Give the Devils their Due

Salespeople are people too, but boy are they different.

Most folks will considerately sit through the most boring training sessions with no more than a quiet yawn.

But not salespeople. They'll leave the room and head for the nearest pay phone.

Since a large portion of salespeople's take-home pay is based upon commissions, they’re attending training on their time and their own dollar.

And they'll walk out if they aren't getting their money's worth.

Wouldn't you?

My advice is to give the devils their due.

Experienced sales trainers are able to beat the cell phone syndrome by designing training to fit the unique needs and temperament of salespeople.

Good Sales Training Should...

Cut to the Chase

Clearly identify who needs the product, for what, and how to convince them to buy it. No more, and no less.

Be Activity Rich

A void boring lectures. Sales- people should spend less than 25 percent of the time listening to you talk. They should spend the other 75 percent involved in role plays, games, discussions, and simulated sales presentations.

Be Benefits Oriented

Continually stress the benefits of the product or program for the salesperson (e.g., higher commissions, greater visibility, expanded account base). Remember, you need to sell them before they can sell anyone else.

Copyright 2007, Joel Gendelman

Technical Training Doesn’t Have to Hurt

Technical audiences are wonderful. They'll sit through just about anything. Most of the time they'll even take notes feverishly. At worst, they'll quietly nap. But let's not take advantage of a good thing.

Technical Training Can Be Fun.

We've had lots of luck with two unique types of activities:

§ Colorforms presentations

§ Technobabble role plays

Colorforms Presentations

Smaller versions of these were very popular in the 50's as a kid’s toy. They're plastic sheets that are cut and drawn to represent anything you want (e.g., elements of a flow chart, system components). These cutouts easily stick to the white boards you see in most conference or training rooms. Don't limit yourself to having only instructors use them during presentations. Also let students use them in individual or group exercises to develop their own flow charts or network diagrams. Try them. You'll add a wonderful graphic dimension to your technical courses.

Technobabble Role Plays

We use these for training both sales and support audiences who interact with customers who may be more technical than themselves. Three people are involved in each role play: a customer, a sales/support person, and an evaluator. The customers job is to trip the sales/ support person by throwing around all the "technobabble" (e.g., names, abbreviations, and acronyms) they can to throw their opponent off-base. The sales/ support person's job is to use their knowledge and job tools provided in the training to translate what the customer said and not get thrown off-track. The evaluator measures how well each is doing.

Sound interesting? This technique also works well as an afternoon pick-me-up!

Copyright 2007, Joel Gendelman