Top Training Techniques Tool– Page 1
“Executive Fly-By”
Emerging Practice Cure:
Have execs stay for part or all of the training. By all means,
schedule executive(s) into speaking time slots. But, make
sure they are involved in more than just a 60-minute rah rah.
Getting your sales force together for a training event can be
Have them participate in training sessions as a learner. Or,
expensive. Many companies opt to do so during Sales Kick
have them actually be guest instructors on a portion of the
Off. Having your sales reps in one place is a great opportunity
training. Have them work the exercises alongside the sales
to encourage them. Having company executives speak at
personnel. Put them on a panel for a question and answer
these events is a must-do. It is part of managing the change
session.
of culture: high-level communication and visible
Ensure they have some unstructured timeframes (dinners,
commitment.
fun events, happy hours). This is where they will mingle with
the sales force informally. They'll be able to hear perspective
However, many executive(s) fly in for a 1 hour keynote and
not always heard in the halls of the C-suite. We assume that
then split. This runs the risk of demoralizing the team or
the CSO or CRO will be present most of the time. The sales
setting a bad precedent. The sales force sees lip service only.
crew gets to see leadership "walking the walk" from day one.
They then think it's not so important, or "it will pass". They
don't commit, but use the event instead as a "vacation" from
Recommendation: For 4 days of training, the executive(s)
daily work.
should plan on 1 day minimum. This can be a half-day
afternoon, overnight, and a half-day morning. Plan to debrief
with the executive(s) for their improvement suggestions.
Top Training Techniques Tool– Page 2
“Off-the-shelf Courseware”
Emerging Practice Cure:
Customization coupled with real-world pilot testing. The
concepts are much more easily grasped when context is built
in. For example, if instructing on negotiation skills,
This option is actually OK - if all you want is generic sales
customized courseware uses the company's terminology. If
concepts for your sales force. With generic content, Reps
they use BAFO, BANT, BATNA, or all three, it is in the training.
might be able to apply it to their environments. They might Internal processes, titles, product/offering names, even
have the time to do so. They might try to apply the concepts a names of leaders are in the customization. For sales process
few times. If they fail, it's back to their comfortable methods. training, the steps are named what makes sense to that
They might all be trying to figure it out independently. They
company. Sales manager training customization can refer
might even have time to share their successes with their
directly to the CRM dashboard name. All of this makes it
fellow Reps.
more familiar and friendly to the audience. But customization
only goes so far – you have to avoid “foreign instructors”.
What's missing from the generic concepts is the real world
Recommendation: Customize not only content, but the
context. The concepts are taught, but not totally grasped.
choice of modules to instruct. Use the "off menu" approach.
Why? They aren't wrapped in company-specific context.
This is what I do in a restaurant: I look to see what ingredients
Sure, instructors can ask for company stories/scenarios and
they have by reading all their entree descriptions. I then
share these. But, this level of story does not become
cobble together a meal using their available components. Do
ingrained in the content.
the same with your sales training provider. Ensure they have
multiple components of training materials. Then pick those
that your sales force needs most and have them customized.
Top Training Techniques Tool– Page 3
“Foreign Instructors”
Emerging Practice Cure:
Use your sales force as instructors. Leverage Sales Managers
and Sales Reps to do the teaching. It may not be as polished
as professional trainers, but it is more impactful. For one
thing, they will have the context and real-life stories. This
If you get your content customized with your context, don't
makes the content come alive. Hopefully, you've had these
follow with this mistake. Instructors that are not from your
instructors piloting the materials before training day - a part
company will also lack context. The instructor has not dealt
of this emerging practice. This gives them the real-life stories
with your sales force. They have not had to take the brunt of
about how they applied concepts. The trainees get not only
a Sales Manager's criticism. They haven't had to navigate your
concepts with context, but how to apply them.
company's internal sales processes. They have not fretted
Recommendation: Choose a team of Reps + Sales Managers,
about a shrinking pipeline.
maybe even some sales directors/VPs. They should be
So, they lack the logistical and emotional context that your
assessed for training and storytelling capabilities. They don't
sales force knows. We even go so far as to say company
have to be perfect trainers. But, they'll need to be able to
instructors not from sales are 'foreigners'. Sure, in both cases
hold an audience's attention. Train the concepts to them in a
the instructor may have shadowed a sales rep or manager.
train-the-trainer manner. After this, set them off on a pilot to
But that context is not as deep as a Rep agonizing over a lost
use the concepts. During the pilot, they'll also provide
deal.
feedback on how to best customize/improve content. Again,
part of this customization is the context they experience
through the pilot. Ensure professional instructors or the OD
team participates in training as backups or some other role.
Top Training Techniques Tool– Page 4
“Virtual-only Training”
Emerging Practice Cure:
Have a balance of virtual and in-person training. There is
tremendous benefit in bringing sales personnel together,
even if it is expensive. We’ve seen over and over a benefit
We see some companies move to virtual-only training. The
accrue of best practices being shared and stronger
thought is to save the expense of flying everyone to one (or a relationships being formed. The in-person group
few) locations. This can be a mistake. There are issues with
togetherness also galvanizes teams so that they don’t feel
virtually-led sessions including lack of attention. This may be isolated or alone with challenges. It also gives Corporate a
because of ‘multi-tasking’.
chance to communicate messages to the sales force, get
Also, virtual training lacks the element of real-time audience feedback from them, have brainstorming sessions with them,
feedback. Being in the room with people gives the instructor or even replace or update technology.
a feeling for how content is being received. This isn’t
Recommendation: Plan on having at least one in-person
completely possible via virtual-only training.
training event each year for the complete sales force. This
The biggest downside to virtual-only is the missed
can be tied to Sales Kickoff or separate. For large geographic
opportunity for sales personnel to come together. A lost
regions, consider staging multi-regional events – which
chance to build stronger relationships and share best
reduces cost, but still allows for team building and best
practices. To help each other work through challenges.
practice sharing. Plan for more frequent virtual training –
which can be self-service AND live. When using virtual
training, make video usage mandatory (reduces multi-tasking)
or use software that monitors screen attention.
Top Training Techniques Tool– Page 5
“One-and-done Training Event”
Emerging Practice Cure:
Implement training event pre-work and post-event
reinforcement. Send out invitations to the event with notice
that pre-work will be required for the training event. Have
Holding an in-person or virtual training event is a big
frequent communications and even a Q&A session about it in
undertaking. But from the trainee perspective, they may not the weeks before the event. Leverage the pre-work within the
perceive value in it. They feel it is an interruption. They don’t training event. After the event, make sure there will be
feel connected to the training. They show up and wonder
frequent ‘reinforcement’ sessions. These can be virtual. They
what relevance the training will have for them. They sit
will take the concepts from the in-person training event and
through the 1 to 5 days of training, get a printed manual or
break them down into weekly/bi-weekly/monthly digestible
electronic document of the materials. Yeah, it was great being chunks.
with all of their colleagues for a few days. But now their best Recommendation: Lay out the training calendar by starting
intentions to use the concepts are lost back in the daily grind. with the in-person event date, then backing up to provide
The weeks roll by and they pick up the materials again, but
enough time for participant pre-work. Ensure the training
forget how the tools should be used. They can’t find the
materials are related to the pre-work and will leverage use of
answer in the materials and don’t have time to contact
the pre-work in the event (whether during lecture or handssomeone for help. So, they set it aside hoping to get to it
on exercises.) After the event, lay out a calendar of frequent
sometime in the future. They wonder if anyone else is using reinforcement sessions. Include preparation and post-session
these concepts for gain.
action items. Make sure the action items are measureable
and drive the desired behaviors as learned in the training
event. Consider gamifying the pre-work, event, and post-
Top Training Techniques Tool– Page 6
“Lecture-heavy content”
Emerging Practice Cure:
Carefully plan a sufficient variety of exercises within
training. Exercises should leverage real-world scenarios –
ones that were encountered during the piloting of the
Lecture-heavy refers to instructional material that has less
concepts by the instruction team. The types of exercises
than 3 exercises in an 8-hour day of training. It also is content
should not be the same kinds over and over. Instead, prepare
that leans more toward concept than including stories and
a variety of exercises that includes role-plays, scenario +
scenarios (context). This sort of content is also not well
essay, live-fire exercises (where teams brainstorm a real sales
adopted after the training.
challenge), using a learned tool within an exercise. For
example, if one tool is for grading a social profile, actually use
Whether in-person or virtual, training that is lecture-heavy
this tool within an exercise to bring the content home.
will have low success rates. Even with stories and scenarios
Content should also include rich media, not just slide-uments.
(which help in the grasping of concepts), the learners won’t
Recommendation: Gamification works well for exercises. Set
get as much out of it without exercises. Having to sit through
up your ‘game’ to reward for exercise participation and
non-professional instructors (you ARE using your sales force
results. When designing the courseware, ensure enough
as instructors, correct?) ramble on causes participants to
exercises are set for each day of training – at least 3 per day.
check out.
The exercises can be as short as 10 minutes or as long as a
couple hours. If possible, start the training session with a true
exercise on the concepts (not just an icebreaker.) Try to get
participants mingling through exercises that call for changing
teams or partners. Use on-hand executives in exercises.
Top Training Techniques Tool– Page 7
“Ignoring the CRM component”
Training materials may be great at teaching sales personnel
about concepts. It helps them to be better sales reps or
managers with sales skills. However, the CRM or Sales Force
Automation tools are integral to an effective sales force. Not
integrating learning with CRM pieces does 2 things: 1)
reduces the importance your company has on CRM usage; 2)
causes Sales personnel to stumble after training when trying
to marry concepts with daily sales life.
For example, let’s say a training concept teaches Sales Reps
about a new concept like the buyer’s process. However, the
training did NOT include how the buyer’s process is
embedded in the CRM. When the Rep tries to enter an
opportunity at the right buyer stage, they can’t figure out
how it works in the CRM.
Emerging Practice Cure:
Instruct on how the CRM will use taught concepts. Either
add a separate module of training that brings everyone
through CRM integration of the concepts or ensure a piece of
each training module talks about CRM usage. This will help
Sales personnel better assimilate concepts (because they
have to use them in a practical manner). Also, it gives the
instruction team a chance to see who needs additional CRM
training and of what sort.
Recommendation: Consider demanding that all participants
have their computer at training events. Design content that
walks learners through a scenario that moves from real life to
the necessary CRM tasks. Have participants go through
exercises that puts them into the CRM. You’ll probably want
to set up a training area of your CRM, or at least have
everyone use a naming convention that makes it easy to
erase this false ‘training’ content at a later time.