Are Sales Leaders More Receptive to Training Than Salespeople?

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan
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Sales Leadership Challenges to Having a World Class Sales Force - By Dave Kurlan

When a room full of sales leaders arrive for two days of intensive training, there are many things that can and do happen. Here are ten of them:

They can and do resist the training if they were sent there. If they chose to come on their own, resistance never occurs! Fortunately, the resistance fades away by the end of the first day.
They can and do see the magic of how proper sales coaching should be conducted.
They can and do pick and choose what to embrace and bring back to their offices and teams.
They can get a much better grasp on what it takes to make their sales force change-ready, but some won't take the time to do so.
They can understand the subleties of how to shape their sales environment, but it's not as exciting as mastering sales coaching. So, even though one can't coach effectively without shaping their environment, some will fail to execute that important step.
They can and do see the power, efficiency and magic of a well-thought-out, time-tested, proven, customized, optimized sales process. But old habits are hard to break and some still want to demo and present too early in the new process!
They can and do get a much better understanding of how to effectively motivate their various salespeople, but some will forget most of it by the time they return to their office.
They can and do understand how to more effectively and consistently find, assess, interview, select, hire, on-board and retain better salespeople, but some would rather work harder and longer and do what they have always done instead of trusting that a time-tested, proven, customized, efficient sales recruiting process will make it as easy as advertised.
They can and do learn the power of the daily huddle as a great way to hold their salespeople accountable to the KPI's that will drive revenue. However, some will ease into this by conducting a weekly huddle, mistaken in their belief that weekly will work as effectively as daily.
They can and do learn the power of a staged, criteria-based pipeline and what it takes to keep it filled. Most will implement this upon their return.

If it sounds like some people waste their time by attending, that isn't true. What actually happens is that they fear that they can't do everything that they hear (not enough time and too much work), so they determine what is most important (or most comfortable) and resolve to do that. It's not a waste at all. It's simply the sales leader being guilty of some of the same "I can't" issues that their salespeople have.

Here are ten suggestions that will make participation a success if you decide to attend an intensive sales leadership training event like this:

Embrace instead of resist.
Focus instead of getting distracted.
Participate instead of observe.
Be early instead of late.
Take fewer detailed notes, but focus more on concepts.
Apply everything, not just with what you like or feel comfortable.
Listen with your sales force in mind.
Ask questions, ask for help, enter into discussions.
Complete all exercises which are intended to help you apply the lessons to your sales force.
Perform the overnight assignments so that you won't be left behind.

You can get more out of these two days than from your entire sales leadership career, but you must be present and in the moment for the entire two days.

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Sales Leadership Challenges to Having a World Class Sales Force - By Dave Kurlan

About the Author: Dave Kurlan

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Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).
Click here to visit Dave's website.

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