Sales training doesn’t fix bad sales teams

Key takeaways

• Give the most to your top performers and design to lift the middle. Over-investing in resistant low performers is the classic time sink.

• Before firing the resister, diagnose. A leader mismatch, a trainer who hasn’t carried a bag in years, fear of looking incapable, or incentives pulling the other way all produce the same eye-roll.

• Position coaching as building on strengths, never as a verdict. You can’t get acceptance from someone in rejection.

• Hire for the company’s stage. An enterprise rep who needs 12 months of runway is the wrong hire for a startup burning cash. That’s a setup to fail, not a performance problem.

• The checklist before buying training: is there a methodology? Is the customer relationship management (CRM) system configured? Do you know what separates your top performer from your bottom one? Three noes means training isn’t the fix.

• High-performing teams train continuously, like a football club. Once a year isn’t a culture.

If they haven’t got the will, they can’t develop the skill.

Luigi Prestinenzi, co-founder, Ricavi, crediting Craig Holmes

Revenue is down, we need training. But training is not going to fix this problem if you haven’t got the foundations in place.

Luigi Prestinenzi, co-founder, Ricavi (verify wording against audio)

Should you just fire the rep who won’t be coached?

David Fastuca opens with exactly that provocation. Picture the mid-to-low performer who rolls their eyes at every initiative while a colleague is chasing you down the corridor asking for a one-on-one. Stop wasting time on the first one and find another of the second. Luigi Prestinenzi, whose livelihood is training, laughs and then largely agrees, with a rule he learned from Craig Holmes. Skill can be taught. Will can’t. Regan Barker sits in the middle and cites data she’s seen from LinkedIn: invest in the top, bring up the middle, and don’t pour effort into the bottom.

What’s underneath the resistance?

Often something the leader caused. Luigi’s counter-question is whether the rep is incompetent or the leader has failed to motivate them. A great player under the wrong coach underperforms, then becomes a star when the coach changes. Some sellers resist training because the last trainer hadn’t sold anything in a decade. Luigi still sells every day and still flies to learn from people better than him. He addresses the objection on stage before it’s spoken. Give me some time to earn your attention, and if you still think this isn’t for you, don’t do it. Regan adds the positioning problem. If training arrives as a message that you’re doing it wrong, people reject it. Frame it as building on what already works and the tension drops.

Why doesn’t training fix revenue?

Because revenue problems usually aren’t skill problems. Luigi rarely takes a project where the brief is “revenue’s down, train them.” His first questions are about foundations. Is there a methodology? Is the CRM set up? Does the leader know what separates the best rep from the worst? Without those, training lands on sand. David’s rejoinder is about time: a funded startup with six months of runway can’t spend eight months coaching someone to competence. Luigi agrees, and turns it into a hiring point. If you need revenue now, don’t hire the person who needs a year, and don’t hire a team, skip the playbook, and then ask whether to fire them all.

Questions this episode answers

When does sales training actually work?

When the foundations exist, a documented process, a working CRM, and ongoing coaching, and the trainees have the will to change. Training multiplies what’s there. It doesn’t create it.

Should you fire salespeople who refuse training?

Diagnose first. Check for leader mismatch, a non-credible trainer, fear, and misaligned incentives. If refusal persists after that, it’s a performance-management conversation rather than a training one.

Why does “revenue is down, buy training” fail?

Because most revenue problems are missing foundations, not missing skills. Without a methodology, a configured CRM, and a coaching loop, training has nothing to attach to.