Top 8 Tips to Build Phone Confidence on Your Sales Team [Guide]
Top 8 Tips to Build Phone Confidence on Your Sales Team
[Guide]
Sales Training Budget
What Best-in-Class Sales Training Looks Like [Checklist]
What Best-in-Class Sales Training Looks Like
[Checklist]
10 Must-Haves for Your Sales Team Development & Training Plan [Webinar Recording]
10 Must-Haves for Your Sales Team Development & Training Plan
[Video Recording]
Ultimate Guide to Building Your Sales Team Development Plan and Budget
Building your sales team development plan and sales training budget for the next year can be daunting. That’s why I’ve compiled tips from my 20+ years in the industry to help make this as painless as possible!
Table of Contents:
The Current State of Sales Training
Every year Training Magazine releases its Training Industry report. I read it cover to cover and then pull out some important nuggets of information.
Here are a few that stood out to me:
- Training payroll down ~4% to $60.6B. Leaner internal teams. Expect enablement to cover more with fewer hands.
- External vendor spend up 23% to $12.4B. Headcount shrank, the work didn’t. If you outsource, make vendors prove outcomes and speed to value.
- “Other” training spend down to $25B (from $28.7B). Less travel and facilities. Design for efficient virtual and hybrid delivery.
- Per-learner spend $774 (vs. $954 in 2023). Budgets are tighter. Prioritize the few initiatives that move the number.
- Average training hours 47 (vs. 57). Less seat time. Think shorter modules, more practice, real reinforcement.
- Average budgets by size: Large $13.3M. Midsize $1.7M. Small $400K. Tailor the ask. Midsize saw increases; large tightened.
In today’s sales world, training isn’t just important – it’s critical. We’re short on reps but not on quota, low on training and resources, and everyone’s working from home without role models to learn from. And let’s face it, customers expect more while the flood of (terrible) outreach makes it harder to stand out.
A buddy of mine who used to be the head of sales at Outreach said it used to take 5-7 touches to get a prospect talking, and now, it’s more than double. The noise is real, selling is harder, and ramp times are stretching while tenures are shrinking. So, stop skimping on sales training. It’s tough out there, and our teams need every advantage.
Why Sales Team Development is Critical
Another reason not to skip out on sales training is these staggering numbers…
- 98% of reps would stay indefinitely with a company if they received ongoing development. (Ambition)
- Forbes reported that “Development Opportunities” ranks #1 when Millennials are considering companies.
- #1 company benefit able to RETAIN top talent = training and development (Factor 8 Retention Survey)
- #1 company benefit to LURE AWAY top talent = training and development (Factor 8 Retention Survey)
- Only 50% of reps feel they get the training they need to be successful (Emblaze)
TIP: If your team offers ongoing training and development, make sure your HR/recruiting team incorporates that into your job postings!
Why We Need to Build Skills Faster
Ramp time is everything. The reality today? We’re training a lot of fresh-out-of-college sellers (or non-college grads), and the timeline isn’t working in our favor. It’s taking them 6 months just to hit quota, and by month 14, most are already heading for the door. Think about that, over half of our reps don’t make it past 14 months. That’s a huge investment in time and money that we’re throwing away.
So, how do we change this? We need to get reps to quota faster, plain and simple. When they hit quota sooner, they stick around longer. I’ve built new hire programs throughout my career, and I can tell you, sales training works:
- At IBM, improving our new hire program cut churn by more than 50%
- At SAP, our inside sales reps were ramping up faster than the field reps, contributing to a 90% retention rate
- At Waste Management, it used to take 6 months for reps to make their first sale, we got them their first sale in a week.
Training is the game-changer. When reps feel that early success, they stay. It’s as simple as that.
Seasoned sales leaders know what it was like when we first started out. We didn’t have hand-holding; we figured it out as we went. We manually dialed phones, pressed the record button ourselves, and learned by trial and error. That mindset makes it easy to underestimate how much help today’s reps need. But the truth is, investing in development fixes so many of the issues we see with our teams: from new hires trying to find their footing, to field reps adjusting to virtual, to the small groups left standing after layoffs.
Bottom line: sales skill-building isn’t just nice to have, it’s the key to retention and performance. Let’s start ramping our reps faster and watch the difference it makes.
Download: Top Virtual Sales Challenges
Top Sales Skills to Train
- Call Goals – Reps need help mapping out each step and knowing exactly what the goal of every call should be to keep deals moving.
- Running Online Sales Meetings – Virtual meetings are here to stay, so reps need to know how to run them in a way that’s engaging and keeps prospects hooked.
- Demos That Don’t Suck – Let’s be real, most demos are a snoozefest. Reps need a game plan for delivering demos that grab attention and close deals.
- Planning for Prospecting – Most reps dread prospecting, but training them to prep smarter helps them work faster and get more done in less time.
- What Customers Care About – Reps need to know what makes buyers tick and tailor their approach to what matters most to their audience.
- Stopping Deals Going Dark Between Calls – Deals tend to go dark when reps don’t know how to keep the momentum. Reps need strategies to stay top of mind and keep deals alive.
- Having Engaging Conversations – Every conversation should build trust and move the deal forward. Reps need the skills to make that happen.
- Day/Time Management – Most reps spend way too much time not selling. Training them on day management helps them stay out of the weeds and focused on revenue-driving activities.
- Gaining Referrals – Referred customers close faster and stick around longer. Reps should be pros at asking for and leveraging referrals.
- Voicemails – Great voicemails can boost callback rates by 3-5x. Reps need to know how to leave ones that get results.
- Intros – Reps have only seconds to make an impression. A killer intro is non-negotiable.
- Value Props (AKA the Pitch) – Too many reps pitch too soon or miss the mark on value. They need to know how to craft and deliver a value-driven pitch at just the right time.
Why Budget for Sales Manager Training
Only about 30% of companies invest in training for their managers, and it shows: 60% of managers fail out of their role within the first year. Shocking? Maybe not. Here’s why budgeting for manager development is so crucial:
- They own every rep
- They own every customer
- They own every deal
Most companies pour their resources into reps because that’s where they see immediate ROI. But here’s the thing: while you might have 100 reps, only 5-6 managers oversee all those reps, customers, and deals. And these managers are BURNT OUT, nearly 50% according to LinkedIn.
I learned just how tough it is when I ran into an old colleague who’s now a Sales Director. At a wedding, I joked, “Hey, Chris, you must love this virtual work setup, right? No commute!” He sighed and said, “Virtual is great for everyone except sales managers. It’s rough.” And he’s right. I’ve had every job in sales and I now own three companies, sales management was my toughest role yet.
Burnout is real, and we expect our managers to be like Ted Lasso, coaching, motivating, and making magic happen. But here’s the difference: Ted spends hours on the practice field, with a 10:1 practice-to-game ratio. Your managers? They’re lucky if they get a 1:50 ratio, squeezing in 5 hours of daily calls and maybe 1 hour of weekly training. And that’s without factoring in new hires. My friend Dave said it best: “We give them about 3 weeks of systems training, then they practice on customers.” Yikes.
Ted lives on the practice field; your managers are stranded on an island. And they’re coaching teams of entry-level reps who lack business acumen and are terrified of the phone.
Moral of the story: budget for manager training. Give your managers the support, skills, and development they need to thrive. They’re the key to getting your teams to quota.
Building a Better Partnership Between Revenue and Enablement
If you need to partner with enablement or revenue leadership, alignment is key. Early on, I learned that my superpower is the whisperer who can translate between revenue and enablement. That’s why I put together the cheat sheet below. Use it to bridge the gap, get aligned, and make sure you’re speaking the same language to get what you need for your reps and managers.
DOWNLOAD: How to Partner with Busy Sales Leaders
Training Before Tools: The Conversation We Need to Have with Sales Leaders
When talking to sales leaders, emphasize training before tools. Show them the spend, analyze the processes, and start there. Leaders tend to pull one of three levers when tackling problems: people, process, or tech/tools.
- Process is all about consistency—repeating the right things, the same way, over and over.
- Tech/Tools focus on efficiency and speed.
- People are about quality and skills—that’s where we, as enablement leaders, live.
Here’s the issue: leaders are spending double on AI-based tools compared to training. They’d rather buy a shiny new tool than invest in building their team’s skills. Just look at the average number of tools per rep (5-10) and the flood of automated, AI-generated, subpar emails we all get daily. We’re bypassing quality and going straight to consistency and efficiency.
Reps today come with less experience, fewer skills, and more to learn to meet rising customer demands. They don’t have the fundamental selling and communication skills to truly benefit from AI. We need to sit down with our sales leaders and have this conversation: tools are great, but training is essential.
What to Budget for Sales Training and Development
In general, industry standards say you should budget 1-3% of your total annual budget for employee development. But let’s make it easier: budget 2-5% of your employee’s salary for training. And remember, these numbers cover every industry (from forklift drivers to CEOs).
For your sales training budget, we need to be on the higher side—expect sales training cost to be around 3-6% of your reps’ salaries.
Here’s the quick math:
- Average Sales OTE Salary = $90K x 3% = $2,700 per rep
- Average Sales OTE Salary = $90K x 4% = $3,600 per rep
- Average Sales OTE Salary = $90K x 5% = $4,500 per rep
(That’s about $50 for every $1K of salary)
Overall Internal Training Budget
If you’re new to training or enablement budgets, here’s what to ask for based on your company size:
- Large company average training budget: $13.3M
- Medium company average training budget: $1.7M
- Small company average training budget: $400,000
This is your total training budget, not just for external spend. For external training, most companies spend 15-18% of their total budget.
External Sales Training Budget
Here’s a quick look at what companies are spending on external sales training vendors:
- Large companies: $910,00
- Midsize companies: $240,000
- Small companies: $47,000
Top External Spends
- 12% on management training
- 11% on onboarding
- 7% on sales training
Other spending usually covers tools, learning management systems, and instructional design.
DOWNLOAD: How to Partner with Busy Sales Leaders Checklist
What’s Being Outsourced?
- 59% of instruction is outsourced—vendors come in and do the training.
- 41% is delivered in-house with a vendor-provided curriculum.
And this isn’t changing anytime soon. According to Training Mag, 83% of companies expect these numbers to stay steady or increase.
What Skills Are We Training?
Since the shift to remote work, communication skills have been the big focus (no shocker there). Other areas getting attention include:
- Business skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Gamification
- Course design
- DEI initiatives
DOWNLOAD: Sales Training Vendor Partner Checklist
Top Challenges for Training and Enablement Leaders
- Lack of resources
- Low learning engagement (cue gamification!)
Sales Training Budgeting Tips
- Make It an Annual Line Item. You’ve got a budget for recruiting and tools, so why not training? Your managers need this to keep their teams engaged.
- No Budget? Get Creative. Re-route spiff funds or tap into your tools budget. I know sales leaders who took a rep headcount and turned it into a coach/trainer role, making every rep better—and they saw higher ROI.
- Budget MORE. If any of the following apply to you, plan to budget 1.5-3x:
- Major GTM, strategy, or channel change (e.g., going virtual)
- Big competition, industry, or product change
- No training in over a year
- Teams have gone hybrid or remote
- Increased or new goals
- Hire a Development Resource. If you’re a startup wondering when to hire a trainer, aim for when you have 25-50 employees.
- Remember, Good Training Takes Time. It can take someone at the manager or director level 6-18 months to build a solid onboarding program (consider outsourcing for sales, systems, etc.).
How to Get Approval for Your Sales Training Budget
If you want to secure budget for sales training, the key is to show ROI or projected ROI. Here are some powerful stats to back you up:
- 2x Profit per Employee – Companies that prioritize training see double the profit per employee compared to those that don’t (HR Magazine).
- 2x Income per Employee – Companies that offer thorough training earn double the income per employee compared to those that skimp on training (ATD).
- 50% Faster Time to Quota – Good training can slash onboarding time to quota by 50% (Training Magazine).
- 63% Improvement in Manager Performance – Teams with managers who receive development see an average of 63% performance improvement (CSO Insights).
- 353% Sales Training ROI – Sales training delivers an impressive 353% ROI (Highspot, NH University).
Use these stats to build your case, and don’t forget to show how investing in training impacts the bottom line, whether that’s shortening ramp time, boosting rep performance, or improving retention.
Maximizing Your Sales Training ROI
If you’re investing in sales training, make sure you’re squeezing every drop of ROI out of it. Here’s how:
- Go Beyond New Hire Training – A lot of places crush it with new hire training but stop there, which means reps are out there struggling and figuring it out solo. Space it out! Even if you have limited training time, don’t pack it all upfront.
- Train Managers First – This is huge. Why? Because better-trained managers mean better interactions with reps. Remember, reps join companies but leave bosses. When managers understand what good training looks like, they engage more, coach better, and partner with you to drive development.
- Get Custom – Find the sweet spot between speed and personalization. Off-the-shelf training is fast, but built-from-scratch takes too long. Go for custom solutions that let you tailor without sacrificing speed.
- Slow Your Roll – You can’t pour everything into their heads at once. Just-in-time training is key. Trim down your new hire program, so reps don’t feel overwhelmed. Bring them back for more at months 1, 2, and beyond. This keeps them confident and builds skills over time.
- Use Interaction, Not Video – Videos alone won’t break habits or change behavior. True training needs interaction and real practice. Read more on why video training isn’t real training here.
What Does Good Inside Sales Training Look Like?
Most companies are training internally for only 4-5 hours a month, and that number has dipped from 5 to closer to 4 over the past year.
- NOT Just Company/Product Training – Product and systems training isn’t enough. Focus on tactical skills that help reps build their careers.
- Professional Trainer or Curriculum – Don’t keep it all in-house. Bringing in a pro adds credibility and expertise.
- Training AND Coaching – Know the difference and make sure both reps and managers are part of it. Training is learning new skills; coaching is applying and reinforcing them.
- Learners Love Certifications – Give them something to show off and add to their LinkedIn. It makes them proud and keeps them engaged.
- Go Beyond the Classroom – Spice it up with huddles, meetings, and contests. Make it fun!
- Involve Your Leaders – Manager buy-in is crucial for making training stick. When leaders are part of new hire training, onboarding, and coaching, reps take it more seriously.
- Make It Easy for Leaders to Coach – Fast and simple is key. That’s why we built The Sales Bar at Factor 8. Managers who spend their weekends creating training content don’t have the bandwidth. They’re already juggling too much, and half of them are burnt out.
- LinkedIn Learning (Alone) Doesn’t Count – Watching videos isn’t training; it’s edutainment. People forget 50% of what they hear by the end of the day and 90% by the end of the week. True training requires practice, application, and reinforcement to make skills stick.
Smart Spends vs. Money Wasters
Before you drop money on sales training, make sure it’s going to the right places:
Where to Spend Your Money:
- Customization – If you’re using an external training company, check how much they customize. Have them show you what’s tailored and how.
- Measure Baselines First – Always know your starting point to prove ROI. This protects your budget. If managers aren’t giving you data, go straight to Ops.
- Ongoing Reinforcement vs. Events – One-time events create a short buzz, but everyone reverts back afterward. Invest in long-term partnerships to keep training from becoming just a “flavor of the month.”
- Manager Training – Managers are key to keeping rep skills alive, but they need to be trained on how to do that effectively.
- On-Demand Tools – Make it easy for managers with tools like coaching guides and activities.
- Live Interactive Sessions – eLearning can be boring when it’s just talking heads. Make it engaging with real interactions, live call reviews, and fun elements to keep energy high.
Where Not to Waste Your Money:
- Not Involving Managers – Manager buy-in is essential to make sure they reinforce what reps learn.
- Managers Owning All Training – Most managers aren’t great trainers (I know because I was one!). It’s not their core skill, so don’t leave training entirely to them.
- Talking Head Video e-Learning – Videos alone don’t change behavior. You can’t just tell someone what to do and expect it to stick.
- One-Stop eLearning Libraries – More content doesn’t mean better content. Massive libraries may seem like a bargain, but they often lack impact.
- SKO Training – SKOs are great (I’m here for the speaking gigs!), but they’re mostly edutainment. They inspire and motivate, but real training? Minimal. Use SKOs for hype, not skill-building.
- Training Before Changing Expectations – If you haven’t adjusted expectations, comp plans, rewards, or systems that might block behavior change, you’re throwing money away.
READ: 60+ Sales Metrics to Track: Role-by-Role Guide to Activity & Performance
Virtual Sales Training Checklist
If you’re investing in virtual training specifically, make sure it checks these boxes for maximum effectiveness:
- Interactive – Get Hands Dirty Every 5 Slides
Don’t let your training turn into a snooze-fest. Make sure there’s interaction at least every 5 slides. Whether it’s a poll, a Q&A, or a quick discussion, keep it engaging. Videos alone don’t cut it—videos are not training! - Micro – Nothing Over 20 Minutes
Break it down into bite-sized pieces. Reps lose focus with long, drawn-out sessions. Keep each module under 20 minutes to ensure attention stays sharp and retention stays high. - Mid-Level Bloom’s Testing – Scenario-Based Interactions
Test more than just knowledge. Use interactions that challenge reps to apply what they’re learning. Scenario-based questions are perfect for this—they show how well reps can use their skills in real-world situations. - Multi-Modal – Engage All the Senses
Use a variety of formats to keep reps interested and involved. Incorporate call samples for listening, scripts and templates for reading, and hands-on practice for doing. This multi-modal approach ensures reps learn through different channels and retain more. - Fun & Casual – Make it Entertaining
Training doesn’t need to be serious 24/7. Add some humor, informality, and competition to the mix. Gamification, leaderboards, or friendly contests make training more enjoyable and motivate reps to stay engaged. - Involve Managers – Provide Toolkits and Tailored Paths
Your managers need to be part of the training process. Equip them with toolkits and separate training paths to help them reinforce what reps are learning. Include live sessions that focus on coaching and skill reinforcement. And don’t forget success measurements—tracking progress helps keep everyone accountable and shows the impact of the training.
Crafting a sales team development plan and a sales training budget is no small task, but with the right approach, it can unlock your team’s potential and set them up for success in the year ahead. Ready to take the next step? Let us help you create a winning plan and budget! Schedule a call with us today to get started!
Is sales training included in your budget?
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).
How to Build Your Sales Enablement Strategy [Webinar]
How to Build Your Sales Enablement Strategy
[Video Recording]
How Sales & Enablement Leaders Are (and are NOT) Using AI to Work Smarter, Not Harder [Webinar]
How Sales & Enablement Leaders Are (and are NOT) Using AI to Work Smarter, Not Harder
[Video Recording]
Meet the Speakers
Lauren Bailey
Founder
Factor 8 & #GirlsClub
Lauren Bailey, known to many as “LB”, is a sales leader, enablement leader, and entrepreneur and founder of 3 successful brands: Factor 8, providing front-line job training for inside sellers and managers, The Sales Bar, a subscription-based virtual sales training platform, and #GirlsClub, a community and development program helping more women earn leadership positions in sales.
Rose Paik leads Global Sales Development Enablement at Docusign, where she’s transforming how teams learn and perform through innovative AI solutions. Rose focused on AI-enabled adaptive learning while earning her Master of Science at Johns Hopkins School of Education. She’s passionate about using AI to unlock human potential and make enablement more impactful, not just more efficient. When she’s not building the future of sales enablement, you’ll find her experimenting with new AI tools and sharing practical insights with the enablement community.
Helen Fanucci
Sales Performance Expert,
Speaker, Author
Helen Fanucci is an accomplished sales performance expert, team builder, business leader, venture investor, and trusted advisor to technology growth companies, with a track record of leading high-performing sales teams at IBM, Apple, Sun Microsystems, and Microsoft. Helen currently leads a private sales performance practice focused on empowering sales leaders and their teams to deliver predictable growth. Helen is the author of the best-selling book, Love Your Team, A Survival Guide for Sales Managers in a Hybrid World.
Helen serves on the Board of Directors of Legacy Executive Club, a membership organization focused on uplifting careers and enriching lives, as well serving on the Board of Directors at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle’s leading musical theater.
Dr. Richard Conde
Assistant Professor
University of Houston-Downtown
Richard Conde is an Assistant Professor at the University of Houston-Downtown, responsible for teaching sales MBA seminars, as well as digital and international marketing courses. As the lone full-time academic inside sales researcher, Richard is recognized as an expert in inside sales performance, leadership, and operations. His research has been published in the European Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, the Journal of Marketing Intelligence & Planning, and the International Journal of Higher Education.
Before transitioning to academia and consulting, Richard led mid- to large-scale inside sales operations, managing up to 400 inside sales agents and leaders. During his tenure as a sales executive, Richard was recognized for managing a $400 million book of business and increasing sales revenue from approximately $65 million to over $100 million in three years, while employing fewer inside sales agents. He also improved employee satisfaction from 3.6 to 4.6, based on the Gallup Survey.
Casey Calkins
Founder, Executive Coach
C2it Partners
Casey Calkins is the founder of C2it Partners, an executive and sales leadership coaching firm that helps new and emerging sales leaders build high-performing teams — without burning anyone out in the process.
A SaaS sales leader with 15+ years of experience at companies like Salesforce, Casey led high-performing teams through mergers, acquisitions, and leadership transitions, while also serving as a culture builder for a rapidly growing new office location. She launched ERGs, developed enablement frameworks based on emerging team trends, and turned top-performing teams into talent pipelines — with an average of 40% of her reps promoted annually into senior AE and leadership roles.
Today, as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC, ICF) and Certified Executive Coach (CEC), Casey helps leaders apply practical frameworks, emotional intelligence, and systems thinking to drive results, motivate teams, and lead with confidence. She is passionate about making AI accessible for busy leaders, showing them how to use it as a tool to work smarter — not harder — in coaching, planning, and communication.
Master Your Sales Team Development and Sales Training Budget [Webinar Recording]
Master Your Sales Team Development and Sales Training Budget
[Video Recording]
How to Budget for Sales Training
Employee development is more critical than ever as our incoming sales reps have less experience and fewer skills, yet our customer expectations and the technology we’re required to master are on the rise.
The best practice is to budget for sales training each year alongside your normal recruiting and tech line items. Now more than ever, “Training is something you do, not something you did.”
Don’t be one of the sales leaders who wait for a budget surplus, a BHAG goal, or a massive GTM shift to train. Today’s generations prioritize career development ABOVE their paychecks.
READ: Why You Need a Sales Training and Enablement Budget
So hats off, leader! You’re ahead of the game by searching for annual sales training budget amounts in this blog.
Why Budget for Sales Training?
Because many of us slashed or froze headcount and training budgets in 2023 and 2024, we recommend that planning for 2025 should be based on 2022 budgets. Before the economic uncertainty, we saw organizations spending more on employee development. This was driven by increasing customer expectations, shrinking pools of available talent, and a resounding demand by the employee base.
In 2022, the average company budgeted approximately $1200/per employee for professional development annually – up about 14% over the previous year. Keep in mind, that this average number is for all employees – from forklift driver to CEO. Not a surprise, but services and manufacturing industries reported the largest budget increases, whereas government, education, and nonprofits largely stayed the same or decreased.
Growing customer demands = growing training demands.
We expect to see these numbers come down in the 2024 Training Industry Report with the widespread layoffs, but we anticipate a resounding rebound in 2025 for two reasons:
- Sales leaders saw the evidence of their untrained workforces in 2023 and 2024. Our time to ramp to quota is still longer than pre-pandemic (or non-remote) days, and the majority of sellers missed quota – even after trimming the fat. The statistics vary by resource, but in 2023 approximately 50% of sellers hit quota vs. the normal average of approximately 70%.
- The pendulum is shifting back to quality conversations over a cadenced quantity of messages. Many believe we’ve come as far as we can with the written cadence, and all evidence now points to the need to refresh and improve the human interaction between prospect and seller. This is underlined by the overwhelming feedback that sellers today lack phone confidence and business conversation skills – two attributes we can’t solve with technology alone.
How Much Does Sales Training Cost?
Average spend on annual training per FTE is 1–3% of the total annual budget or 2–5% of the salary budget. Most companies budget about 3% of total revenue for all employee training. For sales roles specifically, expect to invest 4–6% of an employee’s salary. That’s about $50.00 per $1000 of salary.
If your team is new, only remote, shifting, or hasn’t had hands-on sales development for six months, aim slightly above average:
Six percent of salary = $60.00 per $1000 of salary
$100K employee = $6000/year | $60K employee = $3600/year
Remember, the benchmark is an average across all industries and employee types – landscapers, fast food workers, and CPAs. If customer experience and loyalty are critical to you, go higher. And, if your industry is complex or your product is early in the lifecycle, go higher. If you’re competing like mad for talent, go higher.
One source says sales jobs average 20% higher than the industry average, meaning 6-7% of their salary.
At Factor 8, our per-employee costs (for under 1000 employee companies) to outsource one year of sales development (onboarding to upskilling) comes in at the middle of this budget range – depending on services and other factors – again validating the research.
How Often Should You Train Your Sales Team?
In 2022, the average organization provided about 5 hours of training per month or a total of 64 hours a year. If you haven’t trained since new hire onboarding, you’re lagging well behind average. This number is up since 2021 when we averaged 4 hours a month.
We theorize that this increase is driven by two sources: Remote workers and ineffective remote training.
With most of our teams still working remotely or hybrid, we are hit from two sides when it comes to learning:
- We’re missing the “OTJ” passive shadowing opportunities of overhearing our peers.
- The ineffectiveness of remote training as compared to in-person. “Zoom fatigue” is real and an unengaged learner does not make big behavior changes (kind of like an unengaged buyer).
Factor 8, provides sales training for virtual sellers and sales managers and we do so both in-person and virtually. I can tell you firsthand that it is taking us more remote sessions to get our normal increases in connection and conversion rate results we normally see in just a few hours when onsite.
By the way, like the last ten years, most companies are increasing budgets for manager training the most (although this group still typically falls underneath “onboarding” as the training department’s top priority).
If your enablement department isn’t prioritizing the development of your sales management team, consider allocating your budget to outsourcing this critical training.
How Many Sales Trainers Do You Need?
Most companies under 1000 learners employ 1 trainer for every 80-100 learners. The exception to this rule is for start-ups where we recommend budgeting for the headcount at around 50 learners if you’re on the way up.
When beginning an enablement effort, your team literally has everything to build. Digital selling skills can be outsourced, as can some systems training, but the product, services, process, and customer acumen training has to come from within. Remember, for every hour in the classroom, there’s someone spending between 3-10 hours creating that learning interaction (and please don’t get me started on the difference between training and telling! 😉)
If you’re in build mode, I recommend a management to director-level staffer and 1 year of time before your onboarding program begins to produce reps hitting quota in industry average timelines (around 6 months, depending on role).
Why Invest in Sales Training?
Employee development and career advancement are 2 of the top 3 things millennials search for when accepting jobs. And only 50% of reps think their company provides them with the training they actually need to be successful.
More great news, the American Society for Training and Development cites companies who invest in training their people achieve a 24% higher profit margin compared to those who don’t invest.
It’s much more expensive to recruit and replace (on average 200% – 600% of salary vs. 6% – 7%).
Justification and Benefits of Sales Training
Here’s some great research to help you justify the spend:
Both HR Magazine and ATD sites double the profit per employee that prioritizes training (priority = double the spend of not a priority). In fact, companies who invest a minimum of just $1500/employee will see 24% higher profits.
CSO Insights proved a 63% average improvement across teams where the manager was getting development (that’s average you guys…what would happen with an 85% increase on entire TEAMS?)
And great onboarding can cut a new hire’s time to quota in HALF. That could be 1-2 extra months of productivity on an already-shrinking rep lifespan. Worth it!
Again, I can validate these findings. Over twelve years of partnering with BDR, AE, AM, and management teams across thousands of companies, we’ve seen lifts from 30-300%, with a huge percent of teams paying for the training before it’s even over with increased leads, pipeline, close rate, etc.
If you need an ROI model to get the spend, I recommend showing a 15% lift over about 90 days post-training if you’re still doing event-based training.
READ: How to Measure Sales Training ROI
You can expect bigger spikes with face-to-face training, but longer-sustained skills with a long-term blended approach. Overall, if you can’t show at least a 5-10% lift, it probably isn’t worth the investment.
Not sure it will work? Do it anyway and measure the results. Remember this?
A recent Ambition study surveyed sales reps about training and 98% of them said they would stay with a company indefinitely if they got ongoing development.
IBM recently shared that employees who feel they cannot develop in the company and fulfill career goals are 12X more likely to leave.
Truth is, sales reps know less than they did 10 years ago and our customers expect more. If you haven’t added a development line item by now, you’re in trouble. If you haven’t increased it in the past five years, it’s time.
And, if it’s been more than a year since you provided training, increase your number.
Need help building your sales training & development plan?
Click here to watch our session on “How To Build Your Training & Development Plan” to learn what industry spend is for sales training, the critical skills you need for every sales role, how to partner with your sales training organization, and more!
Is sales training included in your budget?
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).
10+ Strategies to Show Revenue Enablement & Sales Training ROI [Webinar Recording]
10+ Strategies to Show Revenue Enablement & Sales Training ROI
[Video Recording]
Meet the Speakers
Lauren Bailey
Founder
Factor 8 & #GirlsClub
Lauren Bailey, known to many as “LB”, is a sales leader, enablement leader, and entrepreneur and founder of 3 successful brands: Factor 8, providing front-line job training for inside sellers and managers, The Sales Bar, a subscription-based virtual sales training platform, and #GirlsClub, a community and development program helping more women earn leadership positions in sales.
Her mission is to change lives by supercharging people’s careers and helping them love coming to work. When we feel confident and successful at work, everything is better, right? Known on the speaker circuit for her “No B.S.” style and spunk, look for LB to make you laugh, keep things moving quickly, and help you take immediate action with her tactical tips and insights.
Deniz Olcay
Vice President of Marketing
Allego
Deniz has had a sales-centric background from the start, including working in the sales training industry at RAIN Group where he was directly responsible for creating learning programs to help sellers sell more effectively.
In his previous role at Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) he was the VP of Product Marketing, managing a portfolio of 12+ products representing over $650M in annual revenue. He played a pivotal role in training a 500+ person sales team and is intimately familiar with the challenges of arming sellers with the knowledge and tools to be successful in selling virtually.
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