The right sales process, sales methodology, or sales training for one sales organization, may be entirely wrong for another sales organization. There are dozens of factors to consider. Here are a few of the most important.
Strategy: What is the company’s overall strategy? How does the sales force contribute to the attainment of strategic goals? If the training isn’t aligned with, or can’t contribute to the overall strategy, it isn’t the right training.
Maturity: How mature is the sales organization as a whole? Does it have the competencies it will need to execute the process, methodology, or training outcomes? There are some sales organizations that won’t be ready for certain training and development. They would be better served with something that moves them towards maturity.
Leadership: Is the leadership capable of leading the execution of the sales process, methodology, or training? Are they deeply engaged? The return on an investment of training and development is directly proportional to the amount of leadership exercised before, during, and after the training.
Needs: What does the sales force need to improve their results? How tightly aligned with those needs is the process, methodology, or training? Training that doesn’t provide the sales force with what it needs to succeed isn’t the right training?
Clients and Customers: Training around sales processes, sales methodologies, or other sales skills needs to account for who you are selling to. What does the sales organizations clients (or customers) need? How does the training help the sales force create value for their clients?
The process, methodology, or sales training some other company is using may not be right for you and your sales organization. It doesn’t matter how popular it is, and it doesn’t matter how much you feel the need to provide your sales force with something new.
The most effective sales training around a process, methodology, and sales skills are principle-based. You don’t perform better by chasing novelties. You perform better by better executing the fundamentals.
