Learning That Sticks · 5 min read
How to evaluate whether sales training is actually working
Look beyond satisfaction scores: knowledge, behaviour, manager observation and business indicators each tell part of the story.
Satisfaction scores tell you whether people enjoyed the session. They do not tell you whether anything changed. A more useful evaluation looks at several layers, agreed before the training starts.
Knowledge
Short knowledge checks or retrieval exercises confirm that the key ideas were understood and can be recalled after time has passed.
Confidence
Ask participants to rate their confidence in specific skills before and after. Confidence alone is not capability, but changes are a useful signal.
Observed behaviour
Managers or facilitators can look for agreed behaviours in role-play, call reviews and deal reviews. This is often the most meaningful evidence.
Business indicators
Relevant indicators such as meeting quality, stage progression or qualification evidence in the CRM can be reviewed, while recognising that many other factors influence them.
Agree it up front
Decide what you will look at and when, before delivery. Evaluation planned afterwards rarely has a baseline to compare against.