How often have you attended a training course only to find it was actually “death by PowerPoint” masquerading as training. True training should grip the audience, involve them and stimulate them to take action after the training.
Many factors need to be considered in the design of a training program, these include:
* The amount of training - one hour or 3 weeks
* The elapse time of the training - all to be completed in a month or over a year
* The type of sales training - see Types of Sales Training
* Delivery method for the training - see Sales Training Delivery Options
* Who is going to deliver it
* Participants’ locations and ability to travel
But one thing is true in all sales training, you need to grab the audience quickly and keep their attention. We recommend:
* Plenty of exercises in pairs, threes, teams and individually. Keep them moving and interacting
* Plenty of pace - start quickly and push them. Try to replicate the pace in their own roles.
* Chalk and Talk - the more spontaneous the better, keep it live and edgy.
* No PowerPoint - if you have to use it, keep it to a minimum, its a killer.
* Mix it up - keep it interesting, add a short video/DVD, get them having to produce something as a team, with a tight deadline, in competition with other teams.
* Workbooks - give them workbooks to complete exercises and take notes in
* Action planning - make sure there’s time at the end for them to think about what they will change after the session
The closer that you can mirror their normal environment the more engaged they become. Dont’t take the easy option of using the old marketing slides for training, it isn’t training it’s just a presentation. For more information about sales training please visit http://www.sales-training-consultants.co.uk
About the Author:
John Fowler is a sales and management trainer designing and delivering workshops across the world specifically for the IT industry. John can be contacted on his website at Sales Training Consultants.
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