If you expect to go into sales training to get cured, think again. Many of you may have had the pleasure of going to a two-day training session and I expect it had good content and was delivered professionally. You probably when back to our job with great enthusiasm, pumped and ready to apply the things you learned. Good for you. However, if you're like most people, the job and life didn't give you time to fully apply what you learned.

Customers need to be taken care of, the boss wants a report and then there are demands at home. In all fairness, how much of the learning can you recall and use after a few weeks?

To be proficient at any endeavor takes a lifelong learning approach. The best plumbers, scientists, musicians, and sales people know it takes more than two days of training to develop successful skills, attitudes and behaviours.

Effective training is not just a prescription you follow to get better, it involves changing your attitude toward yourself and what you do, and changing behaviours that defeat you to behaviours that support success. That's why the best training is based on ongoing reinforcement. Behaviours won't change overnight. You have to evaluate where you are now, develop a plan to get you where you want to be, and work within that plan every day, on every call. And, as your career develops, your plan may change.

True success comes from applying what you have learned but there is a process that people go through. First they become aware of what they don't know. They we gain knowledge. Next we start to adapt the knowledge to our business situations and finally we develop the skills to the point that they are second nature. Think of learning to walk, ride a bicycle or playing tennis, how long was the cycle of learning before you did it automatically.

Learning is on-going and a lifelong endeavor if you plan to be the best.

_{Reprinted from The President's Club Report, © Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.}

_{Copyright 2011 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.}

_{John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, the authorized Sandler Training Licensee for the Interior of British Columbia. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 1-866-645-2047}