Do you want to be 57% more effective at sales than your competitors?
That’s probably an easy “Yes!”
Want to know the secret of how to achieve this boost in effectiveness? Sales training.
Still not convinced? What if I told you every dollar a company spends on training returns $4.53 on average? That’s a 353% return on average!
And yet, only 17% of companies say they have an effective training program.
Alright, enough statistics. Let’s get into the bones of this. If you’re not investing in continual training, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to level up your sales team. They can’t crush their targets. And you won’t feel like a great leader.
That said, the best sales training needs a significant investment.
In this article, I explain why investing in sales training is so important, what you can expect to pay, and the factors that increase the price.
How Much Does Sales Training Cost?
Before we dive too deeply into the specifics of what sales training costs, let’s first answer a crucial question: Is sales training worth investing in in the first place?
Let’s not beat around the bush: The sales industry is constantly changing and evolving. That means that, if your team isn’t actively engaging in training to stay up on trends and improve, they’ll become less effective over time.
Related Read: The 7 Best Sales Training Topics for Teams
Of course, not all sales training is created equal. Sales training programs are somewhat notorious for being ineffective. Why is this?
Firstly, many training programs lack competency transfer. Rather than focusing on increasing confidence and ensuring reps have retained the information they’ve been told, many trainings focus simply on the information itself.
Another common issue in sales training is a lack of behavioral change. If you cannot reinforce the material covered in training, your sales team won’t retain the lessons learned or apply them to their daily job duties. As a result, you won’t see the needle move after training because no real change has been made.
Lastly, many sales training programs neglect mindset training. If your reps resist training or coaching, you’ll have trouble convincing them to adopt new methods. You should explore training programs that address these mindset challenges if you want to make real change in your organization.
Why Should You Invest in Sales Training?
Your business’s success hinges on revenue. Of course, every team in your organization contributes to revenue somehow, but the buck stops with sales. If you can’t get prospects to buy, the business will struggle and ultimately fail.
It takes time to build a quality sales pipeline, and in the modern B2B world where sales cycles are long, you need to create value at every step of the buyer journey to hit your targets. Ongoing training is a continual investment that will help your organization continue to grow and achieve its goals.
Sales reps represent your brand; if they know what they’re doing and how to create value, they can build trust and relationships with clients. Well-trained reps guide customers through their purchase decision faster and more efficiently.
Is Free Training the Way to Go?
You may be considering free sales training. What’s better than something free, after all?
The challenge here, however, is that with free training, it can be challenging to weed out the genuine training solutions from offers that ultimately provide little value or, even worse, reinforce poor behaviors and ineffective tactics.
However, some free training programs can be useful in providing a baseline for your reps. For example, HubSpot offers free courses through HubSpot Academy. Their sales training certifications involve three hours of coursework followed by an exam.
Related Read: The Five Root Causes of Poor Sales Results
IMPACT+ also offers some free training resources. The Fundamentals of They Ask, You Answer with Marcus Sheridan can be a helpful starting point for both sales reps and marketing professionals.
Additionally, you may explore sales books to support your training efforts. Of course, books aren't technically free but can be an inexpensive way to supplement your training and reinforce the lessons learned.
I’ve written several sales training books myself, including Elite Sales Strategies, The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need, The Lost Art of Closing, and Eat Their Lunch. You can view all my books here.
How Much Does Sales Training Cost?
Let’s get right to the numbers here. How much does sales training cost? The simple answer is: it depends.
The price tag for quality sales training can range between $400 and $6,000.
This range is large, and not all programs are equal in terms of quality, time, resources, or subject matter. Some training is also one-size-fits-all, whereas other programs are private and tailored to your organization.
Public training is excellent, but it isn't going to be tailored to your company or industry, Private training is generally more expensive, but it allows you to have the training company tailor the training to your company, improving the overall results.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the factors that influence sales training cost.
Which Factors Increase Price?
1. Who You Decide to Hire
The first factor that can impact the price is the identity of your trainer. In general, if you hire someone with experience, you’ll pay more. You’ll want to partner with a trainer who knows your industry and the types of clients you sell to, even if it can be a bit pricier.
You are also better off partnering with a company where the person who created the strategies in the program is the person providing the training. The creator of the strategies knows the material best and has the best chance of appropriately transferring the competency.
Interested in working with me? I offer keynotes, workshops, and consulting projects, and I’ve helped 300 + sales teams implement the Revenue Growth Blueprint that works in today’s market. Reach out here.
2. Customization
As I briefly discussed above, a training tailored to your team will cost more than a more generic, out-of-the-box training experience. Though customized learning requires a larger investment, it can also produce better, more tailored results for your team’s specific needs and challenges.
Related Read: The 7 Best Sales Training Topics for Teams
Customized training is also a strong fit for teams with high performers looking for advanced techniques and large teams looking for training they can apply to their entire team at scale.
3. Expenses
Is your training online? At a conference? Are you flying a speaker out to present at your quarterly retreat?
If you are hiring a sales speaker to come deliver a personalized training presentation to your team, you’ll need to factor in costs for travel and accommodation.
Additionally, consider the opportunity cost of offering training. The time your team spends in training sessions is time they will not spend selling. It’s worth the trade-off for quality training, to be clear… but it’s still worth considering.
4. Reinforcement
The last factor that can impact the cost of your training is the cost of reinforcement—or the cost of the lack thereof. If you spend money on training but don’t have a plan in place to reinforce the behavior change, you’ll have wasted any time and money you’ve invested in that training.
Without reinforcement, your reps will fall back into old habits. As a result, you won’t see any change as a result of your training efforts.
Ensure that you hold your reps accountable, provide continued learning and take steps to change necessary processes to reinforce the new lessons and make a real change in your organization.
How Much Does Sales Training Cost? You Decide
Sales training varies in cost - but the better question might be, “Will sales training help my team win?” If the answer is yes, decide how much you want to invest and how much winning is worth to you.
If your team is struggling, perhaps you need a new approach.
My Sales Accelerator program has led to an average of $3 million in increased revenue, a 79% increase in pipeline, and a 17% increase in average deal size in small teams. The numbers are larger in larger teams.
Do you want a piece of that action? If you want to eliminate all fear and friction from sales and give your reps the language and confidence to open, advance, and close sales, let’s do this!
