Measuring the Success of Sales Training

Preface

With ASTD’s investment in selling skills, it has never been more important to show examples of sales skills at work. The process to evaluate these skills is sometimes perceived as straightforward and routine, simply a matter of tracking the sales gains after the program has been conducted. Credibly evaluating sales training programs is a bit more involved than that. Four important issues often surface when developing a credible study. First, since many other factors influence sales, there must always be a step to isolate the effects of the sales training program on the sales—an omission in most studies. Second, when converting sales data to monetary values, only the profit margins of increased sales must be used, not the sales themselves—a ...