A common problem with rolling out organization-wide sales training initiatives is figuring out how to get veteran sales staff to buy into the program. For new and early career reps, the benefits and value are obvious. But what about experienced sales professionals, the ones with established business relationships and thorough industry knowledge? How do you get them invested, and how can they benefit from sales training?

Reframing Sales Training as Knowledge

The simplest and easiest way to start creating buy-in is to reframe the workshop not as training, but as knowledge acquisition or career development – an augmentation of veterans’ extensive repertoire of techniques and skills. Position the experience as gaining another tool for your senior sales reps to use in their work rather than a required change. Presenting sales training as an auxiliary element respects the accomplishments of top sales representatives.

Reframing can be as simple as calling it a sales workshop instead of sales training. The slight shift removes the potential negative connotation of the word “training” to experienced sales reps.

Selecting the Right Workshop Vendor

When you have experienced sales representatives, choosing the right vendor to run sales workshops becomes even more important. One of the biggest factors in veteran sales reps’ resistance to training is prior bad experiences of workshops administered by facilitators who failed to engage participants and merely lectured on general information or just gave instructions with minimal interaction.

While return on investment and post-training performance improvement metrics are important measurements, also ask questions about and factor in things about their training philosophy and methodology:

• How interactive are their sessions?
• How do they address different learning styles?
• How much industry knowledge do they have?
• How much research and customization is done as part of a holistic training engagement?
• Do they provide post-training reinforcement solutions?

Maximizing the Pre-Workshop Consultation

Once you’ve reframed sales training and chosen the right vendor, it’s on to the pre-workshop consultation. This is the phase that can make or break veteran sales rep buy-in. Many experienced reps think they won’t get any value out of sales training or see no reason to change what has been working for them in the past. But the reality is, the marketplace has changed rapidly. New technologies, evolving sales trends and techniques, growing competition from abroad or from disruptive start-ups, and most notably, informed consumers have dramatically altered the way we conduct sales.

Thus, there’s certainly value for sales training for experienced sales professionals. But to get buy-in, it’s critical to have their input and listen to their voices during the pre-workshop consultation. Making veterans part of the consultation and planning process gives them vested interest in actively attending and looking forward to the new techniques they’ll learn from the experience.

It’s also important during this time for all levels of your organization – including leadership – to cultivate an atmosphere of excitement and enthusiasm about the workshop initiative and the investment in the sales force. After all, training benefits the company and the sales professionals in equal measure.

An important note for the workshop itself: Seasoned sales reps may fear losing their reputation with junior colleagues if workshop role-plays go poorly or expose weaknesses. To avoid that issue, consider focusing the session on a judgement-free exchange of open dialogue and/or allowing veteran sales staff to practice on their own or with peers of a similar experience level.

Following Through By Following Up

After a successful workshop, enthusiasm is high, but you need to make sure the initial wave results in permanent culture change. It starts with post-session debriefing, which involves not only asking what participants thought of the experience but also finding out what they learned (knowledge acquisition) and how they’ll use the new information and techniques with future clients (application). This follow-up will particularly help experienced reps see the relevance of sales training and create buy-in.

You’ll also want to quantify the workshop’s success by establishing goals and success metrics, setting learning outcomes for participants and creating a methodology to measure post-sales workshop results. Doing these things will give sales reps at every level of experience tangible, objective milestones to track their own individual progress and growth.

When properly planned and executed, with attendant quality follow-up, training initiatives make a difference, invigorating your sales force – even experienced representatives – and leading to increased revenue streams; greater customer satisfaction; and happier, more skilled employees.