Perhaps no function within an organization has benefitted more from the newest wave of technologies than the salesforce. Social technology and advances in mobile apps and devices have put sales professionals closer to their clients than ever before. So why, then, does sales training seem to be so far behind? 
I will explore the topic of sales training in more depth during a webinar next week. Please join me Thursday, June 30, at 1pm ET, for Learner-Centric Programs that Drive Revenue and Power Sales Performance , and bring some questions and/or commentary to add to the discussion.
In many of the organizations I speak with, sales training consists mainly of big blocks of face-to-face time in training seminars or similar gatherings. This typically results in high cost outlays for minimal returns.
As much as we want to keep people at their jobs and not pull them out for training, this is especially true of the salesforces. The lost opportunity costs for pulling sales people out of the field or off the phone are much higher than for other segments of the workforce.
Luckily, all of the technology at our disposal is making it far easier to deliver learning to the salesforce without the need for a series of time-consuming events.
By using eLearning, virtual classrooms, mobile delivery and social collaboration, travel time and lost opportunity costs can be dramatically reduced. Not that face-to-face events are not valuable and necessary, though. The idea is to reduce the reliance on instructor-led training while at the same time making the face-to-face interactions more strategic and engaging.
–David Wentworth, Principal Learning Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@davidmwentworth
