I was reminded of this during a recent conversation with the general manager of a small business who believed a training session might fix his underperforming team.
We started off talking about his goals for the year. When the conversation shifted to performance of their sales team, the GM asked me what I charge for training.
“Why do you think you need sales training?” I asked.
He hesitated, then explained that his team was producing mediocre results.
- They weren’t prospecting regularly.
- Follow-up was inconsistent.
- Motivation seemed low.
So I asked a second question:
“How will training resolve these issues?”
What is Sales Transformation?
Here’s the thing—yes, I offer sales training. But more often than not, that’s not what’s actually needed.
What most clients are after is sales transformation:
A real, lasting shift in how their team thinks, behaves, and performs.
Driving Change: Sales Transformation vs. Sales Training
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
Training introduces new skills. You might
- role-play,
- work through examples, or
- talk through client situations. But at the end of the day, training is skill-building.
Transformation is execution.
Sales transformation involves a bigger picture:
-
Aligning your sales team with your business strategy
-
Coaching to reinforce consistent behaviors
-
Systems that support accountability and automation
-
Metrics that actually matter
The general manager I spoke with was seeking a transformation of his sales team to deliver new results. Typically, this level of transformation requires more than some new skills.
We discussed
- the role his sales team played in achieving the sales strategy,
- the coaching required to reinforce new behaviours, and
- automation that would support better behaviours and measures of individual performance.
In short, he needed to transform his sales culture to get the results he was aiming for.
Sales Transformation Requires a Shift in Thinking
It’s easy to assume training is the answer—most leaders do.
But when looking for better sales results, the path forward usually demands more than a few new techniques.
If your team’s performance isn’t where it should be, it might be time to think less about training and more about transformation.
This Week’s Exercise:
- What new results would you like to see from your sales team?
- What are all of the factors—beyond just training—that would influence these new results?
- Where can you start introducing small changes that lead to big shifts?
If you’d like help thinking this through, contact me, and we can set up a time to discuss. At the very least, we can make sure you’re not spending money on training that won’t deliver the sales transformation you’re really after.
© Shawn Casemore 2025. All Rights Reserved.
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