Is Product Training Hurting Sales?

Today’s training narrative sounds little like that of the last decade.  Customer apathy and economically minded decision-makers asking ‘why do we need this?’ have forced the change. 

 

In response, growth oriented organizations have shifted their focus from solely training sales teams on what their products do, to what their products do for their customers.  Put another way, the desired learning outcome is to enable sellers to lead customers to your products vs. lead with your products.

 

In this manner, equipping sellers with competencies to understand a customer’s business, or financially justify what they’re selling, is now separating growing companies from the pack.

 

Analyst firms have quantified the problem

Research targeting executives involved in buying technology conducted by Brandon Hall Group and Forrester Research revealed strikingly similar viewpoints among business leaders:

 

Brandon Hall Group¹

• 84% cited a sales professional’s ability to understand their business as critically important, while only
• 25% of the sales professionals who called on them possessed the required competencies to do so.
  

Forrester Research²

• 88% of salespeople who called on them were knowledgeable about their products and services, but only
• 24% of salespeople understood their business.
  

 

Brandon Hall Group’s research further revealed that 87% of sales leaders said their teams do not possess adequate business skills, and that < 50% of L&D professionals report that these competencies are addressed in their learning plans.

 

A clear and intuitive conclusion arises from these studies:  Stronger business people deliver stronger business outcomes.  Think of it this way, when competitors can model business outcomes and product functionality alike, while your team misses the former, you’ve lost the battle.

 

Assessing if a skill gap exists in your organization

 

As L&D organizations are tasked to help enable realization of the corporate business strategy, here are two steps you can initiate to align yourself accordingly:

• Ask sales leaders:  are you satisfied with your team’s level of business acumen?  Would greater business relevancy improve sales performance?
• Assess a sample population of sellers to measure skill levels relative to your industry’s benchmark, and to quantify potential gaps.  

 

At Executive Conversation we offer six, role-relevant versions of our Fluency Assessment used by hundreds of companies worldwide to tailor learning plans.  You’re encouraged to request a complimentary license to try out the assessment, or peruse a few sample questions.

¹ Essential Selling Competencies: The Buyers Side Perspective

² Technology Buyer Insight Study:  Are Salespeople Prepared For Executive Conversations?

 

Eric Beckman is EVP at Executive Conversation, a learning consultancy that works with sales organizations to build business acumen.  His latest book, Cloudy, with a chance of rainmaking, offers a guide to help organizations translate the value of their technology into performance improving investments business buyers can understand.  For more information contact info@conversation.com.  

Written for TrainingIndustry.com