Busting Impostor Sales Trainers

13 Questions You Should Ask a Sales Trainer ( and they should answer to your satisfaction)

One of the toughest decisions you make as a sales manager, training manager or Human Resource Manager is selecting a sales trainer who will give you value. Many trainers consider sales training as the easiest thing to do and consequently giving their clients less than they paid for.
Next time you are selecting a sales trainer or a sales training course for your team you can ask these questions of the training providers. The answers you get should help you go to sleep in peace. Otherwise you could be throwing away your money. You don't do that. Sales Training is an investment and you want to be sure you can get a good return from every coin you have invested in it.

1. What pre –training activities will they carry out to understand your needs? You want to know you will get a suit tailored to your size.
2. Do they know all the factors that drive sales performance? You are checking indepth understanding of sales and sales management.
3. What tools would they use to deliver the training? If they charge you an arm and a leg, it need to be invested in quality tools for delivery.
4. Beyond notes and PowerPoint what skill implementation tools do they provide? You are not looking for a parrot (or are you ?0 Implementation is important.
5. Can they explain the philosophy behind the course design? If they just gather nice sounding phrases with no backing then you should not allow them near your sales team. They will infect them with the disease.
6. How much does their course resemble a college lecture? Do you really want your people to go back to college ?
7. How much is the trainer willing to customize the course? You are definitely not like their last client. Remember Number 1. We are not repeating it it in vain.
8. How do they ensure that their trainers deliver quality? Especially if the guy infront of you is not the one delivering the course. Many times what is delivered is nothing close to the promise, and you have the bill.
9. How much are they specialized into sales? Beaware of jacks of all training training your people. Do you believe the guy who trains on Labour Laws, HIV Awareness and Ebola Management can make your sales people sales professionals ?
10. Can they show how their training will fit in with your sales objectives and challenges you are currently experiencing? They should have picked this in the initial meeting you had with them. Can they articulate those objectives and demonstrate that all they will be trying to do is help you achieve these objectives?
11. How do they back their promise? A tough one. Any money back guarantee or better if you don't like it don't pay for it policy. If non of these they give you numbers of some of their clients call them, email them and ask the right questions.
12. How conversant are they with new trends and best practices in sales force performance improvement? What was hot last year might be too old today. You want your team to be equipped to be competitive in the current market situation....
13. How do they see the training they are proposing fitting and complimenting other competency development initiatives? Time to get a little guidance and support from your selected consultant. If they cant do this, take your wallet and leave because all they want are the contents in it. The person should be in a position to tell whether what you want to achieve from this training is reasonable or not given other sales factors affecting your teams performance.