RTM: Yes, I was talking to someone at Caterpillar and he was explaining that every salesperson in every dealership has his or her training needs assessed annually by the company.

AS: That really is best practice.

RTM: You mean most companies don’t behave like this?

AS: No, they still tend to focus on delivery. Typically this means giving people a training course when they start a job but not subscribing to the concept of lifelong training.

RTM: So how does distance learning or courses on the Web fit in to all this?

AS: I think that sort of remote learning is great for knowledge. So I would have no problem with a course on financial ratios – gross margins and so on – being taught remotely.

In fact you can offer a library of 20 or 30 relevant courses and leave the account managers to pick the ones that are most relevant to them. Skills, however, are best taught face to face, often through mentoring. 

RTM: One problem with that sort of distance learning is that people just never get round to doing it. It lacks the cachet and excitement of going off to a hotel.

AS: Yes. But why not make attendance on the residential course dependent on completing the knowledge-based distance learning? That way, everyone on the course starts with the same basic knowledge. And I have no problem with telling people they have to sit and pass an on-line examination before being allowed to go on the skills course.

“Offer a library of 20 or 30 relevant courses and leave the account managers to pick the ones that are most relevant.”

RTM: Going back to why companies don’t train account managers properly, I suppose the problem stems partly from the fact that many people don’t really see account management as a career.

AS: Yes. I think it is important to see it as a profession that people can follow for long periods. Companies need to set up career ladders, with each rung associated with a new set of skills. And companies need to be very careful about how they set out their career maps.

RTM: How do you mean?

AS: Well, at one client I worked with, account managers started with a lot of small accounts and then progressed eventually to working on global alliances with a few very large prestige names.

RTM: So what was the problem?

AS: The culture inside the company became ‘these small accounts are unimportant’. But they were incredibly important: they made up 80% of sales. And there are going to be some people who are much better at working with a lot of small companies and others who are going to be better at working with large accounts. All this needs to be thought through very carefully.

RTM: Yes, I suppose there is no point in training unless the company has a culture that recognises the importance of learning.

AS: Absolutely. How many outfits pay lip-service to training, but don’t provide employees with the time off to actually do it? But it goes deeper than that. You also have to reward the behaviour you want from your account managers.

RTM: How do you mean?

AS: Well, there is no point in giving account managers new skills unless the organisation shows that it really wants them to put them into practice. If you still reward account managers purely for hitting quarterly sales targets then they will quickly stop trying to form deeper relationships with partners. You have to recognise the behaviour you want to encourage, and reward it.

RTM: How else can you ensure that training really has an effect?

AS: I find training works best when senior sales managers are prepared to take on some of the training themselves and where they become involved in the entire process.

You also need to get away from the highly competitive atmosphere you still find inside most suppliers. People should be prepared to support their co-workers.  In fact they have to do this more and more, as account management today is about teamwork.

“Recognise the behaviour you want to encourage, and reward it.”

RTM: And does this happen?

AS: Increasingly so. I find that sales managers and directors are increasingly willing to take up the challenge of reworking their internal cultures and getting deeply involved in helping people develop.  But there is a long way to go!