B2B Street Fighting Blog

do you want just training or integrated solutions?

Posted by Marie Dudek Brown on Thu, Aug 15, 2013 @ 10:11 AM

are you looking for training or integrated solutions?American corporations spend $7.2 billion* every year on sales processes, account management sills, negotiation and opportunity management training.  That's an average of $347,000 per company, according to SellingPower.  But there is little information available on whether or not those investing the money are achieving a return on their investment that's at least equal to -- if not better than -- their cost of capital.

In our "Enable Your Growth Strategy" research paper done in conjunction with SellingPower and the Professional Society for Sales and Marketing Training, we talked about "flavor of the month" training, and the opposite end of the spectrum; where a training initiative has become "deeply embedded into the DNA of the organization.

Most organizations view training initiatives as a "linear" sequence of events.  Another item to mark off on a checklist.  Unfortunately, this perspective fails to address the interconnectedness between the process of selling and the process of negotiating.  Negotiating doesn't just come at the end of the selling process.

Let's look at sales and negotiation training for a 300 person sales force. In the traditional approach, the participants would go through sales training and then return for negotiation training.  This could take up to 16 months to complete.

In an integrated approach to installing competencies and problem solving, that same sales force of 300 was categorized into A, B and C players.  Cold calling and lead generation training was conducted first followed within one month by the start of a combination opportunity management / strategic negotiation workshop.  Within 8 months, 100% of the A and 50% of the B players were trained on the total solution -- and using it in their day-to-day activities.

If you'd like to know more about Linear "Training" vs. "Integrated Solutions" click on the button below to receive an article in your email. 

Click me

* - Journal of Personal Selling Summer 2005

Tags: negotiation strategies in business

Think! named to Inc. list of
America's fastest growing private companies

Think! named to Inc. 500|5000

about this blog

The B2B Street Fighting blog brings you the latest on what's happening in the real world of business negotiation.

Contact Think!


complete below to get NEW posts
delivered to you

our must-read books on business negotiation

Whether you are in sales or procurement, we have the books you need to read.

For sales professionals:

B2B Street Fighting

For procurement professionals:

negotiation blueprinting for buyers

 

Sales-Negotiation-Training-