Mike Schultz's Blog

Sales training has reached an inflection point. The typical approach to tailoring and delivering sales training courses is failing to meet the needs of modern learners and organizations.

Companies are spending billions of dollars a year, yet 85% to 90% of sales training fails to deliver desired results.

If you’re heading into renewal conversations thinking the biggest hurdle is pricing, you’re not alone. But here’s what you need to know: price resistance is rarely the real issue.

What actually derails renewals is when buyers don’t fully recognize the value you’ve delivered or what’s still ahead. When they clearly see value outweighs cost, price objections fade.

Sales kickoffs (SKOs) that change behavior aren’t one-off events; they’re systems you plan, build, and reinforce.

Just like any other enablement initiative, SKOs exist in a larger ecosystem of training and development and need support to succeed.

The New Reality: One Deal, Many Deciders

Selling to one decision-maker is a thing of the past. Today’s deals are shaped by committees, each member with their own goals, priorities, and objections.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

As AI continues its breakneck evolution, it’s being hailed as the next great revolution in sales. Tools powered by large language models promise more automation, faster research, cleaner data, and sharper insights.

But let’s be clear: AI won’t save sellers who don’t know how to sell.

AI has surged across the sales tech landscape, promising smarter, faster, and more scalable enablement. But amid the hype, many sales leaders are asking:

Is this the real breakthrough we’ve been waiting for or just the latest shiny object?

How many touchpoints does it take to make a sale?

The simple answer is: more than most people think!

According to our Top Performance in Sales Prospecting research, it takes an average of 8 touchpoints to get an initial meeting (or other conversion) with a new prospect. But the initial meeting is just the beginning. It takes a lot more to make the sale.

Measuring sales training effectiveness is essential and often underestimated. Even the most engaging learning experience must lead to performance outcomes to justify the investment and drive change.

Yet many teams struggle to go beyond surface-level metrics. The gap between identifying and consistently tracking KPIs is real, and for many sales enablement and L&D professionals, closing that gap remains a persistent challenge.

Onboarding alone isn’t enough to build a high-performing sales team. Research shows that 70% of training is forgotten within a week, leaving sellers struggling to apply what they’ve learned when it matters most.

That’s where everboarding comes in. Instead of treating sales training as a one-time event, everboarding ensures that learning continues long after onboarding ends. This continuous development approach helps sellers sharpen their skills, adapt to changing markets, and consistently drive revenue.

Top-performing sales teams are 51% more likely to maintain a regular coaching cadence, yet 73% of frontline managers coach less than two hours per week. That coaching gap affects team dynamics, as well as win rates, ramp times, and revenue.