Training Industry Magazine - January/February 2021 - 39

can only be put into place through
rigorous practice.
Through rigorous practice, sales skills
become reflexes. Practice offers reps
the opportunity to hone skills. Without
that, they will experiment in live selling
situations. Furthermore, in most cases,
you have less time, increasing pressure
and risk.
Maintaining Focus. Reps must be able
to adapt and adjust to fluid selling
situations due to frequent distractions
and interruptions. Salespeople forget
to ask things. Distractions come in
all shapes and sizes. Sometimes a
conversation veers in an unexpected
direction, and you fail to get back
on track. As a result, reps miss out
on receiving or communicating
vital information.

Good judgment in
selling situations is more in
demand now than ever before.

home, such as spouses, kids " in school, "
pets and repairmen.
Good judgment in selling situations is
more in demand now than ever before.
As a result, practice is critical.

The Consequences
of Not Practicing Sales
A common trait of struggling sales
organizations is lack of rigorous sales
processes, leaving sales stuck in the
pipeline. What does this have to do
with practice? A rigorous sales process

Selling Judgment. Another consequence
is not knowing how or when to push hard
enough to move a deal forward, applying
finesse without becoming pushy. Sales
judgment is a soft skill that takes time to
develop, which sales reps mistakenly
attribute to instinct.
Reps need to master the skill of
understanding when to push and when
to step back. When reps become too
aggressive, potential customers tune
out. A Harvard Business Review study
found that customers despise and
disengage when sales reps become
" pushy. " In the safe space of practice,
the rep receives honest feedback. In the
risky space of live selling situations, the
lead goes cold.
Assessing Strengths and Weaknesses.
Visible practice can be a form of

assessment for sales leaders. However,
lack of adequate practice and data
on sales behavior makes it tough for
management to know if new reps are
ready to enter the field. Even if all new
hires receive identical training, there
will be reps who need more and less
training in specific skills. The same is
true of tenured sales reps.
Discipline. It takes considerable repetition
to move from practice to habit. It's true
of everything in life. Developing sales
skills and judgment are no different. The
average time it takes to get new hires to
the same performance level as tenured
sales reps is 381 days.
Everyone has areas in which they can
grow. And, without a direct line of sight
to selling behaviors, sales management
can only measure sales effectiveness
when deals are closed or lost. Rigorous
practice time in a safe environment
means management can observe,
engage and measure selling behavior,
and know if sales reps are following the
organization's sales process.

Barriers to Changing
Sales Behaviors
There's usually resistance to building
routine and changing habits. People
default to comfort zones, reflexively
relying on what they do well and
avoiding the hard stuff. It's true of most
things in life.
One-size-fits-all Training. It's easy for
sales management to say, " My reps
have no interest in sales training, " or, " I
schedule sales training once a year and
they hate it! " In truth, sales management
often shares the blame for their team's
lack of practice due to forcing one-sizefits-all training. It's too broad, rarely
memorable and fails to pinpoint reps'
areas of weakness.
Management
herds
salespeople
into a classroom, pumps them full of
information from videos or facilitators,
then calls each rep to role-play the new
skills they were just taught in front of
their peers. It's no wonder so many reps
hate sales training. The reps are relieved

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Training Industry Magazine - January/February 2021

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