Top Ten Sales Training Mistakes That Most Companies Make

The best laid intentions…..For most companies, sales training is a mysterious “black box.” They give training “a shot.” They have that special time of year when they do their training. They bring in the specialists from HR. They “role-play” for the video camera, etc., etc., etc.. In my experience in working with companies across the country on their sales and training, I have seen it all. So, to close out the year, (and in the spirit of The Dave Letterman Show) I offer to you the Top Ten Sales Training Mistakes That Most Companies Make:

1-No Support From the Top
How often is that I see upper management in many companies touting the importance of the growth of their salespeople! How often that I hear them extolling the virtues of the development techniques that their mid level managers and trainers offer to their sales staff! The truth in most organizations is that the leaders typically are more concerned about results than process; about the scorecard than the way the score was achieved. Sure, a leader must concern themselves with the results of the team…there is no doubt in that. But, for the most part what I see out there is little ACTION-and what I hear out there is merely lip service towards the training of most sales organizations. It is no wonder that there are many CEOs that are “throwing up their arms” in surrender to the lack of sales skill, proper attitude, and focused sales activity on their teams.

2-Little-To-No Interaction From The Sales Team
For those companies that are doing some training, I have found that the “chalk and talk” method is widely used in their training. That is, in their training, the trainer lectures the salespeople on “best practices” that need to be implemented or stats that need improvement. In these sessions, there is typically no input, no feedback, and little-to-no interaction from the sales team. It has been said that, in a training session the teacher typically learns more than the student. Locking salespeople in a lecture-style training session only serves to demean, demoralize, and de-motivate those in attendance. Thus, no buy-in-and no learning!

3-Sporadic and/or Inconsistent Training
It seems that there are more companies out there that offer training like the CIA or FBI offer information throughout the ranks…On a “Need To Know Basis!” What is that? The reactive nature of most companies turns their focus toward the training of their salespeople only when sales are down or during the “slower” months. I have had the good fortune to work with hundreds of salespeople who have been products of this dysfunctional system and the major consensus is that, because there is no flow to the training, there is no flow to the learning and thus, no flow to the implementation of new techniques. Also, there are many companies that have the “once a year” dose of training at their national meeting or industry convention. I have yet to ever meet a sales professional that blossoms and continually grows because of a 90 minute keynote address once a year.

4-“One Size Fits All” Sales Training
In any sales organization, there are varying skill sets, experiences, and attitudes. The differences can be vast or subtle throughout the members of the team but, nonetheless, they are there! Too often, a company will develop a curriculum and run their people through it like cattle with little-to-no adjustments for style, tenure, or level of salesperson. Any good salesperson will tell you that you must adjust your message to the customer in order to hope to make an IMPACT with more than one style. Wouldn’t this seem to make sense in the development of our teams? (**This does not infer that senior, experienced, or highly skilled salespeople do not get value from training and thus, need none…it is merely pointing out that there should be some customization to the audience or one on one interaction at differing levels.)

5-“Give the Pitch” Training Only
This is one of the most common mistakes that I have seen in sales training. In fact, I was guilty of this early on in my own sales management career. Many companies herd their salespeople in a training room and repeatedly go over “the pitch!” This training many times forces the salesperson to memorize the words, the steps, and the flow of the sales presentation as if there will never be any deviation from it. In these sessions, the salesperson will work primarily on WHAT to say, WHEN to say it, and sometimes even HOW to say it. Rarely is there a WHY we say it! Although we need our salespeople well prepared to give their “value proposition” and extol the many virtues of doing business with our companies, we find that this approach tends to lend itself to the creation of a “pitch” focused salesperson who prefers a monologue rather than a dialogue in his/her sales presentations! (BAD NEWS!!)

6-Less-Than-Stellar Trainers
Many times, companies tend to throw someone into the training role that is ill-prepared for the task. This is not to say that this person does not care about their content or delivery nor focus on their audience. What it does often mean is that those in attendance feel that the training is more professorial than it should be. In other words, if there is no “component of experience” in the training, the message often gets lost in the translation. In sales especially, the term “those who can’t---Teach!” seems to be very applicable. (**Please do not misconstrue this to mean that I feel the best salespeople make the best sales trainers or the best sales managers-it simply means that unless there has been a visible track record of success or a tangible/believable evidence of sales experience in a similar sales model, the dismissive attitude tends to be present.)

7-Just DWID Training
Although I extol the many virtues of field sales training by senior/experienced sales reps, I often see little translation from what is shown to how it applies to the trainee. The “Just Do What I Do” method of sales training often sees the newer salesperson out in the field riding shotgun with a seasoned salesperson. The senior sales rep (or sometimes the sales manager) will go into a selling situation and ask all the appropriate questions, give a smooth presentation based upon his discovery, relate applicable success stories, address concerns smoothly and effectively, and earn the business with what seems to be complete ease. Afterward, he turns to the new rep and says “There….that wasn’t too hard now was it? Simply do what I do and you’ll be successful!” What we don’t realize is that the sales manager’s confidence, credibility, and charisma with the client is based upon an extended amount of experience in the company which allows him to know what moves to make, what stories to tell, what to say, what NOT to say, what names to drop, and so on. The sales training program typically has none of this information captured on paper as a tool for the newer sales rep so what appeared natural to the senior guy is far from natural for the trainee. Thus, the training (if it stands alone) is ineffective and will lead to frustration on the part of the newer salesperson.

8-Non-Applicable/Usable/Implementable Sales Training
Often a trainer is put into place internally (or hired externally) based upon their “platform” skills. They are good presenters with a good menu of material for general sales information. Although this may be applicable as a way to “kick-off” training initiatives, please do not mistake it for sales training. Fundamental or foundational training is very important to keep salespeople continually focused on “what gets them to the dance.” However, there needs to be specific training in place that addresses current specific situations such as common objections or roadblocks to the sale and how to address them, appropriate ways to “open” the prospect or customer through questions in a discovery process, real-life success stories and enthusiastic endorsers, and many more topics that go deeper into the real day to day life of the salespeople. After every training session two questions need to be asked of the group that is being trained:
“So, what did this mean to you?” and
“What ACTION will you take to apply what you’ve learned?”

9-No Follow-Up and Measurement on New Initiatives
Even the best training will only be nominally effective if there is nobody “driving the process” when the training stops and application of the training begins. It has been said that you can expect what you inspect and the things that get measured get done. The path of least resistance that most people follow (human nature) will lead them back to what they are comfortable with. Implementation of new processes or initiatives is often uncomfortable (especially to more senior salespeople) and thus there is a tendency to “give it a try” and if it doesn’t feel right (which, the first time, it hardly ever does) then it is given up on. Many companies go through the motions of training and expect that all new “stuff” will get embraced and acted upon when indeed this is rarely the case without consistent follow-up and measurement.


10-No Sales Training-No Problem!!
Many companies offer the three-part training program 1)Here’s your cards… 2)There’s your territory…. 3)Now, Go Get ‘Em Baby! Although this may bring a chuckle to you, the fact is that many companies hire “experienced” salespeople from competitors or from similar industries and assume that, because they have worked as salesperson before, they will be able to “catch on” quickly and start selling their product or service effectively. No matter how many times that they have seen the opposite, this remains the standard M.O. for a vast majority of companies in the marketplace today. It is my belief that this comes from a laziness of purpose or a stubborn pig-headed-ness on the part of the company that has them believing that a salesperson SHOULD no how to build a book of business in their company. There are no “SHOULDs” in building and training a sales team. Often in this approach, the only training that the salesperson gets is on product knowledge and “How we pitch it!”


Now, I have a question for you: Does your “sales training program” in your company look similar to any of the scenarios above? Are you nervously chuckling right now or red-faced embarrassed? Are you putting a fancy gift-wrap on one of these 10 common mistakes or are you justifying one or more of them with things like “I don’t have the time” or “This doesn’t apply to my organization?” If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, don’t worry! (OK, worry, but ACT on it!) There is help available!!