From Knowledge to Practice: Why Most Training Fails to Stick
By Kristen Hayer
Training is a familiar part of every CSM’s journey. They attend onboarding courses, learn the product, study customer personas, and walk away ready to begin. But far too often the journey stops there. Weeks or months later, the skills learned remain in a slide deck or course completion certificate, but not in everyday behavior.
That is the gap between knowledge and practice, and it’s especially costly in customer success. A team that knows what to do but does not act differently shows up to customers as under-prepared, inconsistent and transactional rather than strategic.
Why Training So Often Doesn’t Stick
One reason is the pace of change in CS. New tools, new markets, shifting customer expectations; all these mean that today’s training might feel outdated tomorrow. But another reason is deeper: learning without reinforcement tends to fade. The cognitive science is clear: without repetition and practice, people forget.
A study by Carpenter, Cepeda, Rohrer, Kang, and Pashler (2012) found that distributing learning over time results in better long-term memory than a single practice session of equivalent duration or repetitions.
Moreover, the business impact of learning is well established. Research from Harvard Business School Online (2024) found that companies that provide targeted employee training experience a 17 percent increase in productivity and a 21 percent boost in profitability.
These numbers matter because they show that effective training is more than nice to have. It is a strategic lever. But to turn training into practice, CS leaders must design for behavior change and not just knowledge transfer.
What Great Ongoing Training Looks Like
When training drives action, it features three core components: team discussions, role-playing exercises, and ongoing reinforcement.
Team discussions help surface real customer issues and allow peer learning. They convert classroom theory into context-sensitive conversation. For CSMs, this means discussing real account scenarios, asking questions and learning from each other’s approaches.
Role-playing exercises shift training from knowledge to experience. CSMs act out key moments like renewal negotiations, customer escalations, and value conversations. These simulations create safe spaces for practice before the stakes are real.
Ongoing reinforcement ensures learning is embedded, not abandoned. This might include short micro-learning modules, monthly refreshers or internal contests tied to skill mastery. For example, a friendly competition where CSMs earn points for peer coaching, running role-plays or using newly learned skills in live calls builds momentum.
How to Build a Sustainable Program
Here are practical steps for CS leaders who want to move beyond one-time events and build a training program that lasts:
Map your skills journey. Identify what CSMs need now and what they will need as customer success evolves.
Survey your team. Ask CSMs which skills they feel least confident about and build modules around those gaps.
Design engaging formats. Mix peer-facilitated discussions, live role-plays, micro-learning and self-paced modules.
Set a regular cadence. Monthly or quarterly sessions keep learning alive without overwhelming the team.
Track behavior change. Measure impact by looking at metrics like customer outcomes, renewed contracts, or fewer escalations; not just course completion.
Celebrate progress. Recognize CSMs who apply new skills in meaningful ways. This reinforces learning culture.
Action Items for CS Leaders
Audit your current training: Does it stop after onboarding or extend into ongoing development? Do you use a mix of different learning styles and pacing to reinforce learning?
Choose one skill gap (like executive engagement or value coaching) and design a short workshop involving discussion and role-play.
Launch a peer-learning circle: small groups of CSMs meet monthly to share experiences, coach each other and reinforce the last training topic.
Introduce a reinforcement mechanism: internal quiz, new goals, or a contest for applying the new skill in a live customer interaction.
Measure success: track actions, not just participation. Ask CSMs how often they used a new skill in the last 30 days and what outcome resulted.
Why It Matters
Training is not complete once the module ends. In customer success, the real power lies in the moment the learner uses the skill and the customer sees the difference. CS teams that treat training as an event leave a gap between knowledge and practice. Teams that build training as a journey embed capability, culture and impact.
When your training program shifts from “learn once” to “learn and apply,” you build a team capable of strategic customer conversations, meaningful growth and deep partnerships. That is the kind of training that sticks and that is the kind of team that wins.
Need guidance with team training? The Success League is a customer success training and consulting firm who can help you! Visit TheSuccessLeague.io to view our suite of services, including CSM and CS Leadership certification training, individual coaching programs, and consulting services like CS Program Assessments.
Kristen Hayer - Kristen founded The Success League in 2015 and currently serves as the company's CEO. Over the past 25 years Kristen has been a success, sales, and marketing executive, primarily working with scaling tech companies, and leading several award-winning customer success teams. She has written over 100 articles on customer success, and is the host of 3 podcasts about the field. Kristen has served as a judge for the Customer Success Excellence awards, and is on the board of several early-stage tech companies. She received her MBA from the University of Washington in Seattle, and now lives in San Francisco.
