Can Sales Training Be More than Mastering the Sales Process?

It may simply start by one day looking around the organization and determining that the sales team would benefit from Sales Training. 

The impetus might be a desire to rejuvenate and refocus the Sales team, provide a common framework and terminology across a dynamic group of individuals or any number of initiatives that include the need to enhance sales skills to generate additional revenues.

But the scope of introducing a sales training program should extend past a refresher on 'what' the sales process is or 'how' to execute more effectively. It should also consider the types of behaviour that you wish the Sales team – and, in fact, the whole organization – to exhibit once the training is introduced.

Much has been written about developing a culture that introduces beliefs and approaches that encourage the whole team in the effort to generate revenues, profitability and growth. This 'Sales culture' is one that becomes integrated into the fabric of an organization. Getting there involves a common framework of how we think, how we behave and how we communicate.

At Algario, we extend our approach and our tools to not only build upon the skills required to understand how to make sales but we also deliver it in a manner that matches larger brand and corporate objectives.

Over the coming weeks, we will examine a number of areas and topics that our clients have either explored with us or are currently asking themselves.

1. Investing in Customer-facing Sales Teams: A review of a variety of topics designed to determine what type of skills you are looking to improve and the pros and cons of the different methodologies used to deliver them.
2. Building a Sales Culture: A series of discussion items around how to establish and sustain a sales culture, low risk concepts that build early successes and some tools that support the changes required within an organization.
3. Getting the Most out of Sales Training: Combatting the 'Half-life of Learning' is an inherent challenge for sustained change across an organization – but it is possible and different approaches generate different levels of success.
4. Sales – Your Lens to your Customers: Any opportunity to have a two-way communication with your sales force is an opportunity to refine your understanding of what customers are thinking and obtain insights that can lead to fundamental shifts in how you approach them. We'll look at ways to retrieve and use those insights as part of sales learning initiatives.
5. Sales Coaching: Coaching is the key to a sustainable Sales culture. We'll look at how to introduce coaching as a continuous event, differentiating coaching from performance management and providing the measurements required to be an effective coach, just to name a few.
6. Measuring the Impact of Sales Training: And perhaps the one area that has generated the most discussion over the years – determining the ROI of sales training. We'll build on four measures of Sales Training effectiveness – Behaviour Change, Commitment, Skills Development and Business Success – and outline how both tangible and intangible indicators play a role.

As you tackle the process of introducing sustainable improvements across your organization, this series of articles is designed to provide a framework that you may wish to explore further when looking to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your sales, service and support teams. 

We hope you find them valuable.