Use of the term, Sales Trainers on this site.
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.
What do the best sales trainers do?
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.
Methods - Skills - Preparation
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.
About Clive Miller - the author of SalesSense courses.
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.
Train the Trainer
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.
