Dive Brief:
- A new survey conducted by Corporate Visions, Inc. reveals that only one in five companies think that their sales people are getting trained on the skills they need to succeed. What attributes to this is the resistance sales people have over taking field reps out of the field to engage in training.
- While 65% of the 300 companies polled said that they planned to invest in virtual training over the next couple of years, around 45% said that in-person and instructor-led training were believed to be the most effective training formats for sales people. This can be attributed to the soft skills that are passed down from one generation of sales people to the next, often determined by individual sales managers.
- Tim Riesterer, CSO for Corporate Visions said in a press release that, "Companies need more flexible training formats that are based on core sales competencies so that sales people can learn on the go, when and where they need to learn new skills and without leaving the field."
Dive Insight:
Sales training has always posed a challenge for companies. In order to get a good ROI from new hires, companies expect new sales people to get out there immediately and start selling well. But, unless they have a great mentor and access to strong learning opportunities, it's all trial by fire. Sales is one of the career paths that is typically low retention, high pressure and makes the most impact on a company financially.
This report, and another recent one from ATD, highlights the need for sales people to have access to current sales training materials accessible via mobile devices. So too, communities of sales professionals can stop competing with each other and instead support and learn from one another.
