The Periodic Table of Sales Training

According to the ATD, companies spend $20 billion annually on sales training but report a low return on their investment. That’s not acceptable. There is a way to build a wildly successful, sustainable sales training program. In the periodic table of sales training, we summarize the major factors that influence whether or not you’ll get the most out of your training investment.
We explore the following families of elements:
- Strategy: Success starts with clearly defined goals and a plan of action to get there.
- Topics: Reps and sales managers need to master certain skills and behaviors to succeed.
- Modalities: A blended approach engages different learning styles and allows the organization to identify the best combination of formats for impact and scale.
- Content: ATD shares 50% of sales teams don’t find their training engaging. Content must be to the point and relevant to team member’s daily work.
- Learning Platform: Reps and managers are busy. They need a learning platform that makes it easy to access training content and resources.
- Reinforcement: Use it or lose it. 87% of sales training is forgotten within 30 days. Ongoing practice and reinforcement is a must.
- Measuring Results: What’s measured gets celebrated and improved.
- Business Impact: Improvements in reps’ and managers’ performance correlates with improvements in sales activities, like close rates and average deal size.
- Leadership: Involvement must go beyond approving the budget. Leaders need to champion the training.
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