In April of this year, Salesforce honored me alongside many of my dear friends as a Top Sales Training Programs and Courses to Level Up Your Game. The purpose of this post is not meant to toot my own horn. On the contrary, the purpose is to support you in finding the right sales trainer or top sales training program that best fits your organization.
Step 1 – Define Your Expectations
Sure, you can simply choose a sales training program and courses by name recognition. Or maybe because you have used them before. The challenge is that simply means you’re being lazy about putting in the right effort. Yes, they may be the right choice, that’s fine. On the other hand, are they the best choice?
So how do you define your expectations? Simply fill in the blanks and follow the process below.
At the end of the sales training program, we expect the team to be better at ___, ___, and ___.
Now, many times people fill in these blanks with buzzwords like, prospecting, discovery, negotiations, and closing. That’s a good start, but it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish, so let’s get closer to the finish line.
Start thinking about your very specific use cases. For example, when you say ‘prospecting’ do you mean you want the team to be better at emails? If so, what type of emails? Or do you mean cold calling? Or do you mean both creating sequences and cadences?
When you say ‘discovery’, do you mean discovery around the specific pains your customers have or do you mean discovery around access to authority and the skeptics?
As I said, get specific to your unique use cases.
Step 2 – Define Your List of Potential Sales Trainers or Top Sales Training Programs
You may already have a short list. And if you aren’t sure who to speak with, we are always happy to recommend people like Jbarrows, Marcus Chan, Ian Koniak, Cherilyn Castelmen, Donald Kelly, Cynthia Barnes, Lori Richardson, and all the others recommended by Salesforce.
Step 3 – Make Us Prove It
Now that you have the specifics as to what your team needs and you have a list of sales trainers and sales training programs, let us prove it. Grill us, drill us, and have us share our philosophy, process, and content to make sure it aligns with you. The top sales training program and course leaders love this part of the conversation. And it gives you a chance to measure them. Are they speaking simply to pat themselves on the back? Or are they able to express their sales training and content in a way that aligns with your specific needs and goals? If yes, then great. If not, then move on.
Step 4 – Is It a Sales Training Program or Is It a Sales Training and Reinforcement Program
If the sales trainer(s) you are speaking to does not offer some level of reinforcement that happens after the primary training occurs, then it’s probably best to find someone who does.
Step 5 – Will Your Team Buy-in With the Trainer?
One of the worst things organizations do is to choose a sales trainer or sales training program without getting any insight from the actual sales team they will be training. We think that’s absolutely nuts.
So one of the things we always tell our prospects to consider is to give us your ‘Grumpy Gus’. You know the person who will sit in the back of the room, arms folded and think they’ve been through enough sales training in their career. EVERYONE smiles when we say this because they know exactly who that is on their sales team. That’s right, before a contract is ever signed, we always encourage our prospects to have us speak with their Gus and tell Gus to give Richard the sniff test. Can Richard actually deliver what’s needed? Can Richard get the buy-in from the team?
Step 6 – Seek Referrals
Yes, it’s always appropriate to ask your potential sales trainer for referrals. Here’s the one suggestion we make. Don’t get caught up in the “referrals in your vertical or industry”. As much as you think it matters, having trained organizations from SaaS to commercial goods, from startups to Fortune brands, and from Fintech to traditional banking, I promise you it does not matter.
Step 7 – Make Your Decision
As you step back and look at all the information you’ve collected based on these steps, the right answer should stand out pretty clearly. Be careful of your bias. Let’s face it, we all have confirmation bias. Maybe you know the trainer, maybe you’ve been through their training. So naturally you will probably lean in their direction. That is 100% ok, just be sure you recognize this bias and make sure that is not swaying your decision. So many times a sales trainer or sales training program simply because they’ve used them before. What that really means is that someone might be making the lazy decision. That doesn’t mean it will go wrong, it simply means they are making short cuts.
Conclusion
So, yes, are we humbled and excited to be named as a Top Sales Training Program by Salesforce. We simply want to make sure people understand how to choose the right sales training program for their organization.
Got more questions about choosing the right sales training program, schedule some time with me here (no I won’t even pitch you my program).
