Teach your sellers real concepts in real ways – use case studies

Most businesses are investing in outdated sales training methods and seeing little to no return. Do you wonder why results don’t happen?

Traditional sales training follows a classic model:

1. The instructor lectures.
2. The students take notes.

This instruction flows but one way: from the instructor to the class. Students — sellers — are expected to absorb information and then return to the field fully prepared to apply the lessons imparted during training.

It’s no surprise that lessons that are learned passively don’t “stick.” Abstract concepts are harder to implant because they don’t provide real-world context and thus are not rooted in real-life situations to which students can relate. The way to ensure better learning is to teach in ways that adults learn best.

Habits are instilled into adults through these four stages:

• Awareness — acknowledge specific techniques at a high level
• Understanding — know how to operationalize new techniques
• Skill Development — implement what has been learned, adapt to environment
• Belief — see how new learning contributed to results

One way to follow this adult learning journey is to use case studies. This approach replaces lectures with simulations of real-life situations. Students learn about the problem (awareness), analyze problems (understanding), develop solutions (skill development), and make a rationalized and informed decision (belief). They learn by doing, practicing, and experiencing these cases.

To learn more about this approach and how you can apply it to training your sellers, download “Sales Training the Harvard Way.”