Only 33% of Companies Have Effective Sales Training, New Study Finds

BOSTON - Nov. 21, 2024 - PRLog -- RAIN Group, a global sales training company, in partnership with Allego™, the leading provider of revenue enablement solutions, released the findings of its latest study, Continuous Learning in Sales.

Analyzing responses from 240+ sales professionals across industries and regions, the study uncovers what organizations with highly effective training and development do differently.

Key findings include:

Effectiveness Gap: Only 33% of respondents rate their organization's sales training and development as extremely or very effective in helping achieve strong sales performance and productivity.

Lower Turnover with Effective Training: Companies with highly effective sales training report significantly lower turnover rates (33.8% vs. 45.5% among those with less effective training).

Blended Learning: 93% of highly effective training organizations incorporate in-person, instructor-led methods, compared to 65% of less effective programs. Additionally, the organizations with effective training leverage virtual instructor-led training (66%) and virtual self-study (50%) as part of a blended approach.

Extensive Online Resources: Organizations with highly effective training provide comprehensive resources, including sales tools, templates, workbooks (73%), recorded videos (63%), and online courses or program modules (61%).

Reinforcement and Coaching: Highly effective training organizations offer more learning reinforcement activities (1.5x), online coaching (1.4x), and role-play and simulations (1.3x) compared to organizations with less effective training.

Leadership Support: Organizations with effective training are 2.2x more likely to have strong leadership support for continuous learning and 5.2x more likely to provide resources that prepare sales managers to motivate and coach their teams.

Technology Integration: 63% of organizations with highly effective training have invested in a sales learning and enablement platform. Among these, 31% strongly agree that content is available when needed, and 27% report that sales playbooks and best practices are up-to-date and easy to access.

Embracing Everboarding: 30% of organizations with effective training report a direct transition from onboarding to continuous learning, or "everboarding," compared to only 7.6% of those with less effective training.

"With only a third of companies seeing their sales training achieve results, there's a tremendous opportunity to approach it differently," said Erica Schultz, CMO of RAIN Group. "Our research highlights the tactics that make the biggest difference in training effectiveness and identifies actionable steps for driving real change."

The study also reveals the growing importance of technology in effective sales training.

"Technology isn't just enhancing sales training—it's transforming it," said Yuchun Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of Allego. "From AI-driven coaching tools to virtual reality simulations, organizations leading in training effectiveness are harnessing innovations to create data-driven, engaging learning experiences that deliver measurable outcomes."

For more insights, visit https://www.rainsalestraining.com/blog/the-state-of-sales-training-and-continuous-learning.