If you are wondering where to allocate your sales training budget, you are not alone. There are as many sales training modules and methods as there are trainers and managers, and as the manager for your sales department you want to make sure that your sales training budget results in returns for the entire department. It might be helpful to consider your sales training budget in light of what you want it to do for your sales team, which can help you develop the right sales training program for your organization’s goals. Following are five reasons to develop a sales training program that have lasting benefits for your sales team and your organization.

1. Your Prospects and Clients Will Be Better Educated

Effectively educating prospects and clients can be hard work, which is why sales people sometimes need help developing and deploying educational tactics. The sales training budget spent in a sales training program can be repaid in the time efficiencies and increased sales numbers that your sales people realize as a result. In addition, prospects and clients who understand your offerings thoroughly are likely to make larger purchases, become repeat customers, and recommend your organization to others, which can represent an enormous return on investment for your sales training budget.

2. Your Sales People Will Be Enabled to Sell Better

Selling is not always about selling more; sometimes it is about selling better – that is, more effectively, more efficiently, to better qualified prospects, to longer term opportunities. To encompass the entire range of potential opportunities that your sales people encounter, you may wish to allocate a portion of your sales training budget towards ensuring that your sales people have the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to tailoring approaches to different audiences at their disposal. Otherwise, you may find that it is difficult to pivot or capture market share in key segments with a sales force that is not yet ready to pursue business where you need it most.

3. Your Sales People Will Be Aligned with Expectations

In an ideal world, where should your sales training budget have the biggest impact? Many managers would answer that their sales training budget should help sales people sell with an eye to expansion, in new territories on key accounts that meet quarterly and annual targets for creative generation of new business. If you need your sales people to be selling where the competition isn’t, to accounts that may require longer sales cycles or highly developed selling styles, your sales training budget can help you and your sales team arrive at that goal.

4. Your Sales Team Will Be Able to Contribute to More than Sales

When seasonal or industry cycles bring more business to your organization, you need to be able to rely on your sales people to handle whatever comes up in the course of the day to ensure that business continues to run smoothly. This can sometimes include greater roles in customer service or marketing than your sales people are accustomed to handling. If your sales training budget includes basic training in assuming these roles as compliments to the ordinary sales role, you can be assured that your sales department is prepared to handle cyclical workloads.

5. Your Sales Team Will Have Higher Morale

Using your sales training budget to invest in the sales people who are most likely to return your investment is not only a wise decision because it can increase sales. It is also a wise decision because it can have a lasting impact on sales team morale. Your sales people want and need to feel valued, and investing in them by providing them with opportunities to expand their abilities and careers is a great way to show that you are devoted to their success. The increased morale that results from wise allocation of your sales training budget can therefore have benefits across the board.