Sales Leaders

maximize sales training investment

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5 Tips to Maximize Your Sales Training Investment

After you’ve hired a sales training vendor, there are a series of questions you need to answer in order to ensure you’re getting the most out of your sales training investment, like:

  • How do I maximize sales training ROI?
  • How do I measure training success?
  • How do I get results FAST?

Having been both the vendor and the buyer in this equation, I definitely have some insight to share. I’ve made mistakes as the Training Director hiring a sales/sales leadership training vendor, and I’ve had clients do some really smart (and less than smart) things. 

Although I could write about this topic forever, I’ve narrowed it down to my top 5 tips to maximize your sales training investment.

1. Customize the Customization. Then customize that. Twenty years ago, I paid a vendor $15,000 extra to customize the training for my company. I spent countless hours sending them examples, marketing data, and websites. I forwarded redacted emails and unpublished case studies. I just KNEW they would get the “real feel” for how special our snowflake was. The result?

The vendor added one half-page sheet to the back of the workbook with two custom role plays. TWO! The pages weren’t even numbered with the rest of the workbook. Total afterthought! Literally, nothing else was custom.

Ready for the vendor flipside? Six years ago we up-leveled all our workbooks for Factor 8. This meant I couldn’t build custom workbooks from scratch anymore for clients (the downside of totally custom is a less professional look – even a few errors). Now each of our course workbooks of about 10 pages has around 15 sections in bold red font that our Advisors tailor prior to delivery. It might be the customer’s language, an industry example, a customer voice example, specific sales objections, etc. During the live interactions, our coaches play their sales calls, coach actual delivery, and will give custom samples/scripts of every skill. That’s customization!

Tip: Get an actual list of what is tailored to your organization, its format, and when/how it is delivered. 

2. Require Manager Involvement. Note: I didn’t say attendance. You need attendance AND involvement! Back when I was delivering training in an enablement organization, we were afraid to invite all the sales managers to our training. They were so busy and important (and let’s be honest, a little rude). As I gained more confidence, I would meet with them 1:1 after the training with tips on what we trained and what to look for. As I got busier, I would schedule a 15-minute meeting so I could do this all at once. When I was put in charge, I required them to come AND met with them for 30 minutes afterward.

Guess what? They still couldn’t coach the skills. Sure, they attended the training, but they didn’t participate. They didn’t come and play to win as if they, too, would be graded on their adaption of the skills. They half-listened, did some email, smiled and nodded, and stole the stage as often as possible to give sage advice.

Vendor Flipside: At Factor 8, we meet with managers before the training, require attendance at the training, train the managers on how to coach the skills after the training, give managers 3+ tools to make it easy to support and coach the training, then do a follow-up meeting with the managers on how skills went, AND certify the managers to certify the reps on the skills. It may seem like overkill, but trust me, it works.

Your ROI will be cut in half if your managers aren’t underlying the importance of using the new skills and coaching their execution. Go overboard making sure they are trained, incentivized, and supported by your vendor to do this! 

3. Measure Your Heart Out! If you aren’t crystal clear on the results, KPIs, and metrics that should be impacted by the training, then you’re not ready to outsource sales training. (Really, a vendor just said that!) In fact, ask the vendor what numbers they expect to move with this engagement (and don’t hire them if they don’t know!) At some point, you’ll have to show your sales training ROI, so define during the interview stage what success looks like and then go get a 3-6 month baseline on these metrics. As a training manager, I was nervous early in my career to do this. It only took one sales leader saying, “You are not solely responsible for the 35% uptick in XYZ…!” for me to start backing down and measuring success anecdotally or with smile sheets. As I grew in my career, all I did was add two words: “contribute to.” If we measure pre and post, we can all SHARE the credit! 

Vendor Flipside: I love a case study. Number one reason I don’t have one on every client? They don’t provide us with their reporting. The leader pulls the trigger on the contract and then sales managers or the enablement team are left to execute and the ask never bubbles to the top. In fact, I’d love to take contracts based on up-side (we get paid when you improve) and have offered it many times in the past, but the baseline metrics and results weren’t available from the client.

4. Get Leadership Involved (more than they are). How do I know they aren’t very involved? I’ve had about 3 clients out of 300 who were. As a training leader, I had about none. Why is this critical? Because your attendees determine how important the training is based on what the leader says, does, and spends money on. Even if you have to write the script for the VP to kick off the meeting and send over the questions they need to ask in their 1:1 meeting afterward, take the time and do it. Otherwise, you may be the flavor of the month. 

Vendor Flipside: They’re my favorite three clients ever. And when they ask for anything extra, they get it. I’ve helped them get jobs 10 years later, spoken free at their conferences, and featured them on our blogs. When a leader lends their time, voice, and stature to training, it will literally change the organization’s culture. Help convince them they’ll get more ROI by being involved. Make it easier on them with cheat sheets and reminders. These clients get double their money’s worth.

5. Focus on Long Term. Ever met with an internal client who wants you to train 5 things in 20 minutes? Me too. Try every single sales leader ever. Here’s why: Most people don’t know the difference between telling and training. That’s why their people don’t change their behavior after being told. Folks, if you want people to change what they’re doing, the training will take 5x longer than you want it to AND the support “tail” for the training will be months, maybe even years. Don’t make training an event – studies show they’ll remember about 30% of what is taught. The best leaders get this fact:

Training isn’t something you did, it’s something you do.

Vendor Flipside: Events are fun. They’re low risk and high reward. We often would have better selling days during training than normal days (live calling during training). Lots of energy, buzz, and results. But if that’s all your vendor is doing, reconsider. What about keeping skills alive? Pulling the buzz forward? Seeing skills move from the classroom to the sales floor? 15 years ago we offered a 1-day post-training follow-up. Then 90 days virtual. Now we do one-year contracts. It’s the right thing to do and the right way to do it. Doesn’t fit the SKO? Hire a speaker instead.

If you’re evaluating sales training, we’re here to help. Fill out the form or email info@factor8.com and let us know how we can help.

Want more information on how to maximize your sales training investment?

Contact us today to request information on our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).



sales coaching

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How to Increase Sales Coaching Frequency

In all my years of sales leadership, there has never been a sales coaching emergency. You? Ever gotten a call after hours along the lines of:

 “Panic! They don’t know how to…!! Help!?”

Exactly. And this is actually why, despite all our good intentions, there are precious few true coaching cultures in sales organizations. Even though we know the benefits – coaching skills that exceed expectations result in 94.8% of reps meeting quota and a top demand from the millennial and gen Z’s you’re trying to hire (source: like every study published in the past five years).

Since there ARE sales emergencies, customer emergencies, product emergencies, and political emergencies every single day (and the non-emergent intentions), it’s no surprise that meetings get pushed to the bottom.

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of partnering with many organizations to establish or turn around their development cultures and we have lots of resources to help you after you finish this blog. Check out our top 20 actions download to help increase coaching frequency, our recent webinar on establishing a coaching culture, as well this fun quiz to determine whether or not your organization has a coaching culture.

If you’re a sales leader, the most important place you can start is by assessing your current culture of development and sales coaching importance. Here are a few questions to get you started:

  1. How often are my managers scheduled to call coach? How often do they really?
  2. What is coaching more important than? ($1M deal?) What is it not? (reporting request?)
  3. How eager are reps and managers for coaching sessions?
  4. Are we hiding or celebrating fails?
  5. Are reps getting built up or brought down?

The goal here is to determine if you have enough coaching, the right kind of coaching, and the kind of culture that supports it.

Starting with question 1, you may be surprised to learn that nearly 50% of reps disagree that they’re getting as much coaching as their managers state. Some of this is due to canceled or pushed coaching when fires happen (and let’s be honest, they happen daily in sales). I think the root of the problem here is how we define coaching. Most managers believe they’re coaching during a 1:1 meeting, a “how’s it going” chat, or a pipeline/deal conversation. Sorry, 

“That’s NOT coaching!”

Our definition of best-in-class coaching is:

  1. Sales meeting is present (ride-along, recorded call, live video meeting)
  2. Manager asks questions about the reps’ skill
  3. Rep receives custom feedback on their execution
  4. Rep leaves feeling more confident than when they walked in

Sadly, this means that if you’re playing a call at a team meeting (great job by the way), this is sales training, not sales coaching. At most, you can provide custom feedback on a rep’s skills for about 3 people and 3 short call recordings in an hour. Yes, it also means that giving someone a laundry list of what to improve also doesn’t count as coaching. That’s just bullying. Inspect some sessions. You’ll be surprised – and you’ll be showing coaching’s importance with your presence. 

Sales Executive Council also tells us that call coaching (aka skill coaching) is sales managers’ #1 worst skill. I’ve been hiring and training sales managers for 20 years and I wholeheartedly agree. And the hardest skill to shift is the laundry list of improvement items. It’s so easy for us to hear the challenges, and so hard for us to resist giving just one more idea for improvement. 90% of sessions during role plays come off negative at first, and it takes us at LEAST three training and practice sessions to start to even this out. 

Like most leaders who came up through sales, I’m 100% guilty of the coaching bully myself. In fact, as we train sales managers how to coach at Factor 8, I modeled the curriculum after all my own personal atrocities. “Be like me…I do all the talking…Debbie Downer…” you get the picture. If you relate to this, you’ve probably also taken over a call or two you were meant to be silently observing. 

That’s why I only coach recordings now. I just can’t be trusted during a live call. It’s also led to my #1 tip for antsy sales coaches:

“Coach the rep, not the deal.”

When we approach coaching with the intent of building confidence and skill vs. saving the deal, everything changes. Imagine the deal already lost. Resist the temptation to even ask about the outcome. Focus instead on engaging this seller, and helping them love their job, love their company, love their manager, and love sales.

It changes everything.

A note on culture. Spend a minute Googling the concept of a “growth mindset.” It’s our ultimate goal for sales coaching cultures. It’s a magical land where everyone cares more about improvement than winning. Did you just laugh out loud, my sales leader friend? Before you dismiss it, realize it’s the calling card of nearly every great athlete, and imagine if all your “A” players just kept getting better. How do you get here? A few ideas:

  1. Weed out your problem leaders. Yeah, the person you pictured is exactly who I’m talking about. They probably have veteran reps and accounts and are a fixture in your org – like a barnacle on the underside of the boat, they aren’t uplifters. Just note: culture is formed not by your intent! It’s defined by the worst behavior you’re willing to tolerate. His name was Brian at my first sales management job, and his attitude led the whole division to a culture of hazing and sink or swim. NOT the coaching culture the new workforce is craving!
  2. Share your failures and encourage your managers to do the same. A coaching culture is one where we’re not afraid to fail. We willingly share bad calls. We welcome feedback and input. Sorry, but humans aren’t built to be vulnerable and they will need a lot of role modeling here until your people feel safe to do so.
  3. Reward improvement. If you want a growth mindset culture, you can’t just reward the winners. Find ways every month to celebrate improvement. Could be a metrics jump, a KPI improvement, skill gains, CSat ratings…you get it.

A final word of advice: over-correct. My first Sales Director job came on the heels of me launching a training department. There was no other sales leader as dedicated to developing people as I. It still took me 6 months in the new gig to start talking about and prioritizing training. So I get how hard it is and how busy everyone is and how many emergencies keep coaching at the bottom of the to-do list. So, if it’s your goal, you’ll need to triple down to shift the pendulum. Dedicate six months to over-doing it. Talk about it in every team meeting and all-hands. Drop into coaching sessions and coach the coaches. Reward top coaches and rep improvements. Add it to contests. Ask manager for skill trends in every meeting. Spend money on sales manager training. Be sure it is OVER represented in your calendar, your budget, and your voice for long enough that your team knows it isn’t a flavor of the month.

Got a tip? Drop me a line and let me know what’s worked for you! lb@factor8.com.

Want more tips on how to increase sales coaching frequency?

Fill out the form below to watch the recording from
our recent session on“Creating a Coaching Culture” for more tips.



improve sales industry

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Improving Sales for the Next Generation of Talent

I’m in Sales! I’m not a Growth Manager or a Chief Delightment Officer, or anything else that people say at networking events because they don’t want to admit they’re in sales. I’m proud to be in sales, but if statistics tell us anything, my chosen and beloved profession needs to change. 

Every day, more jobs are being replaced by AI or being sent offshore. The jobs that are left are harder and faster than they were 10 years ago. The entry-level jobs need to ramp even sooner and convert deals that much quicker. If you’ve been at this for a while now, that probably sounds exciting. If you’re stepping into your first role, it’s probably terrifying.  

We’re finding the job pool of sales reps features fewer experienced candidates, all while customers are becoming savvier and with higher expectations. The game has changed and we need to change along with it. 

Remember when you first got into sales. How have you grown? What did you learn? Over the years you’ve gained experience, tooled up, and added to or adapted your tech stack. We need to change the way we are looking at entry-level sales and improve the first impression we are giving new employees.

Think about the sales calls you receive on any given day. The majority fall into two groups. It’s either a robocall or it’s a fresh-faced recent college (or high school) graduate in their very first sales role. These unseasoned front-line employees are being thrown to the wolves with nothing more than a phone and a script. It’s no wonder we lose A LOT of reps every year. 

Overall, 50% of all graduates go into sales. That’s not just business school, that’s all schools across the country. In the first year alone, we will lose a staggering 40% of those new reps. This is not sustainable. At this point, we can’t recruit enough people to fill those front-line seats. 

Leaders, it’s time to shift our thought process. 

Right now, when a new employee walks in the door we give them a product demonstration, a Salesforce login, direct them to the phones, and say “Good luck, better hit that quota!” We’re not teaching them how to engage or converse. They’re simply memorizing scripts and pitches. WE are teaching the next generation to hate sales. Slowly and systematically, we are scaring away bright, brilliant, young people from the sales profession and if we want it to stop, we need to be better. 

It’s going to take all of us, together, to make that happen. Here’s how…

We need to ditch the script. New sellers (and some existing sellers) need to be taught how to stop talking AT customers and instead engage with them. Sales is where the technology stops. It’s where one person has to talk to another person about their challenges or their needs. At its root, sales is about helping someone else. It’s about human connection. Right now, only 3% of customers trust salespeople. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but if we want to regain our customer’s trust we need to start by improving our conversations.  

We need to make room for failure. I’m not saying that we let employees slide every time they miss quota. What I am saying is that instead of treating an employee like the black sheep, maybe we dive deeper. Treat that failure as an area of opportunity. Let’s help normalize failure and find the “why” behind it. Every missed deal can help your employees, especially the new ones, land future deals. All we have to do is encourage people to talk about it and then help them find the solution for next time.

We need to shift our focus to retention. According to a report from The Bridge Group, the average tenure of a sales rep is 1.5 years. The old me would have said, “That gives me 18 months to find someone else to fill that seat.” What if instead, we said, “I have 540 days to make them love sales, stay, and continue in their career.”

We’ve sold everything under the sun and WE LOVE IT. So, let’s make the next generation love it just as much as we do. 

We can do this! Together, we can have sales reps proudly shouting “I’m in Sales!”

Want to improve the sales industry for your new sellers?

By training and developing your employees, they’ll perform better and stay longer.
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.



Top Sales Training Provider

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Factor 8 Named a Selling Power 2022 Top Sales Training Company

Factor 8 is pleased to announce it has been included on Selling Power’s Top 25 Sales Training Companies 2022 list https://bit.ly/3KMFPQt. 

“Factor 8 is proud to be the only sales training provider included on Selling Power’s ‘Top 25 Sales Training Companies’ list for two years in a row that built their foundation 100% on virtual sales,” said Ted Martin, CRO Factor 8. “In the past, companies have emphasized the value of field sales over their digital or inside sales counterparts. Due to the pandemic, companies began moving to remote environments, which caused them to realize the value of virtual sales. This is a win for all of us who have built our careers in inside and virtual sales.”

Factor 8’s winning application highlighted the incredible success of their virtual sales training programs and their ability to adapt to their customers’ needs in the constantly evolving corporate landscape. With many years of experience in virtual sales, Factor 8 quickly became a strategic partner to various B2B and B2C companies, helping their sales teams adjust to and excel in the virtual and hybrid selling environments.

“It’s feedback like this from our client partners that fuels my team. We’re passionate about changing people’s lives by increasing their confidence and success at work. This recognition shows us that our efforts are working,” says Factor 8 Founder & President Lauren Bailey.

According to Selling Power publisher and founder Gerhard Gschwandtner, sales training is more important than ever. The economy has shifted significantly due to inflation, Covid 19, the war in Ukraine, shortages in supply and the emergence of new learning technologies. 

“Sales training companies had to adjust in the last year,” says Gschwandtner. “Each of the sales training companies included on this list was able to pivot quickly to deliver best-in-class, engaging sales training both virtually, and in person. Their efforts and expertise helped their clients reach and exceed sales goals and decrease onboarding time in a highly challenging economy.” 

All companies on the list submitted a comprehensive application that included a detailed listing of their offerings for both training and retention, innovative solutions, their company’s unique contributions to the sales training marketplace, and their ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main criteria used when comparing applicants and selecting the companies to include on this year’s list were:

  1. Depth and breadth of training offered
  2. Innovative offerings (specific training courses, methodology, or delivery methods)
  3. Contributions to the sales training market
  4. Strength of client satisfaction and overall client feedback

To evaluate applicants for the list, the Selling Power team surveyed and considered feedback from over 340 clients of the applicants. Here is a brief selection of comments from their clients:

  • “They have a great methodology that is easy for the field to consume, and they go above and beyond to make sure their clients implement successfully and get a high ROI.”
  • “Our sales managers that went through the training said it was the best training they had ever received as part of a sales organization.”
  • “The prep work, training, and follow-up after training are all world-class.”
  • “Outstanding, key to our sales transformation.”
  • “Really great people to work with. Professional and eager to work as real partners.”
  • “Not only is the training content excellent, but the delivery and interactivity of the sessions really help participants absorb and apply the techniques.”

Selling Power magazine editors say CROs, sales VPs, and sales enablement leaders can leverage this list to find the right sales training partner to help salespeople succeed during social distancing and remote working. See the Selling Power Top Sales Training Companies 2022 list at https://bit.ly/3KMFPQt.

About Factor 8 

Factor 8 is an award-winning sales rep and management training company focused 100% on helping sales teams sell in a virtual world. They are a team of expert sales leaders who quit the daily grind so they could spend their time developing people. Together, they’ve solved the big problem: Sales Reps and Managers are not gaining the skills they need to quickly feel confident and successful long-term. That means they ramp slowly and leave quickly. 

They’ve made the calls, done the demos, managed the teams, and forecasted the deals. They have a better way to ensure teams hit higher revenue goals faster. https://factor8.com/

About Selling Power 

In addition to Selling Power, the leading digital magazine for sales managers and sales VPs since 1981, Personal Selling Power, Inc., produces the Sales Management Digest and Daily Boost of Positivity online newsletters (https://bit.ly/3nUpek7), as well as videos featuring interviews with top executives. Selling Power is a regular media sponsor of the Sales 3.0 Conference, which is attended by a total of more than 4,500 sales leaders each year. https://www.sales30conf.com 

Looking to partner with a top sales training provider?

Contact us today to learn more about our virtual sales training programs
for sales reps and sales managers. 



remote leadership

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Strategies to Improve Your Remote Leadership Capabilities

The concept of work-from-home isn’t new, but under Covid-19 this mode of work has quickly become the norm. The pandemic restricted everybody’s mobility, and adjustments had to be made in order to compensate for the physical limitations.

As Covid-19 numbers decrease, however, studies show that the increasing benefits that many have experienced with remote work — such as flexibility and productivity — have given birth to a new culture. More companies continue to consider making permanent work-from-home arrangements to reduce office space. An example of this is Morgan Stanley. Around 90% of their employees worked from home during the pandemic, leading to Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman noting that the company now needed much less real estate. Companies, like Morgan Stanley, are now trying to strike a balance to minimize the risks and maximize the gains.

Finding balance can be tricky, however, which is why a remote team requires strong leadership. Top executive leadership plays several roles in an organization, including effectively delegating tasks, as well as managing relations among different individuals (which is why the median wage is far above the average at $103,950). Executive leadership is particularly important for designing programs and setting standards so that organizations can meet their goals.

Improving remote leadership capabilities means executive leadership can do their work. Fortunately, this can be easily developed with consistent practice. Read on to know the tips for effective leadership in a remote team.

Keep track of your goals

It is easy to feel disconnected when your work environment all lies within a screen. This is where designing programs and setting standards come into play. It helps to establish clear and measurable goals with quantitative objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), and a set schedule. This sets a direction for the team.

Above all, these goals must be consultative with your team members. Business development goals usually go through multiple phases before completion, so keeping track of everyone’s progress allows leaders to adjust accordingly.

Pay attention to your team

Transparency and consultation are key to ensuring that your goals are realistic. This is where checking in with your team and remembering their needs come in. Our previous post discusses the different ways leaders can engage their remote team, which surprisingly means strategies like fewer calls – Zoom fatigue is real, after all.

The important thing to remember throughout is that numbers and performance are important, but teams are composed of individuals. Only a healthy, collaborative team can produce great outcomes in the long run.

Trust in your team

The fear of a dip in effort and production can be overpowering. Some leaders may find themselves micromanaging their teammates to compensate for the distance.

However, it is actually the lack of trust that causes a breakdown around employee autonomy, perceived competence, and respect, and that ultimately affects productivity in your team. Remember that your goals are their goals as well, so what’s left is to guide and lead the way.

Focusing on improving communication skills

To build trust, open channels to discuss company goals aren’t enough. Leaders need to cultivate a workplace culture of clear communication. Sharing every little detail about your life isn’t necessary — a level of independence in working is essential after all — but transparency allows your team to understand one another and fosters empathy. It also encourages asking questions, which minimizes the chance for misunderstandings.

The physical distance of remote work is hard enough to manage without knowing what your members are going through in their homes. Having a clearer picture of this allows you to adjust accordingly and provide a safety net for the entire team.

To lead is to be responsible for others, and this weight is never easy. However, under effective and collaborative remote leadership, not only will you be watching out for your team, but they’ll also be watching out for you.

This post was written by Jan Evans.

virtual sales challenges

6 Warning Signs Your Employee Is Quitting Soon

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6 Warning Signs Your Employee Is Quitting Soon

Ever been blindsided by an employee quitting? You were worried about Rep A and it was Manager B who resigned? According to Gallup, managers have higher disengagement than reps today – and we’re at our highest overall dissatisfaction since 2000! 

Here are some behaviors to keep on your radar to prevent your top employees from quitting:

  1. Disengagement.
    You may think it’s the active nay-sayer who’s your problem child, but it’s actually the quiet ones. This is especially true if you used to hear from them. As employees move from “engaged” to “disengaged” they withdraw. You may find you have to call on them in a huddle when they used to speak up. It might be that when you do ask for their input, it is short and not well thought out.
  2. Absence.
    It takes work time to interview elsewhere and if your employee is virtual it will be harder to notice. Look for long response times on Slack or email and 90-minute call gaps. If they’ve gone radio silent, they’re likely searching and interviewing elsewhere. They won’t be asking for all of this time off, they’ll likely just be taking it during lunches, starting late or ending early. If your spidey sense says there might be a problem, look for numerous gaps over several weeks.
  3. Low Performance.
    You may not see it right away, but when you look for it, you’ll see productivity or ratios declining. Probably over several periods. Often I find that one big miss will start the disengagement for normally great reps. For example, Bobby was a solid A or B player and he had a big whiff three months ago. As per policy, he went on a PIP. He pulled himself back up, but never back to the “A” status. Start checking for declines in outbounding and longer absences. Call on Bobby in meetings and see what happens. You lost him at the write-up, and in the absence of great ego coddling, he may have checked out back then.
  4. High Demands.

    You won’t find this one in any research, but I tell you I’ve seen it. As an employee starts to check out, they don’t all fade out. I’ve had some make it my fault. They start asking for more and more demanding requests – perhaps even the impossible. When I can’t or won’t deliver, they have “no choice” but to leave. Look for rising demands around hours, travel, or approved expenses. They may even be shopping you against another job posting or company.

  5. New Requests.
    Be careful not to classify new requests in the high demands category. In the past few years, priorities have shifted and hyper-engaged employees expect their employers to be doing more. If you don’t have diversity plans in place including employee programs, training, equality hiring, and pay practices, you are soon to be in trouble. The same goes for work hours/days, location flexibility, and career development and training opportunities. These are all top demands of the new generations and you’ll need to meet them to attract and retain employees. If you’re getting requests here and you don’t have it in place or are soon to be deployed, get ready for some resignations.
  6. Disinterest in Learning.
    The best salespeople are lifelong learners. When they stop engaging with training opportunities, books, or team training, you know they’re checking out. You’ll see the same with decreasing engagement with other departments, special projects, and all-company concerns.

If you aren’t seeing any of these signs across your entire team of 10+, I beg you to look harder. Gallup reports that only 36% of our workforce are engaged today. This is up in just the past three years. Imagine you were responsible for adding #7 and #8 to this list, what would it be? What do you notice from your B and C players? What behavior changes have you noticed this year you didn’t last?


When all else fails (and even if it doesn’t), sit and talk with your team about their engagement. Wait, what? Address it head-on? Absolutely! Gallup also reported that it takes more than a 20% pay increase to lure an employee away who is engaged with their manager. Turns out YOU are the difference. See what reports, emails, and silly tasks you can delegate so you can do 2 more coaching sessions this week. The more time you spend with your team getting to know them and developing them (read: NOT talking about the numbers), the greater your chance to retain your stars and your at-risk.

Ready to retain salespeople by investing in sales training and development?

Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.



Retain Salespeople

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5 Powerful Strategies to Retain Salespeople

It’s easy to blame the Great Resignation on Covid-19, but according to Harvard Business Review, resignation rates only feel high because they were below trend in 2020. In 2021, resignations were exactly on par with the ten-year trend. Does that mean the “Great Resignation” isn’t real…?

Tell that to your open sales positions. Since employees are reluctant to go back into the office and they’re deep in the “life’s too short” feeling, many are switching jobs. That means they’re leaving your sales jobs too.

Most people who quit are switching jobs rather than leaving the labor force altogether, according to Nick Bunker, an economist at Indeed.

In today’s times, you’re not just battling your competitors for talent, you’re competing with non-sales jobs, out-of-state jobs, and complete career changes. 

That’s right, you’re actually competing with quality of life to retain salespeople. 

It’s an important distinction because that’s also how you’ll keep them. Stop focusing just on salary and pay close attention to what employees want in the workplace.

Here are a few tips on how to retain salespeople:

  1. Personal Meaning at Work

It’s not easy to get people emotionally invested in the selling of widgets and the making of profits. So try to link their efforts to what you’re solving for customers. Walmart’s tagline isn’t “Cheaper goods sold at the highest volume possible.” It’s about making people’s lives better. 

At Factor 8, we’ve shifted from counting clients and revenue to reporting on “lives impacted.” We change people’s lives by making them more successful at work. This definitely trumps, “We teach people to sell more stuff.”

Spend a few hours brainstorming in your next executive meeting and then get it out there fast and often.

  1. Career Development

If you don’t have a line item for development per employee in your budget, you are officially behind the curve. Training, career paths, career growth, and personal development all show up in top wants for Millennials and Gen Z. Not to mention you’ll need great sales training to get your new hires with less education and experience up to speed. Invest heavily here as soon as possible. Now advertise it on all your job openings and internal communications. 

At a conference last month, I met two guys who stumbled on a hidden education benefit. Like, they literally found it in the handbook and then chased it down through several levels of bureaucracy in order to go to a career development conference and have the expense reimbursed. Likewise, over 70% of the women in our #GirlsClub management certification program couldn’t get it funded internally. #YoureDoingItWrong

  1. Flexibility

This means hours, days, locations – everything. Kill the work policies and empower leaders to do what’s necessary to engage their teams. For some it’s compressed work weeks, others it’s work from home, flex-time, job-sharing, or relaxed management. If I can’t leave mid-day to pick up a sick child, plan a long weekend with friends, or work from my hermetically-sealed office, I’m looking for a new job. 

  1. Fairness & Inclusivity

Pretty please go and check your salaries right now for equity. Do it as if you’re trying to prove yourself wrong, not right. See two people in similar positions of different genders or persuasions or skin colors making a different base salary? FIX IT or plan now to budget the fix for next year.

We simply won’t stand for it anymore and the new generations are savvy. Mark my words, they WILL find out and they WILL leave.

Remember, it’s an employee’s market now, not the employer’s market we came up under. It’s our job to attract and retain them, and trying to hire people for as little money as possible to save a buck will cost us a fortune in the long run.

Don’t have a program for inclusivity that includes some groups, some awareness, some training, and some strategies to root out bias? Get some and get the word out fast, or you’ll soon be left behind.

  1. Culture of Well-Being

OK, so I combined a few demands on this one. Here’s why:

According to a recent Adobe survey, over 50% of Gen Z and Millennial employees feel pressure to be available at all times, and most blame their company for their long workdays. 

This is a far cry from the “work-life balance” everyone says they want. In a sales setting, this means you may actually need some rules to combat our technology. I’m guilty of this myself. Slack is easy, fast, and on my desktop and phone. I have an idea, I send a message. It’s tough for the people who work for me to not feel like they need to answer this when sent (even though I say it all the time). Saying it isn’t enough. 

Try automatic notification snoozes at 4 pm (spend the last hour with quiet time to prepare for the next day and wind down). We put time off on a group calendar so nobody will contact them when out of the office. I’ve also seen “no email” or better, “no message” rules for evenings and weekends. Want to go the extra mile? Talk about instituting this with clients as well. 

Our actions set the precedent and teach people how to work with us!

The first time you reply to a client’s midnight message and your team sees you do it, you’re implying that this is acceptable and maybe even encouraged behavior.

We the workaholic generation will have to work hard to actively undo this one.

Ready to retain salespeople by investing in sales training and development?

Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.



sales training ROI

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How to Measure Sales Training ROI

Training geeks will tell you there are four traditional ways to measure sales training ROI and the impact it has on an organization. It’s called “The Kirkpatrick Model.” In my experience, this model only includes two measurements that sales leaders actually care about. I’d like to add a few alternate levels to consider.  

Level 1 is Learner Feedback. The smile sheet has more to do with liking the trainer or getting fed than the impact, and the quiz results are more about short-term memory than anyone’s understanding of how to actually apply skills.

Level 2 is Observation. What happens on the job? It’s observed behavior change, and it’s subjective. “Manager, did Bob use his new skills?” Manager: “Um, I haven’t been listening to Bob all day long, boss. I have 14 people and 200 emails to read…” You get the struggle.

Level 3 is Information Retention. New skills should be fresh in their minds and easy to execute the day after training, but what about 2 months later? 6 months? 1 year? Over time, people are known to fall back into bad habits. Truly valuable training provides easy-to-use (and memorable) skills that stick with the learner over time. 

Level 4 is ROI. Calculate sales training ROI by taking the results that went up and divide by the cost of the sales training. Naturally, there are flaws here, like, “When do we stop measuring?” “What about soft costs of missed revenue?” “What if results fall off?” and “Training wasn’t all we changed that quarter!”

When I advise sales training leaders, I help them solve it all with two little words:

“Contributed to”

Last quarter, new vendor training contributed to a 25% increase in meeting close rates and a 34% increase in show rates. Extrapolated over the period of a year and using our standard meeting to deal close rates, that means an additional 245 meetings and 66 closed deals or $3.1 million in revenue. That’s a 31x return on investment of the $100K training investment. (That’s also expressed 3,100% folks and it’s BIG. It’s also a real case study, BTW).

So, sales training ROI is a big deal. When calculating, the bottom line is nearly always revenue or profit, but there are little wins along the way. Look for bumps in any of the following (and celebrate!):

  • Talk time
  • Conversations over 2:00 minutes
  • Close percentage
  • Show rate
  • Pipeline velocity
  • Average deal size

Combine these as I did over a time period of a year and the numbers get big fast. Even a modest increase in a close percentage or deal size will bring double-digit ROI.

Now for the new stuff. In today’s climate, there are 5 more sales training ROI measurements I advise you to start tracking:

  1. Applicant increase
  2. Tenure
  3. Promotion rate
  4. Employee satisfaction (a KPI to tenure)
  5. Ramp time

Yes, nearly all of these are about helping show the link between the career development you offer the new generation of sellers and how many of them come to work for you and stay.

If you’re offering ongoing development, a training budget, a certification, or a partnership with a premier vendor, ADVERTISE THAT (you’ll attract the new generation of sellers!). Then start tracking the average number of applicants over the previous months, but don’t compare pre-COVID (that’s apples vs. bacteria).

Great development keeps people in companies longer. So count what percentage of promotions are now happening internally and whether your investments are moving the needle of employee satisfaction. 

There’s a direct correlation between employee engagement (and happiness) and their performance. If they’ve been with your company for 6 years and are consistently meeting or exceeding quota, chances are they’re happy in their role and less likely to leave. Have they missed quota a few times now, or are they not as engaged with their customers as they once were? Then it might be time for a 1:1 to see what is going on behind the scenes. 

Finally, my holy grail: ramp time. How long does it take a new hire to get to quota? This critical number not only impacts revenue right where it counts but also determines whether a rep stays or not. Here’s an insider tip:

People who feel successful at work will keep coming back to work.

No, not Earth-shattering, but it might be if you reverse engineer it. 20 years ago I revamped a new hire sales training program for a computer manufacturer. It was taking reps 9 months to hit their goal. Ouch. (Best practice is 3-6 months and it’s getting longer – we’re now approaching 9 months again according to Mindtickle’s latest research) Yes, we took out a bunch of filler courses and implemented my “Just in Time” training approach, but we also did something a little sneaky. We lowered the bar. The VP of Sales and I saw the mass exit happening at six months and we worked together to get reps PAID if they were on track by this point in time. The result? We cut the turnover in half.

Help people win, and they’ll stay and keep winning.

Long story long, employee development has an impact on more than just revenue. There’s a reason training investments are up over 30% as an industry over last year. And if you don’t already have your enablement team running regular reports on these new stats, I suggest you get started or you’ll be late to the party. It may feel like we’re in a war for talent, but I assure you this is only the battle. Use your training investments strategically to attract, keep, and promote your people because this precious resource will become only more scarce.

Want more information on how to measure sales training ROI?

Contact us today to request information on our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).



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