Many years ago, when I had responsibility for very large sales teams, I first became interested in sales team development and the return on my considerable investment.
I discovered that to begin with, the one off program was supplying a short term motivational buzz and provided my team with a number of thought provoking ideas. However, in reality, once they were back at the "front-line" the day to day pressures of hitting quota etc took over again and the reactive mindset returned.
Then, and it is probably still true today, most - I would estimate at least 80% - training organizations were making the assumption that all delegates were at the same level in terms of experience, expertise and had the same "commercial bandwidth". This was of course totally unrealistic.
The very best salespeople - the ones that consistently exceed quota - have usually received ongoing skills development from the "emerging" stage all the way through "advanced" right up to "consultative" level if appropriate, but the keyword always has been "ongoing"
Finally, and this is the most significant and blatant error of judgment most sales leaders make- I know I did - is that every member of the team receives the same training, i.e. they are all dispatched off to the same course regardless of whether or not they already have those skills or if indeed they need to have them in their current role.
The point here is that there is far too little planning, assessing and objective setting; as I said earlier, it is much easier to abdicate that responsibility to the training company. The downside to this approach is of course, so much money is wasted.
I quickly realised that the first step for any company deciding to make a change in their sales approach was to accept that training must be based on what the salespeople need and should be tailored to address diagnosed performance gaps.
Using a diagnostic approach - a formal sales team skills audit - saves an organization money and time because there is nothing to be gained from teaching people something that they are already doing well or, conversely, that they don't need to do in the first place.
So what did I do? I wrote my own programmes and they eventually became the basis of the Vanguard Suite, but more significantly I designed an attitude/skills/process audit tool.
ASP Profile is being used by organizations all around the world to regularly benchmark both the development needs and ongoing performance levels of their sales teams.
The most common feedback I receive? "I cannot believe how much money you are saving us"!
Today's News: There was so much going on earlier in the week that I forgot to tell you who won the "Top Sales Article Of The Month" award over at Top 10 Sales Articles.
In fact, Nancy Bleeke pipped Keith Rosen by a whisker, so if you missed it, here is is: "The Sign Of A True Pro..."
Meanwhile, the ten nominations for June have been posted, and there are some superb articles amongst them. You can catch them all here - oh, and of course, providing you are a consenting adult, you can also vote!
Good chum and fellow member of the Top Sales Experts Executive Board, writes the popular Sales & Sales Management blog. He has just launched :
Boost Your Sales Summer Series
A summer's full of great training strategies and techniques.
Every week 4 new top sales and management gurus and myself tackle a new topic that will improve you and your sales team's production.
This week we're dealing with "Using the Phone to Generate Business."
Next week, we deal with "Successful Networking" (Look out for my contribution!)
Head over to the Sales and Sales Management Blog-and head over everyday.
Better yet, just save it to your RSS reader.
Tomorrow: I am absolutely delighted to welcome back Rochelle Togo-Figa onto the JF Guest Author Spot.
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