How to Hire the Best Sales Training Consultant
Is the sales training consultant able to sell himself well to you? That will give a clue as to how good a sales man he himself is in the first place. The next step in that direction would be to check whether your sales trainer is a good speaker talking about sales or is he a good seller trying to speak about sales. There are many good speakers who have very little practical sales experience. Their knowledge is sourced from books, journals, periodicals, and is mostly theoretical. They are good at – lecture and the meaning of the term lecture hasn’t changed at all. You don’t need them. You need a good seller speaking about sales. Of course good speaking skill is essential, but good selling experience precedes it.
The real are the ones that have solid sales experience behind them. They themselves have achieved excellence and recognition in their industry for their sales skills. They are the masters that combine the theory with the practice. Master sales trainers don’t just keep giving lectures. They actively participate in their client’s sales process and help in achieving tangible results. They love sales action and their resumes are full of them.
Ask your sales training consultant what areas does he cover? The fewer the areas covered the better is the depth. Novices are more likely to cover all the areas. Listening and viewing to a small demo tape of sales training workshop done by your sales trainer would give a clear picture of his energy levels, teaching skills, and the knack of getting along with the participants. Make sure that they are not done in a studio and are real. Your sales training consultants should be handing out training material to refer. He also should be willing to prepare questionnaires and work sheets pertaining to the training and the participants’ real jobs.
Pose your most pressing sales concern to the sales trainer and see how is planning to handle it. Good sales trainers spend a few days with the company sales force, studying their methods of operation, and finding out rooms for development. They also study in depth about the company, the industry it is in, its annual reports, and related literature. Your sales training consultant should be asking you for these things if you are considering hiring him. You should expect your sales training consultant to do preparatory work of 3/4 hours for every hour of workshop/training time.