Many companies look to sales training and development to increase organizational effectiveness. Too often, however, the training programs they choose don't change performance very much.

A survey of more than 6,000 sales professionals indicates one reason. Most said that participants in sales training forget half of what they learn within five weeks.

Considering the amounts of money spent for training, this is a disheartening statistic. The same survey makes clear that what the organization does - or doesn't do - around the training is a strong factor for making sure the training sticks.

With that in mind, here are seven questions to ask in choosing a sales training program to improve its effectiveness.

1. Is training merely an isolated event, not tied to your salespeople out there selling?

In sales, if development activities don't seem relevant to their sales activities, salespeople will probably not even try using them with customers.

Sales development must be plugged into the needs of your sales force and your organization. To be meaningful, learning new skills must translate into applying new skills to the real-world sales calls the participants will be making. Real-world application goes way beyond those quick-fix offerings, like "Sales Call Openings that Never Fail" or "Ten Tips that Guarantee Closings." Real-world application makes sales development instantly relatable and vital to the salesperson's job.