You invest in a great training course. Your team shows up, takes notes, nods enthusiastically, and leaves full of motivation. Fast forward a few weeks… and everything feels like it’s back to business as usual. The new techniques are forgotten, the energy fades, and results stay the same.

What happened?

The answer lies in something called the Forgetting Curve— I’ve only recently come across this concept (unless I’d forgotten about it!!) when I was putting together some details for our upcoming 12 Week Sales Masterclass so I wanted to share it to to understand why you need more than just training to make things stick.

What Is the Forgetting Curve?

The Forgetting Curve was discovered by psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus in the late 1800s. It shows how quickly we forget information after learning it, especially when we don’t actively try to retain it.

Here’s what the research tells us:

  • Within 1 hour, people forget over 50% of what they’ve learned.
  • Within 24 hours, they’ve forgotten about 70%.
  • After 1 week, up to 90% of new knowledge is gone.

That’s a sobering thought—especially when you consider the time and money that goes into delivering training.

📉 Why the Forgetting Curve Matters in Sales Training

Sales is a skill. Like any skill, it’s not enough to learn it once—you have to practise it, reinforce it, and apply it regularly to make it stick.

The reality is, most sales training follows a traditional model: deliver information, hand out slides or scripts, and hope for the best.

But here’s the problem: training without reinforcement is like pouring water into a leaky bucket. It doesn’t matter how good the content is—if it’s not retained and used, it’s wasted.

🔄 How to Beat the Forgetting Curve

If you want sales training to lead to real business results, you need to actively fight the forgetting curve. Here’s how to do that:

  • Space Out the Learning

Ebbinghaus found that spacing out learning over time dramatically improves retention. Instead of one-off sessions, provide bite-sized lessons with regular follow-up.

Think: weekly modules, short refreshers, or drip-fed training content.

  • Reinforce Through Coaching

Coaching provides ongoing reinforcement. A coach revisits concepts, tailors them to your context, and helps your team apply them in the real world. This repetition is key to making learning stick.

Coaching moves training from theory to practice—and that’s where the real value lies.

  • Add Accountability

The forgetting curve doesn’t just affect memory—it affects behaviour. Without accountability, it’s easy to slip back into old habits.

Regular check-ins, action plans, and progress tracking keep your team focused and accountable for implementing what they’ve learned.

  • Apply Learning Immediately

Retention skyrockets when people apply new skills in real situations. Role-playing, live call reviews, and feedback loops turn passive knowledge into active capability.

Don’t wait weeks to implement new techniques—start the next day.

  • Use Visual Tools and Dashboards

Memory is boosted when learning is paired with visual reminders. Sales dashboards, cue cards, or team boards help reinforce training points and keep them front of mind.

Out of sight = out of mind. Keep the learning visible.

💡 The Real ROI of Sales Training

You don’t just want people to attend training—you want them to change, improve, and increase results.

And that only happens when the training becomes part of their daily behaviour.

 

The forgetting curve is real—but it’s not unbeatable. The key is to stop treating training as a one-time event and start treating it as a continuous process of learning, coaching, application, and accountability.

If you’re investing in training remember that training isn’t about what’s delivered in a day. It’s about what sticks in a month—and what shows up in your results six months from now.