You feel your sales team is not performing at the level they should, so you feel bringing in a sales training speaker for your next sales meeting would help solve the problem.

Yes, hiring a sales training speaker may help the problem, but the question you first have to answer is, “Is the problem an issue with the sales team or another part of the company or the marketplace?” If it is a concern you feel is due to the sales team, you then have to determine if it’s due to skill or attitude.

Skill and attitude are completely different issues.Yes, a sales training speaker can help with both, but only with strong support from management, and that right there is many times the real problem. If management does not support the training and, more importantly, embrace the necessary follow-up and support to reinforce the training, then there’s no sense in doing it. This is true for both skill and motivation.

Motivational sales training, in particular, is more about the environment and guess what? That’s a huge part of management’s responsibility. <h2<Likewise, skill training also requires management support to ensure there is follow-through and application.

I’ve watched far too many companies bring in a sales training speaker, thinking that one single event is going to change everything.

Hiring a sales training speaker for a one-time event is like taking a shower. It might enable you to be clean for a day, but that’s about it.

Just as you most likely take a shower everyday, so too sales training must be a daily routine and this is the role of the sales manager. Yes, the individual salesperson needs to take ownership, but just like with anything else, when there is accountability to another person, the outcomes will invariably be greater.

Finally, if the sales training speaker can’t provide a means with which to measure the return on investment, then they’re simply not worth hiring. Companies only invest; they don’t buy anything and training is no exception. If it can’t be measured, it’s simply not worth doing.
A high quality sales trainer will provide you with the means to measure results.

If they can’t or won’t, then your decision is easy — don’t let them near your sales force.