The current sales consulting model focuses more on delivery than how it impacts a company. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Ken Lundin discusses why sales training cannot fix your salesforce. Ken Lundin is the President of Ken Lundin and Associates, providing sales consulting to B2B companies.
The interview discusses:
- The current model
- Small constant changes
- The fundamentals
- The impact of ongoing training
The Current Model
About 77 percent of people forget what they were taught within the first seven days after the sales training is delivered. That is why having a sales training initiative once a year is a bad idea. Many companies still do it that way, but they are just losing their ROI. Thus, sales training should be an ongoing process and not a one-day event.
Small Constant Changes
The habit stacking process means engaging in a bite-size piece change over a long period to ensure the behavioral change. However, the organizations’ leadership must be 100 percent committed to the transformational goal. Sales leadership has to reinforce the training daily because if employees see that management does not care about it, they will care even less. Taking small steps approach in implementing a change is beneficial because people are often reluctant to change if they start feeling overwhelmed by it. Thus, the company’s strategy should start with small steps and gradually move towards a significant change in overall sales performance.
Back to Basics
Experienced salespeople tend to forget the fundamental things that brought them to where they are at now. No matter how much we think that we are advanced in our skill, there is always something to be corrected within the fundamental part. The reason why you cannot build a pipeline or have an effective customer-centered conversation might not be some complex issue, but some basic mistake instead. Interestingly, the sales profession is one of the few that do not require continuing education. Even in college, all classes are focused on marketing and not on sales. There is a need for change in the system, including more training and education.
The Impact of Ongoing Training
Individuals who engaged in behavioral change over a long time managed to go from not selling anything to surpassing $350,000 in income, contributing to over 12 million dollars in sales to the company. But, individuals practiced how to prospect, add more value to their discovery calls, have better conversations with customers, and lastly, how to stack their habits.
Sales put a lot of pressure on the operational efficiency of the entire company. Thus, changing the model will free salespeople from so much stress and make them feel more supported during the sales process.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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