Why Your Sales Training isn't Working

Why Your Sales Training Isn't Working (And How Coaching Fixes It)

Here's a confronting truth — most sales training doesn't stick. Not because the training is bad, but because of what happens (or doesn't happen) after it.

In this episode, Nicky unpacks the forgetting curve and why up to 70% of what your team learns can disappear within 24 hours. The fix isn't more training — it's smarter follow-up, better questions, and building real coaching habits into your leadership rhythm.

You'll hear why so many leaders think they're coaching when they're actually mentoring, advising, or just having a chat — and the difference it makes when you shift that. Nicky also shares a quick five-question self-audit so you can check right now whether your conversations are actually coaching conversations.

In this episode:

• The forgetting curve — and what it means for your training investment
• Why "how was the training?" is the wrong follow-up question
• Common barriers stopping leaders from coaching consistently
• The difference between a coaching conversation, a KPI chat, and a chit chat
• Five yes/no questions to check if you're actually coaching
• One simple action you can start using today

Learn more about Nicky  at nickymiklos.com

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Contact: 0403 191 404 | hello@nickymiklos.com 

Music by Jules Miklos-Woodley

Transcript

Nicky Miklós (00:27)

Hello, hello, legend. And it is so awesome to be hanging out with you again this week.

Now, did you know that 80% of people who get coaching actually report an increase in self-confidence? 80% of people who are coached increase their confidence, and over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. This is some statistics that were researched and distributed from the International Coach Federation.

And I think it's a really good statistic to think about, because when coaching is done well, there is an astronomical lift in confidence, relationships, communications, and capability.

And this podcast episode is all about why your sales training isn't working. And that's a bold statement to make. Maybe it is — cool, this is still going to help make it even better. Or maybe you're kind of thinking, "But I'm sure that was covered off in some sales training." Or really, this could be applicable to any training — why is it not landing in terms of the conversations that I'm hearing my team having with clients, or close rates, or whatever the gap might be in your team.

We've got to remember that there is this thing called the forgetting curve. And basically what the forgetting curve tells us is that the longer we don't activate, remember, use, or talk about the information that we've learned, the less we remember it — the less we retain that information. I mean, that makes sense. But the statistics can be pretty stark.

Now, depending on where you research, you're going to find different numbers, but the ballpark sits around 50% of the information can be lost within one hour, and around 70% within 72 hours. Within one hour, we will forget 50% of what we've learned, and within 24 hours, we'll forget 70%. And that just increases over a week, a month, whatever it might be.

So I want you to be really truthful and honest with yourself and think about: when was the last time your team did some training? When and how did you follow up on that training? Or when and how did your leaders follow up on that training? And how do you know that they did?

Because here's the thing — the quality of the conversations and the quality of the questions matter. Yes, a lot of people will say, "How was that training? Give me some feedback about the training." Okay, that's good. At least if you are checking in, you're doing something. But that's not asking a really great quality question to understand how that person is interpreting the content of that training, to then be able to use it in their day-to-day.

So a better quality question could be: "What was your key takeaway, and what have you implemented — or what have you done differently — since doing the training?" Or: "What will you implement? What will you do differently? What do you see as the impact of this?"

See how the quality of the question is so different? "How was it? Do you have any feedback?" — that's so broad and general. "What did you take away? What have you or will you implement or do differently?" — we're now starting to get the person who attended the training to think differently, and really hold them to account around how they'll use this information.

And fundamentally, what this comes down to is asking great coaching questions.

Now, I've talked before about coaching skills being one of the most important critical skills that a commercial leader can have — because what it does is it actually moves away from transactional, reactive leadership, to creating that autonomous team that will step up so the leader can then step back and focus on their genius zone.

Too many leaders either think that they are doing coaching, but they're actually not. They may be having KPI conversations, or taking someone for a coffee. A chit-chat is not necessarily a coaching session. A KPI conversation is really important, but it's not necessarily a coaching conversation.

So there can be these common barriers to leaders not really leaning into that coaching space. And one of them could be that they don't actually really understand — they might genuinely think that they're doing coaching. Another could be that they don't have the skills, or they're a bit nervous about coaching too far because: "What if I don't have the answer?" I get that a lot. That's like an underlying fear.

Maybe they have come from a coaching culture, but it actually wasn't — it was more of a carrot-and-stick type culture. It could be time — there's also another big barrier of: "I want to, but I just can't get to it because the priority list keeps building and taking over that time." Because there's this feeling that coaching is a nice-to-have. But actually, if it becomes a fundamental cornerstone of your culture, it will be the thing that helps separate you — and allows your team to step up and be more autonomous. The spoon-feeding culture disappears. And the leader's time frees up a little bit more — but that can be a transition, depending on what type of culture you have at the moment.

Another barrier is that the team don't see value in it, so there's pushback from the team.

And if you're listening or watching, you're going to be at a particular phase. I like to talk about this as: we're creating a coaching culture — which means there are great skills that the leader has, and really good rhythms for consistent touch points around coaching. If this is all brand new to you, then there's a bit of transformation that needs to happen to be able to set these things in place. It's not just, all of a sudden, boom — we're a coaching culture. We've got to get people along for the ride. We've got to show the value. We have to upskill.

But maybe if you're joining me today, you do have some of those things in place, and it's just about elevating the quality of the conversations — regardless of where you sit.

What I want to share with you today is really how you can identify: Am I doing coaching, potentially? Or is it more of a transactional conversation, or just a chit-chat?

Because we know that the benefits, when you do have these coaching skills and these conversations — and eventually the cadence and the rhythm — your team become more empowered. The leader has more time, because there's more problem-solving and autonomy within the salespeople. They're not as reliant on you.

They retain information better — which leads me back to: it could be that your sales training is not working, not because of the quality of the training that you're doing, but it's more about the follow-up. You're asking them questions to tap into what they've just learned, so they retain information better.

The other really big benefit is that you can create long-lasting behavioural change. I have so many conversations with leaders where they say, "Yes, we had a performance conversation, or we had a follow-up conversation around something that wasn't being done. I told them what to do — and it didn't change. They're still avoiding cold calls, or they're still avoiding picking up the phone."

I'm not surprised. Because you're not peeking under the hood, getting curious around what's driving the behaviour that's leading them to avoid those sales activities — cold calling or whatever it might be. We're not getting curious about what's driving the behaviour. We're just telling them what they need to do.

And when we coach, we're asking questions. We're getting curious about behaviour. We're getting them to come to the party. They can set their own goals or focus areas around what they'll do differently. And you will have a better chance of creating change in behaviour and skill.

So that is a huge benefit to making sure that you're really harnessing and sharpening your — and your leaders' — coaching skills.

Answer me this. I've got a couple of questions for you. I want you to give yourself a yes or a no, and we'll see how many yeses you get.

So this is how you can know if you're potentially doing a coaching session versus training or mentoring. With training and mentoring, you're going to be talking more — you're giving information, you're giving advice. And again, the chit-chat. You might be asking questions, but we want to make sure they're good quality.

Question 1: Are you asking questions more than telling and giving information? Yes or no?

And remember — not every conversation will be a coaching conversation. I want you to think about a specific conversation you're having with a team member that you consider a coaching conversation. Are you asking more, or telling more? If you're asking more — it's a yes.

Question 2: Who's talking the least? Are you talking the least? Yes or no?

Just to give you a bit of a guide — when we're having a great coaching conversation, as the coach, we're talking around 30% of the time. Just ballpark. So am I talking the least? Yes or no?

Question 3: Are you getting curious about where their perspective of things are? Are you coming from a place of curiosity — not just wanting to give a whole bunch of information and move on? So are you bringing curiosity? Yes or no?

Question 4: Are your team retaining information after a coaching conversation? Now, I don't mean they'll retain 100% of the conversation — but are they starting to retain more? Are you seeing them think more about where they might find that information, or what the question is they'd usually come straight to you with? Yes or no — are your team retaining more information?

Question 5: Are you finding that the team are not coming to you with the same question over and over again? Yes or no?

Depending on how many yeses you got, that's an indicator of whether you're having coaching conversations — and whether you potentially have a coaching culture.

So my action for you today is very, very simple. I just want you to ask one question before giving an answer — in all scenarios.

And you'll know if you're naturally stepping into coaching depending on how comfortable this makes you feel. So instead of giving an answer straight away, you might ask: "Where do you think you might find the answer to that?" You might follow up the training with: "What have you taken away? What have you implemented? What do you think? What have you done so far?"

These are some really simple coaching questions that you can start with — to get into the habit of asking before you tell.

As always, let me know how you go with this. Reach out if you have any questions, and I'll see you next time.

Smart Business Growth Podcast with Nicky Miklós — Performance with Purpose · nickymiklos.com