The best sales trainers must do more than deliver a curriculum. Learning objectives usually need defining or at least clarifying. Learners need to know what they will be expected to learn and how they will be expected to change their behaviour when they have completed the training. The best sales trainers ensure these things are carried out in advance.
1. Conduct research and interviews.
Understanding the circumstances and challenges experienced by participants is vital if trainers are to make connections and develop empathy with learners. Part of the job involves studying the sales environment occupied by each group of learners and sometimes, each learner.
2. Prove the value of what is taught.
Trainers must prove the value of the learning; the knowledge, using new methods, or developing new skills.
3. Have learners try things out.
Trainers must create opportunities for participants to try out what they learn in the classroom and through practise in safe situations before applying it in the workplace.
4. Inspire follow-through.
It is what learners do after their training that makes the difference. Trainers must sell a follow-up and follow-through action plan to help learners make use of their learning and embed it in daily, weekly, and monthly habits.
Salespeople often know best what they need and to serve this opportunity, we invented co-creation training. Effective training is engaging and interactive. Our co-creation approach involves participants in designing their training. We also offer the option of an upside-down or flipped classroom approach. Participants are invited to study the content of each session in advance so that in-session time can be dedicated to discussion, exercises, testing, and preparation for applying learning.
The combination of our co-creation and flipped classroom methods optimises the learning experience and training effectiveness.
Sales trainers in particular will be familiar with the preparation overhead. No matter how many times a trainer has delivered the training material, every training delivery is different and warrants special attention to ensure learners get the benefits. The best sales training arises from the degree of forethought, planning, and preparation invested in advance of the interaction. You can recognise the best sales trainers by the degree of diligence they invest in the preparation phase.
Some training courses are based on published research and a thorough development phase. This lessens the dependence on a trainer's skills, however, salespeople are usually very discerning and quickly recognise any weakness in a trainer's subject matter expertise. In addition, the most common complaint is about a mismatch between content and their particular sales environment. There is no substitute for trainer preparation. The best sales trainers put in the work necessary to understand the customer's sales proposition, their sales environment, offerings, and market. They take the trouble to learn about the knowledge, experience, and perspectives of the participants.
Very often the need for preparation outstrips the appetite for it. Finding a balance that meets the need for learner engagement and serves the desired learning objectives is the essence of success.
Following a 17-year sales career that included setting up and training a reseller sales channel for Sun Microsystems and SGi, Clive started SalesSense as a platform for sharing his learning. That was 1996. Since then he has helped thousands of salespeople, teams, and businesses increase their sales. In the process, Clive has written over twenty sales, management, and leadership courses. He has developed a range of free learning assessments and published a free B2B sales course via more than 300 posts. He has developed and tested co-creation training and created a range of consulting tools to help organisations maximise their sales effectiveness.
Larger organisations often have in-house sales enablement and training staff. Where this is the case we can enable customers to use our methods and deliver our courses themselves. We offer train-the-trainer options for many of our sales training courses. Customer staff and third parties can explore the opportunity to deliver our programmes, starting with our free sales trainer assessment.
The pages below offer more about sales training, our sales trainers, and the methods and practices we use to ensure an optimum experience for participants.
If you are looking for the best sales trainers or need to become a trainer, we can help. To learn more, telephone +44 (0)1392 851500. Alternatively, email jimm@salessense.co.uk or use the contact form here.
How to select the right sales course for business to business selling roles. Sales courses for B2B salespeople account for the complexity of selling to organisations. The best B2B sales courses are designed through consultation with the participants. The best sales trainers for B2B courses have extensive personal experience in selling in a business to business environment together with learning from hundreds of training engagements.
Everything has to be sold, even good ideas. If you want others to benefit from what you know, your ideas, and the causes you support you have to sell. Free sales learning is at hand. If you can teach yourself, you don't need a sales trainer. This page indexes some of our sales learning posts on LinkedIn including parts of our sales brilliance series and ways to get referrals.
Selling is part of life. If you want to get things done, ideas have to be sold to others, even good ideas. If you want to create value or make things better, you must sell. Free sales secrets are at hand. If you can teach yourself, you don't need a sales trainer. This page indexes some sales secrets posted on LinkedIn and this site.
All knowledge is freely accessible if you can find it. All things can be learned through study and practice. Learn what you need when you need it. Search our sales insights via the links on this page. Teach yourself what you need to know or do. LinkedIn posts indexed here range across all aspects of B2B sales, from culture to storytelling.
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Co-creation is a collaborative process that can be applied to sales training to create a more engaging and effective learning experience. By involving salespeople in the training process, co-creation can lead to greater engagement, retention, and application of new skills and knowledge.
A range of sales training courses for improving business development skills and methods, available for live online and in-house classroom delivery. Select just the content or expertise that you need.
Regular sales training increases sales. The best sales training techniques and methods have a major impact on learning, behaviour, and business performance. Ask prospective sales trainers about the methods they use in the classroom before selecting a trainer or training partner.
Selling is about problem-solving and persuading others to do what they need to do, even what they want to do. Everything has to be sold, especially good ideas. This page links a collection of sales help posts on LinkedIn and this site. Use the search box, on-page search, or browse for inspiration.
Use this sales training skills assessment to support career development, conduct training needs analysis, and test sales trainer competence. The best sales trainers embrace continuous learning.
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An alphabetical index listing all SalesSense B2B sales training courses, sales management training, and interpersonal communication skills programmes. All classes and courses can be delivered one-to-one and for groups in a virtual classroom. Some courses are available as public scheduled events and for online self-study.
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The best sales training courses have a significant impact on business performance. Regular sales training leads to sustained performance improvement. Explore seventeen compelling reasons for investing in sales training.
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