Organizations typically spend more money on their sales training programs each year than they do on any other type of training program—sometimes millions of dollars more.
cnythzl / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Yet somehow, despite their proclivity to spend more money on training programs and resources for their sales workers (sometimes up to 20% more than other workers), the average annual sales team turnover rate is about 25%, which is still much higher than other functions across an organization.
And a lot of organizations don’t typically see the high returns they expect to see from their sales training programs or sales teams overall.
To increase the return on investment (ROI) of your sales training programs, you need to keep your employees learning; engaged; and, above all else, selling. And to do that, you’ll need to incorporate the below four elements into your learning and development strategy.
1. Customer Service
If you want your existing customers to continue to buy more from you, and you want to sell more to newer customers, all your sales team members should be trained in customer service.
Employees who have good customer service skills are better at building positive relationships with customers and earn more customers’ trust, allowing them to sell more to those customers as a result.
They also help your organization operate more efficiently (i.e., make and process orders more efficiently), and they encourage positive communications while working to maintain your organization’s positive reputation both inside and outside your organization.
2. Emotional Intelligence
According to research parsed by Salesforce, emotionally intelligent sales teams outperform their competition because they work more collaboratively together, contain a group of highly accountable members, and score much higher in delayed gratification.
For more details, read “4 Reasons Why Your Employees Need Emotional Intelligence Skills” and “Step-by-Step: 3 Ways to Train for Emotional Intelligence.”
3. Effective Leadership
Effective leadership practices and skills can ensure that your sales team will do more and earn more for your organization. So, invest heavily in the leadership development of your sales teams’ leaders.
For more information on why effective leadership development is imperative to increasing the sales of your organization, read “How Your Leadership Development Program Affects Your Bottom Line” and “3 Timeless Skills and Attributes Your Leaders Should Have.”
4. Ecosystem of Learning and Cloud-Based Technology
In 2019 and beyond, your sales teams will need to be able to access continuous learning and knowledge sharing via cloud-based technology if they’re going to earn your organization more revenue than the competition. Period. For more insight, read “Why It’s Important to Have a Cloud-Based LMS.”
Bottom line: If you want your sales training programs to continue to yield a high ROI for your organization, you need to make sure that they incorporate the four elements listed above to help your organization generate more sales.