The Six. of a Sales Training. The Top Reasons Why Most. Tom Stanfill, CEO ASLAN Training & Development

October 29, 2017 | Author: Hilary Parsons | Category: N/A
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» WHITE PAPER

The Six Pitfalls of a Sales Training Initiative The Top Reasons Why Most Programs Fail

Tom Stanfill, CEO ASLAN Training & Development

Table of Contents

Introduction What can be more daunting than launching a company-wide initiative

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Pitfall 1 – Focusing on the What vs. the Why . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Pitfall 2 – Investing More in What Happens IN the Workshop than AFTER the Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

where the people who judge its success talk for a living? And to add a few more bricks to your shoulders, the time and resources required to pull it off are extensive. Bottom line – it better work. Bad news – most sales

Pitfall 3 – Measuring Post Training Behaviors Rather Than Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

training initiatives fail to deliver. At a

Pitfall 4 – Believing it’s a Front Line Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

only a few anecdotal stories strategically

minimum, the ROI is fuzzy, bolstered by captured to make everyone FEEL a bit

Pitfall 5 – Throwing in Everything but the “Kitchen Sink”. . . . . . . 7

better about making the investment.

Pitfall 6 – Implementing a Sales Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Assess Your Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

So why do most training initiatives fall short?

About The Author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

This paper is designed to be a simple

About ASLAN/Contact Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

checklist of the top six pitfalls to be avoided (all learned from implementing hundreds of sales training initiatives over the last 18 years). It’s not a comprehensive list of “how to’s” but rather the most common mistakes organizations make when rolling out a training program. It can be helpful in evaluating potential outside training partners or in ensuring that your internal program is a success. Or maybe you’re an experienced learning executive who just needs a little support in convincing your “client” to embrace your recommended path. Regardless of the need, our hope is that the information

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provided will ensure you successfully transform your organization. 2

The Big Six: Six Pitfalls of a Sales Training Initiative Pitfall 1 – Focusing on the What vs. the Why Below is a list of the big six. I will provide a brief overview of each and then offer a simple template you can use to expose any gaps in your development plan. 1. Focusing on the What vs. the Why 2. Investing more on what happens in the workshop than after the workshop 3.Measuring the post training behaviors and not customer outcomes 4. Believing it’s a front line problem 5. Throwing everything in but the “the kitchen sink” 6. Implementing a sales program

All too often when developing a program, we overlook the fact that if the participants don’t believe they need to change, then training, regardless of the level of quality, is irrelevant. The first hurdle of any change initiative, whether in a one-to-one coaching session or in a classroom, is ensuring there is actually a desire to change and grow. With so much to learn, most programs are designed to jump into the learning without investing the appropriate time to ensure participants: (a) understand that change is needed and (b) understand that it’s in their best interest to change. Often those who are behind the change initiative (very often senior leadership) are so connected to the problem that they rush, or skip altogether, the steps required to “get the troops on board.” If you are concerned that engaging the learning will be a challenge, consider the Four P’s to ensuring participants will embrace the need to change.

The Four P’s: 1. Personal Goals People change for two simple reasons. One - because they believe it’s in their best interest to change and two because they believe that change is possible. We will focus on the latter when we dive into Pitfall 5. As for the first, it is critical to position any sales training initiative as a resource to help reps ensure they reach THEIR personal goals and not a workshop designed to “fix them” for the sole benefit of the company – with the underlying message, “If you learned how to sell, we would hit OUR number.” It’s critical that the tone of the program is not about “fixing them” but rather providing a resource “for them.” And the best way to accomplish this is to start with what’s on THEIR “whiteboard” - not what’s on yours. Now that’s a pretty easy concept to grasp – but if you have a large sales force, it sounds like a daunting challenge. The key? Delegate it to the front line managers. If possible, have the managers align the sales training to the rep’s personal goals prior to the workshop. Gaining this knowledge (their personal goals) is critical to the manager’s ability to lead most effectively and should already be part of their approach to motivating their team. If involving the front line leadership is just not an option, then allocating time at the beginning of each core component of the program to ensure participants understand the personal payoff for change is a must – a non-negotiable.

Another benefit to this approach is that you will expose those who resist change simple because they have nothing on their “whiteboard” - those participants that are desperately holding on to the status quo. By doing so, you’ll help avoid future arguments about the new way to sell. If they do arise, you can quickly defuse them by returning to your other-centered objective – “We all agreed earlier in this section that if you were able to _____ it would help you ____.” In my experience, if you successfully establish an other-centered objective for change, the “unconverted resistors” will quickly determine that it’s better to remain silent than expose their emotional barriers to change. If you plan to conduct pre-training assessments (always recommended), be careful of the message you deliver. Assessments are often designed to expose gaps vs. uncover the challenges reps face every day. It’s a subtle difference but one that greatly shapes the underlying message – on the one hand - we are here to “serve you” or on the other - we are here to “fix you.” By focusing on their challenges, you will expose the sales gaps while ensuring the appropriate message is delivered – “We just want to make sure we understand the challenges you face every day.” If this is your approach, participants end up feeling heard and see this as an initiative for them.

By focusing on their challenges, you will expose the sales gaps while ensuring the appropriate message is delivered.

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The Four P’s: 2. Principles The second “P” for ensuring you address the “why” to change, is identifying the principles that support every pillar of the program. There are fundamental laws at work for every effective approach to selling. Whether you are trying to improve response rates to emails or creating receptivity to a presentation, there are principles that, if understood, remove the mystery as to why one approach may fail and others succeed. And what makes principles so powerful in learning, is that we intuitively realize the truth.

Buy-in grows as participants roll up their sleeves to address the problem and share their assessments of the recommended approach. As you think about the content in your program, have the fundamental principles been defined for:

The Four P’s: 4. People

• Building the relationship?

Lastly, the person chosen to deliver the program is as important, and in some cases more important, than the content itself. The recommended standard is to choose a facilitator the participants would want to emulate. When they throw out situations or challenges they face (sometimes the greatest learning opportunities), will the facilitator be able to respond in way that quickly builds credibility with the audience? Can they go off script and apply the model to any situation, based on real life experiences? If not, buy in diminishes and the learning objectives are jeopardized.

• The sales process? • How you engage a new prospect?

We are all customers. We have all been on the receiving end of a message designed to influence our behavior. We know what works. So when our behavior is distilled down into a principle, the complicated gets simple and we break out of our memorized and stagnant way of doing things. Once understood, these principles provide a framework to guide hundreds of decisions. So how does this help participants embrace the need to change?

• Discovering needs?

If you define and gain agreement to the guiding principles for each core competency or methodology to be learned, you ensure that the recommended approach will be embraced. By effectively establishing the first building block for all concepts to rest on, you establish a sound platform for learning. Every time you offer an alternative approach to selling or you see participants return to bad habits during and exercise, you’re able to return to the established principle. The principle that was embraced 30 minutes prior becomes your strongest advocate for change.

Once the principle has been embraced, the next step is to describe situations in which the desired outcome was not achieved and the principle was ignored (the problem). Buy-in grows as participants roll up their sleeves to address the problem and share their assessments of the recommended approach. The student becomes the teacher and, if the principle is sound and applied to the situation, success is guaranteed. Now ownership of the learning objective is all but certain.

•B  uilding value or advancing the opportunity? • Negotiating and responding to resistance?

The Four P’s: 3. Problem-Based Learning

This also holds true for the development of exercises, examples, and training simulations. If left up to an instructional designer without “street experience,” participants will immediately sniff that something is off – “That’s not how we would say it!...It would never happen that way!....Customers don’t say that!....This situation isn’t relevant to what I face every day!” As soon as participants decide the program was built by a person who never “carried a bag,” the engagement level plummets.

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Pitfall 2 – Investing More in What Happens IN the Workshop than AFTER the Workshop Everyone understands that training is a process and not an event – it’s almost cliché. But because most either don’t understand the process or lack the buy-in to implement the process, the truth doesn’t get applied. So what is the process? What do most organizations miss in creating their sustainment plan? They lack a plan to ensure that managers are equipped to drive change – a process that holds sales leaders accountable to develop the competency to lead and coach and the discipline to follow the process. At Aslan, we address this through certification.

Manager Certification Significant change happens one-to-one, not in a workshop. Therefore MORE investment is required in developing front line managers than in developing reps but all too often the reverse is true. To ensure managers are equipped to drive change, a certification process should be created that holds managers accountable to: 1. Understand the terms and language of the program. They may understand the concepts but if they fail to use the exact terminology, confusion sets in and reinforcement is lost.

2. Role-model the core competencies. It’s not enough that they understand the terms, they must be able to role-model the basic skills and strategies taught in the program 3. Accurately diagnose the root cause of the performance gap and prescribe the most effective development plan to bridge the gap. 4. Consistently coach their reps – not just talk to their reps about performance or provide tips about how to improve – but coach - observing rep’s performance in the field or on the phone. This is THE biggest barrier in sustaining a sales training initiative. If managers don’t free up the bandwidth to consistently observe a rep on a call and create a development plan, training becomes little more than a motivational session, with a few additional tips added to the rep’s bag of tricks.

What About the Reps? Similar to the manager, reps need accountability to kick start the learning. If the program was successful, participants will leave the classroom with a strong desire to apply what they learned – but change is hard and they need a boost to get over the hump. The key is to break the program down into a 90 day, self-development plan – focusing on one major concept at a time. Very shortly after the workshop, ask the reps for a commitment to the plan. Then create a mechanism for reporting their progress to both the rep and management. My recommendation is NOT to make the application punitive. If you do, the “program” will be seen as the enemy and not as a resource. Results are always the goal, the program and reinforcement tools are just tools to accomplish what THEY want to accomplish. (In the case of a rep that has been consistently below quota or new to the company, I would make adherence mandatory).

Results are always the goal, the program and reinforcement tools are just tools to accomplish what THEY want to accomplish.

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Pitfall 3 – Measuring Post Training Behaviors Rather Than Outcomes We all know that measuring the results of training is critical to long term sustainment of the program. But what do you measure? Most would say sales results or revenue. While obviously important, there are often too many market conditions to accurately associate the effects of training on the overall revenue number. If however, you can link the core outcomes or milestones in the sales process – those that always predict success, then you can remove the variables and confidently assess whether your program is actually moving the dial. The key is to zero in on the 5 to 8 simple outcomes the program (how we define competencies) was designed to achieve. Most sales organizations get overwhelmed or distracted by 50+ sales behaviors – the technique vs. the desired result. The key is to define the competencies by CUSTOMER outcomes and NOT by what the rep attempted to do (e.g., questions asked, communicated prescribed benefits, etc.). Let’s consider a golf analogy. A golfer’s success is based on a score (similar to a reps quota) but how do you measure the competencies golfers must possess that ultimately will determine that score? Some would say “look at their short game – that’s a key competency” or “look at their tee shot – that’s a key competency”. And they’d be right – and that’s like saying “look at their prospecting – that’s a key sales competency”. Also right. But again, how do you measure that competency?

The key is to break sales down into competencies that can be measured by a pre-definedoutcome. Let’s go back to the golf analogy. What if we broke down the “short game” into three competencies: chipping, sand shots, and putting? Now it becomes a bit easier to define and measure competencies. I can easily measure putting by number of putts per round or sand shots by how close the ball consistently lands near the hole. It really DOESN’T matter how the golfer holds the putter or how “by the book” their stance is - this is key. If they consistently have a low number of putts, there’s no need to get bogged down in all the elements that go into successful putting. Success is determined by the outcome (i.e. the ball consistently goes in the cup within an acceptable number of putts). Let’s translate that into the sales environment. Consider measuring a rep’s ability to effectively communicate the relevant other-centred benefits of their solution to the customer, the step of the sales process we refer to as “Build Value” . Should you first focus on the rep’s ability to communicate benefits, identify barriers or handle objections? No. Successfully Building Value should be measured simply by whether the CUSTOMER embraced the recommendation and/or positively changed their opinion of the product/service/company and was willing to advance. If the rep achieved this “outcome”, they were successful. If they achieve this “outcome” consistently, they are competent at building value and the training was successful. The “why” or “how” really doesn’t matter.

If they failed to achieve the desired outcome, then the coaching begins. The manager zeros in on the 5 or 6 key behaviors that contribute to success in Building Value (e.g., communicating benefits vs. features, handling objections, delivery) and diagnoses which behavior is causing the rep to miss the mark. Here the manager refers to the resources offered in their leadership training, to create a development plan. Beyond creating a simple way to measure the success of the program, this approach to assessing performance offers two major benefits to the manager. First, the manager is able to quickly narrow the focus to the root cause of the problem (vs. wasting time measuring 50+ sales behaviors on every call). Secondly, managers will eliminate arguments with reps who are achieving results but don’t do it the “company” way. If they can consistently hit the ball 300 yards down the middle of the fairway with their putter, leave them alone. In summary, to measure the effectiveness of the program, focus on the outcomes of the key competencies the program was designed to develop. Results will be easy to measure and reps will embrace the assessment. Every golfer who wants to lower their score is motivated to learn their statistics on driving the ball, greens in regulation, etc. Additionally, senior leadership can easily connect the development of these competencies to overall results, ensuring the support and investment continues.

To measure the effectiveness of the program, focus on the outcomes of the key competencies the program was designed to develop.

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Pitfall 4 – Believing it’s a Front Line Problem It makes perfect sense to focus the initiative on those who interact with the customer and their managers – but without senior leadership buy-in, the program often gets derailed. To ensure the transformation occurs, you need the involvement of the mid-level and top level leaders in order to: » Remove barriers to coaching. If front line managers truly don’t have the bandwidth to coach, senior leaders need to honestly assess what needs to be removed from their plate.

» Embrace the sales philosophy and methodology being promoted in training. For example, if you are teaching a more consultative, long term approach to building business but the senior leaders focus on a short term transactional approach to selling, guess what the reps and front line managers will do? Go right back to pushing their favorite product. The key is alignment and without it, the most powerful will always dictate what actually happens in the field. » S upport the long term investment in the process. As you know, your goal is not to put on a workshop but to institutionalize a new approach to selling. That requires a top down commitment of resources to the transformation process.

The key is to ensure key leaders are invited in early in the development process. Stand your ground if you encounter push back. If they don’t have the time to invest in the development of the program, I promise you they won’t have time to lead the development process once the program is launched. Secondly, be armed with case studies that demonstrate the ROI for doing it right. Every investment requires a return and there are numerous examples of best-in-class organizations that see the payoff for making the commitment.

Pitfall 5 – Throwing in Everything but the “Kitchen Sink” When making the huge investment to bring the sales force together for a training event, the temptation is great to cram everything into one program and to apply the training to every possible product, solution, and service. Don’t fall for that temptation. Self-efficacy (one’s belief in their ability to reach a goal) is a critical component to learning. When you overwhelm participants with too much information, they quickly make the decision that while change may be beneficial, it’s just not possible. The key to training is not to raise the bar but to lower it, ensuring reps quickly develop momentum in a new direction. Here are a couple of recommendations to help ensure you calibrate the correct amount of content to your audience.

» Apply training to just one solution, product set, or customer type. For example, avoid building your discovery models and exercises around uncovering the needs for every solution. Instead apply to just one specific solution. This is not the time to educate the reps on all the solutions your organization offers. The focus is to develop the skill. If you try to accomplish both, you will accomplish neither. Build the skill models around one solution throughout the program. If they develop the new skill by applying to just one solution, they will quickly see and be able to apply it to their remaining solutions. After the initial training, you can develop your reinforcement sessions applying the same skill model to the remaining solutions. If your sales organization is more transactional in nature and doesn’t sell solutions, then focus on one customer type and the relevant products associated with that unique profile.

» M  easure the percentage of time spent in interactive exercises. If application of the concepts taught in the program is under 50%, you have too much content. The actual percentage should be determined by the availability of the managers to reinforce the program. The less management support offered, the higher the percentage should be spent on application. The more you can lean on the managers to coach and develop their team, the less dependent you are on the training event to develop new skills. Regardless, the time spent on application should never drop below 50%.

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Pitfall 6 – Implementing a Sales Program Generic sales development programs always miss the mark. Would you train an ice skater the same as a hockey player? Of course not. The same is true in sales. An inside account manager selling in the SMB space is vastly different than an account manager working with channel partners who sell to complex, enterprise accounts. Account managers are not biz dev people and biz dev reps are vastly different than a outbound telesales rep. In reality there are 11 unique sales roles and each requires a different set of skills and training. If you fail to address the unique challenges of each role, reps hyper focus on the 10 to 20% that isn’t relevant to their role. Therefore, if you are investing in outside curriculum, ensure that it was created for the role you have chosen to develop. If the partner you are considering hasn’t identified the unique roles and built their library of content accordingly, raise the red flag. More investigating is required.

An effective coaching program will move beyond the conceptual model and provide leaders with the insight to diagnose the root cause of the problem and then accurately prescribe an effective developmental plan. Secondly, all the conceptual models must be linked to the specific challenges faced by the participant. Time must be invested in creating the exercises, examples, and case studies, specific to their role. To be blunt, generic content, even if it’s uniquely created for the role, simply doesn’t work. As stated earlier, change is hard. Most reps will not put in the additional effort to link the concepts to their world. The application must be built in from the start or the participants will walk out complaining, “They just didn’t understand my world” and the investment will be lost. Finally, generic coaching and leadership models that are often deployed to develop the front line managers – while effective at teaching leadership principles and a conversational guide for conducting a coaching session, will fail to provide the tactical tools needed to address the root cause of the performance gap. Sticking with the golf analogy, if they learned how to have a collaborative discussion with the golfer about how to improve their game but have no idea how to fix their slice, the coaching session may be well received but the player will still walk away with the same gap.

Again the core problem is in the linkage. An effective coaching program will move beyond the conceptual model and provide leaders with the insight to diagnose the root cause of the problem and then accurately prescribe an effective developmental plan. Since most leadership programs were created for every possible role, from engineers to accountants, this critical step of the program is missing. Unless the content was specifically built for equipping sales leaders, the linkage is candidly just not possible. And without this critical element of the program, managers will either revert back to show and tell (“give me the club I’ll show you how to hit the ball”) or just bail on coaching all together. And both paths lead to pretty much the same results.

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ASSESS YOUR PROGRAM Best Practice

Assessment (1-5) 1 = Missed that one – 5 = Totally nailed it

Ensuring Participants Developed the content or plan to connect all core elements of the program to the participant’s personal goals Embrace the Need to Change Identified and defined the irrefutable principles that serve as the foundation for all the philosophies, models, and concepts included in the program. Subject matter experts (SMEs) are heavily involved in the customization of the program Former or current sales professionals are chosen to deliver the program Sustainment Plan

Manager’s have the bandwidth to Coach (minimum of one coaching session per rep per month) A plan is in place to certify (i.e., pass or fail) that managers can role-model the core competencies, accurately assess the barriers to performance, and are following the prescribe development plan.

Measuring Success

A 90 day, self development plan has been engineered for the participants. All relevant competencies are identified and defined by customer outcomes The behaviors (skills and knowledge) associated with each competency are cataloged Developmental exercises and activities are available for each of the identified behaviors ensuring the coach can easily create a plan to shore up the performance gap. Mechanism is created to measure and track the rep’s ability to achieve these competencies

Sr. Leadership Buy-in

If necessary, barriers to coaching have been removed Willing to invest the necessary resources in the process to drive change Understand and Embrace the New Sales Philosophy/Process

Amount of Content

Relevancy to Each Unique Sales Role

A detailed curriculum outline has been created and ensures a minimum of 50% of the workshop is allocated to applying the concepts taught in the program. Percentage of time allocated for exercises is consistent with the support participants will receive from their manager (i.e., less content for low level of leadership and reinforcement support) Rep’s role is mapped to one of the 11 roles & content has been customized/designed specifically for the identified sales role All exercises, examples, and simulations have been created for the reps unique role – ensuring all generic content has been removed. Tools have been developed for leaders to accurately diagnose the performance gap and prescribe the appropriate developmental activity

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about The Author Tom Stanfill

Founding Partner and CEO

ABOUT TOM STANFILL

ABOUT ASLAN Since 1996, in over 25 countries, ASLAN has focused on accelerating change within many of the world’s largest sales organizations. Beyond the typical workshop, our solutions and expertise are focused on the four critical areas needed to ensure sustainable change: » Tactics – Establishing the methods (i.e., processes), message and metrics that are consistent with high performing sales organizations » R  ep Development – Customized skill development programs for each of the 11 unique sales roles.

Founding partner and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Stanfill has focused his 17 years of experience consulting and developing training programs for inside and field sales organizations. He is widely recognized as a thought leader in the field of account management, acquisition and growth. Tom has published numerous articles on the subject of selling and is a frequent speaker at the most prestigious industry shows.

The Six Pitfalls of a Sales Training Initiative » aslantraining.com | 1. 866.362.6496

» L eadership Development – Providing the tools and programs to ensure sales leaders transition from just measuring performance to truly driving change. » R  oad Map to Transformation – Includes leadership certification, rep and manager development resources, & sales dashboard to track and measure the three areas that drive results.

1000 Parkwood Circle Suite 810 Atlanta, GA 30339 770-690-9616 10

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