Every year, companies set their revenue targets. Increasingly, every year, they fall short. Moderna has seen consistent quarterly revenue declines as has Mercedes-Benz Group. Nike’s revenue declined in 2024 and has continued thus far into 2025: for the twelve months ending February 28, 2025, Nike revenue was $47.818B, a 7.3% decline year-over-year. And Tesla . . . well, let’s leave Tesla out of it for now.
Stunted or receding growth isn’t limited to a handful of companies; it’s also affecting entire industries. In 2024, U.S. retail sales growth slowed to 2.78% year-over-year, and tech companies like Salesforce and Microsoft have also reported slower revenue growth. The logistics industry is a prime example. Warehousing capacity has slowed, inventory levels have dropped, and throughout 2024, nearly all freight brokerages saw negative growth.
The Time Suck of Traditional Sales Training
Of course, there are myriad reasons for stagnated revenue, including changes in our current economic environment. But that’s the thing: change is inevitable, and sales as a profession should be able to anticipate and adapt quickly. Despite this need, our sales and revenue growth teams often react to changes instead of getting ahead of them. Not only are we reactive, but our reaction time is slow. We tend to conduct sales with a multi-year lag behind economic shifts and technological changes. As everyone knows, change within a company takes time, and sales and training, our greatest tools for developing agile, forward-thinking teams, don’t often deliver on their potential within reasonable timeframes. While we need real-time, highly tailored, ever-evolving training, what we often get is a scenario like this:
Sales Leader 1: We are really struggling to make quota. Sales feels so different—everything is changing. What should we do?
Sales Leader 2: Should we change our whole strategy? Should we sell differently?
SL1: Probably, but then we need to teach our sales force how to do that.
SL2: Ok, so like, a new sales training?
SL1: One that teaches people to sell now, in this current moment.
SL2: Great, let’s plan this out: update our sales training to . . . something, we’ll figure that out. Then, do the training, then get our sales teams implementing what they know.
SL1: That sounds right—how soon can we do this?
SL2: We can have the new training live in 12 months, I think. But it will be a big investment.
SL1: Right, but we haven’t updated our training in about 5 years, so we’ll be able to use this new training for the next 5 years, at least. We’ll have to, to get the return on our investment.
SL2: Good thinking. And how much can things change in the next five years?
Throughout my decades-long career in sales, and especially since founding my company, The Sales Dream, I’ve heard this type of exchange all the time in meetings and conversations about stalled growth. Of course, I’ve oversimplified it here. The discussions are always more sophisticated than what I’ve portrayed. Still, the gist is nearly always the same: we know we need to give our sales teams the tools they need to do their job well, but the resources and time necessary to deliver those tools means we are perpetually behind. Just when we think we are showing up to the party in the hottest trends, we are told “that is so last season” and the cycle begins again (yes, I do have a teenage daughter).
The Gap Between Those Who Train Well and Those Who Don’t
It’s broken. Sales, reliant on adaptivity but mired in outdated approaches, is broken. More specifically, sales training is broken. And it shows. Companies that neglect sales training can lose significant revenue due to lower conversion rates, high employee turnover, and missed opportunities. Here are some key figures:
- Lower Conversion Rates: Businesses that invest in sales training see up to 50% higher conversion rates. If a company loses even 10% of potential sales due to ineffective sales tactics, that could mean a loss of $500,000 for every 100 deals.
- Employee Turnover Costs: Nearly 60% of sales reps who leave their jobs cite lack of training as a key reason. Replacing a sales employee can cost anywhere from 30% to 200% of their annual salary.
- Missed Revenue Opportunities: Poor training leads to inconsistent sales performance, reducing customer trust and retention. Without proper training, sales teams struggle to close deals, leading to millions in lost revenue annually.
Sales training plays a critical role in driving success for individuals and the company’s bottom line. Further, the gap between companies that invest in sales training and those that don’t is increasingly a yawning chasm. Here are some key differences:
- Revenue Growth: Businesses that prioritize sales training see an average 353% return on investment (ROI), while companies without structured training struggle with stagnant or declining revenue.
- Sales Effectiveness: Companies with dynamic sales training programs experience higher win rates (53%) and significantly better sales effectiveness compared to those that rely on outdated or minimal training (48% win rate).
- Employee Retention: Companies with effective sales training see 53% lower employee turnover.
- Productivity Gains: Organizations that provide continuous training see 18% higher productivity and 23% higher profitability.
Ok, let’s recap. Sales training: we know we need it, but our company’s approach to it is, more often than not, pretty subpar. We need speed, agility, and the ability to see around corners. We need a much shorter turnaround time between training overhauls. We need ongoing learning and training that equips our sales teams to lead the customer rather than follow five paces behind.
Stay Tuned
Are you enthusiastically nodding your head right now? Are you laughing out loud at the absurdity of what I’m proposing? Either response is great, and I understand them both. This is our dream of what sales training can be; it’s also an implementation nightmare. How do we see the future? How do we prepare our sales force for it? How can we possibly do this all the time? Updating sales training, sharing it, and tracking it takes months. Not to mention the follow-up implementation guidance we know we should be more diligent about, but can’t seem to fit in. How much would such a dedication to training cost? And how could we possibly afford it, much less rationalize it, when we are already missing our growth targets each quarter?
These are important questions, and I’ve dedicated my career to their thoughtful answers. In fact, it’s become my mission to fix sales through truly effective, dynamic sales training designed for the current and future moment, whatever that might be. I’ve got a solution for you. And it’s dropping June 16th. Stay tuned for more info on why sales is broken, what to do about it, and how to be first in your industry to adopt a new solution.
