A WORD FROM DUANE SPARKS
Dear Sales Executive:
How long have you wished that you could justify the time and expense of sales training with hard numbers that convincingly demonstrate training’s impact on bottom-line sales performance?
That kind of hard evidence is something the sales-training industry has always lacked – until now. This edition of eCoach is the third in a series that describes how the concept of “big data” has begun to apply to the evaluation of sales training.
If you have a question about how to conduct sales training that can be evaluated in a genuinely meaningful way, click on “Ask The eCoach“.
We are committed to your professional success.
Duane Sparks
Author of Action Selling
HOW DO YOU KNOW YOUR SALES TRAINING WORKS? (PART 3)
Suppose you deliver a sales training program to your sales force. And suppose that in the next quarter, or the next year, your company’s sales revenue increases. Well, good, right?
But now suppose you are asked to prove to a skeptical CEO or CFO that the additional revenue—or some defined percentage of the increase—is directly attributable to the sales training, as opposed to changes in the company’s marketing practices, a pickup in the general economy, or whatever. How would you demonstrate that?
For as long as there have been such things as sales executives, no good answer to that question has existed. In recent years, other industries have been able to address such issues by seeking patterns and evidence in oceans of “big data.” But not the sales-training industry. Not until now.
In 1995 my company, The Sales Board, formed a development team of software engineers and psychometricians to create a validated instrument that would reliably measure factors pertaining to Action Selling training. Those factors include how much knowledge a salesperson has about each of the five Critical Selling Skills that Action Selling teaches; how much that knowledge level improves after training; and how well the person is able to use the knowledge on the job.
That last point—measuring the application of skills and knowledge on the job—has always been the missing link in proving a direct connection between sales training and a subsequent increase in sales revenue.
As I explained in the previous two editions of eCoach, we now have compiled 20 years’ worth of data on 400,000 salespeople from more than 3,500 companies in a broad range of industries. Our SQL relational database contains about 78 million data points.
Now that we’ve got “big data,” let’s mine it.
Research has proven that sales success is most affected by five Critical Selling Skills. Action Selling isolates and teaches those skills. They are:
- Buyer/Seller Relationship
- Sales Call Planning
- Questioning/Listening
- Presentation Skills
- Gaining Commitment
The “big data” we have amassed over 20 years allows us to look at each of the five Critical Sales Skills (and at all five together) to determine the average starting point for students, prior to training, in both knowledge and ability to apply the knowledge. We also can determine the levels that students reached upon certification in each skill. We then can calculate (in percentage terms) the skill gain that occurred, in both knowledge and application, as a direct result of sales training.
Here is what those measurements reveal for the third Critical Selling Skill, which is Questioning/Listening:
Notes:
- Blue bars indicate average assessment scores prior to training. Green bars indicate assessment scores upon certification.
- Two bars on the left indicate Knowledge Two bars on the right indicate Application measurement.
Remarkable findings about this skill
- The fact that, prior to training, salespeople scored 61% on Knowledge and almost as well on Application (57%) means they were applying nearly all of what they knew. They just didn’t know enough.
- The key to improving the skill of Questioning/Listening is to increase knowledge while driving consistency in application.
- Certification scores of 89% in Knowledge and 84% in Application demonstrate that the training has hit the mark.
- Questioning/Listening is a very high-priority skill since it significantly impacts other skills, such as Presentation (for instance, needs identification is vital to presenting solutions effectively).
What could you do if you could measure, with that sort of precision, the gains resulting from a training program not just in knowledge but also in on-the-job application of Critical Selling Skills? For one thing, you’d be well-equipped to demonstrate—even to skeptics—a convincing cause-and-effect relationship between sales training and a subsequent boost in sales revenue.
In the next edition of eCoach, we will present the average results of Action Selling training for the fourth Critical Selling Skill, Presentation Skills.
For information about how to make sales training pay huge dividends, contact Action Selling at (800) 232-3485.
For a far more complete look at findings from The Sales Board’s 20-year sales-training evaluation project, see my current white paper, Big Data Reveals the Best Way to Develop Sales Talent.
CAN SALES TRAINING BIG DATA ANSWER BIG QUESTIONS?
If you’re looking for sales training, New Big Data reveals the right approach to designing sales training that produces maximum business results. Are you asking any of these Big Questions?
