For anyone who has ever invested in sales training, there is a great lesson to learn in the June Tip. One of the mistakes that so many organizations make is that they think that sales training is an individual or small group activity. In theory, maybe it is. In reality, in order for the process to take root and drive long-term impact, it has to be understood and supported my many or most people in an organization. Why? Because so many other people are responsible for customer contact and communication. If they don't understand the process, they can't support it or leverage it. Pretty soon, the sales process becomes "their process" instead of "our process".

With one of our clients, for every sales rep or account manager we have trained, we have introduced the process to 3+ other people in the company. Now there is a wide array of people who understand the process and are asking themselves two questions:

• What can I get from the process?
• What can I contribute to the process?

When this happens, we are getting better customer information and developing stronger coach networks. We are also well on the way to true behavioral change and long-term measurable results.