As a sales manager, you’re continually asked to make more sales with fewer resources. When was the last time you heard this one: “The analysts are saying that our cost of sales is too low for our industry, so next year we’re increasing your budget by 400% across the board.”

Not likely, eh? For now and in the foreseeable future, our charge will be to continue to do more with less.

The same certainly holds true for your training budget. All too often, training budgets for sales forces are static (or, worse, non-existent) from year-to-year despite the need to update skills or to accommodate changes in the sales force.

Given that challenge, how can you get the training and the results you need? The answer, which will vary given the size and seasoning of your sales force, is to place your training priorities with your sales managers.

By sales managers, we’re referring to your regional or area sales managers; the players who have the capacity to be on the front lines and in the trenches and, at a moments notice, redirect their attention to the “big picture” of your organization’s strategic view. In short, they’re your field marshals. Your eyes and ears and you’d trust their word and judgment in a minute.

So it follows that if you’ve got a limited budget, you’ll likely get that budget to go further if you dedicate it to your sales managers. Why? Because it will be your sales managers who’ll embrace the training and carry forward the message to the troops in the field. True sales competency starts at the top. And, as managers, they will demonstrate, model, and mentor the training outcomes with their staff. Your managers are the “early adapters” of the sales world; they want to be the first to apply new approaches and techniques.

It also stands to reason that you’ll get your training budget to go further and last longer with your sales managers simply because they’ll be around. Turnover is much less at the manager level as compared with your frontline sales force. The longer they’re aboard, the longer you’ll reap the benefits from their training.

Finally, there’s accountability. Your sales managers bring in the business and produce results. By sharpening their sales skill sets, you’ll be assured of getting more of the same.

Consider a training session on coaching skills for your sales managers. You’ll be pleased with the outcome and so will they.