While few would argue against the importance of sales training and sale skill development, there may be a point at which continued training and development reach a point of diminishing returns. The point where too much training and too much development actually cause a sales professional to be less effective in their sales positions.
There are also some in the sales industry who use excessive training to avoid having to face calling on customers. They see having to improve their sales skills as an excuse to actually having to use what skills they have.
When Development Becomes a Crutch
If you find yourself attending as many sales training programs as possible, reading every book on the industry and investing both time and capital on learning new sales methods but don't spend time in front of customers or prospects, you may be using training and development as a crutch.
In many cases, people who find security in learning and are reluctant to put their learning to practice are either in the wrong profession or simply lack the confidence needed to take a risk at being rejected and start applying the skills they have learned.
Too Much Company Training
For those sales professionals who are expected to attend sales training conducted by their employers and feel that the expected training is excessive, there may seem like there is little that can be done. After all, if the company paying your salary and commissions expects you to attend training, you probably don't have much of a choice but to attend the excessive training and to not spend time with your customers or prospects.
A company that believes that processes and training are more important than the results of their sales reps is either a company preparing for approaching changes or believes that the reps they employ lack the skills they believe are needed.
Time is the Key
Sales professionals reluctant to train or feel that they don't need any training are often quick to blame their employer for excessive sales training. These reps feel that any time away from "field time" is a waste. While they may be correct in feeling that they are expected to attend too much training, the truth lies in the time a rep is expected to train.
In a typical 40 hour work week, a balanced sales company will expect their reps to spend 3 to 5 hours on managing processes and 2 to 4 attending sale skill development, product training or sales training. All remaining time should be reserved for sales calls, networking, team building and personal study.
When a company expects their reps to spend, on average, more than 10 hours per week on sales training, they have probably lost their focus.
Analysis Paralysis
Beyond the lack of customer face to face time that excessive training causes, too much training dulls sales skills and can lead to a rep being too confused to be effective when with a customer. Overtrained reps typically display "analysis paralysis." This means that they are more focused on being prepared and perfect than actually pulling the trigger and closing a sale.
While sales training and professional development are enormously valuable, both pale in importance when compared to spending time starting, advancing and closing sales.