"An investment in education always pays the highest returns." - Ben Franklin
Multiple studies strongly suggest it pays to invest in custom training solutions. They help to bolster the knowledge and skills of your employees in a variety of ways, such as improving closing skills and increasing product knowledge. Additionally, they position your brand to simultaneously serve your customers while increasing the bottom line.
#1: Custom Training Increases Gross Profits
One of the most highly touted studies regarding the impact of training was the American Society for Training and Development's survey of 540 United States-based corporations. The study was composed of the following two different sub-samples:
Sample group A, which invested an average of $900 per year per employee
Sample group B, which invested an average of $275 per year per employee
The study concluded that Group A had 57 percent higher sales per employee than Group B. In addition to illustrating that more training garnered more sales, the study also demonstrated the impact of custom training solutions on gross profits. Group A had 37 percent higher gross profit per employee than Group B.
#2: E-Learning Applications Equal Increased Product Knowledge
By incorporating custom e-learning applications and custom training solutions into your business training program, you increase your salespeople’s product knowledge. While learning about the features and benefits of a product are important, custom training programs are designed to help learners go one step further and understand the importance of asking the right questions to uncover needs. Once those needs are properly identified, members of your sales team are able to connect the customer's problem to the corresponding feature of your product. Training solutions also include valuable resources such as product updates, troubleshooting and technical product information. Custom training programs essentially empower your salespeople by giving them the knowledge needed to provide excellent customer service.
#3: Custom Training Improves Sales Team Performance
One of the most inherent ways a custom training program bolsters sales is by teaching the salesperson how to sell. While several causes could be to blame for an underperforming salesperson, the most likely explanations are:
They don't know what they are supposed to do
They don't understand how to effectively do it
They don't understand why they should do it
These training programs can address all of these reasons for underperformance. While employees are a major asset, they can also be a depreciating asset if training isn't completed on a continual basis. When employees are refreshed on the what, how, and why of their duties, they are better able to execute their tasks. According to "The 2001 Global Training and Certification Study" by CompTIA and Prometric, a 2 percent increase in productivity has been shown to net 100 percent ROI in training. This means that creating a training program that improves productivity by just 2 percent will pay for that training expense. For more specifics, you can reference BlueVolt’s ROI Calculator.
#4: Better-Trained Employees Stay
According to a Louis Harris and Associates poll, among employees who are poorly trained, 41 percent were planning an exit from the company. On the other hand, only 12 percent of those who considered their company’s training to be sufficient had similar plans. When salespeople are trained, their self-esteem is boosted, which results in higher workplace morale and increased loyalty to your organization.
"What's worse than training your workers and losing them? Not training them and keeping them." - Zig Ziglar
Implementing custom training solutions and e-learning applications raises the bar of your organization to new heights. As a result, your brand will become known for its highly trained and skilled employees. These individuals provide superior customer service and effectively demonstrate your product in the proven manner to exceed the expectations of your customers.
