Many of us subscribe to the philosophy that life-long learning is a wonderful thing for us personally. We grow, improve performance, make a bigger impact, and generally have a higher level of fulfillment in our lives. But adopting this philosophy as a corporate strategy? Where’s the payout? How does one measure performance? Many thanks to Earl Robertson of Quota for providing the following from a recent study by the Aberdeen Group.
Both individuals and companies model the behaviour of continuously improving themselves by investing in training, coaching and academic courses. The study speaks to the quantifiable impact on these companies’ performances when they do (or don’t) invest in training. 4 powerful statistics came out of their study:
- Of the 835 companies surveyed, 465 companies had an average of 77% of their sales force achieving quota vs. 38% industry average and 26% non-training companies.
- Companies that invest in sales training on average report a 14.8% average year-over-year increase in annual corporate revenue compared to a 2% increase and 11.7% decrease among Industry Average and Laggard companies, respectively.
- 7.2% year-over-year increase in average sales deal size or contract value, versus a 0.1% increase for industry average and 7.8% decrease among Laggard (underperforming) companies.
- The Best-in-Class companies are 14% more likely than other firms to consider sales training ‘absolutely vital’ or ‘integral to our success’
Want more proof ? Want to retain your best people, longer? In a Sales survey conducted by Sales for Life, 44% of respondents stated they would delay leaving their company if it had a long-term, comprehensive training program.
So what’s your “Life-Long Learning” strategy for your company? Are you encouraging your people to take accountability for their own development? Are you providing incentives (financial or otherwise) for them to develop (jointly perhaps with you) their development plan, and take action? Take the lead and let your results speak volumes!