There is a sizable perception gap between sales reps and managers when it comes to the importance of sales training topics, practices, and delivery, according to a joint study of 158 sales managers and 102 salespeople conducted by mobile video sales learning platform Allego and the Sales Management Association (SMA).
The survey revealed that managers consider value proposition communication a training topic of higher priority than do salespeople, who are more likely to prioritize presentation delivery and effectiveness. Managers believe that coaching 78%) and peer learning (73%) deliver the highest return on investment when it comes to sales enablement, while most reps believe the training offered by their organization falls short of expectations.
Respondents’ ideal allocations of learning time suggest that companies may wish to slightly increase coaching interactions (from 47% currently to 53%). The study also found that 20-something Millennials would, on average, like to see 33% more time spent on role-playing with manager feedback and 12% less time spent on in-classroom training.
