For the past number of years companies have not had to worry about sales training as the economy was buoyant and sales people with the title of sales people did generally not need to fight for business. In fact to be honest in many industries they were order takers as opposed to salespeople. With this in mind sales training courses were not very popular as consumers with more money in their pockets were prepared to purchase anyway.

Based on personal experience I will try and explain what I mean:

If you were buying a new car in 1990 sales people would be trying every close in the book to sell the car to you. In fact they were even offering you a full weekend test drive, where you could take the car for the weekend to try and help you make the decision. In these times Sales training programmes and sales skills were badly needed as the market was tough. Formal sales training was a must for numerous companies.

Now roll on the clock 15 years to 2005 and see how difficult it was to take a car for a test drive for 30 minutes never mind a weekend. The problem was the market had changed and if you don't buy the car some one else will come in shortly after you and they will buy it. I understand this is generalising and it is not fair to paint everyone with the same brush. However this meant sales training courses were not in the same demand as sales training skills were not seen as a priority.

The same can be said for numerous industries, another example of this is the real estate business where purchasers trying to get on the property ladder were at times camping outside new housing developments overnight to secure a property. You have to ask the question how much sales training skills would the real estate agent need in this type of market?

The difficulty now from a sales training point of view is that many people who were recruited as sales people over the last number of years, are for the first time having to use the type of sales training skills that can be learned from attending sales training courses.

More and more companies are turning to sales training courses to up skill their salespeople to close more sales.