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I just read a pathetic sales pitch in an e-mail where a “training company” was telling me why training fails, and offering what THEY thought was the best way to approach the process.

Seems as though they solicited the opinions of 10 or 12 people – most of whom haven’t sold anything in years (or ever), nor have they ever trained anyone – and are offering their advice in an e-mail. In other words, not enough of a relationship, or enough guts, to make a phone call. YIKES!

Sending this type of random information to random people is bound to produce a few short-term successes, but the vast majority of people will hit the “delete” key without a second thought. YIKES!

Here’s the essence of their claim about why training fails:

Monotonous: Training was developed based on one or a few individuals’ experience.

Overpriced: Too expensive in terms of a financial commitment or human capital requirement.

No true blended learning solution. (Was either too much online or in the classroom.)

Unaccountability: Was not being supported, tracked or reinforced by management.

Learning wasn’t being tied into current business metrics.

Huh? This information is not only totally inaccurate; it’s also dangerous. And buzzwords like “blended learning” and “business metrics” without explanation are as empty as the results will be for the people who take this type of training.

REALITY: I just did a four-day, 23-hour marathon boot camp and had 100 percent of the people paying 100 percent attention 100 percent of the time. The attendees paid plenty, got 100 times their money’s worth (captured in video testimonials), and didn’t care about blending, metrics or any other convenient training buzzword.

What they got was value.

What they got was real world.

What they got was new information.

What they got was immediately applicable.

And that’s what they were hoping for.

The new world of learning requires much more than rhetoric to be effective. It requires a series of elements that MUST be present, or the training won’t produce the results management is hoping for.

It’s not about opinion. It’s not about buzzwords that no one can understand, let alone relate to. It’s about the voice of customer, and understandable concepts that can be converted into sales.

Here are the uncompromising elements that training must include:

• The world-class, real-world expertise of the trainer or trainers.

• Acceptability of the trainer to the students.

• Willingness of the students to learn and apply.

• Ideas and concepts that are relatable to each participant.

• Proven strategies – no theory or pie in the sky.

• Individual elements of the selling process that don’t manipulate – not a system.

• Personalized information in harmony with the market.

• Transferable concepts that learners can see themselves doing.

• A learning environment that encourages students to succeed.

• Actionable elements that can be used immediately. Successfully.

• Timed online reinforcement beyond the classroom lessons.

• Using the voice of the customer to reinforce the lesson and salespeople’s belief.

• Measurable success by two simple measurements — increase in sales and increase in customer loyalty, NOT return on investment or some other phony justification measurement.

• Before, during and after the training, leadership that coaches with encouragement daily.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2010 Jeffrey H. Gitomer