Why Sales Training Doesn't Work

WHY SALES TRAINING DOESN’T WORK …and what you can do about it.

PRESENTED BY:

John Kipp

Principal Consultant

March 21, 2015

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WHY SALES TRAINING DOESN’T WORK

KippMARKETING White Paper Series 2

Why Sales Training Doesn’t

Work and what you can do about it

by KippMARKETING with thanks to Bob Flynn

“To facilitate the success of an

organization, training must become

everyone’s responsibility.”

Robert O. Brinkerhoff Ed.D., Internationally recognized expert in

evaluation and training effectiveness

Making Sales Training Pay

The “ABC” selling system (Always Be Closing)

heralded by Alec Baldwyn’s character, Blake, in

the movie Glengarry Glen Ross was a “take no

prisoners, pump, and sign” approach that might

have been a successful sales strategy when the

movie opened in 1992, but is now considered

one of the great, all-time parodied sales

speeches on the Web. In fact, one of the best

parodies is performed by Baldwyn himself on

SNL chewing out Santa's workshop elves to

"Always Be Cobbling." And yet, I still get calls

today from salespeople using this tired and

offensive tactic.

The reason why sales training is largely

ineffective today is because it is based on

principles that fit the way sales used to be

conducted. The days of glad-handing, back-

slapping and spending afternoons in bars trying

to close a customer are long gone, thanks

largely to the acts of Enron and Worldcom.

The Sarbanes – Oxley Act of 2002 (C-SOX in

Canada) came out as a result of these corporate

scandals that shook investor confidence. SOX

and C-SOX not only increased the scrutiny of

corporate governance on both sides of the

border but, from a sales standpoint, it shifted

the responsibility for purchasing away from

operating line managers to the corporate

purchasing department. Now, purchasing

decisions at large public companies are made

by professional purchasers whose training and

expertise are designed to drive you to your rock

bottom price, whether or not it’s

compensatory. Don’t believe me?

A few years ago, my mentor Bob Flynn was

conducting a strategic account management

workshop in Chicago. Bob learned that there

was a buyer’s negotiation workshop being held

in the same facility. Curious, Bob checked it out

at the next break. Coincidentally, his class was

also on break, so he strolled into the workshop

classroom. Right behind the speaker's lectern,

high up on the wall was a huge banner. Here's

what it said:

The Buyer’s Credo

Narrow it down to one issue: PRICE, and then

hammer away. Pay no attention to their sales

pitch, value add claims, relationship building

techniques, four color brochures, product &

service comparisons, etc., etc., “UNLESS”…

they apply to one or more of your issues, then

assign a relative value.

Selling changed a long time ago and stakeholders

at all levels must collaborate to systematically



manage the learning and behavioural change

processes. Sales training needs to be consistent

and cost-effective to deliver the results needed

to build and sustain a competitive advantage.

So, for training to work in today’s environment

it must meet these five criteria:

1. Strategic sales priorities must be

translated into training solutions. Don’t offer

sales training for transactional type business

when your goal is to build national, strategic

accounts. If you’re stuck with low-volume,

price-sensitive accounts, what training is

required to penetrate the large, national

volume accounts? How do you find and build

rapport with great customers who appreciate

the value drivers you impact and the

commitment you demonstrate to their success?

What and how do we teach our people to

displace the competition and build long-term

trust and credibility with strategic customers?

2. Technologies must be integrated with

performance improvement and sustaining

methods. For example, cloud-based CRM

services such as Salesforce and ZOHO are great,

cost-effective platforms to monitor and

reinforce the quantity and quality of those

interactions after training. However, you likely

don’t want to immediately invest in their

“premier” versions, which their brochures

purport to capture, analyze, and report on a

hundred different customer variables and

trends. Salespeople aren’t clerks and, in my

experience, few are able (regardless of the

consequences) to take proper care and thought

in completing sales reporting requirements. The

result? A whole lot of bad data and a growing

suspicion of the system’s capabilities and value.

In the 1991 printing of Ed Deming’s book Out of

the Crisis, Ed describes the woes of a

transportation department in the USA charged

with vehicle registrations. Chronic mistakes on

the forms (customer names, addresses, and

serial numbers) were costing the state

$1,000,000 a year in corrections. The manager

tells Ed that he has approval to spend $10,000

in software (remember what year this is!)

programmed to highlight and force correction

of errors. He boasts that elimination of costly

corrections will save the state $1,000,000 every

year!

Ed disagrees, of course. His common-sense

reckoning of the situation is that the forms

themselves need to be improved for clarity and

ease FIRST and then the typists need to be

trained to understand what constitutes an error

and their consequences. Once the typists have

reached a point where they have no need for

the software, that’s the time to buy it!

The initial objective of your CRM investment is

to capture critical, accurate, and timely baseline

customer data. At first, that might only be 10

data boxes, but that’s where you need to start

to ensure good data is recorded. For it to work,

not only do training and testing need to be

instituted, so do clear positive and negative

consequences for compliance. You’ll find that

once the sales people get used to the

requirement, they actually start liking and

relying on the CRM to keep track of their

customers and follow-ups. Soon, they start

lobbying you for more sophistication. Once you

hit that milestone, start looking at

enhancements to the system.

3. Stakeholders must be involved in all

aspects of training. The managers of trainees

are usually the killers of training. Back on the

job, the trainee often hears, ”I don’t care what

they told you in training, here’s how it’s done.”

This very common occurrence is the inevitable

result of the separation of training

development from the company’s other



operations. Unless you have interdepartmental

and senior level alignment for training, don’t

waste your people’s time or your company’s

money.

4. Post-learning interventions must be

applied to reinforce application of the

training to the job. Translation – don’t pay for

piano lessons if you don’t plan to buy a piano.

That means sales managers and coaches must

spend productive time with their salespeople

behind the windshield and in their customers’

shops, offices, and boardrooms. Think about it,

the old Russian proverb of “Doveryai no

proveryai” (Trust but verify) used by President

Reagan during the negotiation of the 1987 INF

Treaty is absolutely critical in converting an

antecedent (Training) into positive and

sustained behavioural changes to compete in

the new sales reality.

5. The efficiency of the training must be

measured to ensure results and manage costs.

Here’s a scenario you may have experienced.

You invest in a two or three day sales seminar

and your field selling force is sheep-dipped with

all sorts of valuable sales stories, information

and insights. Great! They head back to the

office all fired up like they just came out of a

Tony Robbins seminar, ready to hit the road

and take on the world!

Over the next few weeks, you might even see a

spike in sales. But then, something happens.

By the third or fourth week, you notice that

they’re struggling to remember what being

“pumped up” felt like. And, if you’re lucky,

they’ve retained about 10% of all that

great information they received in that short

period of time. Sales have levelled off and they

are back to their old, comfortable habits.

The training “investment” now seems like a bad

idea when you add up the cost of the seminar,

T&E, plus everyone’s time away from work.

Three Sales Training Myths

1. Training Makes a Difference

Simply providing training, even when the design

and delivery is excellent, does not add value to

the organization. It is only when the training

process is viewed and managed as a larger

more extensive process that involves all

immediate stakeholders that it has a chance of

making a difference.

2. Training’s Purpose is to Learn

Remember Senge’s “learning organization”

mantra of the 1990’s? If learning is the purpose

of training, then this purpose can be met

without enhancing productivity or achieving

any other organizational business goals. Most

executives and training professionals must

believe this myth because the web site

TrainingIndustry.com estimates that in 2013,

$141.7B was spent in North America on

training. A good portion of that one hundred

and forty-two-billion-dollar training industry is

focused on achieving learning objectives, NOT

business objectives. Training needs to be win-

win for both the employee and the company.

3. Training is Training’s Job

Much of what’s wrong with training today

stems from the myth that training is the job of

the training or human resources (HR)

department. In organizations where training

dollars are wasted, the training department or

HR is viewed as the provider of all the

company’s training programs.



As I mentioned earlier, training is just an

antecedent; this means it sets the stage for

change to occur—it doesn’t implement

change. Sure, it may inspire slight behavioural

change for a short period of time, but training,

in and of itself, has a very limited effect on

change of any sort.

For sales training to have a lasting effect it

must be constantly repeated, which is very

inefficient and costly. The only prudent way to

give training sustaining behavioural influence

is to pair it with systematic reinforcement. The

people providing the reinforcement must be

the managers, supervisors, and coaches of the

trainees; i.e., the immediate stakeholders.

Failing to reinforce training is the mother of all

training failures. This is where 95% of

companies take a shovel and dig a big black

hole in which to bury their money.

The Management Imperative

So, how does management train their field

sales force to NOT act as vendors anymore?

Firstly, you must take a stand and refuse to be

commoditized and compete exclusively on

price. Secondly, you need to communicate

that imperative throughout the organization

constantly, consistently, and creatively.

Thirdly, your field sales force need to learn

how to proactively understand how your

customers do business, find ways to address

their pressing business issues, and

recommend strategic solutions that improve

the way they do business.

The entire organization needs to step away

from a limited focus in favour of big-picture

business value. To be successful in today's

price-driven environment you have to rethink

the opportunities you pursue, how you create

your plans, what you choose to learn about

your customers, the level of people you are

willing to sell to, and the way you present your

value. You must be acutely aware that buyers

are trained, motivated, and given lucrative

incentives to turn your products, services, and

solutions into commodities. This will only

happen if you permit it.

Stop thinking that you can react to the

customer's buying process in the hope that

they will be different and you will be able to

sell value. You won't. You'll wind up losing

the deal or, if you win it, you'll win at a price

that shreds your margins.

But John, We ARE Different!

Bob Flynn uses an interesting and revealing

exercise in many of his workshops. First, he’ll

ask the participants if their products, services

and company in general are better than the

competition. Most answer with a resounding

“YES!” Next, Bob divides the class into two

groups and asks group #1 to pretend that they

will be meeting with an important new

customer the next day. He then instructs them

to write down exactly what they will tell this

important customer about their organization.

Bob then asks group #2 to pretend that they

are THE major competitor to their

organization and that they will be meeting

with this same customer. He instructs both

groups to list everything they will tell this

customer about their organization.

At the end of the 15-minute exercise, he

compares the two lists. Guess what? The lists

are almost identical. Usually the order of

priority is similar if not exactly the same. Bob

will then ask the blockbuster question: “So…

how are you different?”



1. We’re #1.

2. Our people make the difference.

3. We are financially stable.

4. We have a superior safety record.

5. We are uniquely qualified.

6. We are cutting edge & state of the art.

7. We have technological superiority.

8. We are the market leader.

9. We are customer-focussed.

10. We are values-driven.

These are all neat taglines, but they do

nothing to positively differentiate your

company from others. In fact, they do just the

opposite. They position your company with all

the other companies that have the same

claims. Why?

Because that’s the same thing they’re saying.

And when that happens, the customer

becomes confused and takes charge of the

differentiation process. Know how they do

that? Simple. They go to the southwest corner

of the spreadsheet and say, “Okay, looks like

both companies can do the job so let’s get

these folks in a price war and choose the

lowest bidder.”

Do I Even Need A Sales Force?

Based on my 33 years of sales and sales

management across five companies, I believe

the question you need to ask yourself is: "How

have I changed the sales process in the past

five years?" If you have already undertaken

the changes needed to tackle the new ‘sales

realities’ and your organization is aligned to

that reality, then my view is "yes, you do need

a sales force." If you haven’t made any

changes in your sales process, my answer is

"no” you don't need a traditional sales force.

Why? Because if your business isn't mostly

transactional, it's soon going to be.

Your best strategy in that environment is to

get rid of your expensive sales force, take as

much cost out your operation as possible, and

seek lower-cost sales channels online or

through distributors and dealers.

Final Thoughts

Late in 2014, I joined my new Territory

Manager, Bob, on a three-day road trip to

Northern Alberta to visit new and existing tank

trailer customers. I enjoyed time on the road

with my reps and coached many on how to

undertake good prospecting habits. Part of

that is my “fear-free” method of cold-calling,

appointment-generating, and using the skills

necessary to build trust and credibility with

new and existing customers.

At about 3:45 pm on the second day, we were

on the highway West of Edson when we

spotted a number of stainless steel crude oil

tanker trailers parked in a construction

company’s yard. Eager to make one last call

for the day (who wants to see a salesman after

4:00 pm?), we took the service road and

approached the gate. Bolted to the fence was

a grim sign much like this one:



I turned to Bob and he shrugged his shoulders

and said, “Well, I guess we should move on.”

Move on? Not a chance! I told him to head for

the two-story office building on the other side

of the yard. At the front of the building—

where other cars were parked—there was one

empty space with a parking meter! When Bob

noticed the warning on the meter, he started

to perspire.

As Bob got back into the car, I took my phone

out and with a big smile on my face, I took a

picture of the meter: “They’re never gonna

believe this back at the office!” In the car, Bob

turned to me and said, “I guess these guys

don’t want to talk to salesmen.” I said, “Look,

Bob, how many other salesmen have been

scared off by these signs? This could be an

exclusive for us! Really, all they’re asking for is

a little respect for their time. The good news is

that they have a sense of humour. Fortune

favours the bold Bob, and we’re getting in

there tomorrow!”

The next morning, we called the prospective

customer at 9:05, after their coffee. Thirty

minutes later, Bob and I were sitting in the

President’s office. We had a friendly

conversation for about 45 minutes, followed

by a tour of his facilities. Our visit ended with

the president’s commitment to meet with us

again to discuss equipment needs for new

wells opening up in the area.

What a great story! I teach it as part of

Module One of the Counter 5 Selling System:

Fear-free Prospecting and Appointment

Generation. It absolutely works on the

toughest customers – even those with meters

that read: Salesmen Parking Only!



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Kipp is the Principal Consultant

at Kipp MARKETING, a sales training

and coaching firm specializing in

teaching the skills of selling in a hyper-

competitive marketplace.

In his 33 years of sales and executive

sales management experience, Kipp

credits his years of success in sales to

his ability to build trust and credibility

with his customers and that, he states,

“begins with the very first contact.”

Over the years, Kipp has led his sales

teams to significant sales and

operational achievements.

Kipp began his career on the road right after university as a fuel and lubricants Marketing

Representative in 1982 for a major integrated oil company in Ottawa. His sales acumen,

leadership abilities, and love for business development have resulted in some high profile

appointments over his career. In 2015, Kipp retired from the Advance Engineered

Products Group where he served as Vice President, Sales & Marketing. Before that, he

served as Vice President, Marketing/Business Development and as Western Division Vice

President for Trimac Transportation Services. Shortly after leaving Trimac, Kipp worked

for the Contrans (Transportation) Group as Vice President, Marketing and Business

Development.

Kipp credits his inspiration to leave corporate life to pursue sales training and coaching to

his mentor, Bob Flynn. Flynn is the founder and managing partner of PeopleWorks!, an

internationally respected authority on tactical and strategic selling, executive coaching,

personal development, and employee motivation. “Quite simply, Bob is the best sales

trainer I have ever worked with. He has taught me a lot about how people interact with

each other and has exposed me to timeless truths and principles which will continue to

serve me and others throughout our lives. It’s Bob that encouraged me to share what I

learned and those experiences with others who might benefit.” Kipp teaches what he has

personally applied successfully with the countless sales people he has coached and

worked with during his career.