Some sales managers love to teach and train. If they could spend all their time lecturing and facilitating workshops, they’d be in seventh heaven. Needless to say, their boss wouldn’t be quite as happy.
Other sales managers hate that training part. They love to strategize, to sell, to mentor, and to problem-solve. They love every part of the job except creating training materials and delivering them. When they ignore that part of their job, both their people and their performance suffer. They’d be smart to outsource the sales training.
But outsourcing b2b sales training isn’t the entire solution—unless the manager’s purpose is simply to “check off that training box” and be able to say his people “are trained.” The sales manager who purchases a sales training program still has an essential role to play, without which the training investment is unlikely to yield the returns everyone is looking for.
Here are five things you as sales manager must do to create Training ROI:
1. Complete the training yourself.
You know the old expression, Don’t ever ask your people to do something you’re not willing to do yourself. That’s the principle here. Whether you undergo the training simultaneously with your people, or beforehand, you must learn exactly what you expect them to learn. Not only will they take notice if you haven’t—and come to a conclusion about how important you think the training really is—but you’ll find it hard to oversee the implementation of the practices recommended in the training and provide the support and guidance your people need in order to transfer their new skills from the workshop to the street. If you’re not going to learn it, too, there’s not much point in having your people learn it.
2. Position the importance of the training.
Your people need to hear from you the value you place on the training they’re about to go through, whether it’s online learning, a two-hour workshop, or a three-day retreat. If it’s not important to you, there’s no way it’ll be important to them. Communicate the importance by explaining exactly what knowledge and skills you anticipate they will gain, and how that knowledge and those skills relate to their work and will help them perform at a higher level. Avoid undermining your message by expecting them to complete online learning outside of normal work hours or by expecting them to handle ordinary business while they’re in a workshop. When your salespeople are in training, their job title should be temporarily changed from seller to learner.
3. Expect implementation.
Expectations are powerful. Make it clear to your people that transferring the new practices to their regular selling activity is not optional. You’ll be actively engaged with them, looking for evidence that they are using the knowledge they gained and the practices they learned. Tell them you understand that new practices can be difficult to integrate, but that you’ll be there to answer questions, to provide advice, and generally to offer whatever support is necessary. Be aware of any conflicts between the new practices recommended in the training and the legacy practices in your organization—and pledge to resolve any such conflicts as soon as they’re brought to your attention.
4. Role-model the practices yourself.
Let your salespeople see you using the knowledge and skills gained during the recent sales training. You may or may not be the best salesperson in the organization; that’s not important. But your people need to see evidence that you haven’t forgotten (or worse, ignored) that training from last week, or last month, or last year. As soon as they see you backsliding, it’s almost a sure bet they’ll be sliding back. It’s even smart to point out, from time to time, that you’re using these new skills. “I think this is exactly the scenario we learned about in the Partnering Workshop, that’s why I’m suggesting that you…”
5. Recognize when your people are using their new skills.
Recognition is just as powerful as expectations. Sometimes, recognition means celebration… an award, a prize, a very public congratulations among the salesperson’s peers. But those are the exceptions. The best recognition, the type you can do several times a day without ever wearing it out, is simply noticing. “I saw that you carefully contracted the next steps with that prospect, and gave the prospect an assignment to complete. Nice job! And wasn’t it cool to see how positively they responded?” When you notice, you’re saying I care… that you care about both the person and their growth. Another way to provide recognition is to invite your people to describe in a sales meeting one of the ways in which they used what they recently learned.
Outsourcing sales training may be one of the smartest things a sales manager can do. But don’t be thinking it lets you off the hook. If you’re not fully in—before, during, and after—the training won’t deliver the results you were anticipating.
