Their eyes were rolling and yawns appearing. They were bored. I was getting impatient and could not understand why they weren’t grasping the “pearls” that I was presenting. Their answers were off point and my responses became short and edgy. Each training had less and less impact. My sales training had gone flat.

On one particular training I was going over a new opportunity. They could really make some money with this. In my mind a “no-brainer”. The responses from the team however were why it wouldn’t work, in other words pretty negative. Where were my entrepreneurs? Maybe I didn’t have the right team? What was I doing wrong?

Mixing Things Up

In an effort to turn this around I asked my boss to help train. He was happy to do so and did. The team agreed with his training and promised to make changes. Truthfully, I was a little peeved at first. How dare they listen to him and not me! Gulping down my pride… I finally accepted that any success with the team was a benefit to me as well. Unfortunately, as the weeks proceeded, not much changed. My team gave the “wink and the nod” to the boss, felt pressured to do so, but had very little buy off on this new information. Now what?

It hits me… I could bring in partner vendors to help stimulate training. Admittedly this did work for that particular product but not for an overall increase from my team. They would also go over promotions and such. Very useful information. I decided to use this once a month. Unfortunately my overall problem was still not solved.

Vengeance Is Mine

Now feeling totally frustrated, it was time for my team to feel my pain! So, I decided to make them do the training. I would make it difficult for them. No subjects would be offered. Just pick something that pertained to our industry and to their team. That ought to get them out of their comfort zone and zombie attitudes. I would not remind them when their training date was coming up. Failure for sure! They could opt to not participate but I would make it clear that they were letting their team down if they did so. Peer pressure, I love it! The plan was set.

Upon instituting the “plan” I was pretty sure I would get major rumblings and some failures. Going forward with the schedule, and no reminders, surprisingly they all were prepared. However, all offered dated training subjects and solutions. A realization by the team that offering something new and fresh was difficult had transpired. While no vengeance was attained a new appreciation for my efforts did arise. A win-win for both of us.

Sales Training Success!

As I talk with other managers I have come to realize this is pretty common. However, most don’t make the changes I did and simply gave up on their teams. Bad for production and their longevity as a manager.

Mixing up my training was the key. All the different approaches were spot on as long as not overboard. Sometimes it made sense to stop training all together for a short while. An appreciation for the efforts on keeping up with the latest products and sales techniques can be had. Creativity, ego set aside and patience are the rule. A trained motivated team will transpire and you’re bottom line will be happy they did.

Chris Lott

Chris has over 15 year’s Sales Management experience including Business Ownership, Product Management and Web Design/Marketing. He’s a national sales team strategist and trainer. Chris is the designer of the popular totallysales™ sales playbook with thousands of copies downloaded. He’s a nationally syndicated author with his articles on SalesBlog! rated as a “top must-read” on consultative selling.