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Accelerating Revenue Through Learning: Developing Sales Teams That Win
ASTD - American Society for Training and Development, Dec 2010, Pages: 25
ASTD’s Research report Accelerating Revenue Through Learning: Developing Sales Teams That Win complements the ASTD State of Sales Training report and is a must-have reference for all sales driven people and organizations. If you’ve ever wondered what type of learning is taking place in the selling profession, and more importantly, what type of learning and development is most valuable to successful selling, then this report is for you. The report investigates three primary sales issues: how the sales process has evolved, how that evolutionary process has affected the training requirements of salespeople, and how sales training functions within corporations respond to these changes. Ultimately, it provides specific learning objectives and recommendations to positively influence sales effectiveness.
ASTD’s Accelerating Revenue Through Learning: Developing Sales Teams that Win report (hereafter referred to as the Study) is a follow-up of ASTD’s previously published State of Sales Training report.
The Survey reveals that the sales organization in most companies is underperforming, as also reported by CSO Insights and other reputable research organizations, including Training Industry, Inc. and Hewitt Associates. The consensus among researchers is that half of business-to-business (B2B) sales representatives don’t achieve their quota. Some will blame this on the economic downturn that began in the fourth quarter of 2008. However, looking back, we can easily see that sales effectiveness—ongoing, consistent sales performance against quotas—has been an elusive goal for many companies for a long time.
There are a host of reasons for this, including inconsistent application of process, unqualified sales and sales management personnel, lack of support from other departments (such as marketing), a misunderstanding of what professional selling really is on the part of senior management, and, yes, ineffective training and development, if it exists at all.
What’s the problem? At the highest level, the facts show that salespeople, in general, are different from their counterparts in other departments within their companies. They think differently, and have different motivations (most often money or recognition). They behave differently, and have what many would consider a different type of job. Salespeople themselves, in responding to the survey, feel they are the face of their companies. They have a greater ability to influence customer perception, and to adapt their behavior and actions to different audiences more regularly. One point is certain: salespeople have different learning and development requirements from their colleagues in other departments.
As a result, there is a significant “disconnect” in many companies between the Sales and Learning functions. In some companies the sales function is, at best, the reluctant customer of learning. In others, Sales wants nothing to do with Learning and seeks its own training partners and solutions. Seen from the salesperson’s perspective, this is troubling. They often have the tools, methods, learning, and coaching available, but need to learn how to use them in an effective manner in order to be successful.
The most striking aspect of this Study is that only 44 percent of respondents attend any kind of formal sales education. More importantly, it means that 56 percent of salespeople received no formal sales training from their organization, and yet, 96 percent of the respondents think continuous learning is critical to their success. This is a serious training deficiency in an area critical to an organization’s success.
There are other important and actionable implications from this Study:
- Nearly half of the respondents feel that they get little or no support at being agile, creative, and flexible with their clients and prospects
- Fifty-eight percent said they believe better selling and influencing skills is of high importance to them
- Many respondents said they are uncomfortable with the role of the salesperson as defined by their company and their management
- Forty-four percent of the respondents indicated they learn by listening to digital content
- A majority of salespeople (61 percent) responded that they needed frameworks, approaches, and methodologies they can customize in order to effectively leverage the sales training they received
- Respondents recognized relationship building, problem-solving/diagnosis and listening as three critical skills.
Overall, the Study indicates that there is considerable need for improvement and it will come as a wake-up call for training and sales leaders alike. We are not effectively developing our sales talent, and the price we are paying from a sales effectiveness perspective is significant.
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