Top Salespeople and Training

On another blog, someone posted a comment that 'Top Salespeople don't like to attend training.'

While I find it hard to believe that someone would write such a comment without supporting it with some study reference, I can image that it would come from someone in HR being asked to justify their internal sales training program.

"Top" people (not just salespeople) are always looking for an edge, and understanding, a tool, a perception that will assist them. The Top Salespeople I know are constantly investing in knowledge and are constantly observing how communication affects their results.

I think it would be safe to say that Top Salespeople will leave a training session they aren't getting something from. Here are three common examples of training they might leave:

1. Sales training done by someone with limited sales experience
2. Sales training done by someone with little understanding for the material they are training
3. Vague references with no 'how to': example, 'listen to your customers' without a list of what to listen for!

Why would they leave? Because Top Salespeople understand their most valuable asset is TIME!

P.S. Product training is not sales training, and sales training doesn't require product knowledge.