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Summary: Sales is a soft science. When four top sales trainers were recently surveyed about sales training issues there was suprisingly little overlap in their responses.

Why is there so little commonality in sales training?

Sales management hires sales trainers, hoping that they will increase the sales performance of their sales force. Simple enough. Over time, however, most sales managers realize that every sales trainer has their own unique materials and techniques. The sales manager is forced to decide:

a. None of these people know what they’re talking about.
b. One of them must know what they’re doing.
c. All of them know something, and blended together it’s somehow helping my sales force.

After observing countless sales trainers I believe that most sales trainers can bring value to an organization. But what are we to make of the broad range of content and training methods used by different sales trainers?

Selling Power Magazine recently surveyed four top sales trainers. Below I’ve summarized and paraphrased the questions and answers to two of the questions that were posed to them.

What is the biggest mistake most companies make regarding their sales force?

Howard Stevens: Companies focus too much on business development and not on customer service.
Jerry Acuff: Sales representatives not focusing on the customer’s needs.
Linda Richardson: Sales representatives that don’t customize their sales presentations according to the customer’s needs.
Joanne Black: Lack of preparation and planning on the part of sales representatives, especially when prospecting.

What sales training has the biggest impact on sales performance?

Howard Stevens: General business training in order for the sales representative to understand the context of his or her selling environment.
Jerry Acuff: How to build valuable business relationships.
Linda Richardson: Training sales management on sales coaching.
Joanne Black: Sales training alone will not work; start with your goals and fill in the blanks.

See what I mean? These respected trainers are all over the place. Are none of them right? Are all of them right? Is it a healthy blending of information?

The truth is that in sales training there are many variables that can affect which kind of sales training is best for an organization. Size of the sales force, industry, sales channels, etc. all impact the correct choice of sales trainers and methodologies. Sales management has to actively look for a trainer or training organization that understands their business and markets.

While every sales trainer is not a superstar, it is my opinion that most bring value to an organization. Deciding who is most appropriate for your training needs and moving away from the one-size-fits-all concept will get you better results for your training investment.

There’s almost certainly a sales trainer out there that is a good fit for your organization, but not all of them. Do your due diligence in finding one.

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Tags: sales-training

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