Everyone knows that sales training is vital for driving sales, but it’s not so easy to prove sales training impact. Finding ways to measure sales training success can be important for demonstrating the effectiveness of your training tools and strategy. 

In this article, we’ll discuss how to track the impact of sales training methods and connect them to changes in sales performance. 

What you will learn

• Why it’s important to track sales training success
• What is the Kirkpatrick pyramid for measuring ROI of sales training
• How to use key sales indicators to measure the impact of sales training
• The ways that Second Nature helps you map sales training impact onto sales performance 

Why is it Important to Measure the Impact of Sales Training?

It’s not easy to build an effective sales training program. Many variables go into good training, such as how engaging it is, whether you’re teaching the right skills, and if sales reps are applying their training to real life calls. It’s not easy for sales enablement and L&D personnel to know whether they are hitting all their goals. 

Measuring the impact of sales training is what gives them the visibility they need to adjust training strategies and tweak learning experiences. It helps them to do their jobs efficiently and develop sales training programs that employees enjoy, complete, and learn from. What’s more, tracking sales training impact gives them data to prove ROI to sales leaders who have to make budgetary decisions about sales training tools. 

Tracking AI Sales Training’s Impact on Sales Performance 

Combining insights from sales analytics with key sales performance indicators can help deliver ROI information for sales training impact, using the Kirkpatrick Model of Training Evaluation. 

It’s represented as a pyramid (see below) with five levels:

• Level 1: Reaction. How does the learner feel about the training? Engagement, satisfaction, perceived relevance. 
• Level 2: Learning. Have knowledge, skills, or attitudes have increased or changed because of the training? 
• Level 3: Behavior. Do observable behavior changes show that learners apply what they learned to their daily tasks?
• Level 4: Results. Are there changes in specific outcomes such as conversion rates which can be attributed to the skills gained through training?
• Level 5: ROI. Compare the financial benefits of the training with the total cost of the training. Do the gains outweigh the costs? 

Measuring the Impact of Sales Training on Sales Indicators with Second Nature 

Second Nature’s AI role play training platform includes a built-in evaluation engine and analytics tools. These give you a clearer and fuller picture of how your training programs are affecting your sales performance indicators. Here’s a breakdown of the ways that Second Nature helps you measure impact and ROI from your training. 

Level 1: Reaction

What to measure with Second Nature:

Sales rep engagement and satisfaction using engagement metrics:

• Completion rates when compared to traditional training
• Time spent training compared to traditional training
• Breakdown of courses covered by each user and team

What to learn from the metrics:

Whether training adoption is high and if sales reps feel motivated to train, which are essential for driving behavior change. 

Level 2: Learning

What to measure with Second Nature:

Improvements in product knowledge and soft skills, using: 

• Real-time scoring on role plays
• Improvement progress from the first session to the best session
• Skill benchmarks
• Passing thresholds 

What to learn from the metrics:

Whether your team is actually gaining the competencies they need to perform at a higher level. 

Level 3: Behavior 

What to measure with Second Nature:

How well skills are being transferred into real-world scenarios. Integrate Second Nature with your CRM tools to correlate training activity with behavioral metrics such as:

• Talk time
• Lead progression  
• Demo success rates

What to learn from the metrics:

Whether sales reps are applying the skills they learned from training to real-world interactions.

Level 4: Results

What to measure with Second Nature:

Movements in key sales performance indicators. Second Nature dashboards connect sales KPIs with metrics such as:

• Improvement for low performers
• Win rates before and after practice
• Increased ARR in sales from under-performing agents after training 

What to learn from the metrics:

Plot a direct, measurable link between sales training and company growth. 

Level 5 – ROI

What to measure with Second Nature:

Combine Second Nature metrics with key sales performance indicators to compare:

• Revenue growth before and after training 
• Time and money for onboarding or rolling out new messaging
• Number of new logos closed and opportunities created

What to learn from the metrics:

Check whether revenue from sales has gone up, and by how much, after you implemented this training program. 

Case Study: Oracle

This is what our client Oracle did when they adopted Second Nature. They found that while the volume of introductory calls remained more or less constant, the number of new opportunities per rep per month rose from 2.78 to 6.02, and the number of new logos per rep per month grew from 0.49 to 1.04.