HOW DO WE MOVE BEYOND A TRAINING EVENT?

This is a common question executives ask when they engage outside resources to help their sales team.

This question emanates from the many experiences we have all had where we are locked up in a room for a couple of days, given a deadly dose of PowerPoint, washed over with new sales techniques, and then return to the field to sell exactly in the same way we did before the training.

So, what do we do with clients to avoid this trap?

Here are some the approaches we take with each engagement to ensure we move beyond merely a training event:

• Integrate solution-specific messaging into the training discussion and practice exercises.
• Incorporate new sales processes and artifacts with existing best practices so we avoid as one executive described it, “The Starting-Over Syndrome”.
• Introduce a set of models, artifacts, and approaches which clients have said are “sticky”.
• Leverage an inventory of over 30 short videos for workshop ‘pre-work’ and ‘review’.
• Utilize the structured process of “Flight Checks’ to reinforce workshop material while developing opportunity-specific sales strategies.
• Coach both sales leaders and sales professionals as an integral part of the engagement.

The discipline and cadence of these events create a new sales culture; they help avoid the classic ‘training event’ experience.