In my own practice I tell people that THEY are responsible for success, not me. I am like the coach on the sidelines, I can send in plays and offer advice but they have to perform. For her to blame the trainer (and it does sound like he’s a bozo) is a mistake. She needs to blame herself and her company.

Implementing sales training is an exercise in change-management and needs to be treated as such. Even though we use a thorough, custom “cultural adoption plan” it is but an outline to make the training stick. If the sales management and the executive team doesn’t do what’s necessary it’s a waste of money.

So, her company made two mistakes; the hired the wrong company and they failed to think through and follow through on the implementation plan.

Bob Hatcher

Sales actually comes in too early in the sales cycle, leaving buyers to figure out how to address all of the internal systems elements they need to manage prior to making a buying decision. And the time it takes buyers to come up with this is the length of the sales cycle.

Problem gets compounded when buyers don’t have a direct path through to their decision making, and have to fight allegators on their way to discovering how to bring something new in. Sellers can help, but they can’t do it by using a sales model. And understanding their need doesn’t go far enough.

It’s time for sales to start adding the decision facilitation end of the buyer’s buying decision into the sales process. That will make a difference in sales training as well.

From my own career experience & from what I’ve seen in many years as a business analyst, too many managers — and management structures — don’t ever get to the point where the rubber meets the road. They’ll pursue *activity* (sales training, re-engineering, “initiatives” of all kinds) without actually standing up to be counted for *moving the needle* of business.

I return again and again to the fundamental question that Peter Drucker posed for *all* business activity: how does this help us create a customer? If you can’t answer that, you’re sunk.

In the context of sales effectiveness, these failures are particularly damning. If you work in finance or IT or HR, your efforts to create/cultivate customers may be quite indirect. But if you’re in sales, you’re right there on the front line, shoulder to shoulder with prospects. In that context, grading and accountability should be breathtakingly simple.

But not if we dodge responsibility.