CHAPTER 5 TRAINING AND DEVELOPING THE SALES FORCE

How Important Is Sales Training?

Have you ever dealt with a salesperson who wasn't knowledgeable about the product or service he or she was selling and you were extremely interested in i t? It probably wasn't a reassuring experience. Organizations that utilize sales training do so because they see a number of benefits from this investment: Their sales representatives arc more knowledgeable about their firm's products and services, the markets in which they operate, and the selling process than sales representatives who haven' t been trained . As a result, trained representatives are able to better understand their customers and deliver better service to them . This typically results in higher sales for the company and higher incomes for the sales reps, who experience greater job satisfaction because they're successful. Tiro Owen, an agent for Northwestern Mutual Lire life Insurance, is a good example. Because of the sales training Owen has received. he understands the expenses associated with the long-term care of a person suffering from o chronic illness or a disabling condition. As a result, Owen is able to show how a long-term care insurance product may be of value to a baby-boomer-aged client. After graduating from college, Katrin a Rademacher went to work for Tom James. an upscale clothier for executives. Because of the training she received. Rademacher knows how to provide valuable fashion advice and personalized service to her clients. Because their sales training has made them

more successful, both Owen and Rademachcr are satisfied with their careers and are less likely to leave their organizations. Owen and Rademacher's sales man age~ have benefited from the training, too. because they have to spend less time su pervising the two salespeople. When you think of it. would you want to have a relationship with a company that doesn't make an investment in the ongoing training of its sales personnel'! Organizations that comment that sales training is "too expensive or "too time consuming'' seem to be ignoring the benefits of sales training. By and large. however. most companies know that training their salespeople is critical not only to their success, but to their very survival. as the following statistics show: Nationwide, across all industry, nearly $60 billion is spent annually o n formal training e1Tons .2 Compared with all other area.\ of training, sales training receives the most funding , estimated at between $4 and $ 14 billon yearly,3A exceeding management and supervisory training Over 35 percent of firms report that their salespeople receive over s six days of training every year. Over 63 percent of companies will spend more than six days ayear training their new salespeople, and over 30 percent will train in their new salespeople for more than 15 days Nearly half (47%) of sales executives ranked "enhancing sales training" as the most important area in which their firm planned to make operational improvements. Every year Selling Power magazine publishes a list of the "50 Bes t Companies to Sell For" in the U.S. manufacturing and service industries.67 The list includes only company. with sales forces consist in g of over 500 people. The three criteria used to determine the companies. included on the prestigious list are as follows: sales force compensation: career mobility, and training. The compensation category is a summary of average starting salaries, incentive pay plans, the availability of company cars, and other benefits representatives receive. The career mobility category consider the number of performance reviews sales representatives receive, a firm's sales force turnover and the number of salespeople it promoted. The training category includes both how much time a company invests in developing the initial selling skills and product knowledge of its representatives and the follow-up training they receive. When you think about it, to a certain extent. Training is the crux of these three criteria. After all. both a salesperson' s compensation and career mobility are acutely affected by how well the person has been trained. With good training, a salesperson is more likely to maximize her performance, earn more money, and have greater career mobility.

Exhibit 9.1 and 9.2 show the companies on Selling Power''50 Best Companies to Sell For" list ranked in terms of their training scores during the time period 200 1-2007. (The companies that earned the top scores appear at the top of the lists.) Only companies that mad e the list in each of the years 2005. 2006. and 2007 are included. To be included in this listing is considered quite an accomplishment . Those companies listed at the top of the two charts (seven manufacturing and s ix se rvice companies) made the Selling Power list for all seven consecutive years, which reflects their high commitment to training. Other companies, such as Microsoft an d Northwcstern Mutual , though not included for all seven years, should also be noted for their outstanding sales training effort.

The Training Process

The sales training process will be different for each firm depending upon its size, resources. and the markets in which it operate. A small organization is likely to have neither the resources, nor the level of specialization that a multi -national organization does. The smaller firms, district or regional sales managers might be in charge of their firm 's sales training. However, no matter what size firm they work for, one thing all sales managers have in common is their responsibility to help train their sales teams. This training can take the form of simply providing feedback and assistance to a salesperson on a training issue, or it could involve the teaching of a course. As Mike Kapocius. a regional sales manager for Takeda Pharmaceuticals. commented. "Training doesn't end when the class is over. Training goes on all the time." This is supported by research, which has found that for sales training to be effective, managers must provide follow-up training to their representatives to reinforce what they have learned. Regardless of an organization's size or the resources it has, the process sales managers should follow to develop effective sales .Training programs for the personnel is the same. A fourstages sales training cycle from planning to delivery is outlined in exhibit 9.3. Identifying the topics that need to be covered and who needs to be included in training are the first questions that must be addressed . After determining the firm's sales training needs comes the planning: what should be included in the content, who will staff the program. and what training format should be used to deliver it'! Once the planning is complete, the program must be delivered in a manner that best facilitates learning . Evaluating the training effort at the individual and organizational level is the fourth stage. Next, we discuss each of these stage in more details. Identifying the firm's sales training needs Most companies provide their new salespeople with training. More experienced members of sales forces generally receive training to update them on their firms' new products and other market developments . Both of these situations would seem to warrant a need for training. The latter situation would seem to be warranted when there is a difference between the outcomes the members of a firm sales force are achieving versus what their sales managers want them to achieve. Wouldn't training correct the situation?
The fact is that training is not the solution for all of the problems a sales force faces. Moreover, sales training programs can be expensive and time consuming. Before jumping to the conclusion that sales training is the fix'' you need, you must ask yourself: " Is additional training for the sales force the most appropriate response to the situation the sales force is facing?" For example, low level s of compensation, morale, motivation, and job satisfaction an1ong representatives might be problem s no amount of training will remedy.
DETERMINE SALES TRAINING OBJECTIVES. Assuming the sales training appears to be warranted, most experts recommend that sales managers consider three levels of information during the training planning stage-information from the organizational level, the task level, and the individual level. 9 Exhibit 9.4 offers a perspective of this process. The source of information used to determine the training need at all three levels of assessment is displayed in Exhibit 9.5. The information should be collected through informal means, such as input provided by sales managers, upper management, training personnel, or

customers; and through formal means, such us customer surveys or performance measures like sales volumes. the turnover rates among representatives. and so forth. At the organizational level, this information should reflect the firm 's mission statement, strategic initiatives, and upper management 's mandate s as well as the company's sales and marketing objectives. Task level infom1ation can be generated from sales managers' and trainers ' observations, input from customers, and from commercially available training program s. Individual level information is available from sale s rep s ' performance reports. sales manager's observations of their representative s performance, customers, and self-report from sales reps The broadest level of analysis, the organizational analysis, should reveal which of the firm's short-term and long- term strategic goals are being met and the activities that nee d to be done to do so. Wausau insurance, which provides insurance to business owners , illustrates why it 's so important for a firm to match its corporate strategy with its sales training process: Because of mergers and related changes in business structures during the 1990s. Wausau's corporate strategy changed. too. Instead of focusing on small and medium-sized companies, Wausau began focusing on larger companies. As a result. Wausaus sales representatives, who had typically worked with the owners or small and medium-sized firms, found themselves working with much larger firms and more sophisticated. challenging clients. These clients required more complicated insurance products . Wausaus strategic change started the ball rolling for new types of sales training ranging from proposal development to team presentation skills. Other strategic goals o firm might uncover by doing an organizational analysis might include reducing the turnover among the company 's representatives and increasing the level of the firms overall sales or sales of certain products by offering different types of sales training. At the task level, the focus is on identifying what level of knowledge, skills , and abilities ( KSAs) are needed for a firms sales jobs. Job descriptions are a good place from which to acquire this information. A job description will list the KSAs and tasks a salesperson should do, with whom, why, and how often. The information might indicate that on a daily basis a sales representative must be able to collect information through an interview; analyze data in a spreadsheet; and determine what products and level or support would be best to offer a client via a written, electronic. or oral presentation. This, in turn , should affect the content presented during the training. Customer complaints can also be a great source of information when it comes to developing sales training plans. Analyzing the complaints might show that the firm's sales reps !rick knowledge about certain products o r services. don' t take the time to follow up with customers, or that customers don ' t like some of the sales tactics they engage in . To remedy this, the firm s might need more content training, sales process or service training, or more in sight about the nature of their customer. und what they expect. DETERMINE WHO NEEDS SALES TRAINING. The last level of the needs assessment is the individual level. No t all salespeople need the same sales training program. Their needs may vary depending upon their experience, levels and the needs of the markets in which they sell. Sometime groups of sale representatives who need training can be easily identified, such as newly hired representatives or newly promoted representatives. However, there will also be times when all members of a sales force need training. Such might be the case when a company, or its competitors, launch a new product or service, enter a new market, or adopts a new technology. A good needs assessment will provide an idea of what training is needed so that sales trainees get what they need to be successful rather than too much information (which is likely to result in their boredom) or too little information (which is likely to result in their becoming frustrated) . Similarly, companies with global sales forces must take in to account the needs of their salespeople abroad in their sales training planning. Kodak is one company that is doing so, us the Global Sales Management feature in this chapter illustrates. Sales managers who fail to consider the cultural differences related to training their salespeople around the world face disastrous consequences To be sure, identifying specific individuals who need training can be time consuming for a sales manager responsible for a large number of sales personnel As a result. it's not surprising that this step is often minimized , overlooked. or simple neglected. In fact, a survey of sales vice presidents reported that 34 percent of all companies said the step was a critical deficiency of their sales training programs. However, information to help identify individuals can be drawn from n variety of sources. The sources include

quantifiable performance appraisal data and customer satisfaction or CRM data to more subjective information collected from training needs surveys taken by sales managers and sales people themselves. The latter can help build support for training programs because those who arc most likely to receive tl1e training are the individuals who identified the need for i1. After an individual' s training needs are identified. they should be included in an individual training and development plan for the person. The plan should include the training courses the representative should take at scheduled career milestones, such as an advanced training course once the person has achieved a certain amount of experience. It could also include training from outside vendors, such a software training course for a representative who struggles to use a particular type of software product. Or, it could include job rotation s to ensure the representative has the opportunity to be exposed to a variety of selling experience s Unfortunately, the attention that is needed at this stage is often minimized, overlooked, or simply neglected. A survey of so les vice presidents reported that 54 percent of companies who were shifting their sales approach-and 34 percent of all companies- identified assessing individual training and development needs as a critical deficiency of I heir sales training programs DESIGNING AND DEVELOPING THE SALES TRAINING PROGRAM WHAT CONTENT IS NEEDED? Exhibit9.6 reflects the content areas that sales training programs cover. Product knowledge and sales skills training lead the way. Although it wasn't identified in this survey, ethics training is becoming more common. The Ethics in Sales Management feature in this chapter describes recent developments in this area. The results of a training assessment need to be tailored for the target group thats being trained. Most companies identify sever al groups of sales personnel in need of different types of training. The training generally includes programs for new hires, ongoing training programs for established sales representatives: sales management training: and professional, or career development, programs. The training programs for new hires will often include an orientation t of the company, steps and behaviors used in the selling process, product and market information, procedures used to monitor the progress of a sale, and the use of sales-related software and technology. Additionally, some organizations will include instruction on networking, or how to develop new sales contacts, and instruction on time management. Many companies will bring in a group. or "class." of new hires to a central or corporate location and train them together. Depending on the start date of a new hire. a salesperson is likely to undergo training shortly after beginning his or her job or wait several months until enough new hires are in place to form a class. A number of companies have incorporated online programs that typically focus on helping reps gain product knowledge. This training can begin immediately after salespeople begin their new jobs New hires are also likely to begin on-the-job- training (OJT), job shadowing, or "ride-along s" with experienced sales personnel. This help s expose new representatives to a company's sales practices, products, and customers immediately. The idea is that the new hire will learn to model the behavior of the more experienced representative . Therefore, it is critical that the representative being "shadowed" is a good role model who is willing to train the new representative. Refresher courses for more experienced salespeople tend to cover certain advanced sales skills, including how to work with larger or more complicated customers, or advanced products and services. As we have mentioned, some companies position these courses in specific point s in sale reps ' careers to help prevent turnover among their sales people . One content area that has, and will continue to be an important training area is integrating the use of technology into the sales process. Many people enter into sales professions because they enjoy interacting with people opposed to technology. However most sales people quickly realize how technology-driven applications such as CRM software can enhance their sales performance. Other useful technology applications include contact managers, sales call scheduling and travel route planning software, and in-house templates that automatically fill in commonly used letters, presentations, proposal information, and other documentation so that the sales rep only needs to customize or tailor it to fit his current client Sales managers have learned that technology can provide real benefits without resting in unnecessary additional work. Sometimes salespeople end up rejecting, or not using. the technology their sales managers provide them .This usually occurs when there is a poor fit between the technology and what the salespeople need- nor because the technology itself is flawed . Trainers have learned several lessons from their early efforts to train

salespeople to use new technology (some of which didnt meet with success). First, the trainer; must ensure that sales personnel see the potential benefits of the technology so that they will accept and use it. The trainers must also thoroughly train the sales force to use the technology, both in the field and out. and provide them with adequate technical support and follow-up training if they need it. The last category of training focuses on the overall professional development of sales personnel. This might include training related to professional speaking, account management. team selling, negotiating contracts, and other advanced training conducted as part of an industry-wide seminar, for example. Category management, or managing how many different brands a retailer should carry and display, is a new area in which salespeople are receiving training. In addition , a firms sales training programs might include enrolling in summer institutes or graduate courses offered by colleges. Universities, and professional associations. Sales representatives aren't the only people who need different types of training, though. Sales managers need training. too, especially as they transition from sales representative to Sales management positions . Historically. the training needs or this group have taken a backseat to the needs of the new sales force members. Often times only larger organizations have provided forma l training in this area. The content included in the majority of training programs for sales managers is incorporated into many of the chapters or this book. the topics include transitioning into management and coaching (Chapter 10). recruiting and interviewing (Chapter 8), conducting performance appraisals (Chapter 14). and businessto-business account management strategies (Chapter 5 and l3).
DEVELOPING THE OBJECTIVES OF SALES TRAINING: CHANGING IDEAS INTO ACTION

After a program's training topic s have been identified, the trainer needs to develop the learning objectives of the program . This will help them properly develop, execute, and evaluate the programs. Educational psychologist Benjamin Bluom outlined three different categories of intellectual behavior important for learning. The behaviors can be categorized as cognitive, affective, or psychomotor behavior. They correspond to the KSAs we described earlier and are useful to trainers when they are writing their training objectives that is, what they want their trainees to do in order to learn what they need to know. The goal is to accurately describe the intent of your sales training programs in terms of these various behaviors.

Exhibit 9.7 shows the range of activities and behaviors that should be incorporated into a training program's objectives, based on Bloom work. Trainers should also be sure to include activities beyond the lowest level skill sets ( i.e . incorporating more than just the lowest level, "remembering" in their objectives) . Ultimately, training programs should show a progression of higher-level competencies and require related activities (i.e . analyzing data to make determinations, evaluating proposals to identify the most worthy one, and creating new plans ). No doubt, you recall some of your earlier collegiate courses that might have included heavy doses of memorization (i.e . remembering term s on n multiple-choice test) . Compare the behaviors needed 10 be successful in those courses to the ones that are required for upper-level course' where you are analyzing cases, writing business plans, and presenting persuasive arguments . STAFFING THE TRAINING PROGRAM Once decisions about the content and desired outcomes of a proposed program have been determined, a number of questions about staffing of the program need to be addressed. These include internal versus external resources, time pressures, and cost considerations. Internal versus External Staffing Resources. Should the trainer come from within the company or would it be preferable to hire an outside trainer or a training vendor? This will depend on whether the firm' s internal talent has the KSAs to assemble and present the program. For example, is the firm's sales process so unique that the insight s and credibility an internal trainer can provide out weight the benefits of hiring an external firm 's. Generally an internal trainer (o ne within the firm) will have more credibility than an outside trainer. There are cases, however, when the outside trainer is likely to have more credibility. For example. if a firm purchases a new information technology application, salespeople are likely to find outside trainers employed by the developer of the technology to be a more

credible source of training. Is there a dedicated sales training team within the firm that can direct the effort? Or is there a large number of people who need immediate training, which precludes using internal resources? Depending upon your answers to questions such as these, it might be more feasible to hire an outside vendor to conduct your training. Many companies, today are doing just that . In fact, each year U.S. companies spend an estimated 52 billion annually on vendor-provided sales training .If the training isn't extremely specific to your company-that is. if it is "generic" enough-it's possible that it can be conducted by a number of outside vendors. A number of capable vendors, including Wilson Learning. Dale Carnegie. Sales and Marketing Executives, and the Center for Creative Leadership, offer a range of programs including general sales programs and presentation and personal development programs designed for companies that lack in -ho use training resources. Larger firms often seek out these vendors for more specialized training, such as negotiation, category management. and leadership-development training, who often surpass what a firm 's in-house training programs can offer. Or perhaps an outside technology partner is needed to help facilitate the delivery of the program via webminars, blogs, online e-learning, and so forth. Most companies use a combination of instructional approaches. A survey of sales companies found that 68 percent use sales managers, 58 percent have an in -house instructor, 54 percent use an outside instructor, and 20 percent indicate that the instruction is done on the computer. Time Pressures. How frequently is the training needed'! If it is a recurring program that is offered at regular intervals. it may warrant in-house development. Is the program needed on a regular basis or is it only needed once? Because developing an internal training program from scratch can be time consuming, offering such programs only once might not be justifiable. Also, can the program be rolled out gradually or must it be done within short time period? When training is needed immediately and the firm's in-house resources are limited, using an external firm is likely to be beneficial. Finally, how involved should sales managers be in the training. Training programs that require the insights of a firm sales managers might be better handled internally. If indeed, sales managers are selected to participate in the training, will they have the time and resources to commit to the training when it needs to be conducted? Making sure sales managers are available and can dedicate the time needed to deliver the training can sometimes be a challenge. In this case, using an outside vendor might be preferable.
Costs.

Not to be overlooked is the cost of developing and delivering the program. If inside staff members are going to handle the program, will there be additional costs related to researching the content of the program and creating the materials for it? Are additional staffing costs required? For example, how many individuals will be delivering the training? What will it cost for them to do so? Will they have w travel to the training site? Are there enough individuals needing training to warrant the company developing and delivering the training or is less expensive to utilize an existing vendor program? To other words, how does "outsourced'' training compare price-wise to internal training? Addressing these questions will help you determine who is best positioned to staff the program.
SELECT ING THE TRAINING DELIVERY METHOD

There was a time when selecting the delivery format for a sales training program was very straightforward: It was generally face-to- face or instructor-led t raining. Either the sales force traveled to a central site to receive training from an instructor, or the instructor traveled to a site closer to the trainees to deliver the program. Instructor-led sales training can include many different components. Including lectures, discussions, role plays, and presentations. It has the benefit of being very flexible and interactive. It also helps socialize participants and allows them to network with one another. As a result, they can consult one another for advice and support once the training has concluded, which many of them find valuable. Historically, instructor-led training has been the method firms favor when it comes to training their salespeople. It can sometimes result in heavy doses of one-way communication, however. (You have probably experienced a long boring lecture that no one paid attention to.) This type of training also

requires all participants to gather together at a particular training site, which can be expensive if representatives have to travel very far. Housing, meals, and missed selling opportunities are among the other costs companies incur by sending their representative to training. Today, there are other alternatives to in-person, instructor-led training, however. The use of techno logy-based de livery methods nearly tripled between 2001 and 2006, for example. In years past, techno logy-de livered training was simple. It might involve sending trainees printed materials audio and videotape s to watch. Today, many companies allow their new sales representatives to access similar information online when and where they need to. This is referred to as on -demand (se lfpaced) training. Instructor-led calls are another alternatives. So are web conferences. Web conferencing allows a presenter to deliver information remotely to trainees' individual computers. A webcast is a one way flow of communication. It is suitable for quick, worldwide training needs. A webinar typically is designed for a smaller audience. It incorporates a two-way flow of communication including feedback from the receivers either via phone lines nod/or text messaging. Canon U.S.A. used webinars to train its large network of dealers to use new document management software complementing Canon 's copier products. Dealers quickly received the training they needed at a low cost.
Recently two other technology-based delivery options have become available to the sales training scene: podcasting and the use of wikis. Pod casting involves delivering information to saleperson's iPodTM or other similar device. Some companies send Podcast information to their representatives on a daily basis . The information might include how a new product is being accepted by customers or bow competitors are working with it. Podcasts typically must be downloaded by participants, however, and they do not allow for interaction with an instructor. Wiki s are a quick-response training vehicle (the name comes from the Hawaiian term wiki, which mean. "fast"). Wikis are web sites individual sales representatives are able to put up on short notice. A wiki allows all people who have access to a site to post material on it Wiki participants act as instructors when they post information about how they were able to successful l y sell to the firm's customers. A key advantage of the newer approaches is their convenience; much of the course work can be completed anytime and anywhere you have access to a personal computer. As a result, firm s do not have to pay for sales representatives to travel somewhere to receive training. The new learning software is more interactive and can be tailored to the different needs of individual learners . Exhibit 9.8 show how frequently different general training methods arc used. The methods used for sales training, in particular, are similar. However, online education methods are used somewhat less often to train salespeople. This might be due to the fact that teaching interpersonal and communication skills is crucial in a soles training course. However, this type of training isn't easy to transfer into on online learning format. Some companies are addressing this by incorporating a blended on line (product and market knowledge) and an in-person (selling skills) approach to training. Companies such as lBM and Booz Allen Hamilton. a management strategy consulting firm, have both adopted blended approaches in their sales training. "Not every topic lends itself to e-learning comments Melissa Chambers. a learning strategist at Booz Alien Hamilton. which has integrated 600 e-learning modules into the company' s 120 classroom courses. The company combined approach gives it the benefits distance learning affords as well as classroom participation to reinforce the lessons trainees arc taught online. Roger Anderson. Home Depm's director of learning agrees that online training should not be used in nil situations. Anderson says that the training is great when sales reps need the same information or "where you want all employees to hear the same message." But when you need to incorporate multiple skills for a complex job, face -to-face training is preferable. A frequently used training format to hand le this situation art: role-p laying exercises. Role playing requires salespeople to present information to a "client" ( usually a sales trainer or another sales trainee) who has little understanding of the product and thus requires a basic presentation or who has a great deal of understanding and thus requires a very sophisticated presentation. Additionally, the demeanor of their client" can range from pleasant to anything but pleasant. The goal is for the presenter to overcome these challenges in real time. Some firms are even using avatars or computer representations of humans (like those found in the online game Second Life ) as sales coaches. Daneielle Paden, an account manager

at COW Corp., a technology products and service company, completed a sales training course where an avatar coached her through a series of simulated phone interactions with clients. Paden was pleased with the realistic sales experience. Futuristic training such as this offers a number of benefits: ( 1) lt provides a consistent experience with a coach who does not tire ; (2) it is available anytime of the day or night to sales representatives; {3) it can be used to train sales representatives individually or in groups; and (4) it ca n be repeated by a sales person until he or she develops a certain level of mastery. So which training delivery method is most effective? A comparison of several instructor-led and selfpaced training formats used in a new product sales training program for experienced sales representatives revealed that there was little difference in the learning outcomes representatives achieved based on the different delivery methods used. A better approach would be to consider the unique challenges of each training situation -perhaps the firm's training budget is limited or there is a pressing need to train the firm's, entire sales force quickly-and then choose the method that best fits the situation, depending upon factors such as these.

Delivering the Training

SCHEDULING THE TRAINING

After all the planning is complete, the logistic of the program need to be addressed. If the training is instructor-led, for example, additional decisions must be made about the location of the training- whether it should take place at a centralized location, such us the company's headquarters, or a decentralized location(s), such as the territories or regions in which the trainees are located. Sales managers have to consider the travel and lodging costs that would be incurred under the different scenarios as well as the time trainees spend traveling as opposed to selling. On the one hand, a centralized site, such as a company's headquarters, is also likely to have a complete set of training resources and equipment. Centralized training also allows ne w sales representatives to network with other trainees outside of their districts and regions as well as the company's sales executives and in-house personnel. On the other hand, it usually involves a higher travel price tag than a decentralized sales program does. Coordinating and getting the resources and training equipment to a decentralized location can involve more work for trainers, however. Making sure that trainees, presenters, and technical assistants have their schedule cleared and their travel and housing is also part of delivering the training. However, not only do the physical and logistic

attributes of the training need to be ready, but the psychological ' readiness" of the trainees al so needs to be in place. For example, the timing of the training in the sales cycle is important. Training salespeople during a s low selling time (as opposed to bringing them in for training when they are ending a sales period) will affect how psychologically ready they are to be trained. The time salespeople need to complete any pretraining assignments you have given them also needs to be considered. Researchers have found that individuals who have a predisposition about the importance of training will transfer more into the field than those who don ' t.
FACILITATE THE TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Part of providing excellent training is ensuring that what is learned in the training program can be retained and applied in the field. This is called learning transfer. To help facilitate this educational researchers suggest trainers do the following: 1. Make sure the training and field conditions, or where trainees operate, are as similar as possible. 2. Provide many opportunities to practice a new skill. 3. Provide a variety of situations to apply the new material to. 4. Identify the important features of the task. 5. Make sure the trainee has the opportunity to practice the new skills in the lield. These suggestions incorporate Bloom 's lower-level skill sets as well as some of the higher ones also. Learning and practicing the new behavior in a similar situation to their work environment is a critical element to ensuring the transfer o f teaming occurs.
ASSESING THE FIRMS TRAINING EFFORTS

The last phase of a sales training cycle is assessing the result s. How effective was the firms sales training? Were the objectives of the program accomplished? What were the gains of the program to

the company? These sound like straightforward questions that should have simple answers. However, as Antoine Destin commented in the opening of the chapter.
Evaluating the effectiveness of training can be tough." Apparently. it's not just Destin who thinks so: When asked if their companies had a definitive method for measuring the value of their sales training, only 28 percent of sales trainers indicated they did. This phase of training often receives the least attention despite its importance. In addition, sales trainers can't lose sight of the fact that some managers view sales training merely as an expense. As one sales professional put it: "Unlike a capital asset which can be reused or resold- training generally can' t. Therefore it is important that management clearly understand the value of this expense. Clearly, evaluating the success of a firm's training effort is an area that deserves attention. One popular assessment approach includes looking at certain reaction, learning, behavior, and ROI levels. Despite some criticisms, this framework is intuitively simple and easy to apply. Exhibit 9.9 shows the different types of evaluation measures sales trainers use, their reported importance to trainers, and how frequently they use them. Next, we discuss each of the four types of assessment and their strengths and weaknesses.

DETERMINE THE VALUE OF SALES TRAINING TO HIE INDIVIDUAL

Reaction (Level1) This category addresses what the trainee thought of the program by asking the person to fill out an evaluation, or what some trainers call a "happy sheet." In other words, was the trainee happy with the training?.' This is the most frequently used measurement. Note that in Exhibit 9.9, the four most frequently used methods - course evaluations, trainee feedback, training staff comments, and supervisory feedback-arc all reaction measures. These ratings can be easily collected using end -of-course questionnaires

Unfortunately, the assessment measures sales trainers considered most important weren't those most frequently collected. Reaction measures have been criticized because they don't show if anything was really learned and applied back in the field. They only indicate if and how much participants liked the program. In addition, measures such as these may be unduly influenced by the training location (after a brutal winter, who wouldn't like the opportunity for training in a warm location?), the personality of the trainer, and how much the trainee values being away from work. However, there is some value in collecting 1his information. If sales representatives like the training program, it stands to reason they will be more motivated to participate and learn from it. In sum, a good reaction raring doesn't mean learning took place. However, a negative rating reduces the chances that it occurred. Learning (Level 2). This level involves measuring the amount of infom1ation participants mastered during the program. This can be done by testing them before and after the training and comparing the results of the two test. However, the measurement doesn't necessarily reflect if the material can he applied in a productive manner back in the field. Both the reaction and learning level measures gauge the effectiveness of the training program at the individual level. To gain insight about the program's value at the organization level, the next two higher-level measures are needed. Behaviors (Level 3) Level 3 measurements identify to what degree trainees applied the training principles and techniques they learned to their jobs, in essence learning transfer. The measurement can be collected by sales managers as ll1cy observe their sales personnel. They can also be collected from self-reports trainees themselves complete in journals or their contact management, or CRM, entries. Research ha~ shown that this level of evaluation has only a few shortcomings and is particularly useful.
DETERMINE THE VALUE OF SALES TRAINING TO THE ORGANIZATION

Results (level4) Level 4 measurements assess whether or not an organization achieved the objectives it sought by conducting the twining. For example, did the program result in more sales of a new product that helped the company enter a new market? Or were fewer customer complaints received, which helped the company achieve a higher customer service rating in its industry? Measurements at this level tend to be conducted less often and, unfortunately, lend themselves to a few problems. A major problem involves determining whether the firms objectives were achieved directly because of the training program or because of other factors-for example. because of competitor actions, changes in the market, or changes in economic conditions. Because of the difficulties related to gauging Level 4 results, many managers assess the results of their training programs using utility analysis. How "useful'" was the training, in other words? Although this category isn't

included in the original model, it seems like a natural extension of the fourth level. Utility analysis involves looking at the economic impact the training had by examining the cost-benefit trade-offs of the training program. The costs-benefits can be measured by looking at the programs benefits- that is, the retention rates of the personnel who have been trained and the performance differences between trained and untrained employees, for example versus what the training program cost. In other words, sales managers use utility analysis to determine the relative usefulness of different sales training alternatives. They want to adopt training programs that minimize the firm's costs while maximizing the important outcomes the company seeks.

Completing the Sales Training Cycle

The sales training cycle is not completed until the results of training are compared with the initial objectives laid out for the program. Hopefully, the sales training objectives are met, and the program is considered a success. If this is the case, oftentimes the training program will go forward with only minor modifications and updates. At the other extreme are those programs that do not meet their initial objectives. What might have caused these shortcomings? As you might expect, there are few companies that want to be .interviewed about how their training programs didn't measure up. However, researchers investigating this area have found that the majority of companies that experience training shortcoming, did not systematically set spccil1c ob.1ectivcs for their training programs. Without these objectives to guide the development of their training courses, properly implementing and evaluating them will be difficult. Thus, the value of the firms training investments would appear to be greatly diminished. Rather than an isolated event, sales training needs to be viewed as a systematic process of integrating the training curriculum into the sales force. The American Society for Training and Development regularly honors organizations for their award-wining training practices. Exhibit 9.10 outlines these practices. The Professional Society for Sales & Marketing Training has identified u number of best practices for sales trainers. Exhibit 9.11 consists of a checklist" of some of these practices.