It was an hour full of valuable intelligence and insight for sales training companies and sales trainers in corporate L&D organizations.

Here are some of the points I made during the event. First, a quick review of 2011. (A look at 2012 and beyond will follow in Part 2.)

• Sales training spend was up during the first half of 2011, then down during the second.
  

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• 63% of companies ESR surveyed during 2011 spend less than $3,000 per sales rep per year.
  

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• More and more companies cut back on travel, requiring virtual sales training alternatives.
  

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• We saw some strategic acquisitions:
• Mercuri International acquired the business simulation company, Celemi.
• Miller Heiman acquired channel management specialists Channel Enablers.
• The TAS Group acquired sales performance improvement provider InfoMentis.
  

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• We found larger sales training companies going broader in solution scope, adding capabilities in many areas, such as ROI, business acumen, talent management and more.
  

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• Many smaller sales training providers consolidated their offerings going more niche.  Smart move during a challenging economy.
  

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• In general, our opinion that sales training companies make lousy marketers was proven yet again.  There are notable exceptions, such as Miller Heiman, Richardson, and RAIN Group.
  

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• Training companies need sales leads as much as companies in any other sector.
  

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• During 2011, ESR saw increased demand for process and sales training content in coaching (for sales management) and selling to the corporate procurement function.
  

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• Our sales training buyer community still has a tough time differentiating one sales training provider from another. (That’s why they come to ESR.)
  

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• Here is what generated some buzz during 2011:
• Jeffrey Gitomer is writing the ASTD Sales Training Drivers blog.
• Tom Searcy, author of RFPs Suck, took over Geoffrey James’s blog (formerly Sales Machine) and is now writing for CBS.
• Geoffrey James, who recently published How to Say It: Business to Business Selling: Power Words and Strategies from the World’s Top Sales Experts, now writes for Inc.com.
• A few good books were published, including The Challenger Sale.
• The TAS Group released their Dealmaker Index.
• Some sales experts invested time and effort in social media—CustomerThink, Focus.com, Quora, LinkedIn Groups, and Twitter among others. The question is, will it pay off?

Be sure to catch Part 2, where I will share with you which companies ESR believes are leaders in numbers of different areas. Don’t want to miss it? Then subscribe to this blog:

Subscribe in a reader

Finally, join me this Wednesday, January 18, when I’m a guest for The TAS Group Webinar: The Evolution of Sales—2012 Vision.

Photo source: Endostock/Fotolia.com

SEC is involved with ongoing research among their member companies and regularly analyzes, interprets, and disseminates that information on sales effectiveness back to their members. Several years ago, SEC determined that they should form a sales performance improvement team, SEC Solutions, which would focus on improving the sales performance of organizations based on best-practices and approaches that SEC gathered over the years from their members.

In August 2010 both Brent Adamson, a co-author of The Challenger Sale and I presented separately at a sales conference.  Although I was somewhat familiar with some of SEC’s research, they were in the process of launching the Challenger Model and I had the opportunity to hear about it first hand from Brent in a group setting.

The Challenger Sale asserts that there are five profiles of sales reps (click on the graphic for full-size):

• The Hard Worker (21% of their sample)
• The Challenger (27%)
• The Relationship Builder (21%)
• The Lone Wolf (18%)
• The Problem Solver (14%)

The clear winner, from SEC’s perspective, is the Challenger.  The loser, in terms of sales performance, is the Relationship Builder.  Surprised?

SEC points out that the Challenger rep has six significant attributes:

1. Offers the customer unique perspectives
2. Has strong two-way communication skills
3. Knows the individual customer’s value drivers
4. Can identify economic drivers of the customer’s business
5. Is comfortable discussing money
6. Can pressure the customer.

Can pressure the customer?  That’s certainly a behavior associated with the concept of a Challenger.  In fact, SEC goes on to assert that the Challenger is really defined by their ability to do three things: teach, tailor, and take control.

Before you fire off a negative comment to me about this approach to selling, understand I’ve heard them all.  SEC Solutions is an ESR sales training/consulting provider subscriber.  We’ve assessed and analyzed their approach, been briefed by their principals, checked their references, and have spoken to dozens of people about this Challenger Model.  Some of the more traditional sellers and sales experts were actually offended at the idea that a salesperson should pressure, challenge, and control the customer. They cited examples of how that approach would never work among their customers or anywhere in the industry into which they sell. Many of these people are Relationship builders, however quite successful in their own selling situations.

Others see this Challenger Model quite differently.  Once the nomenclature is explained, some see themselves selling this way and are at once amused and appreciate that someone assigned the label of challenger to behavior that is part of their everyday practice of selling.

This is a serious book.

You know I’m not only bored with books about sales tips, tricks, silver bullets, and shortcuts.  I believe they hurt, rather than help the salesreps and their managers that are in trouble.  The Challenger Sale is a serious book for those serious about selling more effectively.  There is enough research-based content for everyone to, at a minimum, at least consider.   Adopting the model, however, involves a willingness to reorient your thinking, approach, and behaviors to what might be opposite from your present selling and management style and, in fact, your company’s entire customer-facing philosophy and orientation. One risk is that the pendulum can swing too far and your sales team can become glib and arrogant.  I’ve seen it happen before.  But that can be managed like many other risks associated with behavioral change.

The book’s impact on a sales manager could be significant. Authors Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson provide some real insight into management and coaching, even going so far as providing a powerful coaching guide excerpt and a Challenger Hiring Guide in the appendix.  If you buy into this Challenger Model, you’ll certainly need that hiring guide.  Since you can’t change people’s inherent characteristics, if you want challengers working on your team, you better have a solid process for making sure anyone you hire has the requisite challenger traits.

Aspects of the Challenger approach can work with an existing sales methodology.  In fact, Huthwaite founder Neil Rackham wrote the forward to the book.  ESR sees the potential for sales training/methodology firms to provide the how and the Challenger Model to provide the what so far as the customer conversation is concerned.  More on that we see the Challenger model being adopted by more companies.

Here’s the bottom line

Dixon and Adamson offer here an absolutely stunning whack on the side of the head to any sales leader who is perplexed and paralyzed about how to get their whole team performing in the never-been-so-tough world of complex, B2B sales. It’s a must read. That’s M-U-S-T.

There is more information about the Challenger Sale here.  And here is a preview of the book.

Graphics source: SEC Solutions

Get a Seat at the Table.

Over the next two months I’ll be moderating four, unscripted, unrehearsed panel discussions on today’s pressing sales issues. Here is the press release, issued today.

As you look at the panelists below, you might not recognize all their names or their companies. This is a good thing.  It means that there are real experts out there who might have the right solutions to overcome your selling challenges but perhaps represent smaller firms, haven’t invested in heavily in marketing, or aren’t active in the social media.  As you know, it’s ESR’s mission to help those seeking sales performance improvement solutions to find the right long-term partners.

Join us online to listen, ask questions, and get valuable insights from 16 industry leaders.

• Registration is free and easy
• Each expert panel lasts 1 hour
• 4 expert panelists per session (and don’t expect them to agree on everything—or anything!)
• Not a typical webinar. No selling, no pitches, no promotions.
• Questions taken by phone live from the audience

Register individually for each panel discussion.

Wed., Oct 12, 2011, 1:00 ET

Today’s Successful Sales Managers: Who Are They, What Do They Do, and How Do They Do It?

Panelists:

Dave Kurlan, CEO, Kurlan Associates Martyn Lewis, Founder and Principal, 3g Selling Steve Johnson, President, The Next Level Sales Consulting Richard Lane, Partner, durhamlane ltd.

Wed., Oct 26, 2011, 1:00 ET

What Works and What Doesn’t with Respect to CRM and Other Technology-Enabled Selling Platforms and Applications?

Panelists:

Bruce Wedderburn, Exec VP, Huthwaite Rich Blakeman, Sr. VP, Miller Heiman Joe Vance, Senior Consultant, Performance Methods, Inc. Donal Daly, CEO, The TAS Group

Wed., Nov 9, 2011, 1:00 ET

Increasing Sales Effectiveness Across a Global Sales Organization

Panelists:

Jonathan London, President, Improved Performance Group Henk van de Kuijt, Global Director International Business, Mercuri International Richard Barkey, CEO, Imparta David DiStefano, CEO, Richardson

Wed., Nov 30, 2011, 1:00 ET

Selling To and Negotiating With Today’s Tougher, Strategic Procurers/Buyers/Sourcers

Panelists:

Julie Thomas, President and CEO, ValueSelling Associates Brian Dietmeyer, President and CEO, Think! Inc. Ron D’Andrea, President, BayGroup International Stephanie Woods, Executive VP, Huthwaite

Note: Other than a short introduction of each participant and sponsor, there will be no promotion by panelists during the discussions.  In addition, questions from the audience will be answered live, via audio, by the panelists.

Sponsors include: ASTD (The American Society for Training and Development) Sales Training Drivers, OutStart, InsideView, SMT (The Professional Society for Sales and Marketing Training) , SMA (The Sales Management Association), CustomerThink, and SalesForceXP.

You will need a computer with Internet access and a telephone or VoIP capabilities to participate.  Call us at +1 (508) 313-9585 for details

We have a strong view at ESR about this subject.   With the right approach, time, and support, you might be able to get a B player to an A level.  But you won’t get a C player past the C level.

How can I say that?  It’s a matter of defining the terms. We know that the best approach for recruiting and selecting, as well as ongoing sales force development, is through a foundation of job profiling and competency mapping.  We also know that salespeople can, under the right circumstances, improve their skills significantly. On the other hand, the personal traits with which they are born are, for all intents and purposes, immutable.  You can’t train or coach someone whose DNA prevents it to be intelligent, analytical, resilient, driven, charismatic, courageous, passionate, curious, goal orientated, or have any other of the many traits required for success in B2B selling today (depending on the specific job).

Sure, you can support C players with resources, such as special attention and extra time from management, but empowering them to own and manage their territory and drive maximum profitable revenue from it will forever be a challenge.

What then is the difference between an A player and a B player?

In general terms, the A player has more of the skills, behaviors and traits required for consistent performance than the B player, and their numbers support that fact.  On the other hand, the B player may have all the traits of an A player, but not the all the skills or behaviors.  (That’s where training and reinforcement comes in.)  Or they may have many of the required traits, but are deficient in some ancillary ones, or perhaps their required traits aren’t to the level of the A player.  Therefore some B players can become A’s and some are just not able to.

What does all this mean to you?

First, you’re going to have to figure out what skills, traits, and behaviors are required for success in each job category within your sales organization and map your existing personnel against that list, so you can formulate the appropriate development plan going forward. Second, you’ll want to redeploy your C players into some other role inside (or outside) your company, over time.  Third, you’ll vow to never to hire another C player, because if you do, you’ll be stuck with them.

Photo Credit: © Jim Barber – Fotolia.com

You have the right to be:

1. Assessed for your individual strengths and weaknesses,
2. Educated and trained in areas where you need improvement in ways you learn most effectively and efficiently,
3. Provided with the tools and support to sell,
4. Sent back into the field with improved selling capabilities, no matter how much experience you have, and
5. Be coached and provided with ongoing reinforcement to sustain that improvement.

A colleague of mine is a partner in an outsourced telesales firm. I know him from his past life as a sales rep. He worked for some big name technology companies and was consistently the top performer. He is a sales heavy-hitter if there ever was one. He earned a million or so a year for many years.

We discussed sales training. He said, “I can’t tell you how many sales training programs I’ve sat through. The programs were too long, didn’t provide me with value. They were an incredible waste of time.” Here is what really got me. “I was offended that management would think so little of me to force me to sit through that.”

Did my colleague need training when he was a rep? Sure. He admits he did. But the training he needed had to help him do one thing—sell more. The training he received missed the mark, again and again.

Here are some of sales training abuses from the sales rep’s perspective:

• Being trained by someone who never sold.
• Being trained by someone who doesn’t know anything about how their buyers buy.
• Being trained by someone who clearly doesn’t understand how tough their competitors are.
• Being trained by someone who is more focused on entertaining them than helping them get their job done (so the trainer gets good marks on the post-program evaluation).
• Being trained by someone who tells them what to do, but not how to do it.
• Being forced to sit in a training class where 80% of what they learn is irrelevant to them.
• Being trained on a skill or a process only to find out after the program that there are no tools, no marketing support, and management doesn’t know what the reps are talking about.
• Coming out of a class confused about what to do next.
• Not having any post-program support from management or the training provider.

Why is this going on?

Here are some possible explanations:

• Sales management made an uninformed, gut-feel decision on a sales trainer without any regard to whether that trainer would actually help the sales team sell more effectively over an extended period of time.
• Training requirements were not formally defined. In other words, the specific selling challenges the reps face were never assessed, quantified, or prioritized.
• There was no foundation methodology and related processes to be trained on, so the training had no foundation. It was just training on a bunch of unrelated skills. Let’s learn golf today, archery tomorrow, football the next day—with no general conditioning, like strength building, stretching, or aerobics.
• The training program content was not relevant to your specific job. It may have come off-the-shelf, or have been designed for customers in another industry.
• There was inadequate or no formal instructional design. Whether delivered live or online, the content may have been relevant, but it was not delivered to you in a way that would promote effective learning.
• Your company thinks of sales training as a necessary but evil expense—nothing more than a box to check.

What should you, as a sales rep, or first-line sales manager, do?

If you saw the movie Network, you’ll remember the phrase, “I’m sick and tired of this and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Even I’ll admit that getting your colleagues together and storming into your Sales VP’s or CEOs office is a bit extreme. But there are things you can do:

• Understand that pragmatic sales processes and the training that supports their proper use is good for you, not bad. Keep an open mind. Research proves that when done right, sales training puts money in your pocket.
• Understand that you were hired because you had a set of skills and traits that met the requirements for the job, but that professionals (think pilots, doctors, realtors, teachers, accountants, lawyers) need continuous education. If you don’t think you do, you’re probably wrong.
• Provide management with a list of areas where you need training. Strongly request that management take the time and effort to find the right vendor to provide that training. It may not be one of the well-known providers.  There are literally hundreds of effective sales training providers out there.  There are also hundreds who will make matters considerably worse.
• Request that a bit more work go into providing training targeted to different groups within sales. Inside sales should have a program quite different from outside sales.
• Suggest that you and perhaps another rep or two be part of a steering committee to get this critical sales success factor right, once and for all.
• Provide this post to your sales manager or appropriate executive.

Let me know if the sales training your company is providing helping you sell more.

Note: ESR is delivering a webinar for sales training providers only on Wednesday, June 15. Here is more information and registration.

Photo credit: © fotodesign-jegg.de – Fotolia.com

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to coach and mentor many talented sales professionals, sales leaders, and other executives around the general subject of effective selling within their organizations. I provided them with support, contacts, insights, my experience, expertise, opinions and balanced and honest feedback.  I never charged a fee for being a mentor, although there is a definite balance of value for a mentor/protégé relationship to work.  In other words, there has to be something in it for the mentor.  For that reason, I selected protégés very carefully.

From my perspective, coaching is more task oriented and process-driven as compared to mentoring, which is related to supporting more strategic changes in behavior, capabilities and attitudes.

Here are some considerations relating to mentoring:

1.     Do you need a mentor?

The answer is probably yes.  There are times that most of us just aren’t able to gain the wisdom and knowledge necessary to move to the next level in our jobs or careers.  Some challenge may seem insurmountable, and without the ability to engineer and effectively execute a dramatic break-through by ourselves, we are stuck.  An effective mentor can provide honest assessment, insight, the objective perspective and the tools required for ongoing success, especially during these challenging times.

2.     What qualities should a mentor have?

For a relationship with a mentor to be effective for you the mentor must be willing to take the time to work with you, be a good communicator, have a basic understanding of psychology, and be knowledgeable about the subject(s) in which you seek guidance.  They must be discreet, caring, and enthusiastic about helping people overcome challenges.

3.     Where do you find a mentor?

Due to political risks, I always recommend that you recruit a mentor outside your company.  It certainly shouldn’t be your current boss. With that in mind, consider some or all of the following:  a former boss from another company, a known expert in the domain in which you are seeking knowledge, someone in your business (or even personal) network, or a recommendation from someone you respect in the area in which you are seeking improvement.

4.     What are your responsibilities?

For a mentor/protégé relationship to work, you must be willing to work hard at improvement.  That means defining and accepting your shortcomings and being open to changing or forming new habits through adopting new strategies and tactics. You must be willing to be responsible for executing what you and your mentor decide is the best course of action.  You have to be honest, objective, appreciative, motivated and have the courage to change.  Be certain you have the motivation and time to do what it takes to progress to that next level in each area of improvement you choose before you recruit your mentor.

5.     What’s in it for the mentor?

What I get out of mentoring is the satisfaction of helping someone who needs and wants my assistance.  In addition, I get to improve my own coaching, leadership, communication, and management skills.  I often get new ideas and insights from my protégés.  And my protégés provide me with an expansion of my business and professional network.

6.     How should you proceed once you have recruited a mentor?

Devise a plan, together.  Jointly assess your situation: where you feel you are presently; the issues or problems that may be limiting your professional growth and advancement; what has worked for  you in the past and what has not.  Next talk about your goal—what you want to achieve and by when.  Then you and your mentor can discuss various options or strategies and related tasks/tactics to achieve those goals.  If you have put appropriate metrics in place related to the goal, there will be no question at all when you have achieved it.

7.  What should you not do?

There is one last point I feel obliged to make: Don’t confuse mentoring with picking someone’s brain. Experts tell me it’s insulting and has nothing whatsoever to do with a mutually beneficial professional mentor/protégé relationship.

Photo credit: Sandy Jones-Kaminski

The experts were:

• Brian Dietmeyer, CEO and Co-Founder, Think! Inc.  Brian answered questions about the power of procurement and how companies can begin to regain some of the ground lost as strategic sourcing has surged over the past decade. Previously, Brian and I discussed strategic negotiation on this podcast.
  

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• Braham Shnider, CEO and Founder, Channel Enablers.  Braham is an expert in the area of building and managing sales channels.  Braham said during the call that 70% of  products are sold not through direct sales approaches, but through channels.  I had some questions for Braham in this interview.
  

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• LaVon Koerner, President and Founder, Revenue Storm.  LaVon is an expert in demand creation, among other areas.  His explanation of how salespeople must create, rather than capture, demand was very compelling. A while back, LaVon and I had a great chat on this podcast.
  

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• Rick Page, CEO and Founder, The Complex Sale, Inc.  I asked Rick to join this advanced selling round table because of his thought-leadership in the area of political selling. His comments resonated among the whole panel.  I interviewed Rick a while back on this podcast.
  

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• Steve Andersen, Founder and Managing Partner, Performance Methods, Inc. Steve’s company, PMI, is a leader in the area of strategic account management.  Steve shared a few startling trends going on within his clients’ organizations around this critical sales-related function. Steve and I got to discuss PMI and his view of strategic account management on this podcast.
  

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Among the subjects our experts discussed were talent management challenges, future advanced selling trends, collaboration with clients and customers, and how important business acumen is in a complex selling environment.

So here’s the good news

If you missed the round table, here is the MP3 recording, courtesy of Focus.com.  Great working with those folks.

Photo credit: Fotolia.com

Here they are:

1. Coaching Will Surge.

In the past, coaching was one of the first items stripped from sales training budgets, if it was even included in the first place.  Many sales leaders who appreciated the value of coaching with respect to the sports teams they root for, didn’t really understand what effective coaching is, and the impact it will have on their team’s performance. Coaching is a skill. It can be learned and measured. Effective coaching supports sales people in the adoption of and compliance with the behavioral change required to follow a (new) sales process. Coming into 2011, sales trainers have a new focus on coaching. More good news is that many sales training buyers are no longer willing to automatically cut coaching from their overall approach to sales effectiveness. So you’ll see a lot more attention to coaching in the form of articles, new service offerings from providers, and, on the buy-side, the willingness to spend money on process, training, and measurement around coaching.

2. The Focus on Negotiation Capabilities Will Increase.

Procurers and buyers are far ahead of sellers in terms of strategy, skills, tactics, and outcomes.  I recently wrote a post entitled, Right Now, Your Customer Is Learning How to Kick Your Butt. It’s worth a read.  We saw in 2010 that negotiation has become a primary requirement for nearly every ESR client. That being the case, we’ve found few companies with a documented strategic negotiation process.  The good news is that providers like Huthwaite, Think! Inc., and BayGroup International have solid strategic negotiation offerings and are making substantial progress in this area. During the webinar, I offered a basic five-step process for sales leaders to begin to regain any momentum that has been lost with respect to their negotiating capabilities and outcomes:

1. Analyze closed (or lost in the final stage) 2010 deals for:

- Personnel and skills on both sides of the negotiating table;
- Strategies on both sides (timing factors, tier negotiating, etc.);
- Expected versus actual outcomes; and
- Process gaps, mistakes, unplanned and damaging concessions.

2. Define requirements for 2011 based upon deficiencies (see above);

3. Build or buy appropriate process and tools to fully integrate into your overall sales methodology;

4. Train, reinforce, coach; then

5. Measure and adjust.

Granted, this is overly simplified, but hopefully get you thinking in a strategic (and analytical) way about your present situation.

3. Formal Social Media and Technology Strategies Will Broaden B2B Sales Impact.

Apart from all the hype around sales and selling technologies, we see:

• LinkedIn and Facebook increasing in use for finding and building professional relationships;
• Twitter, Chatter (Salesforce.com) and other micro-blogs usage will increase as well;
• YouTube, Vimeo, SlideShare, blogs, and other thought-leadership publishing tools will increase in usage.
• Technology-enabled learning will expand with companies like Richardson, The TAS Group, The Brooks Group, 3G Selling, Miller Heiman, and Imparta leading the way; and
• Technology-enabled selling (sales process automation, and Sales 2.0) will gain in user adoption through products from Cloud 9, InsideView, ZoomInfo, The TAS Group, and many others.

4. New and Expanding Sales Training Providers Will Gain in Market Share.

I didn’t discuss this prediction on the webinar.  We’ve been briefed by four companies that have recently either entered the sales training space, or who are expanding their offerings.  You can expect to see Corporate Visions, The Bay Group, The Rain Group, and The Sales Executive Council’s SEC Solutions all make substantial progress in 2011.  They’re doing many of the right things in the right way.

Photo credit: Kaj Gardemeister / Fotolia

Clients who are using Miller Heiman’s content have been saying they want to take their application of the Strategic Selling process to the next level.  The new tool provides content above and beyond what is typically offered in Miller Heiman’s programs.  Miller Heiman also payed special attention to how salespeople learn, and the fact that they typically access information when they have a challenge—for example, having a deal stuck in the funnel.

Miller Heiman decided on a push strategy, e-mailing modules in the learning series on a monthly basis.  Salespeople can also access the content on demand.  It’s presented visually, audibly, and in document format.

In addition to the content directed at sales reps, sales managers are provided coaching tools to assure that reps are availing themselves of the content and making the most use of it.  Miller Heiman suggests one-on-one or team meetings with reps.

The modules can be customized.  For example, a video or audio of a top sales rep discussing the topic of the month could be integrated into the Miller Heiman version making it more relevant to the audience.

Each module in the series consists of a video, an animated presentation, a “back of the napkin” exercise, and a white paper.  Most of the modules are five to eight minutes long.

Miller Heiman beta-tested Advanced Concepts with 7 clients, with 300 users in total.

Miller Heiman did the right thing in investing in this Advanced Concepts technology-enabled learning platform.  It provides many of the How-to’s delivered by Miller Heiman subject matter experts, whereas their programs often don’t get past the basic components—the What’s—of their approach.  That’s not a weakness.  It’s just the way curricula are developed for companies with limited time and budgets.

Competitively, this is an important step for Miller Heiman.  A fair number of sales training providers have strong virtual learning/reinforcement offerings.   Here are just a few: Richardson, The TAS Group, RevenueStorm, Mercuri International, Imparta, and The Brooks Group.  Some providers’ virtual offerings duplicate only what is provided in their ILT (Instructor-Led Training) programs.  Miller Heiman’s approach, taking the student further and deeper into the approach, strategy or concept, can be of real value, depending on how the customer implements the tool.

Here’s the bottom line:  What will really determine whether Advanced Concepts becomes a successful product for Miller Heiman is salesrep adoption.  If reps see that investing time their time learning from the modules will put money in their pockets, they’ll use it.  If they view it as yet another demand from management that takes time away from selling, they won’t.  Miller Heiman clients should strongly consider using the recommended implementation approach.

Disclosure: Miller Heiman is an ESR subscriber.

• ESR/Brief: Miller Heiman’s Sales Access Manager ($29.95)
• ESR/Report on Miller Heiman ($99.95), which is extracted from…
• ESR’s Sales Training Vendor Guide ($495.00).

Photo credit: Fotolia.com

That sole trainer (or two- to three-person firm) won’t be rolling out simultaneous live instructor-led training classes in 20 countries.  Nor will they be getting in front of every one of 3,000 reps in the North American operation of a large client during a rapid 6-month deployment.

But we have seen one- to three-person sales consulting and training firms be very effective in:

• Filling a gap in a company’s existing sales methodology in their unique area of expertise.  We’ve recommended domain experts in selling outsourcing, gaining and leveraging business acumen, demonstrating software effectively, and understanding and selling into specific industries, as just four examples.  These experts contributed significantly to their clients’ overall sales effectiveness;
• Adding unique or custom-developed content to that company’s existing sales training curriculum, which is then delivered through a train-the-trainer approach;
• Coaching sales managers and individual sales reps toward closer compliance with the company’s sales methodology.  Two common examples are “deal management sessions,” and objective pipeline reviews.  We know a number of consultants who do a terrific job in these areas for some very large companies;
• Extending the value of a company’s investment with a larger sales training provider who might do a great job of providing the “what to do,” but not the “how to do it.”  That’s a common compliant among sales training buyers we speak with;
• Consulting with and/or delivering special learning content to a small, diverse division or business unit of a large global player.  That’s one explanation for seeing names of some very big companies on the website of some very small trainers;
• Developing and delivering virtual content that can be translated where required and rolled out globally.

There are many situations where an individual trainer just can’t get the job done for a big company.  But there are plenty of times where they not only can, but they’re the best alternative.

Would you let me know by email if you’ve had a high-value experience working with an individual trainer or small firm?

© photo-dave – Fotolia.com