Two days of workshop. Good energy. Full flip charts.
Three weeks later: the team does exactly what it did before.
This is not an exception. This is the rule.
The problem is not the training
Most sales trainings are solid in content. The concepts are right. The trainers know what they're talking about.
The problem is what happens afterwards. Or more precisely: nothing happens.
Training ends, and development ends with it. No follow-up. No transfer into daily practice. No structure that ensures the learned behavior remains available under real pressure.
New behaviors need time. They need repetition. They need situations where they can be tested, corrected, and consolidated.
A two-day seminar doesn't deliver that.
What's really missing: transfer
Transfer means: what was worked on in training shows up six weeks later in real behavior: in the customer conversation, in handling objections, under time pressure.
This doesn't happen automatically. It requires:
- Practical content: methods that work directly in the next real situation
- Repetition in daily work: short impulses, reflection, concrete tasks between sessions
- Support beyond the training: feedback and corrections when something isn't sticking yet
Without this, you buy good energy. Not change.
The right questions to ask
Don't rely on end-of-training feedback. It's almost always positive, because the energy is still there.
Ask about behavior six weeks later:
- Are objections being handled differently?
- Are the salespeople having different conversations?
- Has anything changed in the numbers?
If the answer to all three is "not really", the training didn't work. No matter how well it was rated.
One question worth asking before booking any training:
What happens the week after?
If there's no clear answer, that's the answer.