The major source of income in any business or organization is 95% of the time from its sales force or sales department and it, therefore, stands to reason that these salespeople should be highly trained and skilled to ensure a steady stream of new business and sales generation. But is this actually the case and are companies training their salespeople as they should?

Let’s first look at a few statistics to tell us a story

  • According to Forbes magazine, 55% of salespeople lack even basic training in sales skills – I would submit to you that this is even higher when you look at small and medium-size businesses who do not form part of that survey.
  • It is widely accepted that 86% of any sales training is lost, forgotten, and therefore never used after 30-90 days of receiving it if it is not constantly reinforced.  
  • According to a Caliper report, up to 60% of sales representatives have weak or no inter-personal communication skills whatsoever. In other words, they have not developed empathetic personalities which allows them to connect and relate to various personality types.
  • 70% of leads generated from marketing campaigns are never turned into sales by the sales force due to lack of training and indifferent attitudes.
  • 60% of customers are lost because of indifference from the salespeople and not through bad products or service.
  • 80% of business decision-makers feel that salespeople are inadequately prepared.
  • Close to 50% of salespeople give up after one follow up only.
  • 75% of business owners interviewed claim that salespeople do not get back to them in a reasonable time with required information and quotations.

From these statistics, it becomes clear that salespeople are not adequately trained and professional enough as a general rule. This is very good news for the driven sales people though, who train themselves and conduct themselves as a professional because it enables them to stand out from the crowd and demand from the market place their just reward for their labours. In other words, a very large income.

Once again remember the adage that Great salespeople are trained great, not naturally great.

If you are a business owner with salespeople then ensure they are trained and mentored until it sticks, and then watch your sales and profits begin to soar. The gain in training will far outweigh the initial financial pain. 

Wishing you all the very best in all your sales endeavours.

The Sales Driven team