Post By: Jake Miller
| Senior Manager Of Product Marketing October 3, 2019
Every organization seeks a healthy return on its
investments, but when it comes to boosting or even measuring the ROI of sales
training, things can get tricky.
For one thing, it’s not easy to predictively align
activities such as training exercises and learning retention with tangible
outcomes such as productivity and revenue. Even when this is accomplished, it
can be difficult to prove causation instead of mere correlation – e.g., that a
newly taught objection-handling response is responsible for closing more deals,
rather just the innate talent of your latest batch of new hires.
Still, there’s a solid body of evidence that the
following 5 “fundamentals” will help improve the ROI of your sales training
efforts:
1.
Choose training that’s proven to work in the field. A common–and often valid–complaint
among reps is that a particular sales training course, technique or tip simply
doesn’t work in the real world. Ideas that work in the classroom don’t always
work in the field, so you should use training content and methods with
demonstrated results for your reps, competitors’ reps, or reps from similar
organizations in another industry.
2.
Calculate the anticipated ROI. Choosing training with a proven track record should
also enable you to roughly calculate the anticipated value. Before you
invest, say, a quarter-million dollars in a new-product messaging event, see if
you can correlate the investment to a proven outcome–once again, perhaps
looking at how competitors or comparable sales teams in different industries
have performed under similar circumstances. If the value is likely to produce
an additional $100K in sales on a $250K investment, then the training obviously
makes little sense.
3.
Enlist the support of managers. Before rolling out a new training initiative, be sure
to cultivate the support of sales managers. There are two main reasons for
this: first, sales managers will be chiefly responsible for creating the
opportunities for reps to practice what they just learned; and second, they
will also play a leading role in coaching the reps to ensure that new
knowledge is reinforced and applied properly. Ultimately, it’s the sales
managers who will either facilitate or block reps’ efforts to apply new
learning.
4.
Link specific training activities with specific outcomes. Focus on linking one or two training
activities with specific–and adjacent–productivity goals. For example, if you
train reps on a new cold-calling script, link that activity to top-of-funnel
activities like call-to-conversation conversion rates, not close rates, which
is at the bottom. Without identifying a causal relationship between training
and specific outcomes, you’re likely to identify dubious relationships that
will inhibit your ability to measure true ROI.
5.
Pluck the low-hanging fruit first. For example, there are few easier ways to identify
the ROI of sales training than to focus on decreasing time-to-productivity
after onboarding or new product launch. Just be
sure to establish a baseline before rolling out a new or expanded program so
the measurements are accurate. The faster your reps start closing deals, the higher
the ROI you’ll see from your onboarding and launch training programs.
Following these five fundamentals should not only
increase the ROI from sales training, but also make it easier for you to
justify future spending on these programs. Ready to take the next step? Get
your copy of the “4 Ways to Quantify The ROI of Sales
Training Technology” eBook.
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