, their current sales process, and many important issues. So, I designed a questionnaire that I send to my new clients with 20 questions to help us better understand our work together. How would you react to this? Would it give you greater confidence in your chosen trainer that they care and understand more fully?

Again, we all learn from our mistakes, and hopefully will not repeat the same ones. The solution for you is that we want, and you want the sales training program to work for you.