Insights — Sales Strategy — 3 min read
Sales Training vs Sales Process: Which Should You Fix First?
Training improves the person; process improves the system. Investing in training before fixing a broken process is one of the most common ways to waste a commercial budget.
In short
Sales training improves the skills of individuals; a sales process improves the system they work within. If you have talented people who are failing to produce consistent results, the problem is almost certainly the process. Training a team to operate a broken process is a waste of capital and rarely leads to a sustained increase in revenue.
Business owners often reach for sales training when revenue stalls. It feels like the logical fix: if sales are down, the salespeople must need to be better at selling.
However, training is an expensive and often temporary fix if the underlying system is broken. Before committing to a training programme, you must determine whether you have a talent gap or a structural one.
The Diagnostic: Training vs Process
To decide where to invest, look at the pattern of performance across the team. If the symptoms are universal, they are rarely caused by a lack of individual skill.
| Symptom | Likely Cause | The Fix |
|---|---|---|
| One 'star' performer and everyone else struggling | Individual Skill | Sales Training / Mentoring |
| Inconsistent results from the whole team | Broken Process | Process Audit & Design |
| Pipeline looks busy but deals don't close | Qualification Process | Entry/Exit Criteria |
| New hires take 6+ months to become productive | Onboarding Process | Sales Playbook |
| The team wins on price but loses on value | Value Proposition | Strategy & Training |
When Sales Training is the Right Choice
Training is effective when you have a defined process that works, but your team lacks the specific skills to execute it. This usually manifests as:
- Confidence issues in cold outreach or prospecting.
- Inability to handle common objections or talk about price.
- Poor presentation or demonstration skills.
- A lack of 'closing' discipline at the end of a meeting.
In these cases, a targeted intervention can have a high return on investment because the 'rails' for the salespeople to run on are already in place.
When a Sales Process is the Right Choice
If your sales team is experienced but their results are erratic, more training will not help. You likely need a better process if:
- Forecasting is a 'best guess' rather than a calculation.
- The MD is still required to step in to close every significant deal.
- Deals get stuck in the 'Proposal Sent' stage for months.
- Every salesperson follows a different set of steps to win a deal.
Sales Training Costs: Structures and Drivers
The cost of sales training in the UK varies significantly based on the delivery model. Evans does not provide generic 'off-the-shelf' training; we build processes. However, when budgeting for external help, you will typically encounter these structures:
- Day Rates: The traditional model where a trainer charges for delivery time. This is often the least effective for long-term change as it lacks follow-up.
- Per-Head Licensing: Common for 'branded' sales methodologies where you pay for each seat in the classroom and access to online materials.
- Project-Based: A fixed fee for a specific outcome, such as building a new prospecting playbook and training the team to use it.
- Retainer / Coaching: Ongoing support where the trainer or consultant works with the team monthly to reinforce skills.
The primary cost drivers are the size of the team, the level of customisation required, and the duration of the intervention. A one-day 'inspirational' talk is cheap but rarely changes behaviour; a six-month transformation programme is a significant investment but creates a permanent asset in the business.
Why Process Beats Training in the Long Run
Training walks out of the door when a salesperson leaves. A process stays in the building. A well-designed sales process makes the average salesperson good and the good salesperson exceptional. It also makes your business less dependent on 'superstars' and easier to scale.
Think your sales operation could be performing better?
A Sales Growth Assessment finds where revenue is being lost before anything gets changed.
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