There is always a new product coming out, always a need to learn the latest bits and bytes, speeds and feeds, knobs and dials.

How much will revenue grow after SEs are flea dipped through a week of intense product training? Can you put a specific revenue number on it? Probably not.

It turns out that you can put a specific number on revenue growth for SE sales skills. The number is conservatively 48% revenue growth in 6 months and 224% in 4 quarters, and likely a lot larger.

Here’s why. Let’s say that SE sales skills training measurably improves their # of qualified deals, deal size, win rate, and time to solution closure each 10% per quarter. This is a very conservative performance target, and is easy to achieve assuming (big assumption) there is management commitment to the cause.

These modest improvements result in a 48% growth in revenue incrementally every quarter. As a result, if training and honing of skills is in Q1, then the improvement in Q2 is 48%, Q3 is 119%, and Q4 is 224%.

Again, this is a very conservative estimate. In fact, one of our clients improved the revenue growth of their pilot deals 425% in 2 quarters. It took executive and management commitment, it took reallocating budget from product training to sales training, it took pain and sweat for 6 months, but the results were compelling.

Can your product training generate those kinds of returns? Probably not.

The next time you hear somebody say we don’t have the time or budget for SE sales skills training, please send them this blog. In any business, lack of balance between hard and soft skills training is short-sighted and costly. Make the time — It’s a no-brainer.

In my next blog, I will suggest that instead of burying SEs in excessive product training, there is a way to restructure the use of SEs so less product training is needed.