| While it's hard to
underline the value of any set of training, it's easy to illustrate the
cost ... but is the invoice value the true cost to your business?
THE COST OF SALES TRAINING
There are two classic ways to view the
immediate cost of sales training on a business -
1) You have to pay someone to come in to
deliver the training. 2) Your sales force is off the floor/off the
road/off the phone and if they're not selling, they're not earning.
Both will have direct short-term effects on your
costs and for what? To teach something most delegates will
have forgotten half way through their first day back ...?
THE VALUE OF SALES TRAINING
But what if the sales training is good?
What if the content is relevant to your exact business requirements and
delivers the additional skills your team needs? What if your sales
training allows each delegate to pick up one technique, one trick or
suggestion that will help them bring in an extra sale each month?
If you multiply the average cost of one sale by the potential
number of delegates and then multiply the total by twelve (months) -
what are you left with? Would it outweigh the cost of the
training? Now divide that additional revenue by the cost of the
course and you suddenly have a potential ROI even the most stringent
accountant would be hard pressed to rail against!
INCREASING SALES STAFF RETENTION THROUGH
SALES TRAINING
Now think in terms of staff retention.
Sales departments traditionally have the lowest
rate of retention in a business - but incur the highest costs in terms
of management, training and business expenses.
If the training was able to reinvigorate,
motivate and retain a member of staff whose performance had recently
dipped or had considered moving on - what is the saving? No
recruitment fees, no down time while a new member of the team gets up to
speed, no short-term drop in revenues. Maybe you'll even get an
increased level of performance from the member of staff you've retained!
All of a sudden your initial outlay has both
saved you some money and generated you more.
Suddenly
cost has become investment.
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