Not making calls with sales professionals. Can you really expect your trainers to teach about the job of selling if they don’t experience their problems firsthand? When was the last time the trainer was out in the field? Whom did they travel with? See to it that the trainer’s schedule includes field work and have them travel with the sales team members, preferably a mediocre ones. Why a mediocre one? If the trainer goes out with a new seller, they are liable to feel superior, which may boost the trainer’s ego but not their knowledge. If they go out with an old pro, they are likely to be too comfortable and end up talking about old times. A bigger danger, though, is that the trainer is likely to accept every thing the old pro does as correct. With the result that the seller will continue to make the same mistakes. The mediocre seller will put everything in focus. Their planning will be haphazard; the presentation will be adequate but not exciting; there empathy will be working less than efficiently; and the closing will be uncertain. This is where the trainer can measure the value of past training and plan for future classes.
