Great question.
When it comes to measuring objection handling:
- Leverage a conversation intelligence tool such as Gong, where you can report on keywords within sales calls and attribute those conversations to deal pipelines.
For training:
- The best way to measure impact of a training is to run 'workshops' in addition to a training such as an eLearning. For example... I'd recommend reps taking an eLearning that walks through the 'what and the why' and then organize a workshop where they put it to practice to understand the 'how'. With the workshop, create a simple matrix scorecard to judge/grade their effectiveness in putting it to practice. This could be a role play or it could be the rep recording a mock pitch and submitting it to their manager to grade.
- I'd also recommend looking at 'before' and 'after' snapshots within your reporting. What was the runrate before they took the training, and what did it look like 30, 60, 90 days after?
- In some cases, depending on the training, you'll be able to better track things. For example, if you lead a training on 'improving win rates against X competitor by leveraging new objection handling techniqes' then you can look at deals that involved that competitor and whether you saw a meaningful increase in win rates.
At the end of the day, not everything is going to have a direct line to tangible results. But there are more and more solutions on the market to help today, and creative ways to think about it.