Sales training and development can be one of the best investments distributors can make

by Dave Kahle

Which of these issues do you worry about?

" Keeping the good salespeople you have?
" Motivating your salespeople?
" Stimulating your salespeople to become more productive?
" Attracting good quality, new salespeople?

If youre concerned about any of these issues, youre not alone.

These are near the top of almost every businesspersons list these days, with good reason. If you can positively resolve each of these issues, youll go a long way to profitably growing your business. If you cant, you may have a very rocky road ahead of you.

Now, suppose you could focus on one initiative that would help positively resolve each of these issues. Is there one thing you can do to help you keep the good salespeople you have, motivate them, stimulate them to become more productive, and attract good quality sales candidates?

Of course there is. You can build a systematic approach to developing your salespeople. By successfully accomplishing that one thing, youll resolve all the others.

By development, I mean this: Continuous improvement in the knowledge, processes, skills and tools necessary to be ever more effective and efficient. I dont mean a monthly sales meeting where you talk about problems, new company policies and procedures or discuss a new product. Those kinds of meetings are necessary, but hardly sufficient.

Nor do I mean that salespeople should learn on the job by trial and error. At best, that is a time- consuming and costly approach. At worst, it leads to mediocre performance, confusion and frustration among salespeople and their managers. Most companies who claim to do on-the-job training are really making an excuse for their lack of ability to do anything better.

Im unaware of any other sophisticated area of human labor where it is expected that every practitioner learns how to do the job well on his or her own. I would not want to settle into an airplane seat and hear the pilot announce that he taught himself how to fly the plane. Nor would I put my life in the hands of a surgeon who learned to operate by trial and error.

In almost any profession you can think of (lawyers, teachers, social workers, ministers, engineers, repair technicians, etc.), practitioners are expected to master a body of knowledge, principles and procedures. While all of these professions expect people to practice, none expect practitioners to learn the basic principles on their own by trial and error.

Are field salespeople somehow different? Are their jobs so simple that its easy to learn how to do it well? Or, are they super intelligent and able to figure it all out on their own? Clearly, the answer to both questions is no.

Sales is a formidable profession that offers its practitioners a lifetime of challenge. No salesperson is ever as good as he or she could be. Salespeople are no more or less intelligent than teachers, social workers, ministers, and the like.

Not only that, but most professions expect members to continually improve themselves. Show me a doctor, lawyer, CPA, teacher, social worker, minister, etc., who has not sought additional training and development in the last two years and Ill show you one who is either retired or dead. Show me a salesperson who hasnt invested in improving him or herself in the last two years and Ill show you 80 percent of the salespeople in this country.

Why is that? A major reason is because most distribution companies dont require continuous improvement. One reason they dont is because they dont know how to pull it off. So, they busy themselves with product-oriented sales meetings and complain often about unmotivated salespeople.

Being systematic about development is far more extensive than that. Heres what your organization might look like after you have invested in developing your salespeople.

1) Youd have a structured training program 
for all new hires.
Every new hire would be required to acquire and master a body of knowledge, skills and processes, and benchmarks along the way could measure their progress. The program would teach important practices such as:

" developing territory plans
" planning for sales calls
" strategic planning for account penetration
" relationship-building
" prospecting and cold calling
" making appointments
" collecting information
" maintaining good records
" getting organized
" making persuasive presentations
" gaining commitment
" implementing customers decision
" following up to assure satisfaction
" penetrating key accounts

2) After attaining a certain minimum level of competency, the salesperson would then be required to continually improve on his or her skills by investing time and energy in getting better at the job.
Youd make that happen by:

" Requiring monthly or quarterly involvement in learning experiences.

These could be anything from classes at the local university, audio or video training programs or continuous improvement programs, to something as simple as checking a book out of the companys library and sharing a list of good ideas at the next sales meeting.

" Holding regular developmental sales meetings focused on a specific behavior or practice to help people improve in that one area.

3) At some point in a salespersons development, he or she will likely look for additional career challenges.
When that happens, the focus should be on providing the salesperson with opportunities to expand competency in areas other than sales that can help the company. For example, some salespeople want to focus on training or coaching others. They can be channeled into learning how to do that. Others may want to expand into management, and should be encouraged to begin gaining management skills and practices. Others may want to pursue team leadership, etc.

A comprehensive development system should account for three things:

1) Learning the basic principles, processes and tools for effective selling.

2) Continuous improvement in the sophisticated practices of highly effective salespeople.

3) Opportunities to expand in complementary careers and learn the skills necessary to do so.

How will this help you retain and attract good salespeople, motivate the ones you have, and improve productivity of the entire group?

Which would you rather work for? A company that doesnt invest in developing their people, or a company with a regular, formal and systematic approach such as the one described above?

Imagine interviewing a prospective salesperson before and after implementing the system described above. Without such a program, you say to your candidate, We expect you to learn on the job.

After implementing the program, you can say, We have a structured training program to assure that you master the basic practices that will ensure your success. When youve mastered those skills, we have a system to stimulate your continuous career growth so that you are always growing better at your job. Finally, we have a system to help you expand your knowledge and skills into complementary areas like sales management, team leadership, and so on, if your are so inclined.

Everything else being equal, which company would you rather work for? Thats how a development program will help you attract the right kind of people. Clearly, the same is true of your current sales force. Begin to require continuous improvement, provide them with the means to improve and invest in them, and youll be surprised how loyal they become.

This kind of program cannot help but improve your sales productivity. When all of your salespeople know that you require constant and measurable improvement, most of them will begin to work to improve. Youll begin to see the result in increased sales and gross profits.

Training and development can be one of your best investments. If one salesperson acquires just one new account because of your investment in their development, that one new account will more than likely pay for a years worth of development costs.

How to move in the right direction
Here are some small steps you can take toward becoming a learning organization Ive described.

1) Budget for development. As simple as it may seem, this is a major step. Once you have a budget, youll find it much easier to actually spend that money. The decision will not be if but rather how. Also, by budgeting money for development and then letting your managers know, you send a powerful message that you are serious about development and are willing to invest some of the companys resources in it.

How much should you invest? The Facing the Forces of Change study from the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors found that high-performing wholesale distributors spent about 2.5 percent of payroll on training. A survey by the American Society for Training and Development found that its member companies averaged 3.2 percent of payroll on development. Since training is a smaller issue than development, and since salespeople can generally benefit the company more than drivers, warehouse workers and production personnel, Id suggest a higher number.

I like to see 5 percent of payroll invested in continuous development of the sales team.

2) Have your sales managers create individual development plans with each salesperson. It is common for sales managers to hold annual goal-setting meetings to identify performance goals.

Thats a great opportunity to create annual development goals and strategies at the same time. Doing so lets everyone know that continuous development is a requirement of the job.

3) Regularly generate learning opportunities. Learning opportunities are events at which salespeople are exposed to new ideas or reminded of good practices.

They can encompass a wide range of possibilities, from reading a new book on sales strategies, having roundtable discussions of success stories and common problems, to viewing a monthly videotape series for inside or outside salespeople.

The point is to generate learning opportunities on a regular basis and require salespeople to take part in them.

While not everyone will gain the same thing from each event, over time theyll understand that you are serious about their growth, and that their continuous development is your priority and their responsibility.

Dave Kahle is a consultant and trainer who helps his clients increase their sales and improve their sales productivity. He can be reached at , or via e-mail at .

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2001 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2001.

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