Even if learning about sales training statistics doesn’t get you tapping your toes, it is still something you should know about if you are concerned with the performance of your sales team. Maybe you had not considered outsourcing your sales training, or perhaps you are just looking to gather some information about how it can help your business. There are a few things to know when it comes to sales training statistics for your company.

Why Sales Training?

Salespeople play a critical role within your organization: they are responsible for finding and keeping customers that will generate the revenue needed to sustain business. No matter how nice your spreadsheets look or how snazzy your company polo shirts are, if you don’t have any sales, you don’t have a company.

The importance of sales might make you think that every sales rep is a superstar, chomping at the bit to close more deals and bring in the big bucks. In the real world, that is not the case: research shows that only about 33% of sales reps are engaged and motivated at any given time.

Common logic dictates that a motivated rep will perform at a higher level than an unmotivated rep. One of the best ways to motivate an employee is to give them the opportunity to improve their professional skills: research conducted by multiple organizations has shown that around the world, career development is one of the biggest keys to employee satisfaction.

The Problem with Conventional Training

One of the biggest dilemmas facing sales managers today is how they can balance the need for their salespeople to receive training, with the need for them to be out in the field finding new business. This has led to the prevalence of seminar-style “training events” that take up a full day (or multiple days) and immerse salespeople with training all at once, with a goal of using training time efficiently.
Sales Performance International draws a parallel between attempting to learn a large number of sales techniques in a single seminar’s worth of training and trying to learn how to play a sport like tennis or golf in the same period of time. Would two full days of tennis training prepare you to beat Roger Federer in a match? If so – step away from your desk and start your tennis career immediately. For the rest of us, a system of reinforcement and practice over time is necessary to ensure that sales skills are both learned and retained.

The Bottom Line: Sales Training Will Improve ROI

For whatever type of company you lead or manage, you cannot afford to neglect sales training. CSO Insights published a report analyzing the success of salespeople at companies with four levels of sales processes: random, informal, formal, and dynamic. The numbers showed that only 59.9% of reps functioning at the first sales process level were making their quota, while 71.8% of reps at the fourth level were making theirs. Positive sales training statistics like these cannot be denied: if you can find a personalized delivery method that is tailored to the individual talents of your reps, your company will reap exponential benefits from investing in taking your sales team to the next level.

If you are looking to create a training process that works for all of your employees, whether they have a history with sales training or not, ASLAN can help. Let us tailor a system for your team that will help you get the most out of sales training by increasing revenues, recruitment, retention, and improving employee engagement.

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Editor's note: This post originally appeared November 25, 2014.