22/07/2026
Maybe We've Been Asking the Wrong Question
I'm starting to think that we've been asking the wrong question about training.
The question isn't, "Did the training go well?"
Or even...
"Did people enjoy it?"
Surely, the only question that matters is:
"Did performance improve?"
I've spent most of my working life conducting sales workshops, coaching salespeople and talking to sales managers.
One thing has puzzled me for years.
Companies will spend substantial amounts of money on training. Yet, many companies do not invest much time afterwards, to ensure that anything changes and performance improves.
The workshop finishes. Everyone goes back to work. Job done.
Or is it?
I reckon that training, by itself, rarely changes behaviour.
I don't think people become better because they attended a learning event.
They become better because they practise what they learned.
Training introduces new ideas.
Practice turns those ideas into competence.
Competence, repeated often enough, becomes habit.
And that's the point.
When the pressure is on, we don't stop to remember what was said in a workshop months ago. We rely on what we've practised.
It reminds me of Mike Tyson's famous observation:
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."
In sales, the customer's objection is the punch.
Even now, when a customer raises a price objection, I don't panic.
My mind immediately goes back to the Six-Step Approach that I practised years ago.
I don't stammer. I don't hesitate. The model is simply there.
Why?
Not because I attended a workshop.
Because I practised it, until it became part of me.
And that's where the confidence comes from.
Think about Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks.
Nobody expects the Springboks to become world champions after attending a seminar.
They become champions through repetition. Practise. More practise. Feedback. Adjustment.
Then more practise.
Business isn't very different.
Unfortunately, many organisations seem to live in what I call a "Move On" culture.
Finish the workshop. Tick the box. Move on to the next priority.
The trouble is that people don't learn at the speed organisations move.
Real learning takes time. Practice takes time. Managers need to make time for it.
And perhaps that's the biggest challenge of all.
Ironically, I've found that the hardest part of training isn't delivering a top-notch workshop.
It's getting managers to make time for their salespeople to practice.
Over the years we've experimented with a different approach.
Instead of expecting already busy managers to coach every individual, we help delegates coach one another.
We provide the lesson topics, the agendas, the checklists and the outcome forms.
Managers don’t conduct these sessions.
They simply review the outcomes and monitor progress.
The learning becomes part of the working week instead of something that happened in a training room months earlier. In our experience, this habit can continue for many months after the original workshop.
Perhaps we've been asking the wrong question.
It's not whether people enjoyed the training.
It's whether managers created enough opportunity for people to practise.
Training introduces new ideas.
Practice develops competence.
Competence, repeated often enough, becomes habit.
If practice develops competence, why do we invest so much in training....... and so little in practice?
Clive Price
Helping organisations turn training into performance.
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