He who has ears let them hear

I was recently asked "How can you show sales reps that by paying on their own that their investment will pay back to make it worth it?"

My reply:

It has been said that "he who has ears let them hear". Now of course the subject matter being discussed when that quote was spoken was a lot more serious then what we are talking about however the principle still holds true.

Personally, our fees are affordable for individual sales people ($199 for a 4 week live training course online...and we do have individuals signing up every month) however the reality is, it's the "companies" that hire us more than individuals do and there's nothing wrong with that.

It's when the sales persons mindset is "it's the companies responsibility to make sure I'm motivated and to improve my skills" is when the problems creep in.

When can any positive effort into improving yourself have a negative effect?

Adversely, how can "waiting around" for someone else to make you a peak performer ever be considered a positive?