We’re gearing up to talk about sales training ROI misconceptions at LearnCore’s upcoming CoreConnect 2017. During the conference we’ll talk with leaders from Marketsource, Aol, Optymyze, and CDW to break down why showing ROI isn’t an impossible task. In the meantime, we’re getting warmed up by exploring common ROI training misconceptions. Catch us at the conference for real life advice from the experts.
Training is an essential part of building a sales team powerhouse. You invest significant time and money into ensuring your sales reps become knowledgeable and effective sellers. But is your training providing adequate ROI?
Calculating sales training ROI can be an elusive task, and a complex equation. Many sales leaders start with completion stats, or certification numbers, but that alone won’t tell you exactly how training ties into business growth.
Check out these common sales training misconceptions to help evaluate your own ROI process.
You don’t need baseline data.
Setting baselines standards is the most important step in measuring your sales training results. You may assume collecting data after launching your training program to be the most critical step, but what will you compare it to? To get an accurate ROI calculation you need to know whether or not your training made an impact. And to figure that out, you’ll need accurate measurements.
Identify the metrics you’re planning on watching and gather baseline data for a good period of time. You can also use this time to analyze whether your data is accurate, and if any data entry processes need to change.
Training scores are the only factor that matters.
While measuring and tracking sales training completion rates and scores is critical to determining the success of your training program, you need to think beyond the numbers to measure ROI. Are your sales reps following through on what they’ve learned? Measuring their ROE “return-on-expectation” allows you to see if sales behaviors are changing due to specific training initiatives, and helps you apply a dollar amount to the result.
For example, if you launched a training certification on a new product, you could directly measure revenue generated due to the new product sales. Then, you can compare the revenue generated to the sales training investment cost.
Technology investments must be a bad thing.
While initially it may seem like investing in sales training technology is expensive, it’s actually an important part of your sales training ROI calculation. It’s critical to consider the opportunity cost of not using technology, and to calculate what you could have been spending versus what you are now. How much did you save in airfare, or lodging, or food and drink expenses due to travel for training?
Calculating what you used to spend to deliver sales training to your organization and then comparing it to what you’ll pay now with a new technology investment will show you exactly how much you’re saving on your investment.
Measuring your sales training ROI isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. Get acquainted with the common misconceptions above, and then get full ROI scoop at CoreConnect 2017.
