Can sales be taught, or are good salespeople born? It depends on your view of professional selling. There are some people that are naturals—phenoms. There is another group of successful salespeople—fundamentalists. These salespeople work daily at the fundamentals of selling: call preparation, presentation skills, time and territory management, and people skills. Phenoms exist in every profession, but the majority of people who reach high levels of success work very hard at it.

If you believe that salespeople are born to it, you limit yourself to a smaller pool of candidates from which to recruit. One in four people in the general population has a better chance to succeed in sales than half the people currently employed in sales.

The average salesperson receives one week of training per year—more product training than selling skills training. Large companies spend billions of dollars every year on training programs. Some even develop internal universities as profit centers and offer their training to other companies.

It's critical for smaller companies to train their salespeople. Small businesses cannot compete on price with the likes of Wal-Mart. They must compete with their people. People represent the single unique dimension of value because there is no commodity in creativity. Small businesses operate with limited resources. Why would you want to limit the resources you have by not training them?

Before investing money on training, be clear on your expectations. Train for results. The focusing question is: What do your salespeople need to meet the demands of their jobs? What do they need to be able to do, and where are they now?

Assess your group's needs. Is it a training issue? Do you have the right people in the job? Do you want everyone to go through the training, or just part of the group? Would it hurt if they all went through it? What do you want to see the group do differently after the training that they are not doing now? What behavioral changes in their selling would justify the time and money you invest in training? What are your logistics concerns? Where will you train? When will you train?

Explore topics with salespeople before designing training programs. Ask for their input on where they think they need the most help. This, coupled with a field analysis of their sales behavior, gives you an understanding of your needs.

Where should you go for the training—inside or outside of your organization? Do you have the time, expertise and resources to do this training yourself? Outside expertise gives you the most current information on a topic.

Investing in training sends a message of support to your salespeople. Companies invest money in people they care about and believe in. Regardless of the training method you choose, however, you are still responsible for follow-up. Training is about the acquisition of knowledge and skills; coaching is about the application of knowledge and skills. Your follow-up can yield a four-fold return on money invested.