By
Geoff Wade - Onirik Pty Ltd
Organizations considering a technology investment want to see tangible
results right away. They bind their equipment suppliers with contracts
that link payment to business outcomes to manage risk. It’s time
Sales Managers started to force the issue and demand pay for performance
sales training contracts.
Several research and consulting firms (e.g. Huthwaite
Inc)1 have carried out studies of sales training to see
the carryover from classroom to the job behaviour. Their studies tell
how, on average, only 8% to 12% of traditional training works. In simple
terms this means you get 10 cents in every training dollar you spend!
The same research found some instances where sales
training actually resulted in real behaviour change and business results.
There were two factors common to the successes. One was training that
developed behavioural competence and the other was follow-up on-the-job
coaching. However, based on experience I’d also propose a third
– integrated consulting services.
First, the sales skills that work are known. But most
traditional classroom sales training involves a recipe book approach
where specific examples of successful behaviours are taught. Traditional
trainers attempt to create behavioural change directly with new behaviour.
What results is the graduates can talk about what to do (e.g. answer
test questions) but they fail to develop the flexible sales capability
in real life. Despite this problem with traditional training, when it
is paired with effective follow-up coaching, reasonable results can
be achieved.
In addition, when traditional classroom training is
enhanced with accelerated learning, experiential learning and Neuro-Linguistic
Programming 2 it can deliver even
more powerful results than traditional training combined with on-the-job
coaching. Among other things the new code of NLP works with high performance
states. This new code approach produces graduates who can demonstrate
the behaviour in the class and on the job. The new training approach
translates into business impact. You can combine the new approach with
follow-up coaching and achieve extra-ordinary sales results. Unfortunately
most training vendors use none of these new teaching and learning methods
and therefore deliver meagre if any business impact.
Secondly, the issue of on-the-job coaching is critical
to sustaining the required behavioural change and performance improvement.
So, how does coaching reinforce training? It is the differences between
coaching and training that hold the answers. Effective training teaches
you what to do but does not motivate you to do it but coaching is highly
motivational. Training content is fixed and set by the trainer while
coaching agendas are set by the individual’s needs. Training rarely
involves feedback yet coaching involves ongoing real time observation
and feedback. For these reasons traditional training alone tends not
to bring about major shifts in thinking and action. But coaching shows
sustained behaviour change. Effective training delivers behavioural
competence and the follow-up coaching links the competence to excellent
performance and business results.
There is also the issue of who does the coaching.
The most sustainable solution is where the sales training vendor teachers
your sales managers to coach front line sales staff behaviour. The fallback
is where the training vendor encourages the coaches to conduct shop
floor observation, ride along observation, or telephone double jacking
observation services.
All business performance and results depend upon the
actions of people. These human actions and behaviours are done within
time and the structure, systems, and processes that define your organisation.
If training and these elements are aligned then the people are empowered
to perform at their optimum. Therefore you want your training vendor
to consider the bigger picture to ensure their interventions produce
change.
This means you want to select a training vendor who
can provide three different skills sets in the one person or three different
people. They need to provide you a trainer who has the ability to
develop behavioural competence in classroom training participants. They
need to provide you a coach with the skills and the commitment to coaching
these skills on the job to ensure behaviour change and resulting performance
improvement. They also need to provide you a management consultant.
The consultant will design a training intervention that integrates with
your existing systems and possibly also help you refine key elements
of existing systems where gaps are identified.
I invite you to choose sales training suppliers who
work to improve your sales results not just sales skills. Only when
the sales intervention is designed to achieve a specific measurable
business result does the purchase make sense in terms of developing
new skills and behaviours, measuring business improvements, enjoying
high return on investment and a short payback period.
Some might argue, “Hey it’s more complex
than that! External factors (e.g. seasons) impact sales results.”
You respond, “Fine, we’ll have a control team who don’t
get training and a pilot team who get trained and coached. If we have
them selling the same products/campaign to the same market and compare
their results that will cancel the common externals factors.”
Therefore I propose that you challenge your sales
training suppliers to link their payment to the sales results you get
from their work. Agree an achievable sales increase target that gives
you good ROI. Then negotiate the payment terms such that if you get
a half that increase the supplier gets half their money. But if you
get a double the target then be prepared to pay some bonus. And if you
get no increase then you pay nothing. With this approach your supplier
has strong incentive to see you get the business result you want –
that is “skin in the game” and a real commitment to achieving
results!
The only way you will change the current suppliers’
‘all care and no responsibility’ model to a buyers’
‘you get paid for the business result you deliver’ model
is if you only buy business outcomes. Why do this? The answer is obvious
– if you can get modest sales improvements based on the traditional
10% skill transfer then what happens if you get full skill transfer?
The math is simple – up to ten times more in every way that counts!
So, if you’ve only ever used traditional training and nothing
more – then you can bet you a huge untapped potential sitting
in your front line sales force. Apply some of these new methods and
you can realise that potential.
Onirik clients enjoy double and triple digit percentage
sales increases, three month payback periods and triple digit ROI percentages.
It’s up to me to tell you that there are a few companies other
than mine that focus on your results (send me an e-mail if you want
their names). And it’s up to you to demand pay for results contracts
with your training suppliers. Insist on sales training solutions that
integrate with and support your existing systems. Ask trainers to prove
they have effective classroom training methodologies. Insist on post
training coaching (by the supplier or by your sales managers). Finally,
insist that your supplier think and act like a business consultant who
is willing to partner with you to achieve significant performance improvement.
Refuse anything less.
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Footnotes:
1 Huthwaite Study, American Society for Training and Development
Journal, November 1979.
2 NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is an attitude (a way
of thinking), a methodology, and a set of techniques to enable change.
It is not a theory, it is a model. And the test of any model is whether
it works. In the corporate context the evidence for NLP exists in the
numerous case studies that demonstrate break through change and quantum
leaps in business performance. Modern Psychology Magazine wrote “NLP
must be the most powerful vehicle for change today.”
Geoff
Wade
Geoff is the Sales & Marketing Manager of Onirik
Pty Ltd. Onirik is a team of professionals focus on business value and
measurable outcomes, as the reason for our clients to listen to Onirik.
Onirik, together with their partner Brava, delivers training and conducts
research in selling skills, management, coaching, motivational leadership,
the psychology of persuasion, effective business processes, negotiation,
and the practical application of NLP techniques in sales, service, and
management.
Special thanks to Clive Alcock, the Director of NLP
Corporate, for his valuable input and assistance in completing this
article. NLP Corporate www.nlpcorporate.com.au is a strategic implementation
partner of Onirik and together we jointly deliver results focused sales
solutions.
www.onirik.com.au
geoff.wade@onirik.com.au
+61 (2) 9004 7810
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