Sales Training for the Complex Sale

Defining the Problem before Investing in a Solution

By Greg Nutter

According to an IT Services Marketing Association study, IT vendors are currently spending about $2,600 per rep annually on sales training, not including the additional investment of 5 to 10 days of lost field time. However, the study goes on to say that “increased investments in sales training are definitely needed if sales forces are to make a successful transition from product-led selling to services- and solutions-led selling”. One would think that with all this spending the journey to “solutions-led selling” would be well underway. Fact is, many companies aren’t getting a good return on their training dollars.

One of the major issues with training ROI is that companies decide that training is the solution before they’ve analyzed the problem. When reps aren’t selling, the easiest tool to reach for is training. However, sales training comes in different varieties and unless you define your requirements first, picking the right training is like deciding on a cure based on what happens to be in your medicine cabinet. Applying the right training to the right situation is key to getting a good return on your investment.

Let’s explore the various kinds of sales training and when to apply each.

Product Training:

This is the most common form of training which often consists of a demo or a collection of PowerPoint slides listing product features and benefits. While product training is a necessity, it normally isn’t the biggest contributor to sales performance. In fact, a savvy rep can get quite a distance down a sales cycle with only minimal product training. Product training is perfect for new reps or when a new product or feature has been introduced and more important when your product is a commodity. Unfortunately, because it’s usually easy and cheap to produce, it can take the place of more valuable Process and Customer Training.

Process Training:

This is normally off-the-shelf training you get from companies who specialize in sales training: Strategic Selling®, SPIN® Selling, Solution Selling®, CustomerCentric Selling®, Power Base® Selling, Sandler Selling Systems, etc. There are also thousands of smaller companies each with their own unique programs. These “name brand” programs are all generally very good but there’s a catch: some focus on strategic process, others on tactical process. Many companies opt for strategic process training because knowing how to strategically manage large deals and accounts can have significant payoff. However, understanding strategy without having the tactical skills to implement the strategy will get you nowhere. For example, if the strategic program tells you that you have to get to the “Economic Buyer”, but the rep doesn’t have a clue how to tactically do that, you’re not going to see a great return. In addition, even if you have strong tactical and strategic skills you won’t be very effective in a complex sale unless you have one other important ingredient: Customer Training.

Customer Training:

This training is probably the most valuable but often the least delivered because it’s not off-the-shelf and not as easily developed as Product Training. Here, sales people are trained on customer environments, business processes, problems, and the business impact of such problems. If you really want to sell in a complex selling environment, you must be well versed in this. As Diane Elmo from the CMM Forum describes it, “while sales methodology training builds the perfect engine by teaching sales process and techniques, it comes up short in the same area every time: it doesn’t fill the tank with fuel.” Customer Training is more difficult to build because you may have to ask your customers for help in developing it. This takes time, resources, and expertise that many companies don’t have so they deliver more Product and Process training and hope that their reps will figure out the rest.  

So what should you be doing to get the most out of your training investment?

1)     Evaluate what kind of training you need FIRST – if you’re not sure, hire someone to help you decide.

2)     Make sure you have adequate tactical skills before you deliver strategic training. Again, if you’re not sure, get some help.

3)     Don’t forget Customer Training! This is the glue that holds everything else together; without it, your reps will just be more efficient at doing a poor selling job.

4)     Make the training part of how you do business. New skills are lost fast unless you institute management processes that reinforce them daily.

Training isn’t going to fix every situation, but if you analyze your requirements and train based on your needs, you can go along way to achieving some good results.

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Greg Nutter is a Principal with Soloquent Inc. (www.soloquent.com/) where he helps technology companies develop go-to-market strategies, programs, and tools that increase indirect and direct selling performance. He has over 20 years experience in sales, sales management, and channel development in the HVTO industry.

Got a comment, got a question, got a problem? Send Greg a note at greg@soloquent.com

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