At a global contact lens provider, the sales training team recently overcame an all-too-common challenge: doing more with less. Charged with the training and long-term development of 150 medical device salespeople across the U.S. and Canada, the company’s Sales Development Manager could have asked her “mighty team of five” (as she calls them) to work longer and harder. Instead, she introduced a “force multiplier”—a tool that enables her staff to produce more high-quality coaching and training with less effort—into the training mix. Trainers Are Scarce, But Not Sales Experts By adopting Allego’s modern... Continue Reading

The investment required to turn a “B player” into a top sales performer is a terrible thing to waste. Yet that’s exactly what many sales organizations do: they let a big chunk of their sales training investment fall by the wayside. The average tenure of a salesperson is just two years. At many companies, it can take 10 months or more for a new sales rep to become fully productive, which makes high turnover even more costly. And what’s the #1 reason why sales reps leave their jobs? According to them, it’s... Continue Reading

When a sales force isn’t hitting its targets, sales leaders often hold all-hands ‘triage’ meetings, looking for ways to improve results. These usually include an impassioned speech or animated discussion with the hope of bringing the team out of their collective funk. Unsurprisingly, this approach often fails to deliver results. When a sales team isn’t reaching its potential, it’s often because of systemic reasons that go far beyond the scope of a pep talk or even a verbal admonition. Rather than applying triage after the wound occurs, sales leaders will see better... Continue Reading

As the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” There’s no denying that this makes sense at times, but some things don’t look broken until after they’re fixed. This is a story with which Travis Hecker, Senior Manager of Global Sales Training at Abbott Laboratories, Chronic Pain Therapy Division, is very familiar. Fighting the ‘Sunk Cost Fallacy’ “We’re really good at basic onboarding and other course-driven learning, but then we trail off,” said Hecker at the recent LTEN webinar, Using Modern Sales Learning Tools to Maintain a Competitive Edge: Insights... Continue Reading