YourSalesManagementGuru by Ken Thoreson, Acumen Management Group
Blog archive
Sales Management Training
I recently read an article about the enormous amount of money that is spent each year on sales skills training, yet the article discussed the shocking lack of success those costs have had when translated to performance. Normally we see a short-term boost of success and then a trend of sales falling back to past levels. In most cases, there is a 5-1/2 week half-life in sales skills training.
The salespeople begin to forget classroom training or find the techniques/concepts from the class are awkward, and they revert to using their old sales processes. The article went on to promote the need to make sure the sales manager is trained to reinforce the intended sales training. What I have found is, in most cases, these sales management courses are simply additional revenues by sales training firms to sell new training courses.
The key for real sales leadership training is to cause change, and change comes from understanding the concepts around sales leadership and management, building reinforcement or coaching skills in the field and teaching the sales leader how to effectively build and run internal sales training programs independent of outside sales training firms.
Besides sales training, sales management training courses requires: sales compensation, sales recruiting, management systems, leadership and marketing. Our free videos on Hiring Smart, Training Smart and Planning for Profit will begin your process. Find them at www.acumenmanagement.com.
I'm just leaving Atlanta, where I spoke at the Information Technology Alliance Spring Conference on sales force compensation... I'll see you at the next stop!
Posted by Ken Thoreson on April 29, 2009