The forgetting problem. And how to avoid it in sales training

Sales teams often face multiple challenges – from excessive discounting to lengthy sales cycles or challenges with cold calling. How best to tackle these issues? The approach parent take in tutoring their children presents hints for a successful sales training approach.

How do you tutor your kids?

Do you have children? If you don't, imagine that you do for a moment. You care deeply about them and their future, their wellbeing and their education. And you want them to succeed. You notice one of them struggle in maths. This is frustrating as you feel they have the potential. And you want to help them. To do so, as a parent who fundamentally cares, which of these three options do you choose ?

• Option 1 : you hire a tutor. He comes for two days. He explains the maths techniques. Issue sorted

• Option 2 : You hire a tutor. He comes for two days and focuses on a mix of theory and techniques, explaining key fundamentals missing for a comprehensive understanding. So that your child can deal with a range of situation he will face at school, especially during stressful situations like exams. The tutor also provides exercises to apply knowledge before the next session.

• Option 3: Option 2 and you also have a conversation with your child. To understand her goals in life. And how being good at maths can fit into this big picture. If you have children, you know there is another option which is to do it yourselves. You might even have tried it and been through the sheer headache and conflicts (well, I have frankly, real nightmare). And realised having a professional is far more efficient...

If you have children, you know there is another option which is to do it yourselves. You might even have tried it and been through the sheer headache and conflicts (well, I have frankly, real nightmare). And realised having a professional is far more efficient...

So dear reader, which option do you choose?

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Short terms solutions don't work

My wild guess?

Because you care and do not want a tick in the box exercise, you go for option three. Not the short term option 1.

Why? Because you know full well that your child - and people generally - learn slowly. Nobody learns a complex subject that is fundamental to success in two days. Knowledge is properly memorised through ongoing repetition.

The issue of forgetting newly learned knowledge is a well documented one. A scientist called Ebbinghaus actually came up with the "forgetting curve" shown in the graph below which represents visually how knowledge learned is easily forgotten and how reviewing it regularly helps memory retention..

[caption id="attachment_87144" align="alignnone" width="709"] Forgetting curve of Ebbinghaus.[/caption]

And the reason you choose option 3 rather than just option 2 is also because you want to make sure your child is emotionally connected to her goals and understand the "why" being good at maths is important. For example:

1. Because it's useful in every angle of life.

2. Because it will help her get into a good university.

3. Because it will help her achieve her goals. Etc...

Maths is just a mean to a greater end. And you know you cannot motivate her without her owning a vision that she is deeply emotionally attached to. A vision that will drive her to succeed in maths.

The importance of repetition and vision to guarantee your sales team success.

I guess by now you are getting my drift and where I am going here...

Like teaching maths to children, helping sales professional to acquire great selling skills doesn't happen in two days. So developing a successful sales training strategy needs to follow the same principles than those used to tutor kids at school.

The issue with sales is that it's a craft which is not taught in any university. There is a rather unhealthy obsession when it comes to improving sales results that what is required is more sales techniques. Sales techniques are important. But they are not the critical part. Sales systems and sales culture are far more important.

This is why so much time and money is wasted on sales training. There is often no system to guarantee the knowledge is maintained.

So to truly help your sales team get the results they deserve - and avoid wasting time and money in a short term fix - three things are worth doing:

1. Make sure your team understand key sales concepts. Like Obelix, of "Asterix and Obelix", fell in the magic potion, most people fall into sales. They have limited knowledge on :

   • What questioning strategies are required - "more asking, less telling" is a powerful approach in sales -

     • How humans make buying decisions - "people buy emotionally then rationalise" -

     • How to develop a trusted advisor relationship.

2. Put in place a system whereby your team is able to repeat this newly acquired knowledge to counter-act the Ebbinghaus curve. A powerful approach I recommend is a two pronged: :

   • Internal sessions where the team reviews the knowledge learned and applies it in role play.

     • Sessions with a sales expert (internal or external) to ensure adherence to the methodology and reinforcement of the learnings. Make sure you task your team to apply the newly found knowledge. For example, ask them to bring you back specific examples of how they applied the newly acquired skills

3. Make sure each individual contributor has a vision of where they're going. Sales is tough. There is a lot of rejection, a fair amount of hostility and sales pro do not control of the final decision even if a process and a methodology are properly followed.

   To motivate people to deal with these challenges on a daily basis, it's critical to understand their deeply held motivations and goals.

   Yet too many organisations do set business targets and goals for their sales teams. But forget to help people develop their personal goals they can be emotionally connected to.

4. Bonus: Implement a proper coaching strategy. For this, develop the coaching skills of your sales management team. And look at a CRM that really has a coaching approach built-in for proper tracking of progress. CRM should be used to help sales people sell better, not as a control tower and data repository. Examples below of Membrain  which I do recommend looking at.

In short:

Successful sales skills development requires skilling up your team on key principles about selling, both theory and techniques, implementing repetition strategies, fostering individual visions and goals, and utilising tools for progress tracking. What strategies do you employ to ensure the success of your sales team?

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