I am writing this at the Philadelphia Airport on my way back from meeting with one of my clients. Three weeks ago, we offered a training program for their staff in basic selling skills. She reported that they saw an immediate increase in sales after the program. Since these are all telemarketers, she listened in on their calls to see what had changed. To her pleasure they were asking good, open-ended questions. They were taking time to listen to the client's responses and using their comments to match them with the right product. They were even closing right at the correct time. She was thrilled.

Unfortunately, not all of the reps kept it up. Within weeks, some of the rep's sales had slipped back to their original level. Another listening survey showed the cause. Each of the reps whose sales were down had slipped back into their old way of operating. It was as if a giant rubber band had been stretched during training, and now it was returning to its original size. Should we be surprised? I'm not. For years these reps had been trained to operate in a lecture mode. They read scripts and gave the same pitch to every caller. Now we were asking them to change, and change takes time.

So what do you do? Forget training? No, but you may want to think about the steps that must follow a training program to make it stick. These can include email reminders, peer coaching, and manager mentoring. In this case, we are adding audio 'mini-seminars' to the mix. Each rep will be encouraged to call into a voice mailbox for a short refresher on the subject they need help on. Each 10 minute message will give them tips and examples designed to overcome their area of weakness.

Whether you are offering training for your team or simply taking a training program yourself, recognize that old habits die hard. Build a reinforcement regiment to turn that training into practice and the practice into habit over 30, 60 or 90 days. Just like planting a garden, putting the seeds in the ground is only the first step to a bountiful harvest.

For a free copy of "How to Get Dramatic Results From Training", please email article12@waterhousegroup.com and ask for article #12.

Steve Waterhouse

The founder and CEO of Waterhouse Group, Mr. Steve Waterhouse is the author of The Team Selling Solution: Creating and Managing Teams that Win the Complex Sale (McGraw-Hill, 2003) and Ending the Blame Game: 20 Rules to Live By (Englander Press, 2000).

A consultant and sales trainer, Mr. Waterhouse?s TeamSelling? process helps companies involved in complex sales cut both costs and selling cycle time by learning to coordinate their internal assets.

He set sales records in the semiconductor industry and when Steve took on the challenge of the struggling Vortech Corporation, he increased sales by 300% in just 24 months.

Some of Steve?s clients include AT&T, Roper Scientific, IBM, Xerox, Sun Microsystems, United Airlines, and Lucent Technologies.

Steve has appeared in Sales and Marketing Magazine, Selling Power, PC Week, Investors Business Daily, B2B, Entrepreneur Magazine, Washington Technology, Smart Partner Magazine, and numerous local publications and business journals.