Mark W. Johnston | Greg W.

Marshall

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Part 2
Implementation of
the Sales Program
10
Sales Training: Objectives,
Techniques, and Evaluation
 Military Training and Sales Careers

 What skills
 Can be trained?
 Must be trained?
 Are a pre-hire requirement?
 What previous training has
transferability and value?
 Managers must focus on
critical success competencies
10-4
Source: HR Chally Group (2009).
 Identify key issues in sales training
 Understand objectives of sales training
 Discuss development of sales training
programs
 Understand training of new sales
recruits and experienced salespeople
 Define topics covered in a sales
training program
 Understand various methods for
conducting sales training
 Discuss how to measure costs and
benefits of sales training
10-5
 Training Magazine’s Top Training Companies

10.1

10-6
Source: Source: Manage smarter.com July, 2009.
 Sales Training Issues

 Who should be trained?

 What should be the training
primary emphasis?
 How should the training process be
structured?
 On-the-job training and experience?
 Formal and more consistent
centralized program?
 Web-based?
 Instructor-based?

10-7
 Sales Training Objectives

 Increase productivity
 Improve morale
 Lower turnover
 Improve customer relations
 Improve selling skills

10-8
 10.1 Challenge of Effective
Training: Follow-Up

 Share post-training
experiences
 Provide coaching to support
the training
 Define management
expectations
 Consider changes to
compensation system to
support training objectives 10-9
 Credible Sales Training
Development

Allows for adequate Subjects itself to

development and timely, evaluation and
effective implementation review

Sets specific, realistic, Modifies to achieve

measureable objectives greater effectiveness

Analyses sales
force needs
10-10
Obstacles to Introducing Training

 Top management not dedicated to

sales training
 Lack of buy-in from frontline sales
managers and salespeople
 Salespeople’s lack of understanding
of what training is supposed to
accomplish
 Salespeople’s lack of understanding
regarding application of training to
everyday tasks
10-11
 10.2 Failure – Causes and Cures

 Delivering “fad” vs. “function”

 Off the shelf delivery
 Unreasonable time constraints
 Little reinforcement

Sources: Chuck Mache, “Sales Training that Sticks,” Agency Sales 37, no. 2 (Feb 2007), pp. 58–
61. Heather Baldwin, “Rethinking Sales Training,” SellingPower.com, August 2006 online
issue. Tony Hughes, “Why Does Sales Training Fail?” Training Magazine, April 2004, p. 27. 10-12
 10.2
Analyzing the
training needs
of the sales force

10-13
 Shifts in Training New Sales
Recruits
 Companies with less than $5 million in annual
sales are spending more on sales training per new
hire - $5,500 worth of training per salesperson.
 Training in smaller companies has increased from
3.3 months to 4.4 months.
 Smaller companies are placing more emphasis on
training than several years ago.
 Companies are spending time and money on
training experienced salespeople
 Companies with more than $5 million in annual
sales, are spending less money on training

Source: Christen P. Heide, Dartnell’s 30th Sales Force Compensation Survey: (Chicago: 10-14
Dartnell Corp., 1999)
 10.3
Length and cost of
sales training for
new hires

Source: Christen P. Heide, Dartnell’s 30th Sales Force Compensation Survey: (Chicago: 10-15
Dartnell Corp., 1999), p. 143.
 Shifts in Training Experienced
Sales Recruits

 Experienced sales reps are given,

on average, 32.5 hours of ongoing
training per year at a cost of
$4,032 per rep
 Continuing increasing amounts of
training reflects a commitment to
provide ongoing learning
opportunities for senior salespeople
 Companies are spending an
increasing amount of time on
product training and less on
training in selling skills
Source: Christen P. Heide, Dartnell’s 30th Sales Force Compensation Survey: (Chicago: 10-16
Dartnell Corp., 1999)
 Length, type, and cost of sales training for experienced reps

Source: Christen P. Heide, Dartnell’s 30th Sales Force Compensation Survey: (Chicago: 10-17
10.4 Dartnell Corp., 1999), p. 145.
 Sales Training Topics

 Product or service knowledge

 Market/Industry orientation
 Company orientation
 Selling skills
 Time and territory management
 Legal and ethical issues
 Technology
 Specialized topics

10-18
 Product Knowledge Topics

 Critical information for rational decision-

making
 Company’s product specifications
 Common product uses/misuses
 Competitive products comparison on
 Price
 Construction
 Performance
 Compatibility
 Technical products require more time on
product knowledge training

10-19
Market/Industry Orientation Topics

 Industry fit into overall economy

 Knowledge of industry and
economy
 Economic fluctuations that affect
buying behavior and require
adaptive selling techniques
 Customers' buying policies,
patterns and preferences in light of
competition
 Customers' customers needs
 Wholesaler and retailer needs
10-20
Company Orientation Topics

 Company polices that affect their selling

activities
 Personnel
 Structure
 Benefits
 Handling customer requests for price
adjustments, product modifications,
faster delivery, different credit terms
 Sales manuals
 Hard copy, online
 Product information
 Company policy information

10-21
Time and Territory Management

 Sales trainees need to learn to

manage time and territories
 Time spent training out of the field
is costly
 80/20 rule applies:
 20% of the customers account for
 80% of the business and
 Require the same proportion of time
and attention

10-22
 Legal/Ethical Issues

 Federal law dictates corporate action or

avoidance of action in areas of
marketing, sales and pricing
 Sales personnel need to understand the
federal, state and local laws that
constrain their selling activities
 Statements made by salespeople carry
both legal and ethical implications
 Lapses in ethical conduct often lead to
legal problems

10-23
 10.3 Ethics Training Part of
Sales Training
 Insurance industry suffers
reputation of unethical behavior
 IMSA certification requires
 Ensuring salespeople pursue ethical
practices
 Ethical practices training for all agents
and staff
 Administering an exam for all sales
professionals

Sources: IMSA, www.imsaethics.org, Fall 2009. Chris Amrhein, “Building Trust Is the Goal of Ethical Behavior,” American
Agent & Broker 79, no. 3 (Mar 2007), p. 12. Robert W. Cooper and Garry L. Frank, “The Highly Troubled Ethical Environment
of the Life Insurance Industry: Has It Changed Significantly from the Last Decade and If So, Why?” Journal of Business Ethics 10-24
58, no. 1–3 (May 2005), p. 149.
 Technology

 Notebook computers
 Presentations
 Connecting to company intranet or extranet
 Delivering documentation quickly and accurately
 Home offices eliminate the need to go to another
office
 Salesperson can be almost totally self-sufficient
with
 High-speed network connection
 Computer
 Printer
 Cell phone
 Effective computer use affords sales personnel
more face-to-face customer contact time
 Effective use requires training

10-25
 10.4 Internet Training

 Increased control over content

 Less costly
 Comprises 25-30% of all
training today
 Expected to be 50% within 5
years

10-26
Specialized Training Topics

 Specialized, job-tailored
training most effective
 Sample topics
 Price negotiations
 Trade show effectiveness
 Reading body language
 Addressing SCA

10-27
 10.5
Common instruction
methods

10-28
10.6 Sales training methods

Source: Christen P. Heide, Dartnell’s 30th Sales Force Compensation Survey: (Chicago: 10-29
Dartnell Corp., 1999), p. 141.
10.5 Creative Sales Training

 Effective training can take place

beyond the classroom or computer
 Requirements
 Focus on knowledge, selling skills for
success
 Understand deliverables
 Examples
 Boot camps
 Product “immersion”
 Cooking classes

10-30
 Keys for Effective OJT

 Teaming - bring together people with

different skills
 Meetings - set aside times when
employees can get together
 Customer interaction - include customer
feedback as part of learning process
 Mentoring - provide informal mechanism
for new salespeople to learn from more
experienced ones
 Peer-to-peer communication - create
opportunities for mutual learning among
salespeople
10-31
Source: The Education Development Center (www.edc.org)
 Classroom Training

 Advantages
 Standard briefings in
 Product knowledge
 Company polices
 Customer and market characteristics
 Selling skills
 Formal training sessions save executive time
 Interaction among salespeople builds
camaraderie
 Disadvantages
 Expensive
 Time-consuming
 Too much material = less retention
 Role playing a popular technique
10-32
Electronic Training Methods

 Online training > $18billion industry

(2009)
 Makes J-I-T information possible
 IBM plans 35% sales training to be over
Internet
 CD-ROM currently #1 delivery method
 30% of server-based training over
intranets
 Effectiveness not well-documented
 Not likely to eliminate one-on-one
training

10-33
Measuring the Costs and Benefits

 Sales training consumes

substantial time, budget and
support resources
 Relationship between sales
training and revenue is
difficult to measure
 Relationship between sales
training and other broad
objectives difficult to measure
10-34
 10.6 Training Road Blocks

 Training can’t solve the problem

 Busy, jaded salespeople are not open to
learning new skills
 Conflicting methods and philosophies are
taught at each session
 The training isn’t relevant to the
company’s pressing needs
 The training format doesn’t fit the need
 E-learning is overused, or used in wrong
situations
 There’s no follow-up after training
 The trainer can’t relate to the sales team

10-35
 Sales Training Costs

 Training funds are often allocated

with little regard for results
 Results and benefits are difficult to
measure
 Difficult to isolate training impact
from
 Economic conditions
 Environmental changes
 Seasonal trends
 Competitive activity
 Etc.

10-36
 Evaluation options matrix

10.7
Source: Thomas Atkinson and Theodore L. Higgins, “Evaluation Obstacles and Opportunities,” 10-37
Forum Issues, February 1988, p. 22.
 Measuring Broad Benefits

 Improved morale
 Lower turnover
 Higher customer satisfaction
 Management’s commitment to
quality and continuous
improvement
 Measuring changes in skills,
reactions and learning assists both
new and experienced sales
personnel
10-38
10.8
Overall ranking of evaluation measures

10-39
 Mark W. Johnston | Greg W. Marshall

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.