Self Driven Learning Benefits Salespeople

Recent research by Stefanie Boyer at the University of South Florida has found that there are massive benefits to organisations that encourage, support and provide resources to sales teams to enable self directed learning.

In an article appearing in November 2008 edition of Training & Development Magazine (the major publication of the ASTD – American Society of Training and Development) Boyer and co-author Brian Lambert report that the research shows the following benefits are evident when salespeople actively participate in self directed learning:

• Reduced Training Costs
• Higher Profits
• Higher Revenue Performance
• Lower Turnover
• Greater Salesperson Retention Rates
• Higher Customer Satisfaction
• Higher Customer Loyalty
• Higher Employee Commitment
• Greater Efficiency and Effectiveness of Training
• More Adaptive Sales Force
• Greater Employee Motivation

Despite this evidence, most organisations are still operating off more traditional approaches to sales training through the occasional workshop, boot camp or annual sales conference.

For self directed learning to become a reality for salespeople, regardless of the size of the sales team or organisation, and for the organisation to reap the benefits listed above, it requires that sales managers and their salespeople be provided with unlimited, 24/7 access to a vast array of resources to help them identify and build on the skills and knowledge they need to be able to win more new, repeat and referral sales.

I guess it’s yet another validation of the value of membership at Sales Coach Central.