There are millions of sales training programs in the market today. Most are traditional sales techniques and can run from one to five days. However, do you really think they are effective?

The last time you went on sales training, how long was the program? Did it take your personal sales needs into consideration? Was it based on sales management objectives? Was it customized in any way? When, or what day(s) of the week was it delivered?

When I was in sales I used to attend a lot of one or two day traditional sales training programs. They never took my sales needs into consideration, let alone sales management’s needs or objectives. They were not customize and were just off the shelve sales programs delivered during normal business hours. Do you think this form of sales training was effective?

Sales training like this may have been effective for the short term, allowing for some external motivation, but in reality it was a waste of money. Why, for a number of reasons. First the behaviour of a sales professional cannot be changed overnight, nor in one, two or three days. It has to be an ongoing process, with additional sales management training so that the sales manager demonstrates the appropriate behaviour – monkey see, monkey do.

Sales training should also be customized to participant needs and to sales management needs and objectives. This was they get involved and look forward to participating. They take ownership of the sales training program, while it allows for customization to sales needs, objectives, industry and market in which they are selling to.

Finally, sales training should not be conducted during times when customers are available. We refer to this as pay time, when commissions can be earned based on revenue generated. There is also times during the week when customers are not available – no pay time. This is when sales training should be conducted. That is, if you want the best R.O.T.I..

The Bottom Line: Invest in ongoing, customized training for effective behavioural change.

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Tags: self motivation tips, goal setting worksheet, personal goal setting, effective time management skills