Why Sales Motivational Speakers Are Con Artists & Sales Training Doesn't Work

Recently I was asked to speak at a manufacturer's sales conference where the 2 main questions were "Are you available on the date?" and "How much do you charge?" This set my alarm bells ringing.

The point of contact was the HR manager. She had no idea what the salespeople do every day, and what she wanted was a "motivational speaker" who was going to help overcome the fact that their salespeople have lots of product knowledge but can't sell. Her brief was to find someone who could, by the end of their talk, make the more effective and more efficient as salespeople.

I'd looked her up on LinkedIn where she proudly advertises her MSC in HR Management. Naturally I asked how long it took her to develop her skill set as an HR professional and she said her Masters degree took 1 year. Naturally I asked, "Well help me understand something. How do you propose that anyone get your salespeople to become efficient and effective at selling after only one 3 hour "motivational talk" when it took you a year and a lot of hard work to even qualify?"

Apparently that was a question too far ... we soon agreed to part ways.

What has this got to do with the title of this blog?

Well some charlatan is going to take their money to deliver a 3 hour motivational ra-ra speech which cannot possibly deliver what the company has briefed this well meaning but utterly incapable HR manager to deliver.

Motivation is an internal force.

Therefore the entire motivational speaker business is a fraud of the highest order.

Perhaps you can inspire as a speaker, but unless a salesperson finds their own reason why they are doing what they are doing every day, you may as well be pushing water up hill.

"Motivational" Speakers are Con Artists

Anyone who brands themselves as a motivational speaker is peddling you a fiction. And anyone who takes the money of some poor sucker

in the belief they are serving their people or their business by bringing a trainer/speaker in to deliver sales performance improvement in an afternoon is peddling snake oil.

I admit you can get a few people to up their game, and perhaps all of them to step their activity rate for a couple of weeks, BUT YOU WILL NOT SECURE LASTING PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT with this approach. And hoping it will work is not an effective strategy.

Sales Training Doesn't Work

I have to be honest, sales training doesn't work either.

What is a former sales trainer doing saying sales training doesn't work? I'm telling the unvarnished truth.

Perhaps a quarter of the salespeople in any sales team will take on board what you teach them to improve their sales performance because they have both desire and commitment. The other 75% have desire (want to make more money) but lack commitment (the willingness to change and do whatever is required to be more effective and efficient). Isn't that your experience too?

As high as 70% of learning actually happens on the job which is why the classroom is not the best place to learn. There are tools available in 2021 such as @Mobile Practice which allow managers and coaches to deliver training and coaching of specific moments in the sale at a time that suits the salesperson best, practice and record their attempts. These interventions massively increase retention and implementation. Tools like Refract and Gong allow salespeople to review their own performance and self-coach after the event. Training without such tools to reinforce them is largely a monumental waste of money.

And don't get me started on online training. The gold standard for online training programmes is that only 3% of delegates complete the programme. That is get to the end. Not implement. Not turn the skills into habit. Just get to the end!

Most sales deficiencies aren't about technical skill gaps; they're about the conceptual gap between knowing what to do and being willing to do it aren't they? 

Salespeople who aren't performing to their full potential are usually being poorly led and mismanaged. Shoving them in a room once with a charismatic speaker isn't going to fix them. They'll have a few laughs (one would hope) but getting them to close more business, ask for and get higher prices, close more predictably, forecast to a minimum of 80% of actual revenue within the next 30 days, call higher and secure appointments with senior decision makers, sell past fabricated buying processes, ring fence accounts to protect them from the competition, stop deal slippage, eliminate time wasters, tyre kickers and technical buyers on a fact find to seek out the lowest price will not happen unless you put some real thought and effort into training your people systematically and well. 

In the example I cite above, the HR manager was willing to go through the motions but had no idea how to put into action the necessary changes in behaviour to achieve the stated aims of the company.

I don't blame her or hold her in contempt. Why would she know any better? All of us have 4 major competitors:

• fear (too scared)
• apathy (can't be bothered)
• ignorance (don't know)
• ego (think they know better or are entitled)

In her case, she doesn't know any better; her brief was to find a cheap speaker to entertain the troops for 3 hours. I'm sure someone will jump at the chance to do this - it's money for old rope. If they take on this brief I do hold them in contempt.

I won't.

I'd rather stick to my values and only deliver great lifetime training that will help companies achieve exponential growth in the short, medium and long term. I won't line my pockets and fail to deliver what they hired me to deliver.

Salespeople who aren't selling are usually failing for any number of reasons except the one the management thinks is the problem. In this case, "they have lots of product knowledge but have never been trained to sell." At best that's a symptom, not the cause.

Product knowledge has one function only. And that isn't to tell the customer about the product. It's to help the salesperson ask contextually relevant questions that leave the prospect wiser.

I like to think of myself as pretty damned good at what I do. I routinely hear from my clients that I have helped them turn their lives around, turn their businesses into thriving enterprises and it is my privilege and pleasure to play a part in their transformation. In fact, I find it humbling that they associate my contribution so closely with the success they have carved out for themselves. That is why the idea that anyone, even me, can have a meaningful and lasting positive impact on all 18 of their salespeople is laughable and represents the company throwing away 54 man hours of time and a load of money on the speaker's fee and expenses.

So please, consider why you are contemplating training your people and what you want to happen as a result of making this investment in time, resources and money.

A word of warning. Never hire a sales trainer who discounts. Imagine the damage they will do to your salesforce and your balance sheet!