The Blatant Truth Weblog

The Training Didn’t Work

I was referred to a new prospect the other day and was told that the firm’s sales were “flat” …maybe I could “do something.” I followed up (of course) and had a conversation with the owner of the firm. Seems they tried training in the past and it “just didn’t work.” No ROI he told me. The sales revenues did not improve. And because of his bad experience he wasn’t going to try it again. Nope. Training doesn’t work…at least in his firm. And you know what, training doesn’t work UNLESS you put a couple of things in place, specifically:

–Follow-up reinforcement training that is conducted on an ongoing basis
–Recognition and rewards to motivate and incent sales reps
–Results measurement (how do you know that it isn’t working)
–Realistic time line (be patient, application of new skills and techniques takes time)

Make certain to attend to these necessary follow-up steps lest you be forced to say “the training didn’t work.”