Does your Sales Training Company Care about the Outcome?

The next time you speak to a training company, ask them how they can guarantee that the skills they teach will stick. What do they say?

There’s no point investing all that money in training if you can’t tell whether it has worked. Sales may increase, of course, but you won’t know whether it’s down to the training or more favourable market conditions. Is your training company only interested in selling a package, or are they investing in the actual outcome of that training?

There’s one easy way to tell, by asking if they offer an accreditation.  

What is an Accreditation?

Accreditation is an official, formal way of proving that the delegates on the sales training program have met the standards required. In the case of sales training courses, it means that delegates can prove to the trainer and their senior line manager that they can:

1. understand,
2. implement and
3. demonstrate

the specific training that they have been given. The Accreditation should take place between six to twelve weeks after the original training. Candidates need to be told well in advance when the Accreditation will be and what to expect. As a result, they’ll take the training very seriously.

 But it will cost more, won’t it?

Probably. But think of it as an insurance policy on the money you’ve invested in the sales training course. Accreditation isn’t a box-ticking exercise – candidates can fail. However, those that pass the Accreditation walk away with a real sense of achievement. It also demonstrates that sales trainers you’ve chosen care about the outcome of their training, and want to prove it.

It’s an incredibly useful tool

If used for appraisals and how employees are measured, it can also form part of the human resources’ Learning and Development strategy. Accreditation also has a two-fold effect: the salesforce can see that the manager has taken their training seriously; the manager can see what everyone has learnt.

It’s flexible

The Accreditation can be performed with each sales person individually, or as a group. On a one-to-one basis, the salesperson presents their information to a panel and receives feedback and, if necessary, recommendations for further coaching. In a group situation candidates are also assessed, but this time together. In both scenarios, delegates are receiving ongoing learning.

Accreditation in Action

 For one particular client we gave each of the salespeople a brief for a role-play, where we played a typical client in their market. After each member of the team had completed their turn, they received relevant feedback on their performance. Had they asked the right questions, for instance? Was their presentation targeted correctly? In other words, we measured whether they followed the particular part of the sales process that they had been taught.

The brief we set was very specific to that situation, and allowed the manager to measure exactly how much the team had learned. The client was amazed by how much the team had absorbed during their training and how well they could demonstrate and apply their new found skills. They wouldn’t have had this knowledge had they not performed the Accreditation.

Get in touch today to find out more about how the Accreditation Process can provide the perfect end to your training.