Sales Effectiveness
High-performing sales organisations have long used well-targeted training to close skill or knowledge gaps critical to their sales force effectiveness, and there have been several studies showing the impact of salesperson training on sales performance. There is also a strong belief that salesperson training alone is not as effective as training combined with changes in the work processes and management of salespeople.
Unfortunately, few studies address the question of how much more effective sales training can be if a systematic approach is taken to human performance improvement. As a result, some organisations are reluctant to make the investment required to implement such a systematic approach.
This study shows that salesperson training can produce improved sales performance, but that the improvements are more dramatic when that training is accompanied by changes in the sales environment. In this study, we found that sales training is 67% more effective when accompanied by changes in the environment; specifically, training for sales managers to coach and support application of the learning, and the addition of tools to support new skill sets. This study shows that when an organisation moves away from a traditional training mindset to one that uses a Human Performance Improvement framework, greater and more sustained improvements in salesperson and organisational performance are created.
A Human Performance Improvement Approach to Sales Effectiveness: How combining training and leadership add value to the organisation
It is an experience common to every traditional sales training effort. Salespeople leave a training seminar armed with a new selling perspective and new skills that they are ready and willing to use, but then return to the same, unchanged sales environment. An environment in which sales tools and procedures have not been adjusted to support the new skills. An environment where managers don’t know how to support salespeople in their efforts to apply the new skills, or even assess how well the salespeople are using the skills with their customers.
A Human Performance Improvement approach to organisational improvement recognises that any development effort implemented in isolation will produce only limited results. Implementing a new sales system or procedure without appropriate training or coaching will not produce sales improvement. Similarly, any sales training program, implemented without tools and manager support, will also have limited impact.
An approach to training that acknowledges the critical role of tools, measurement, and management support will enhance and extend the impact of learning. At Wilson Learning, we call this our Human Performance Improvement (HPI) process. It is represented in the graphic below.
A full description of HPI is available in a separate document. Briefly, we believe that there are three elements to a training and development effort that are critical to creating maximum results:
- Establishing a Business Case: Establishing a business case for performance improvement by linking specific strategic drivers to skill requirements
- Understanding the Challenge: Making effective decisions about what skills to focus on, selecting delivery methods, and determining how to integrate into the organization and how to align all key stakeholders to support this approach to performance improvement
- Creating Integrated Solutions: Creating the performance improvement elements necessary to address the challenge and accomplish the strategy
- Developing learning components to deliver the knowledge, skills, and abilities
- Developing work tools and process to support the use of the learning
- Providing organizations with the ability to track the impact of the learning on performance
- Ensuring that managers are prepared to support and coach the application of the skills
It is our experience that by identifying and implementing components that address these three areas, you can maximise the impact of training and development on your organisation’s results. This study shows that when you do implement multiple elements of the HPI approach, the results dramatically exceed those gained by training alone. This is especially true of creating integrated solutions, which is imperative to sustained human performance improvement.
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