Is ‘on the job’ training the best way to develop a salesperson?

BY DAVE KAHLE

Sales specialist

In our surveys, distributors CEOs indicate that “on the job” training is the dominant method of developing salespeople. If everyone is doing it, it must be okay, right?

I don’t think so.

See if this sounds familiar. You are ready to expand your sales force, so you hire a nice guy who has some experience in the industry. You start him with a few days in the warehouse, have him sit in customer service for a week and meet with whichever manufacturer’s rep happens to stroll in. You send him out with a senior salesperson for a week or so. Then he’s deemed ready to represent you, and he’s unleashed into the territory with the charge to “go forth and sell a lot.” He’ll pick it up, you assure yourself, by learning “on the job.”

Or, worse yet, you make it a practice of only hiring people who have experience, limiting your future salespeople to those who have gone through the process described above at some other company.

What’s wrong with this tried-and-true method of developing salespeople? There was a time, 10 or 20 years ago, when this method was adequate. Competition was not nearly as fierce, the job was not nearly as demanding and salespeople were not nearly as challenged as they are today. In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, however, “on-the-job” learning for salespeople consistently produces mediocre performers.

It’s not that on-the-job training isn’t effective for other positions. On-the-job learning works well for positions such as customer service, warehouse, etc., where there is a mentor constantly present and where there is a clearly defined articulation of how to do the job well.

For salespeople, however, it’s an abdication of responsibility. There is rarely a mentor constantly available, nor is there, in most businesses, a clearly defined set of practices as to what constitutes the best way to do the job. “On-the-job” training, for salespeople, is code for “learn on your own.”

Let’s examine why that is.

Defining standards for salespeople

On-the-job training for salespeople assumes that there are no standards for what constitutes a good salesperson. Other than net sales and/or gross profits measured at the end of the month, there are no standards for what constitutes professional excellence. Therefore, every salesperson is left to develop his or her own “style.” If there were a set of best practices that define the way a professional salesperson does his job, it would be unreasonable to expect that every salesperson would, by trial and error, stumble across those best practices. That’s the concept.

Of course, the problem is that this idea is the biggest single cause of sales mediocrity in existence today. It is totally, completely, false.

There is a set of behaviors that constitute the skill set of the sales masters. The job of the salesperson has been studied and written about probably more than any other profession. There exists a universal body of knowledge about how a good salesperson does his job. There are behaviors and competencies that relate to planning, preparation, time management, interaction with customers, etc. Regardless of the hype of promoters, there are no secrets in selling.

I just encountered a well-trained, professional salesperson. He answered the phone when I communicated with a company with whom we already have a relationship. I was interested in expanding the relationship to include some other services from this company.

He was polite and respectful. He first referenced our previous relationship and then asked a series of questions that had obviously been prepared beforehand. I could hear him typing the answers into the computer. He repeated back to me, several times, his understanding of exactly what I was looking for and exactly what my situation and requirements were. He then outlined a series of next steps, the most logical next step being his doing some research on a solution and then calling me back to relay that solution.

We agreed and made an appointment for that phone call. When the time came, he was prompt. He began the phone call by reciting the steps we had taken, and, once again, explained his understanding of my situation. When I agreed that he accurately understood our situation, he relayed his proposal. We discussed it, and, together, settled on a next step to move the project forward.

After the call, I felt very comfortable, knowing that the project was in the hands of a well-trained professional salesperson. He exhibited mastery of a series of behaviors that we teach every salesperson. In other words, he knew how to sell.

He was so good that I doubt that he stumbled over these best practices on his own. It didn’t matter whether he was black, white, yellow, green or orange; it didn’t matter whether the person was male or female, Indian, Puerto Rican or American; it didn’t matter whether he was old or young. It didn’t matter what the product was or how long the company had been in business. What did matter was that he was a well-trained, professional salesperson, exhibiting all the behaviors of a master salesperson.

I suspect that he was intentionally exposed to these best practices, that he was trained in them, that he practiced them until he achieved some degree of competence and that he was and is regularly inspected to make sure that he continues to develop his competence with these behaviors. I doubt that he was expected to “learn on his own.”

My point is this: There is a universal body of knowledge about how an effective, professional salesperson does his job. This set of practices can be identified, learned and managed in every salesperson.

Not to do that is to promote the concept that every salesperson has “his own style,” and can’t, therefore, be held accountable for anything. On-the-job training for salespeople usually means that we expect the salesperson to eventually “get it,” although we have no articulate idea of what “it” is.

Identifying critical areas of behavior

On-the-job (on your own) assumes that every salesperson will be motivated to eventually figure out how to perform well. They will strive, the thinking goes, to continue to modify their behavior until they arrive, by trial and error, at their peak level of performance.

Ah, if only this were true. We could all sleep better at night. The problem is, of course, that very few salespeople are internally motivated to continually improve their performance. My experience has led me to believe that only about 5% of salespeople, or one out of 20, invest in developing their own skills. Specifically, only one of 20 salespeople has spent $25 of their own money on their own development in the last 12 months.

That means that the vast majority, 95%, really isn’t interested in putting any of their own time or money into their own growth and development. The idea that undergirds the concept of “on your own” training is, for 95% of the sales force, false.

Then there is the fact that salespeople are notoriously self-delusional. Ask a salesperson how it’s going and how many times do you get anything other than “great!” Regardless of the reality of the situation, salespeople often delude themselves into thinking that things are only getting better.

There is a very necessary personality trait in a field salesperson that constantly assesses each situation in terms of its potential. In other words, they look at an account and see it for what it could become, not necessarily acknowledging the obstacles to getting it there. This is a necessary and beneficial trait for salespeople when it drives their behavior.

Unfortunately, it is the cause of self-delusion when it comes to changing their own behavior. Make a call with a salesperson and ask him how it went, and he’ll pick out the one or two positives and expand on them, while at the same time leaving out the mistakes and lack of competence they showed.

It’s for this reason that most salespeople don’t know what they do that produces sales. A few years ago, Systema examined this issue. They observed 1,700 salespeople in 22 different industries. They asked the top performers to describe what they did on a call to get results. Then they sent trained observers into the field to watch their behavior. The results? There was no relationship between what they said they did and what they actually did. In other words, even good salespeople couldn’t recognize what they did to get results.

It’s also for this reason that they don’t have an accurate assessment of how competent they really are. Another study discovered that few salespeople have an accurate opinion of their own abilities. When asked about the function of asking good questions, 87% of the 300 salespeople studied indicated they knew that was an important part of the sales process. Yet when they were observed, only 27% actually exhibited the ability to ask good questions. So, roughly three out of four salespeople are clueless as to the extent of their own abilities. They think they are far better than they really are!

The bottom line is this: Salespeople generally don’t know what they do that brings them sales, and they think far more highly of their own abilities than they should.

Add all this up, and it’s clear that  “on-the-job training for salespeople” is really doublespeak for “no training for salespeople.”

It’s clear that on-the-job training -- at least for salespeople -- is a vestige of days gone by, and just doesn’t work. Let’s relegate on the job training for salespeople to the same dustbin into which we deposited such legacy systems as paper inventory cards, electric typewriters and 8-track tape recorders. Let’s address the issue of developing effective salespeople with a systematic approach to teaching the best practices of the professional salesperson. Let’s give them a chance to succeed and excel.

Dave Kahle is a consultant and trainer who helps his clients increase sales and improve sales productivity. Kahle has trained thousands of salespeople to be more successful in the Information Age economy. He is the author of more than 500 articles, a monthly e-zine and six books. Ten Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople was recently released by Career Press.  You can join his free online newsletter, Thinking About Sales, at www.davekahle.com/mailinglist.htm.  He can be reached at The DaCo Corp., 15 Ionia S.W., Ste. 220, Grand Rapids, Mich. 49503; tel. 800/331-1287, fax 616/451-9412, e-mail info@davekahle.com, website www.davekahle.com.