Im pleased to announce that ASTD and the ROI Institute are currently working on a book of case studies showing real world examples of sales training ROI. Im excited to see the results and hope that they help me understand how ROI is determined.

Over the years Ive been exposed to two different views on this those that believe that determining sales training ROI is possible and those that dont.

Those that dont believe it is possible point to a number of factors beyond the organizations control that could potentially sway the results. Examples include the ups and downs of the economy, technology, and globalization.

Take the economy for example. I recently read that car salespeople are starting to see more sales in the past few quarters. If a dealership had recently sent their people through training they may say that the training sessions led to increased sales. Detractors would simply say the economy is getting better and buyers are opening up their wallets.

Now bear with me I realize that is a simple example, but I think you get the point. Other factors may not be so obvious and there may be many in play at one time.

How then would a sales organization go about determining which factors are having an impact at any given time, and normalize them so you can get the true impact of sales training?

I am currently on the fence on this topic so Id love to hear from you. I want to be a believer as it would make the sale trainers job that much easier when we can point to the exact impact our body of work can have on a sales organization.

So, what do you think?