management, you must determine which members of your current sales team can already “call high” and which members will need to be trained to make executive-level calls. Similarly, if the sales strategy requires selling solutions based upon new products, determine what it will take to get the reps up to speed on the new technology. Expert Two: “If you want your sales training budget to be money down the drain, train the wrong salespeople to do the wrong thing.”
STEP #3: ALLOCATE YOUR TRAINING BUDGET. Now establish a rough estimate of training costs. Remember to allocate the budget to include the entire training effort – not just the class- room instruction. In most organiza- tions, sales training budgets need to be allocated as follows: • Communicating = 10 percent. You need to ensure everyone involved in the sales training understands what’s going on within the context of the company’s overall strategy. This takes time and money.
• Training managers = 30 percent. You’ll need to train your sales leaders because, if they’re not on board and can’t coach what’s taught to the reps, they’ll become an impediment to implementing the training.
• Training reps = 50 percent. This is the actual training for the reps, including product knowledge and sales skills.
• Measurement = 10 percent. You’ll need to track the progress and impact of the training. This also takes time and money. Expert Three: “Be sure to sponsor satisfaction and behavioral measures to determine the level of strategic alignment, effectiveness, and impact of the training.”
STEP #4: ESTABLISH APPROPRI- ATE STRATEGIC METRICS. There are three ways to measure the success of sales training: strategic met-
rics (which map to business objectives), tactical metrics (which map to the mechanics of the training process), and course evaluations. Of the three, the strategic metrics are the most impor- tant. Here are a few examples: • Fewer discounts (business objec- tive: higher profit)
• Larger average deal size (business objective: higher revenue)
• Shorter time to close (business ob- jective: predictable revenue stream)
• New customer acquisition (business objective: market share growth) Of course, your specific metrics will be based on your firm’s own busi- ness objectives. Establish a baseline for each metric with a specific time frame, after the sales training, to remeasure that metric.
Expert Four: “Rather than picking an arbitrary number for your sales training budget, begin with the end in mind and then find the best alternative.”
STEP #5: ESTABLISH APPROPRI- ATE TACTICAL METRICS. While the strategic metrics are obvi- ously of prime importance, it’s also important to measure the mechanics of the training process. Otherwise, you could find yourself in a situation where, for example, only 50 percent of your reps are being adequately trained – yet you’re being held ac- countable for 100 percent of the promised results. Here are some examples of specific tactical metrics: • Percentage of reps who have at- tended product training.
• Percentage of reps who are highly competent in demonstrating product benefits.
• Percentage of reps who are capa- ble of identifying likely prospects.
• Average percentage of online follow-on course work completed. Obviously, these tactical metrics need to support the strategic metrics established in the previous step. The assumption should be that, as the tactical metrics approach 100 percent, the strategic metrics should become achievable.
Expert Five: “Once your training
needs are tied to your organization’s business objectives, always establish metrics that will help you measure your success.”
STEP #6: CREATE HARD-HIT- TING COURSE EVALUATIONS. The third way to measure the effec- tiveness of sales training is to ask the people being trained whether the training is appropriate and helpful. This is important because, if the sales reps (and their managers) don’t view the sales training as critical to their future success, they’re highly unlikely to put the training into actual prac- tice. Course evaluations thus provide a more “human” way of measuring the impact of the training. Evaluations should ask hard-hitting questions such as • To what extent will the skills in the program improve your results?
• Would you recommend that your colleagues participate in the training?
• How are you planning to imple- ment this training in your daily sales activities?
(Remember: The course evaluations
are anonymous, so you’re presumably going to get real opinions.) Expert Six: “Sales reps at a sales training session are a lot like children at a buffet: Research shows they’ll pick out what is good for them.”
STEP #7: CULTIVATE TOP MAN- AGEMENT’S COMMITMENT. Now that you know what you need to spend and how you’re going to spend it – and have established appropriate measurements – present the entire package to top management. Ask top management to use their influ- ence and power to ensure the sales training becomes an essential part of the corporate strategy. (Otherwise, you run the risk of losing your budget if there’s a downturn in sales – even though sales training is the only thing that might turn things around.) Ide- ally, you want top management to be completely committed to the idea that sales training MUST take place –
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