A common question we often hear from staffing industry executives is, "how do you measure the effectiveness of your sales and recruiter training in terms of return-on-investment?" Here is what we tell them.
There is great debate over the definition of sales enablement. Gartner has their definition, Forrester has their definition and many others have their own definition of sales enablement. But we all agree that there is great value in formalized sales enablement.
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Benjamin Franklin once said, “an investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” As someone who works in the field of learning and development, I tend to agree. Training isn't something that's 'nice to have,' it's a vital part of a company's long-term investment and growth strategy. This seems like a simple point, and it's something all leaders and L&D managers alike, agree on. But do companies provide enough training?
When it comes to employee training, many small businesses owners are feeling conflicted. Of course they want their workers to be enabled and equipped with the requisite skills and knowledge that make them productive, but they also fear that these newly trained employees may desert them for higher-paying jobs at other, larger organizations. Or, that they just won't work out and they have to let them go after a few short months. This seems to be a pretty narrow and short-sighted view. HR Magazine reported that companies that fail to develop their employees could be doing damage not only to morale, but to the bottom line as well. The report went on to state that companies investing $1,500 or more per employee per year on training average 24 percent higher profit margins than companies with lower annual training investments. The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) collected training information from over 2500 firms and found that companies that offer comprehensive training:
Sales enablement is a strategic, collaborative discipline designed to increase predictable sales and recruiting results by providing consistent, scalable enablement services that allow recruiters, salespeople and their managers to add value in every customer and candidate interaction.
No, this is not mind-blowing news, that the staffing industry including the sales and recruiting landscape has dramatically shifted over the past 12 few months. A shift to virtual, remote interactions, and a host of other changes have left recruiters, sales reps, managers, and leaders in a bind. Even as we move toward some semblance of normalcy, sales and recruiting is still fundamentally different. And that kind of change comes with its share of challenges.
If you follow my blog then you probably know I have put together a short series of posts on the topic of sales training ROI. My first post discussed the formula for tracking and measuring sales and recruiter training ROI. My second post discussed the importance of understanding metrics for tracking and measuring training ROI and in my most recent post I discussed the Kirkpatrick Model to Evaluating Your Training Programs. I've packaged all of these blogs and additional ideas, tips and best practices into our eBook, The Definitive Guide to Tracking and Measuring Sales Training ROI.
In my most recent post, Understanding Metrics to Track and Measure Sales Training ROI, I discussed the importance of tracking leading indicators, lagging indicators and return on expectations (ROE) for measuring the ROI of your (sales) training and onboarding programs. In this post I'm going to spend a little more time talking about tracking and measuring Return on Expectations, AKA, the Kirkpatrick Model, which refers to measuring adoption of the skills, knowledge, systems and processes you teach.
For revenue leaders including sales enablement, learning and development (L&D) leaders, you know sales and recruiter training is necessary in order for your team to improve productivity and effectiveness. But nowadays, you have to demonstrate the quantifiable value of your training programs in order to win the resources and budget you need to deliver those programs. Once you understand the formula for tracking and measuring sales training ROI, you have to understand metrics for tracking and measuring sales training ROI.
Sales and recruiter training is critical to attracting and retaining talent, boosting revenue and shortening ramp-up time for new hires. To remain relevant, it’s no longer good enough to simply “check the box” on training completion. You need to prove that it’s having a quantifiable impact on the bottom line.