So that the training does not fizzle out

An end to sprawling customer visits without closing deals and a plus in the success rate: This is what sales training usually promises. However, the reality is quite different, and the disillusionment is great. Because no matter how good the content of the training was, the newly trained employees usually fall back into their old patterns shortly after the training session and nothing changes - especially not the success rate. The training effect fizzles out and in the end the organization has invested a lot of time and money, but nothing has changed positively. If you really want to bring your company forward in the long term, you have to make sure that the contents learned remain present after the training measures and are transferred into the daily work of the employees. Which brings us to the keyword: Transfer assurance is the order of the day. It is the key to success. In sales, companies usually have two big levers they can turn to increase closing figures: Sales can either increase the number of customer visits in order to achieve more closings at a certain closing rate. Or, and this is the better option: the company succeeds in improving the success rate of the individual employees. If a sales representative no longer needs ten contacts to close a deal, as was previously the case, but only five or six, then that is of course much more effective.

It's clear that the focus of many sales training courses is therefore on improving the success rate, and that's also logical: the less effort that has to be put into closing a deal, the better. As I said, this is clear in theory. But what about the practical implementation? Then again, it's every man for himself and there's no sign of the trainer. You know how it works now, don't you?

Not at all! The crucial thing is not the training itself, but that the input is also put into practice. It is precisely this lack of transfer that causes many trainings to fail. Transfer security starts where the actual training stops. And that is the only right way for successful and sustainable change. What has been learned must be consistently implemented in everyday life and employees must also have the opportunity to reflect. This only works if they are also accompanied in their everyday work.

Transfer protection works as a team
Now this is easier said than done, because even with trainers, resources are limited. It is easy to train a group of ten people in a group seminar. But to accompany all participants individually in practice afterwards? Before everyone starts throwing their hands up in horror ... - it is possible. Also practically. You just need a different approach to transfer assurance. The trainer has to pass on his knowledge and build up a team of transfer facilitators. Transfer assurers are specially trained observers, comparable to co-trainers in sports. They make sure that the trainees also practically apply what they have learned in the training. For sales, this means that the transfer facilitators travel to the customer together with the sales representative, observe the sales representative in the customer meeting and give him appropriate feedback afterwards. It is advisable to use specially trained young adults for the transfer assurance, for example working students.

It also works without an alpha dog in the neck
This concept has several advantages. Because the young transfer facilitators are significantly cheaper than trained trainers, the costs for companies and organizations are kept within reasonable limits - and let's be honest: This is the only way to justify transfer facilitation on the customer side to the controllers. If you had to charge a multiple of the daily rate of a trained trainer for the transfer assurance, a "no" would be pre-programmed and the project would be off the table.

However, the following aspect is much more important for the success of the training: In order for the implementation to work in practice, the sales employee must be able to go into his customer meetings emotionally unburdened. If the experienced trainer - the alpha dog who knows everything better anyway - is breathing down his neck, it can't really work. Fear of failure is unavoidable, or at least a large portion of nervousness. Practice has shown that young, unobtrusive companions work excellently here. They do not stand out, do not influence the sales talk themselves and are also accepted by the trained person.

Training needs a goal
For the success of a training and the subsequent transfer into practice, both sides, i.e. client and trainer, must define goals. Managers and sales managers must be clear about what they want to achieve with the respective training and, to this end, analyze the "open building sites" in sales together with the trainer. The aim is not to uncover "mistakes", but rather to find and promote the previously undiscovered strengths of the individual employees.

Individuality must be
In addition to practical application and goal orientation, individuality is the third important point so that transfer security can succeed in everyday business life. This means: Already in the trainings themselves, one has to get away from the classic Schema F group training. It makes more sense and is more sustainable for the trainer to develop an individual training concept based on an analysis of the current situation in sales that is appropriate for the different types of employees. A 25-year-old university graduate who has just joined a company, is still somewhat inexperienced but fully motivated, naturally needs different training than a 60-year-old veteran from the key account who brings a lot of experience with him, but is secretly already looking forward to retirement. Both can be so valuable for the success of a company, but both have very different individual prerequisites and deserve that the trainer deals with them individually. Of course, this is more time-consuming, but it is also much more promising and ultimately pays off for the companies and organizations.

In the long term, transfer security also makes itself felt in the company's figures: If the success rate of the sales staff increases, the closing figures also go up. Especially for medium-sized companies with 300 to 500 employees, this calculation works. They can be sure that their investment in sales training does not simply fizzle out, but that it arrives 100 percent where it belongs: with the sales staff.

In the future, transfer security will become increasingly important. Because companies in all industries are confronted with tremendous dynamics. The environment in which they operate is constantly changing. Those who manage to react quickly to these changes have an enormous competitive advantage. Transfer-safe trainings help to ensure that employees are able to implement new contents reliably and that newly learned skills are quickly established in their daily work. Not only in sales, but of course also in all other areas of a company.