Training the "Right Stuff"
 

Whether you choose off-the-shelf training, or have a program built to your specs, start by determining what changes you want to see in your sales force, what results you want. Then work backwards to determine what the training should accomplish. In order to get the changes in salesperson behavior that you want, you must first define those changes very specifically. These are crucial tactical decisions that must be well aligned with sales and marketing strategy.

You wouldn't invest in building a house without approving a blueprint. The "blueprint" for a training program begins with a statement of behavioral objectives. Here is how we create behavioral objectives:

Describe the business results you want. Suppose your company sells Service X, which is key to the future of your industry and yields excellent margins. But your sales force sells very little of it. You've decided that a 500% increase in the revenue from service X is the business result you're after.

Decide what your salespeople will need to do differently to achieve your desired result. There are many factors that affect the sales volume of service X – pricing, marketing support, company reputation, etc. – but for now we want to focus on salesperson behavior. If you followed a salesperson through her day, what would you like to see her do that would significantly contribute to business results? You may already know your answer; or you may need to do some investigating to figure this one out. It is not unusual for us to make sales calls with the people for whom we are designing the training to study the challenges first hand.

Describe what's preventing your salespeople from exhibiting the needed behavior. It may be that salespeople lack the skills and knowledge required. But other obstacles could also be at work. Do salespeople know that you want them to sell more of service X? Have you shared your vision of how service X fits in with the organization’s future? Does their compensation plan make it worthwhile to invest time selling service X? Do you have enough marketing or technical support for service X? Have their been problems delivering service X? No amount of learning will remove these obstacles, and if you do remove these obstacles you may get some of the behavior you want without the need for a lot of new learning.

Identify the skills, knowledge and beliefs that you want to target with training. State these as behaviors. What will salespeople do. Behaviors are described by verbs (e.g., demonstrate, discuss, gather...). Focus is the key.  Mastery of a small amount is more valuable than mere coverage of a large amount.