Does Your Sales Training Program Address Your Sales Performance Issues? Part 2

Today, we are going to evaluate sales training programs from five different angles. We will compare the amount of money businesses can expect to make with three different types of sales trainings: on-the-job training, formal training with a coach or mentor, and traditional classroom programs.

Part 2 is below! You may want to scroll down for Part 1.

Part 2: The Costs 

The first part of this post explored the difference between individual and group coaching in terms both quality and growth potential. This was followed by an examination of the cost needed to achieve those two goals. But what’s more important than how much it costs? The answer is what that program delivers in return. And that is what this post is about.

Costs are one thing, but the outcome of a particular sales training program can be measured in six different ways:

1. Increase the Bottom Line – The impact of the program on the bottom line is the ultimate measure of results. What’s important to remember is that this doesn’t necessarily have to be immediate or quantifiable. In fact, it might not even happen until much later…but bottom lines are worth it! The point here is that measuring sales performance and combining it with personal coaching can yield long-term benefits in terms of meeting organizational goals and keeping employees engaged and focused on getting results.

2. Better Selling Power – This measures the quality of sales performance, which is an important factor in making sure a sales force continues to bring in new business and maintain its current relationships. The best way to improve this aspect is by having employees work with a coach or mentor who has expertise in personal development, motivation, and leadership.

3. More Clients Empowered to Reach Their Goals – This measurement is directly related to personal coaching because the coach’s job is to help the client excel in his or her sales position. As such, it’s a natural outcome of working one-on-one with a top-notch coach/mentor.

4. Increased Retention Rates – This is a marketing strategy that extends from the personal coach angle and can serve as a maximum benefit to a sales organization. It helps increase customer retention and retention rates among employees, which ultimately leads to cost savings for an organization.

5. Long-Term Retention – A key function of coaching is that it helps retain top performers by allowing them to become more productive and successful. This will allow the sales team to get the most out of each dollar they spend while also increasing revenue with lower turnover rates.

6. Additional Business Results – Clients with increased confidence in their salespeople will likely purchase more products or services than before, which means additional business for the agency or client service provider.

As mentioned earlier, the quality of the sales training program can be evaluated in several ways and will depend on what kind you need. The main goal is to identify the best way to improve sales results for a business and help employees get better at their jobs with an emphasis on retention. Remember, there are many ways to accomplish this, so it’s simply a matter of finding the one that works best for your business.

What do you think? Please leave your comments below!

Does Your Sales Training Program Address Your Sales Performance Issues? Part 1 [ARTICLE START]

Poor sales performance plagues so many organizations that it's almost become a status quo accepted fact.

Some companies are so concerned about sales performance that they've created training programs specifically designed to address their issues.

But is there a better way?

The answer is yes, sometimes.

And the best place to learn how to improve sales performance is by working one-on-one as a coach or mentor with a qualified professional who has experience working with people in similar positions.

Coaching and mentoring professionals have the skills, abilities and knowledge base needed to work through the issues that are causing your organization's salespeople problems in the first place. Then they can devise a plan of action that will help them improve their results, outperformance competitors, and build long-term relationships at your business.

So, what should be a fairly simple and routine process can actually become a complex one if you don't do it right. That's because many companies approach coaching and mentoring thinking that it's just about getting people to perform better, but there's so much more to it.

Practical steps need to be taken that will make your coaching or mentoring:

• Meaningful – the work is something the person needs and will benefit from in terms of performance improvement rather than an obligation or chore.

• Personal – each participant becomes an individual contributor who has the ability to learn from and develop with his or her coach rather than being taught things as an object in a classroom setting.

• Specific – the plan takes into account what needs to be changed in order for the person to perform at a higher level and the progress will be measured.

• Timely – courses of action must be implemented and assessed on an ongoing basis.

• Sustainable – results must be sustained over time and year after year.

These are just a few of the principles that make coaching and mentoring effective if done properly, but there are other requirements as well:

• Empathy – participants must be given as much information as possible about their emotions, circumstances and past experiences so they can learn how to become more conscious about their own needs, background, fears and motives.

• Coaching – the coaching process includes one-on-one meetings, mentoring and role playing where participants learn to ask themselves the right questions, analyze their own behavior, take risks and make course corrections.

• Empowerment – the person becomes truly involved in self-improvement and has a significantly elevated sense of personal accomplishment as he or she learns how to leverage his or her strengths to become more successful within and outside the sales game. People follow programs designed this way because they know it will work. They know that it's a proven system that's followed by others around them who've discovered how much difference a coach can make in their business. All they have to do is follow the process and they'll be amazed at the results. But, here's the biggest surprise:

It all starts with you!

You need to be willing to work with your coach or mentor in a way that will benefit your business. That means finally seeing him or her for what he or she really is – a partner in getting stronger, more capable salespeople. You don't have to accept this as an opportunity for someone else to make money off of you without giving anything back. You can take a proactive approach and actually become more successful by teaming with them in order to get better results.

Conclusion

One thing is for sure: If your sales organization is having trouble getting the job done, it's important that you take a critical self-assessment from the inside out rather than from the outside in.

You'll be amazed at how much energy you can free up when you start to work on yourself before you work on others.

Finally, make sure that your program is really working. That means doing things like keeping accurate records of all sessions, measuring or recording improvement in performance, and making sure that things are being sustained over time and year after year. You can't just randomly shoot in the dark and hope you hit something. The results have to have meaning if they're going to stick and make a difference to your bottom line.